Trailer review: Padmavati looks epic, film maestros weigh in

Shahid Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh starrer Padmavati is just out and it is mind blowing. After watching the first glimpses of the trailer, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s magnum opus has left has speechless.

The trailer begins with Rani Padmini’s royal convoy and her fleet treading towards the fort through its meandering stone walled pathways. The very entry sequence with Rani Padmini’s palanquin whose hood flutters with the wind against the backdrop of the orangy evening skies looks magnanimous in every sense of the word. The sound track beautifully compliments the screenplay.

The magnificent ariel shots of the sprawling battlefields, the smooth track shots into the Chittorgarh Mahal as Maharaj Ratan Sen and Padmavati come face to face with each other (most probably after a vanquishing an enemy at war). The opulent sets, the show tracking shots, the intimate attention to detail in terms of costumes, jewellery and even the placement of the Bindi on Padmavati’s forehead demands applause. 

The mellow background score that plays during the soft romantic sequence between the leads suddenly breaks into a loud, fervid and a lot more dark flurry as Ranveer Singh enters the frame in a long slow-mo shot with the boisterous flutter of his arms into his tent. The flutter of the parrot’s wings in its cage, the vivid bangs on the Banjo as Allaudin Khilji takes his crown and adorns his head with it signals towards the impending menace in the narrative.

Ranveer’s looks are a bit overdone, with his wiggling unkempt hair, the deep cut mark on his face and his ‘soorma’ laden eyes. In none of the historical accounts did we see the brutal ruler sporting dreadlocks and neither was there a mention of a deep cut mark on the face and his dark complexion. However, keeping the visciousness and the deadly traits of the ruler, a little bit of filmic liberty can definitely be granted to Bhansali.

Watch the trailer here: