Friday 5 February 2016

Bajirao-Mastani. . .




"Abhi Final
No Change. . 

Agar girlfriend hai to Valentine day.
(If you have a girlfriend then it’s Valentine day.)

Agar biwi hai to Mahavir Jayanti.
(If you have a wife then its Mahavir's (an Indian God’s name) birthday.)

Agar dono bhi nahi to Hanuman Jayanti.
(If you don't have both, then it's Hanuman's (again an Indian God’s name) Birthday)

Aur dono hai to Bajirao Mastani."
(And if you have both, then it's Bajirao (The Great Maratha Emperor and Warrior) Mastani)

“Wow!!!! Look what Mr Sanjay Leela Bhansali has done to The Great Maratha Emperor Bajirao's image. He has literally skewed his image from The great Maratha Warrior to some roadside Romeo.” I received this message today and was wondering how to react. . What more do we need to prove our immorality, irresponsibility and disrespect towards our Indian Culture, Beliefs, History. . . Let me remind Mr Bhansali, adding disclaimer notes do not make any difference to us; our brain is trained to believe whatever we see, without even asking questions or doubting it. .  It may be a good escape for you to save your skin, but I as an Indian, totally disappointed with the way you have portrayed a great personality. In the first place, to handle any culture or personality it needs the depth of understanding, study and certainly to an extent, pride in one’s Indianness, unfortunately, you seem to be lacking in all.  You certainly have not studied Maratha culture and you have definitely not understood what the warrior, Bajirao Peshwa was. 

I refuse to agree with those who think that Mr. Bhansali has brought Maratha History in front of the whole world. I also refuse to agree that by putting a disclaimer note he has made it very clear that he does not intend to portray history. My question is if you do not intend to portray history, then why to use real Characters at all? As the way you have handled or created the drama anyways has very poor relevance to the Peshwa culture. Just creating perfect sets and detailed traditional wares (well, I am doubtful about that too, but I will not get into the details here) you can possibly create an ambience but certainly the characters, dialogues, songs, accent, language, you choose to make it real, mister. Have you ever tried to understand what Peshawa culture or for that matter Maratha culture was all about? Just to add drama and spice you have gone to the level of making The great Bajirao sing "Dushman chi waat lavli" Who do you think The Bajirao was!! Munnabhai MBBS? I mean even if someone wants to tweak it to attract the audience, one would obviously expect to keep the era in mind and tweak it to suit that era. (And bear in mind, this was supposed to be THE MOST ambitious project of Mr Bhansali. . We are Aghast!!!)

Also, to point a few more about Bajirao-Mastani film, Where were gupther (trained people to pass secret messages/ updates) or Mastani was trained in that too, so she herself went to ask Bajirao for help? Secondly, there were so many formalities and protocols to even see a person from a royal family and especially if that person is a royal woman; one has to follow certain protocol. And in the excitement of presenting Bajirao and Mastani's first so-called life changing or romantic meeting, not sure what to name it though (completely contrast to the Marathi Novel 'Rau' written by N. S. Inamdar), Mr Bhansali has conveniently forgotten all these formalities or maybe he did not feel that these important protocols should be followed. And where was the Raj Vaidya (Royal family's doctor)? Why would an Emperor treat a princess? At least, my common sense does not  allow me to accept this. Huh!! quite a big list. . 

Well, in the past, there were movies like Mughal-E-Azam by K. Asif, Tajmahal by M. Sadiq, Jodha Akbar by Ashutosh Govarikar which were also history based and very much focused on their love stories but the way these directors have handled it was simply marvellous. I do not know much about Mughal history; but at least, it made sense to me, and they all were successful in portraying Mughal era (in every aspect) with perfection, I would say.

Surprisingly, when I shared my disappointment with the film 'Bajirao Mastani' with some of my Marathi friends, the response was even more disappointing. I was told that "you know what Prachi, there  is a real cheeseball in front of you and you still want to have artificial cheese flavoured balls”. One said, “just watch it like a movie and enjoy it” Another response was, "come on yaar!! this is a Bollywood movie, you cannot apply your brains here". Yes! agree!!! to a certain level, I do not have to apply my brain to watch movies like ‘Dilwale' or 'Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo'…  the list is endless, but movies like Bajirao-Mastani, I just cannot keep my brain aside (maybe I failed to train my brain!!!). 
I had expectations from this film.. it was such a great opportunity to portray Maratha history! …… And Mr. Bhansali let us down.

Barring a few, almost everybody was fascinated by the presentation of the movie to such an extent that nobody was even bothered to know the reality of these characters (as I said, we are trained to believe/ accept anything and everything!!). And, the major problem with the visual media, it creates a lasting impact and to the core, that people tend to believe it as a reality, Bajirao-Mastani a current example. And sadly, the Great warrior; Bajirao’s image has got stamped now as a lover instead as a great warrior, which is totally disgusting. Half of us are unaware of the fact that Bajirao was the only Emperor who has created history in his 19 years of career by not losing a single war he fought. He fought 41 battles and won all of them.(source: 'Rau' Marathi Novel written by N. S. Inamdar) I think this part of his life is certainly more important that his love life. 

Well, if we don’t give a damn about our Gods and can make fun of them just the way we have done it in the above message, then who is Bajirao? It would have been better if the whole world was kept oblivious of this great Maratha Warrier; rather than imagining and creating this sh...y image of his. And look at us, we are just following things blindly. Our lives have become a world of forwarded messages (thanks to social media/ WhatsApp especially of course.) It's not just about Bajirao Mastani, it's about everything that we see, talk, or listen. My question is to everyone, where is our common sense, sense of responsibility, sense of morality, sense of pride??? Why do we all have this "chalta hai (it's okay)" attitude, is this what democracy means in the real sense? Indeed, our nation allows us to speak, listen or to talk anything and everything that we feel, but to think of it, are we using this liberty correctly or sensibly? 

I do not intend to say that we do not have any sense of responsibility or pride, my only point is let us be a more responsible audience, artists, readers, listeners, professionals as we are giving a platform to our next generation and we cannot afford to misguide or mislead them.  Let us take the first step, and show the people 
who keep on saying "India ka kuch nahi ho sakta (nothing can really happen in India.) WE CAN change things and make things happen in our India. 

Cheers to a new change!!!



(P.S: Those who know Marathi Peshwa History please feel free rectify me or add information. )

(Imp note - Those who wish to know facts about Bajirao and Mastani may refer to the information posted by Mr. Shekhar S Dhupkar in the comment section. )


- Prachi Khairnar.


Copyrights Reserved © Prachi Khairnar.