Well if Bajirao Mastani is being coined ‘cinematic poetry’ then poetry in those terms means its long and drawn out, unless it’s being considered visual poetry in which case HELL YEAH a lot has gone into creating the sets. Though sometimes, it gets visually annoying when you can make out the painted sets and special effects in the middle of an intense scene, very distracting. It wasn’t God’s greatest gift to celluloid, it was strictly an average flick, a very long average flick.
The most stellar things about the movie are as follows; Priyanka Chopra, the set directors, the cinematographer, and did I mention Priyanka Chopra?! Holy jalapenos, her portrayal of Kashibai is so earnest & heart-felt. I think it’s the main performance that keeps your attention throughout the movie. Hell I’d give the best actor award to PC for her performance, forget Ranveer Singh. Ranveer Singh was alright, I mean for most part he had to fluctuate between leading his troops, being a decision maker (b/w his head, heart & other aspects.) It was order this, invade that, kill this, oh wait Mastani needs my attention, oh wait public appearance time with the wife...and, repeat cycle. I don’t think this is one of Deepika Padukone’s finest performances, strictly because I think she was very limited in terms of the vision of the character. I mean with a character like Mastani, when you write the character out to possess all these strengths and traits and give them too many abilities, it becomes a bit of a challenge artistically to try and depict all those fine aspects especially with time constraints. I feel like the pressure & weight of playing Mastani confined her ability to showcase the magnitude & impact of the character itself.
In general, there was absolutely no need for this movie to have a run time of 2 hours & 38 minutes. The entire Aditya Pancholi character & story involvement was completely unnecessary since it didn’t propel the story any which way. The script in itself could’ve definitely been tighter, and focussed less on minor distractions & involvements, and definitely could’ve done without a lot of the songs. All in all, I’d give it a 6 for the base content and a 7-8 for the bells & whistles.
