Samrat Prithviraj: "Comes across as rather bland!!!"

Bollywood has been rife with news that pretty much all the movies irrespective of the scale at which it has been made has bit the dust in recent times. The latest one to have met with a similar fate is Chandraprakash Dwivedi's "Samrat Prithviraj" which was mounted at a production cost of more than 250 C as per reports. Most of us would have studied about Prithviraj Chauhan as part of our history classes in school & hence I was pretty keen to watch the celluloid creation of this iconic character. So what could be the reason for its abysmal performance at the box office. 

Based on Chand Bardai's 'Prithviraj Raso', the bard in the king's court; the movie unfolds with a blinded Prithviraj (Akshay) held captive by Mohammad Ghori (Manav Vij) made to battle with lions in a colosseum. Apparently, the valiant king was defeated by Ghori who had earlier tasted defeat at the former's hands but was allowed to return to his land. Prithviraj's rise as the ruler of Delhi had irked many of the regional princely states especially Jayachand (Ashutosh Rana), the ruler of Kannauj. To add salt to his wound, his daughter Sanyogita (Manushi Chillar) was in love with his enemy. As one would expect, all this paved the path for the return of Ghori. 

For many of us who used to watch the Doordarshan serials religiously in the 1990s would recollect having watched "Chanakya" which was made by Dwivedi. But he failed to recreate any of the interest with his effort on the big screen which came across as rather bland as it did not offer anything that would keep us engaged. There was hardly anything in the story that was unique from other similar tales & though the director made conscious efforts to bring in gender and religious parity, it didn't quite have the desired impact. On the technical side, the art direction, VFX & production designs were fine while the other aspects were ok.

When I had initially seen the posters, it gave me the impression as to whether it was the toned down version of Akki's Bala from "Housefull 4". Thankfully it wasn't, & though he has done a decent job; it still felt like he was a miscast for this role. If you ask me, except for Ashutosh Rana & Manav Vij; I felt the rest of the cast were pretty damn ordinary.

Verdict: Well it isn't a surprise as to why it tanked at the box office as it just follows the standard template of other similar movies from the past. In short, don't bother!!!

Rating: 1.75/5

Regards...Ben