Bajirao Mastani: the movie Indian film-goers tried to ban for inaccuracy

Bajirao Mastani (2015) Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansari Entertainment grade: D– History grade: D There has been a campaign to ban the 18th-century-set romance Bajirao Mastani in India on grounds that it misrepresents history. It focuses on Bajirao Ballal, who expanded the Maratha empire between 1720-40 as the emperor’s peshwa (prime minister). Controversy Bajirao Mastani begins and ends with a lengthy disclaimer: “The Filmmaker fully acknowledges and respects other perspectives and viewpoints with regard to the subject of the film. The Filmmaker does not intend in any manner to belittle, disrespect, impair or disparage the beliefs, feelings, sentiments and susceptibilities of any person(s), community(ies), society(ies) and their culture(s), custom(s), practice(s) and tradition(s).” Even so, applications have been made to ban the film at a court in Pune and the Bombay High Court in Mumbai. Both refused, quite sensibly. Reel History is all for discussing and, where necessary, mocking historical films, but strongly against banning them. Even if they’re terrible. War The opening scene presents Bajirao (Ranveer Singh) conquering India and blowing up some British East India Company ships. The First Anglo-Maratha War didn’t start until 1775, 35 years after Bajirao’s death, but the director is establishing a general sense of nationalist heroism, so whatever. It’s a specifically Hindu nationalist heroism: Bajirao unfurls a saffron flag and goes on about uniting a Hindu India against the Mughals. A mysterious hot honey arrives and tries to kill Bajirao. She turns out to be Mastani (Deepika Padukone), princess of Bundelkhand. Mastani and Bajirao bond over their violent temperaments and team up to fight fey Muslim warlord Muhammad Khan Bangash, who doesn’t really do anything except scowl. Still, the rest of them do a lot of twirly balletic fighting, and there’s an improbable but amusing moment when Bajirao leaps atop an elephant. Transfixed by Bajirao’s Hindu masculinity, Bangash doesn’t even have time to scowl again before the warrior slits his throat. In real life, Bangash outlived Bajirao, dying in 1743 at the ripe old age of 78. Romance Bajirao and Mastani fall in love, but there’s a problem – Bajirao’s existing wife Kashi (Priyanka Chopra) and his controlling mother Radhabai (Tanvi Azmi). There’s an attempt to liven up the grindingly predictable narrative that follows with a few song-and-dance routines. Two of these seem to have goaded the haters into trying to ban the whole film. The first, Malhari, is a shouty-man victory song with Bajirao doing karate-chop and growly tiger moves. It’s not especially historically offensive, though it is a little more Saturday Night Fever than you might expect in the 18th century. The second, Pinga, features Mastani and Kashi in a moment of sisterhood which regrettably bears no relation to the story around it. Bajirao’s descendants have objected to this song because court ladies wouldn’t have danced, Kashi had arthritis so she couldn’t dance, and their saris are draped too revealingly. All this may well be true, but you’ve got to expect a fictional film to make the occasional nod towards entertainment. Considering Bajirao Mastani against something like The Imitation Game, Anonymous or Braveheart, a mis-draped sari is frankly nowhere on the scale of cinematic insults to historical figures. Religion Rather late in the narrative, it emerges that Mastani is a Muslim – bringing Bajirao into conflict with conservative Brahmins. “We’re not fighting the Mughals just because they’re Muslims,” says Bajirao, which is a flat-out contradiction of what he claimed at the beginning of the film. The message now appears to be that Hindu nationalism is virile and awesome but Brahmins are uncool and it is also bad to be nasty to Muslims, especially the sexy ones. Bajirao Mastani tries to bodge itself into the delicate mould of the sublime Mughal-e-Azam and the beautiful and highly enjoyable Jodhaa Akbar. Though it looks like those films in places, it has none of their sophistication. Despite extensive scenes of rippling waxed chests and risqué suggested kissing, it also fails abjectly to recreate their sensuality. Character Given historians know almost nothing about Bajirao, Kashi and Mastani’s relationship, the film had considerable scope to make things up. The main problem here isn’t the historical silliness, though there’s a plenty of that; it’s that the things they’ve made up are so dull. A story is created when change occurs. That’s the middle, and it usually goes between the beginning and the end. There is no change in any character’s storyline in Bajirao Mastani. At the beginning, Bajirao is defiant, neglectful of Kashi and in love with Mastani; Radhabai is defiant, defensive of Kashi and dedicated to bringing Mastani down; Mastani is defiant, feisty and almost psychotically in love with Bajirao; Kashi is defiant, misty-eyed and almost psychotically in love with Bajirao. None of these things has changed at all by the end, even though you’ve been sitting there for two and a half hours. As a result, it feels like a very elegant fashion show performed very slowly in a very fancy five-star Indian palace hotel. Verdict For all the lustre of its production, Bajirao Mastani is by turns daft and stodgy, lacking all the elements that made Mughal-e-Azam or Jodhaa Akbar great. It’s absurd to try to ban it: few will be able to stay awake till the end anyway. With thanks to Dr Robert Upton.