Bajirao Mastani (Reviews and Spoilers)

I think Deepika's 'underplaying' was the result of SLB's direction. She is meant as a contrast to Priyanka's softness. Even in Pinga they are given contrasting moves - Priyanka softer a bit 'gushier' - Deepika more angular - more sparse. (the solo bits not the unison parts). SLB says that his fav performance is Deepika. He has, I think, attempted to convey the luminosity of yore ... where the eyes do the talking. I like Deepika's work in this film. It's very hard for modern actors to do incandescence. In the black and white movie days whole songs were given over to 'speaking eyes' (often crying) - now with fewer songs its harder to achieve that almost spiritual other-worldliness. That's what I think SLB is going for in Mastani's character. 

Just scrolling through this thread now. Let me add some of my thoughts to subjects already discussed:

--Re: Priyanka's jealousy: I think Kashibai would have known that her husband would have taken other wives, but that wouldn't have stopped her from feeling jealousy over it, especially if she was being shunted in favor of the second wife. And hey, she becomes the bigger person in the end, so there's that. I sympathized a lot with her character in the film--she bore the humiliation of being the less-loved wife with poise and grace and still kept her household in order. You felt for her throughout.

--Re: Chemistry between Ranveer-Deepika: What chemistry? Just kidding. It obviously was there a bit, though certainly nothing that would have caught the screen on fire. I think he had more sizzles with Priyanka in their one almost bedroom scene than he did with Deepika throughout the entire film. Which is funny, seeing as they're dating. They seemed very unusually cold towards each other in the second half, which led me not to buy into their relationship as much as I would have if the first half's intensity had remained.

--Re: Deepika's acting: There was something of the yesteryear about Deepika's role, something she tapped into for Om Shanti Om as well. Though at times she came off a bit cool and emotionless, the way she acted with her eyes and just the barest tilts of the head reminded me of things you'd see from Madhubala or Nargis at their best.

I really, really liked the soundtrack and the way the songs were staged. Though the colors weren't as gaudy as past SLB works, it was still very ornate and beautiful. All of Deepika's dance numbers were incredible, but my favorite from the film was Bajirao's victory song. Ranveer Singh is probably one of the most infectiously energetic male dancers I've ever seen--you really can't keep your eyes off him:



I feel like this film was a sort of nod to Mughal-e-Azam, stylistically. Besides the obvious point of them both being set around the same time period, there were some scenes, like the hall of mirrors, Mastani in chains, or even a scene where a king, a queen, and a younger ruler watching a dancer are sat in a similar position as Prithviraj Kapoor, Durga Khote, and Dilip Kumar are sat watching Madhubala in "Pyar Kiya Tu Darna," that caught my eye and made me do a double take.

All in all, I liked the movie a lot, although I wish there would have been a bit more feeling in it. That seems to be an SLB thing--so much work done on the set and costumes that the plot and script suffers because of it.

Period Setting:
Some of us have wondered if Bajirao Mastani and Mughal-e-Azim were set in the same time period.

No, they happened more than a century apart!
Akbar reigned 1556-1605, an exact contemporary of England's Queen Elizabeth.
Selim his son took the name Jahangir when he succeeded his father. Shah Jahan was Akbar's grandson,
and Aurangzab Akbar's great-grandson, against whom Shivaji rebelled & founded the Maharata Empire.
It was Shivaji's grandson who appointed Bajirao as his Peshwa, in 1720.

So, Bajirao Mastani happened about 125 years and five generations after Mughal-e-Azim.

Dancelover

I enjoyed watching Bajirao Mastani, but as sometimes happens with me and SLB films, I didn't feel it was about what everyone else seems to think it's about.

To me it wasn't about an epic love affair between two soul mates, it was partly about the unreasonableness of social mores which sanction certain behavior here while condemning nearly identical behavior there, but even more so it was about one man's hubris in thinking that rules didn't apply to him. Hear me out: if Bajirao had gone through proper channels and made sure everyone understood that he was taking a second wife and that's how it was going to be, and placated his Hindu leaders with the proper wedding ceremony before carrying on with the relationship and getting Mastani pregnant, he would have saved everyone a lot of heartbreak. He tried to do something similar, to try to salvage things, when they told him Mastani's son was illegitimate. He said he would marry Mastani in a Hindu ceremony, but they told him it was too late. And it kind of was. Instead of being upfront with his mother, with Kashi, and with his religious leaders and political allies, he snuck around, "marrying" Mastani in a private, secret ritual just between the two of them, and delaying telling Kashi because he was afraid of her reaction. His cowardliness in this regard led to a lot of heartache. A brave man in battle, but when it came to dealing with personal and family relationships, a coward.
Then he tried to beat them all down by throwing his status around, but there are some rules even the rulers have to follow, or there are consequences. The movie did question the meaningfulness of those rules, but I don't feel that that let Bajirao off the hook for his irresponsible behavior and what followed from it.


I thought the performances were excellent, and the film was as beautiful as expected from SLB. I really felt for both Kashi and Mastani, and unlike some others, I thought the chemistry between Ranveer and Deepika was strong. Deepika's character was a "still-waters-run-deep" type, but I felt she conveyed what Mastani was going through and the strength of her feelings. And really, that woman was left with nothing but her love for Bajirao. No family, no friends, nowhere else to turn. Of course she felt he was her entire life. He unintentionally arranged it that way.



Ranveer was excellent also, and I pitied the character. He was a tragic figure in my eyes, bringing about his own downfall. I thought Priyanka had the most stirring scene, when we see Kashi battle through the choice of whether to let Mastani die or do something to stop it. That was beautifully done.

I don't know that I'll watch it again, but I think SLB made a work of art here, for certain. And I'm more likely to watch this one again than Ram-Leela.

You make a valid point, they were truly awful. BUT he didn't even try. He didn't present her as the woman he was taking as his next wife, work out the problems at that point, and then marry her properly. All the raging and fighting we see him do should have been done BEFORE he condemned a woman he loved and his child to the life Mastani and her son had. He was the ruler, he couldn't just run off with her, but he didn't want to deal with his mother, with Kashi's hurt, with the attitudes of people in power toward muslims... so he tried to be sneaky about it and ended up forcing all three of them (Kashi, Mastani, himself) to live in hell. Honestly, if he couldn't work it out so that she was accepted, the honorable thing would have been to refuse her. She would have been heartbroken, but she had a life and a purpose back home, and if he had been clear that she wasn't going to be his, she could have gone back to it. But she kept living in hope of being accepted as the second wife, when he hadn't properly made that happen. 

ETA: I don't know much of anything about the actual historical figures here, I'm only reacting to what was shown in the movie. 

I really came to admire Mastani, and I don't think she would have wilted or cracked under being rejected. And I don't believe she had nothing back home; she had parents who loved her and were concerned about her and accepted her being a warrior. Of course, Bajirao telling her it wouldn't work would have been a completely different movie! I just still think part of what SLB was dealing with in this film was how early choices can ripple through your entire lifetime.

Thanks for the discussion, btw!

My opinion, today, is that Bajirao's and Mastani's Real Problem in this film, was that 
neither Ranveer nor Dehpika can match Priyanka as an actor. 
When SLB extracted her best performance, she was going to take the film for her character, 
no matter which character she played! He'd have had to tone her down to prevent that. 

Tomorrow I might have a different opinion. 

Dancelover,
also feeling it about time that PC was matched with Aamir Khan, or Irrfan, or N. Siddique.