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
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 Mastani is 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.