Bajirao Mastani – Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Masterpiece

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Bajirao-Mastani is a pure work of art and every frame of master filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bansali’s masterpiece of cinema is a visual smorgasbord of light and colour and every shade in between! And my request to film lovers is to see this in a Cinema and not a cheap pirated copy as it is criminal to do that if you love the art of cinema. Bajirao is Bhansali’s best film without a doubt and that might sound funny as Bansali has made numerous great films that double as high art. This is his best because it is a great story of love, war and in many ways reflective of modern India where this ancient tale of a great Maratha warrior and his struggle for the acceptance of his half-Rajput-Hindu and half-Muslim lover in a society divided by religious communal hatred and religious dogma rings so true in the current rise of intolerance and religious hatred under the rightwing Hindu Modi government. Bansali and his great cast, including superstars Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, and the army of artists and technicians have created something that is more than its mere parts and everything, including his trademark epic dance numbers, beautifully serve the central plot that even great warriors, who can conquer the world, can’t conquer petty societal traditions, religious dogma and ultimately fall to the evil deeds of Religious Pimps! While Bajirao-Mastanj is a tragic story of cross-cultural lovers who face great odds to win social respect for their love but it also has a message for modern India that Indians’ collective strength lies in respecting each other’s faiths and collectively working together to defeat the religious-political pimps who continue to use the old British playbook of divide and rule! No country or faith can ever achieve greatness if they let the Pimps win!