Bajirao Mastani
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Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Produced by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Screenplay by: Prakash Kapadia
Story by: Prakash Kapadia
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Mahesh Manjrekar
Music by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sanchit Balhara
Cinematography: Sudeep Chatterjee
Edited by: Rajesh G. Pandey
Production company: SLB Films
Distributed by: Eros International
Running time: 156 minutes
Budget: 150 crore
Release dates: 18 December 2015
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Story line:
Bajirao was the Peshwa during 1720-1740. He’s considered to be the most powerful of all Peshwas, and the best Maratha administrator and military general after Shivaji himself. At the time of his reign, Chattrasal was the ruler of Bundelkhand. He was constatntly warring against the Mughals and the Nawab of Oudh/Awadh. In one of his military campaigns, when his kingdom was at great peril of being completely overrun by his enemies, he sought the help of the Marathas under Peshwa Bajirao. Bajirao responded and helped Chahtrasal save his kingdom and his life. As a mark of respect, Chattrasal gave him 1/3rd of his kingdom, and his beautiful daughter Mastaani (who was from a Muslim wife) in marriage to Bajirao. Mastaani was trained in both political administration and military skills.
Know more about the captain of the Ship, the director:
Bhansali began his career as an assistant to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and was involved in the making of Parinda, 1942: A Love Story and Kareeb. However, both had a fall out when Bhansali refused to direct Kareeb and made his directorial debut with Khamoshi: The Musical, the commercially unsuccessful but critically acclaimed narration of a daughter’s struggle to communicate with her deaf mute parents. His second film was a triangular love story, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, starring Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, and Ajay Devgan which established his individualistic stamp for visual splendor and creating auras of celebration and festivity. The film was a great success and won numerous awards. His next film, Devdas, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit, was Bhansali’s ode to the novel of the same name which became the highest grossing film of 2002. It also was India’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It stood eighth in Time magazine’s “The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)” Then came Black, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji, which stood fifth in Time (Europe)’s “10 Best Movies of the Year 2005” among films from across the world. Bhansali’s Saawariya was met with sharp criticism and poor collections at the box office.
In 2010, Bhansali released Guzaarish starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. He also made his debut in music direction with this film. Later in 2012, Bhansali produced Rowdy Rathore, a remake of the Telugu film Vikramarkudu, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha; and directed by Prabhu Deva.
In 2013, Bhansali directed Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, starred Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles.
My Gut Feel and comments:
Bajirao mastani is a dream project of Sanjay Leela Bhansali which he saw more than 12 years back. He did announce this movie in 2003 however project didn’t kicked off. As per him he was waiting for right moment and now finally his vision taken a massive shape and size on canvas.
One can imagine what kind of effort and hard work director like Sanjay must have put in. As Bajirao mastani which is a decade old dream project of his and that too a period film which any ways is quite demanding in conceptualization and execution.
Going by the promos Bajirao mastani seems grand, dramatic and exciting with lot of twists and turns. Sanjay is capable of doing justice to subject like this and chances of him going wrong seem less. Star cast is impressive and seem they have put heart and soul to bring the epic historical characters alive on screen.
Bajirao Mastaniis a big budget movie which is clashing with Shahrukh starrer Dilwale. This clash will impact the box office collection of both the movies for sure. Although personally I have less hopes with Dilwale however knowing the taste of masses it is going to give tough competition at box office over first weekend. After first weekend thing would settled down and both movies would move forward on merits.
Going by my gut feeling I am giving this movie 3.5 stars out of 5, one night before the release.