If one is to observe carefully, there has been a steady stream of movies inspired from history in the past couple of years. The latest to join the bandwagon is "Tanhaji" based on the life of the Tanaji Malusare, the military chief of Chhatrapati Shivaji. There is no doubt that movies like these gives us a glimpse of many unknown heroes even if many of the events will not have been as dramatic as recreated on celluloid. Anywaz I was certainly intrigued by Saif' being cast as the antagonist & was more than eager to know whether it was a performance on par with his Langda Tyagi???
The Marathas under the leadership of Shivaji (Sharad Kelkar) was steadily becoming a force that the Mughals had come to fear. The Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb (Luke Kenny) decided to make his displeasure known by sending an enormous army with Mirza Raje Jai Singh (Yuri Suri). As feared, the Marathas failed to hold ground & Shivaji had to sign the Treaty of Purandar whereby he had to surrender 23 of his forts. Aurangzeb's ambition to expand his empire to the South made him decide to choose Kondhana as his capital in the region. In order to ensure that his plans were put to action, he annoints his trusted soldier Udaybhan Singh Rathore (Saif Ali Khan) as the commander of the region & asks him to do the needful. However, the Marathas werent going to be a silent spectator to this & they decided to orchestrate a strong response under the commander ship of Tanhaji (Ajay Devgn). This led to the Battle of Sinhagad & how it eventually panned out forms the crux of the movie.
This is Om Raut's directorial debut in Bollywood after his critically acclaimed Marathi movie "Lokmanya Ek Yug Purush". He has penned the script in the company of Prakash Kapadia & both of them have done a fine job in ensuring that the audience is kept interested. Raut has done justice to the script as he creates a captivating canvas with ample use of CGI. If at all there is a flaw, I kinda feel the characterization of Saif as Udaybhan could have been different. He seemed to be more or less like Ranveer Singh's Khilji in "Padmaavat" be it in the body language & appearance. The final showdown between Saif & Ajay was damn good which will surely generate a lot of cheers. Keiko Nakahara deserves praise for the visuals however the same cant be said about the music though the BGM by Sandeep Shirodkar was impressive.
It's been quite a while since we have seen Ajay in a meaty role & he was bang on as the protagonist. However, my favourite was undoubtedly Saif who was excellent as Udaybhan & showcases his negative side with aplomb. Kajol might not have had much screen time but she made her presence felt & the on screen chemistry that she shared with her husband was excellent. As for the rest of the cast, I felt Sharad Kelkar was an apt choice for Shivaji along with Luke Kenny as Aurangzeb. Both of them have done justice to their roles.
Verdict: There is no doubt that the movie will appeal to the audience coz of the manner it is taken ensuring that the story is told at a reasonable pace. It has already collected 100 C at the box office & seems poised to collect more. In short, do check it out!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment