Manikarnika – The Queen of Jhansi movie review: Kangana Ranaut’s period drama is a visual treat, but not that impressive!

When the set is magnum, costumes are superb, jewellery is exquisite and the action is thrilling then well done art department. But what about the problems evident with your lead actress! It’s a film where everyone around the protagonist seems to have transferred themselves into the era, but not the protagonist herself. Being someone who loves period cinema, I went in to forget the reality and enter the 1800’s, but if Kangana herself is not invested how will I as a member of audience. The film has been in headlines since a year and the hard work is visible in terms of visuals.

What’s it about? Based on the Queen of Jhansi, Rani Lakshmibai, the film traces the life of Manikarnika from her birth to her getting married, then becoming the queen and dying in the battlefield for the country. Played by Kangana Ranaut, the film is a brief account of the valour of Rani Lakshmibai from her perspective. The film talks about the Indian Rebellion of 1857 – led by Lakshmibai and is known as the first war of independence – in detail.

The film begins with Amitabh Bachchan’s voiceover and is appealing. It sets the base right without wasting any time that Manikarnika is courageous, brave and at the same time very soft hearted and caring. She gets married to the king of Jhansi, gives birth to a son who dies in infancy. Later even the king dies after a prolonged illness just after adopting his cousin’s son. Finally, Rani Lakshmibai holds her ground, refusing to give up Jhansi and in a bid to save her kingdom, enters the battlefield against the British. After a bloody war, the queen dies the most glorious death on the battlefield.

Yay: The art department has taken Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) level of efforts in bringing together the sets, clothes, jewellery and they deserve all the appreciation for their efforts. There are resemblances and several of those, so no choice but I had to compare it with SLB films. The story is based on a historic figure so no questioning there. The sequence where Manikarnika breaks the stigma around widows by not accepting the age-old practise is executed well which adds one more layer to her character.

There are montages of an army of women being formed and seeing them prepare for war is visually fulfilling. The bravest thing that the makers choose to show was the personality of the King of Jhansi, Gangadhar Rao Newalkar – he enjoyed art and wasn’t aggressive or violent. Brownie points for that. In terms of acting, the supporting cast is stronger, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni, Richard Keep and most others got their roles right.

Nay: This section, my fellow readers read with popcorn. Now, you have got everything right but Kangana, around whom the screenplay revolves doesn’t look authentic. For a queen, her body language is not on point. Even her dialect for that matter, she sounds like well, Kangana Ranaut and not Manikarnika. Also somewhere in between she speaks Hindi in an English accent, why? It looks like in the urgency to gather everything else the makers forgot to work on the main character. However beautiful you decorate the setup but it is the character that will connect me with it. Plus you replicate scenes from a film that is not way back, you yourself invite comparisons. Remember in Bajirao Mastani, Ranveer climbing on the elephant? SAME. When it is a period film, the dialogues have to grab the audience, but here they don’t. Also someone should explain why two Englishmen talk in Hindi. And that too using difficult Hindi idioms, like Use asmaan kha gaya ya dharti nigal gayi.

Getting into technical details, I won’t endorse the cinematography at all. When you have created such huge sets, why not shoot them in wide angles and show the glory, the camera is majority of times very close to the characters with less breathing space. I understand the technique of allowing audience to get into the character but then they also want the ambience. There is also a celebration song which features Ankita Lokhande dancing and by the end Kangana starts dancing breaking the character completely. The dance style I bet wasn’t any folk dance but looked choreographed by the actors themselves. There is no time frame to this by the way, we don’t know at what age she gets married or how long the king was alive after their marriage and even no mention of the battle year. Also, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub needs to reconsider his choices in roles, this is the third time I saw him doing a character that is not worthy of him.

Cine Blitz Verdict: The start is promising but what follows just lost my interest. Only the setup is not the win, you also need to focus on many other things is what the makers must realise. Also, this was partially Kangana’s directorial debut and we are not impressed. Maybe some people will like the film due to the story of one of the bravest woman in the Indian history, but as someone who knows cinema will be let down by the lack of authentication and minute detailing. Go in to appreciate the art department, but don’t expect anything more.

Rating: 2 stars