Skip to main content

Panipat

Panipat 

The people of my generation, must be remembering the days when we had newscasters like Salma Sultana and her ilk reading out the news like one would a checklist.
I would often watch that news and a silent tick mark would appear in my head at the end of each of their sonorous comments.

I had that same funny sensation whilst watching Panipat.
The movie was just a spate of incidents strung together, and me having read the history of this particular battle avidly, kept feeling that the myriad collection of individuals who had scripted this movie were just ticking one check box after another.

It is just a bland recitation of fact after fact, and somehow the grandeur that one associates with historicals was absent. In fact Lagaan had better sets than did Panipat.

Gowariker must have known that comparisons to Bajirao were inevitable and given that this battle occurs just two decades after Bajirao's demise, this movie could be considered a sequel to that one, he should have been more particular about getting the details bang on. 

I swear to you that even the cricket ground in Lagaan was grander and better thought out than the entire battle scene in this one.
One couldn't help but notice how fake even the patches of blood looked. I have seen better color patches in holi sequences or in the artwork of kindergartners.
And this in a world where the inhabitants have seen Bahubali, Bajirao and Kesari on the large screen and The King ( Algincort) and the Battle of the Bastards on the smaller one.

For shame Gowariker! How do you take such a great warrior and reduce his mighty victories into this utterly mediocre distillation.
The valour and talent of this Super Soldier deserves better treatment than that meted out by Gowariker.
There is zero chemistry between the lead couple.
And though he tried, Sanjay Dutt could channel neither Kancha Cheena from Agneepath nor Alauddin Khalji from Padmavat.
He inspired zero feelings in me with his caricature of an Afghani monster.
The actors are good, but it's the script that lets them down.

Enough of this miserable dishrag cinema!

Reading about this battle and then seeing it on screen made me wonder what India would have been, had Bhau remained undefeated. Fact remains that after this battle Abdali didn't return to India. Another sad fact is that no matter how superior your talent, you have to be a good politico to showcase it. Or else, you get backstabbed just like Sadashiv Bhau did.
All this total-waste-of-my-money movie did was to echo the current political scenario.
When you wanna show politics, show it like they did in The Favourite. Don't be half-assed about it. 

For those of you who still have a hankering to see it and can't wait go to the theatres, go! But those of you who can wait, it's streaming on NetFlix soon. 
How do I know this? Coz it said so in the opening credits...if only  I had known this before I bought tickets.
And wait the story of my misery doesn't end here, it ends with the fact that I took an hour plus to get home because there were VVIPs in town. And as always, VIP movement becomes Restriction of movement for the tax payers.

PayTm me 5% of the money I saved you.😉😉😉

And I hope that you were ensconced at home watching Kohli's heroics.
Cheers till the next one.
Love and Peace.

P.S. I am both dreading and looking forward to watching Tanhaji.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monica, O My Darling

Straight off the bat, let me tell you that I went into this movie cold. I just saw the trailer and put it on my watch list. I was totally enamored with the cast and the premise. I knew I was going to watch this one, so I didn't delve into the promotional shenanigans.  So if you are of the same bent of mind, stop reading and start watching.  And on your behalf, I did Google Ankola, it is a town in Karnataka and is not to be confused with Akola in Maharashtra. Ha ! Ha! Netflix has been delighting us with gems like Raat Akeli thi, Haseen dilruba and Bulbul. Add this one to that list and think Gehraiyaan. I need not stress on the proficient star cast. They are masters of their craft. Starting with the sneaky Rajkummar Rao, the sultry Huma Quereshi and the wily Radhika Apte, the ensemble includes the creepy Sukant Goel, the beleaguered Zayn Marie and many others. For me Sikandar Kher was a standout. A shoutout to his intensity and his baritone.  The dialogues are spot on and t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Razorblade Tears by S A Cosby

    This book belongs to the revenge trope and I enjoyed reading it for a reason, other than just the story or the thrills, it was for the delicious turn of phrase, that the author employed. Here are some examples: “It didn’t seem fair for a man to mourn someone so deeply, whom he had loved so miserly!” “Wound on his cheek was weeping like a broken-hearted bride.” “As careful as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” “Give a man a clipboard and watch his true nature come out.” “He smiled; it was like watching an icicle form.” The story is about two men who are bound by destiny, when their sons who were married, are murdered. The tapestry is enriched by the fact that one family is black and the other is white. Throw in the fact that both the fathers are ex-cons and you have an intrigue on hand. Other than the language I liked the way the conversations were handled and how the characters were revealed by thought, word and deed, rather than extrapo...
Post a Comment
Read more