Padmaavat- was the hype worth it?

Definitely not. The movie about the Rajput princess Padmaavati who commits sati along with her thousand woman-servants is regressive to say the least and takes women many steps back in our strides for equality. In the process it succeeds in mixing myth with prejudice and creating a toxic concoction of the present day hypernational atmosphere where anyone who eats meat is a villain and those who respect traditions above anything else(even above certain death) are heroes.

A dandy called Shahid Kapoor

In this poorly conceived and written film, there are hardly any redeeming factors. One is so bored of the Rajput good that you may even end up preferring the evil but human Khilji. While Shahid Kapoor is the incurable dandy aka Raja Ratan Singh, forever getting dressed by his wife Padmaavati and playing either Holi or Diwali, the Delhi Sultan, Allauddin Khilji, well played by Ranveer Singh is down to earth bad in the “I am bad ,you know it” sense. And Deepika Padukone as Padmaavati has to only look good and virtuous, forever dressing up her dandy-husband and occasionally revealing that she is much more intelligent than him. There is absolutely no chemistry between the couple.

The song Ghoomar is definitely good, the settings look very authentic but can all this redeem a movie with nothing new to say or interpret about a story we all have heard except imbue it with all our own prejudice and hate.