THE GRAND PADMAVATI FUSS

My sentiments My emotions My beliefs ... How dare you try and improvise what I believe is truth and nothing less than truth.

Deepika Padokone portraying the character of Rani Padmini 

What happens to creativity? As long as you glorify and exaggerate, its fine. The moment you try to give a logical description, it becomes distortion. The older the event, you will find increasing number of versions. Legends were passed on to the next generations through word of mouth or folk tales and songs that used to get deep rooted into the hearts of followers. Well, in case of Padmini, it was sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi's fantasy that not only glorified the beauty of the queen, but also the gallantry of Raja Ratan Singh and his trusted lieutenants Gora and Badil. If we take the opinion of the historians, for all you know she never existed ... just like 'Anarkali' 

  

Epic scene from Mughal-e-Azam

Cut to modern Era. The early days of dramas and Movies were theatrical description of Mythological or Historical characters and related events. Mughal-e-Azam, arguably the biggest and the most successful Historical movie introduced character 'Salim & Anarkali" that never existed in History ... or did they? Well that was again an author's delight and the audience loved it. Just to add, a hindi movie on Rani Padmini was also released in 1964. Maybe the senas were non existent at that time. 

Bharat ka veer putra Maharana Pratap on Sony TV

Switch on to your TV sets and you will find plethora of so called historical serials like Prithviraj Chauhan, Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Ashoka and so on. Are these coming from history books? You must be kidding. The writers have taken creative liberty and created characters and events to please the audience. In 2009, Sony TV aired "Chittod Ki Raani Padmini ka johar" which somehow did not garner the interest of fringe elements. 

Maharani Padmini released in 1964 

If this movie is an adaptation of  Jayasi's Padmavat or for that matter any other narrator, then it is bound to be a tribute to the Rajput heroics. Then why so much fuss about Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmavati'? And that too without seeing the rushes of the movie. Poor director has even been deprived off screen sharing of Padmavati with the antagonist Alauddin Khilji. Deepika Padukone's statement of calling the entire reaction as 'regression of society' holds true in this situation. 

Massive protest by Shri Rajput Karni Sena

Leaving this part aside, for sure Indian Politics has a rich history of appeasement in the name of castes, beliefs and sentiments. It started with Rajasthan, spread to MP, then Gujarat, UP and so on. Initially subtle, and now prominent voices have started supporting the blind faith. 

Why not react when there is a hyperbolic narration of events? We love it when our heroes are portrayed as Super Heroes. In fact this should also amount to distortion of facts. But who knows what actually happened and things get back to the beliefs. Let's trust Bhansali, watch the movie with open minds and enjoy what seems to be a grand cinematic experience.