"Queen Padmawati" may be the most anticipated work by Indian film fans in the near future. This is not only because of a series of fierce boycotts before the film was released, but also because of 2.15 billion. Rupiah’s production fee set a record for Hindi films, not least because the three leading actors are currently the hottest first-line stars in Bollywood.
But because the director of the film is the famous Sanjay Lila Buhansari!
"Bollywood Life and Death", "Black Demeanor", "A Request in the Rain", "Empire Double Wall"... these works that make movie fans unable to resist so many treasures are all from Buhan Sari, in fact Before "Queen Padmawati", Buhan Sarri’s 7 films were all successful (at least in word of mouth). They are considered to be Bollywood’s top directors. He has worked together.
Not only that, people are also very fascinated by Buhan Sari's strong personal style. He pays great attention to the use of colors and the layout of the scenes, which makes his works always look beautiful and stunning, and his romantic nature allows him to tell whatever stories he is telling, such as describing being trapped in castes. Love, or discussing the virtues of euthanasia, can discover beauty from it, which makes his films always poetic and intoxicating.
But this time, Buhan Sarri slapped it!
"Queen Padmawati" is adapted from the epic poem of the same name in India. It tells the story of the 13th century, in the face of the Muslim invasion from the Sultan of Delhi, Queen Padmawati led the Raziputs to bravely resist and would rather die than surrender.
The visual pursuit of the film can be called the culmination.
The exquisite clothing and makeup of the characters are naturally not a problem. The luxurious interiors are arranged, always maintaining a symmetrical composition, and using the lens to move forward or backward from time to time to create changes in the depth of field, making people truly feel the palace Magnificent.
At the same time, a large number of special effects are used to create amazing spectacles, such as the huge statues on the rock walls in the dense forest, and the magnificent and majestic waterfalls at the feet when the convoy passes by. Shocking scene.
When it was released, the film also used 3D technology and IMAX to further enhance the visual effect of the picture. It is no exaggeration to say that this is really a visual feast.
It can even be said that the hearty is a bit greasy. Buhan Sarri seems to be too immersed in the "drawing", forgetting that he is here to tell the story. There are many unnecessary empty shots in the film. They are nothing but spectacular, but they seem to be slow in the rhythm of the story.
Other than that is the maddening war scene! There have been at least three war scenes in the film, and the shots are very spectacular. A huge army rushes neatly on the plain, the dust and smoke that are stepped on, the blue sky, the earthy ground, and the huge mountain range, people are like ants. , Rush! Go! Go! The camera shot left and right, tilted and tilted, and then...there was no more, there was no scene of hand-to-hand, real fights, three times like this, and they all looked the same! I want to beat the wall! This kind of bluffing war scene is enough to drop the price once, and it was actually done three times. How obsessed is Buhan Sarri? !
However, what really destroyed the movie was the outrageous storyline.
If I remember correctly, the name of this movie is Queen Padmavati, right? Why, for a long time, I felt like I was watching a movie called "The Sultan"?
There are too many dramas of the villain Sultan! ? It accounts for more than two-thirds of the entire movie!
The Sultan is like a powerful magnet, constantly pulling the main line of the narrative back to himself, how he usurped the throne, how he fights, how to play with women, how to torture prisoners, how to bathe, how to sleep... He is portraying this character in every detail.
It is possible to set a strong villain to better bring out the positive character as the protagonist, but basically it is only necessary to outline his personality traits. After all, he is not the protagonist. "The Queen" is still a very obvious heroine.
The actor who plays the Sultan is the popular Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh. His performance has been praised by many Indian film critics, who believe that he has been very successful in portraying the Sultan. However, this kind of success only belongs to Ranville himself. He once again proved his strength by virtue of this role, but for this film, it is a huge failure.
Compared to the meticulous description of the villain's male affairs, the real heroine Queen Padmawati is portrayed very sloppily.
In that era, women’s status was low and there were no opportunities to participate in many things, which made it difficult for women to be the protagonist of events, especially wars, but since today we are telling the story of Padmavati, even if she is not the center of the event The character can at least talk about the event from her perspective, focusing on the changes in her inner thoughts and psychology when she witnessed all of this, so as to enrich the character, and also pave the way for her subsequent coming forward.
Unfortunately, the film adopts a conventional narrative, so it’s no surprise that the men on both sides of the war have become the focus of the story. Deepika Padukone’s Padmavati is almost reduced to one in the first 100 minutes of the film. Beautiful props, there is no sense of existence, the total length of the film is only 164 minutes, which is more than half of the time.
Finally, the decent man, Padmavati's husband, was captured, and Padmavati began to go online to participate in the fight against the enemy. First of all, she will design to get rid of the traitor who betrayed herself by the hand of the Sultan, and then will go to Delhi to rescue her imprisoned husband. It seems that the heroine finally has the opportunity to show off her extraordinary qualities.
However, these two imaginary dramas were all confessed in a close-to-the-scenes manner, especially the section where the cell saves people. The filming was like a child’s play, and Buhan Sari’s imagination seemed to be "drawing." "It's all exhausted, not only do I not know how to film war scenes, but also how to film rescue and rescue scenes.
