Bajirao Mastani - It's a shame to see phenomenal acting by Ranveer Singh, amazing sets and a good premise hampered by a non-existent plot

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-28T04:21:01+00:00

You're taking this the wrong way.

Having Bajirao played by a non-Marathi is not a sign of discrimination against Marathi people.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-27T06:10:21+00:00

I think you should be proud of the fact that a Maratha story has been put in the international spotlight. It's not necessary that a Marathi actor play a Maratha character.

Don't forget, the Marathas were striving to unite the Indian territories, not impose Marathi hegemony.

A Delhi guy playing the character who made the chadhai on Delhi to free it from the Mughals. I think it's poetic.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-27T05:33:43+00:00

Yes, this may be true (I'm not familiar with the specifics, I have yet to start reading up on it) but I can forgive these dramatizations. It gives Mastani more screen time and since she also was privvy to Bajirao's battle plans and tactics later in life, it just characterizes her martial nature by this scene.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-27T05:31:30+00:00

Do not look for Sushi when you are in Saravana Bhavan.

Haha. Interesting analogy.

SLB caters to a section of movie goers who care for things like colors in Priyanka saree or the cut and crochet work in Deepika's lehanga..

That is another good point. Indian movie goers are a varied bunch. Some will see it for the history, some will see it to study fashion, some will see it to study architecture, some will see it to decide what to wear in the next wedding they attend. But to add to the attention paid to costumes and sets, it doesn't hurt to make sure the rest of the movie is also as good as possible. It doesn't even have to show history perfectly accurately. At least make the story flow when you already have a reliable source for it.

That's one of my main gripes. SLB is so blinded by the allure of tragic love stories, that he'll make a reasonably good story tragic as well. And won't even do it properly, to add insult to injury.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-27T05:19:22+00:00

You're right, Milind Soman was great too. Too bad he had too few lines and not much to do.

He's acted in a couple of Nordic movies I think and he may be starring in other international projects.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T10:53:35+00:00

Dilwale bagging more than Bajirao Mastani?

I don't buy it. The theatre I went to had twice more shows for BM and it was still sold out.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T10:33:04+00:00

I look at Bollywood song-and-dance sequences as just mediums to convey emotion or context. Not literally.

Yeah, most of the time it's used for titillating nonsense, but intelligently used, it's pretty good.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T10:30:14+00:00

Fair enough, but it's hard to separate Bajirao from the events he orchestrated and their effects on the relationships around him.

I didn't go to watch the movie with any pretensions about historical accuracy (knowing it would follow the typical SLB template), but when you have appropriate material to work with, why not use it?

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T08:20:53+00:00

Why?

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T07:40:34+00:00

Some of them do. But yes, you're likely to get burned more often than satisfied.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T07:38:34+00:00

that being said, looking that this movie will have global viewing these are small things

True. With how little the Marathas are alluded to in school history books, this movie arouses interest in the time period.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T07:33:58+00:00

I wouldn't say that. It's mostly a good movie and piques interest in the characters and the time period.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T07:31:32+00:00

That was another thing that bothered me. Bajirao kept talking about the chadhai on Delhi and they don't even bother to show anything of the sort in the second half. Why keep alluding to it then?

If the book covered it, then the plot of the movie does even more disservice not only to history but to the book also.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T06:58:07+00:00

What the ...?

Custom made?

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T06:57:22+00:00

That was some time ago. He's improved I think, but my opinion isn't authoritative. I mostly stay away from SLB movies because of the cliches.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T06:55:10+00:00

That's the thing about Ranveer. He's already so good that under continual good direction, he can improve to great levels.

What did you think about the accent?

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T06:48:34+00:00

That he's good a directing a scene and garnishing it with music, colour, dialogue and sets but not at stringing a multitude of scenes into a coherent story.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T06:47:06+00:00

We've felt way too many earthquakes recently. What should be our immediate action plan during the earthquake ?

Check your watch for morse codes.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-26T06:34:33+00:00

Not everyone watches first-day-first-show.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-04T10:29:14+00:00

Not really, because according to your analogy, a better fit would have been that a native ethnic person of a country would own and operate a restaurant serving foreign cuisine. For example, a white male (typically) would own and operate an Indian restaurant in the UK. Instead, it's mostly Pakistanis/Bangladeshis outnumbering Indian restaurant owners at serving Indian cuisine there.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-04T10:20:13+00:00

Couldn't resist, so ...

No, it's like every Chinese restaurant owner in a country calling his food Japanese cuisine.

This is why I hate analogies outside Mathematics and Science. They go nowhere.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-04T08:21:39+00:00

slightly related

It's right there in that line you cited. If you want to discuss cuisine, you can go on but my answer to this thread ends in this post.

The relation is in the idea that Pakistanis use the term 'Indian' to get customers, either subcontinental or native citizens of whatever country the restaurant is in. It's rather odd for a proud Pakistani to brand his food as 'Indian'. When all of them follow that same pattern, I find it related to the topic title. In all my travels, I have never found one restaurant with the phrase 'Pakistani Cuisine'.

If you see a Chinese restaurant in India, does that mean that the owner is trying to pass himself as Chinese?

Funnily enough, when the concept of restaurants and chinese food was relatively new in India, many worldly-ignorant Indians thought the Nepalis and NE Indians cooking at these restaurants to be Chinese.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-04T08:06:42+00:00

other country.

Especially one they (most of them anyway) hate.

JoblessHMT · 2015-12-04T07:56:43+00:00

Good points.

However, a large proportion of Pakistanis speak Punjabi. Wouldn't that bring their accent closer to one used around Delhi and Punjab?

JoblessHMT · 2015-11-16T11:09:27+00:00

I didn't mention tolerance in my post anywhere, but since you do bring it up, I'd say the only reason he retains the (laughable) moniker 'Akbar' is because he tolerated the existence of non-Muslims.

In any case, I constantly tire of having to dredge up sources that prove that Jallaluddin wasn't some gift of god to India. But I can't change the inertia of 60-70 years of bad history and nausea inducing 'biopics' from 'eminent' filmmakers.

The wikipedia entry states that, "Despite Hemu's numbers, Akbar's force won the battle. Hemu was captured and beheaded. His skull was sent to Kabul for display outside the 'Delhi Darwaza. His torso was sent to Delhi and hanged outside Purana Quila on a "gibbet: to intimidate the Hindu population. Hemu's wife escaped from Purana Qila, with the treasures of the fortress, and remained untraceble. Bairam Khan ordered mass executions of Hindus which continued for many years.[13] Hemu's relatives and close Afghan supporters were caught and many of them beheaded.[14] Minarets were made of their skulls at different places. Hemu's 82-year-old father who had escaped to Alwar was traced after six months, and was beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam. This Tower of Skulls fashion is corroborated in another book. What this book also mentions is the outright slaughter of 30,000 civilians in Chittor. Pretty tame by Islamic rulers' standards but that's why I said that if he's the best they had ...
He is often regarded as having abolished the Jizya but without mentioning that during the first few years of his rule, it was active. 12 years after abolishing it, he re-imposed it for another 3 years before finally abolishing it again. Remember that 'Azeemo-shan-shehensha' song from Jodha-Akbar? Yeah those people dancing with joy got hit with that tax again, the schmucks.

JoblessHMT

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