Afterwards, the story returns to the description of the men on both sides of the war. First, they open their mouths, then show off the soldiers and horses, and finally single out the winner... When Padmawati takes over as the main line of the story again , She was the last to set herself on fire.
A major heroine film made like this is almost smashed! And Buhan Sari's improper handling in the final self-immolation scene became the last straw that overwhelmed the camel.
In India, there is a tradition of widows who burn themselves to death, called "Sati". This tradition has a long history, and there are even corresponding allusions.
In Hindu mythology, Shiva’s first wife Satie, because her husband was ridiculed by the gods, threw herself on fire in public to defend her husband’s dignity. In the Indian epic "Ramayan", Rama’s wife Sita was Captured by the Ten Demon Kings, after Rama rescued her, he suspected that she had lost her virginity. In order to prove his innocence, Sita threw himself into the fire to show his innocence. In the end, Vulcan entrusted Sita from the raging fire to prove it. Her chastity.
Sita casts fire to show his innocence in the Indian TV series "The Legend of Prince Rama"
It is not difficult to find that this cruel tradition is a typical patriarchal product, and after being wrapped in religion, it is beautified as a kind of moral belief. The self-immolation of widows is nothing but the elimination of the female body to ensure the deceased husband’s exclusive right to the wife’s body. .
The original "Queen Padmawati" is also a product of this kind of thinking. In addition to the bravery and wit of fighting the enemy, Padmawati's act of setting herself on her husband in order to preserve her virginity is also an important reason why she is regarded as a hero. .
In the eyes of modern people, this is a very uncomfortable story.
But this is a 16th-century work, and naturally bears the mark of that era. I have no intention of criticizing it. Moreover, in that era, it was unrealistic to require a woman to resist with modern thinking. She was not afraid of death and reached the highest level of women's defense of dignity in that era. Generally speaking, it is worthy of respect. After all, self-immolation violates the survival instinct of human nature. , Not everyone can do it. In addition, out of respect for history, it is impossible for the film to arrange Padmawati to kill the Sultan.
Therefore, I can understand and accept Padmawati's final self-immolation. However, the film can at least change the attitude towards self-immolation and martyrs? After all, it's the 21st century now!
The country is dead, her husband is dead, and a woman is powerless to resist, so she can only jump into the fire to thwart the enemy's ambitions. How helpless and tragic is it? Please have pity on her!
However, our great director Buhan Sarri thinks this is a very beautiful thing.
He changed the scribble when shaping Padmawati, and used a super long length to show this self-immolation ritual. The camera from the side, front, far and near, tried to show the whole picture of the ceremony, and used a lot of nearly repeated shots to slow down the progress of the whole ceremony, as if they were afraid that the audience could not see that someone was going to jump into the fire. Up.
His lack of imagination in war scenes and rescue scenes was suddenly cured. Padmawati held the white gauze in his hand, first circling in the cloister, and then slowly advancing on the stairs. There were hundreds of women in uniform dresses preparing to be buried, some of them held torches with solemn expressions. Some people organized throwing charcoal blocks into the burial pit. They escorted their queen to the burial. They struggled to keep the enemy out of the door... It was a truly extraordinary self-immolation ceremony.
The whole self-immolation scene was filmed solemn, sacred, full of poetry and beauty, passionate music and beautiful singing alternately appeared. The moment Padmawati jumped into the fire, there was also light...
While the main heroine's scenes are greatly compressed and scribbled, the focus is only on showing her self-immolation, and how beautiful and how to shoot it, which makes people think that her shining point is about daring to self-immolate, and it makes people feel that the film is a compliment. This act of self-immolation and the death of a martyr.
In this way, Buhan Sari is not enough!
In order to show their chastity, the martyred women covered their faces one after another in the face of the enemy soldiers. During the run, they passed a wall, and the wall was full of the handprints of the women who were martyred in the past; they ran into the woman in the fire, unexpectedly There is a pregnant woman, and the film also specifically gives a close-up of her belly! ! !
After the film is over, the narrator specifically tells everyone that Padmawati’s self-immolation ceremony is the country’s greatest victory...
Buhan Sari seems to have a habit of maintaining chastity towards women! It can even rise to the height of the victory of the entire country. How much Ah Q will be ruined in the country, when men are killed, and women are burned to death, they still feel that they have won because the woman has not been slept by others. arrive......
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Buhan Sari can always discover beauty in different stories, but this time the beauty of self-immolation, I really can't accept it!
With the continuous improvement of women’s awareness in modern India, the tradition of widows’ self-immolation and burial has received many criticisms, and Indian officials have also expressed their opposition, but widow burials still occur from time to time. In 2015, a 35-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh, India was forced to set himself on fire and was buried. Hundreds of villagers watched the process, but they were not saved.
It can be seen that opposing the burial of widows in India is only a political correctness, and it has not really penetrated the hearts of every Indian.
Buhan Sari’s beautification of the self-immolation scene in "Queen Padmawati" may reflect the subconscious positive attitude of many Indians towards the self-immolation and burial of widows.
Some time ago, many Chinese film critics mocked the political correctness of Hollywood films. What I want to say is that blindly pursuing political correctness is indeed a manifestation of laziness. It has caused the decline of film art, but without political correctness, it may be the collapse of the values of the entire society.
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