Rajput resonance
You can keep your mod-cons, your plastic money, your bullet trains. We would give an arm and a leg to be around in Rajput times, when valour was alive and protecting one’s honour meant far more than guarding one’s life.

Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh embodies this pride as he recites, “Chinta ko talwar ki nok pe rakhein, woh Rajput. Reyt ki naav lekar samandar se shart lagae, woh Rajput. Aur jiska sir kate fir bhi dushman se ladta rahein, woh Rajput.” The women are not to be outdone. When Deepika as Queen Padmavati vows, “Rajputi Kangan mein utni hi taaqat hai jitni rajputi talwaar mein hai ,” you know that not much in today’s world can hope to rival the real glory of that bygone era.

Love, actually
The princess famed for her exquisite beauty travels from her home across the seas to reach the desert land of her husband. The tenderness between them is tangible. He has eyes only for her. Even the act of her stitching his turban is imbued with poetic eloquence, as his eyes stay locked on her and her alone.

Deepika Padukone is the strength of her brave warrior; when preparing for battle, the emotions sear as she lifts and places the helmet on his head with a finality that elicits tremors. Emotions flow and words are unnecessary when the eyes speak. Even love today seems a little too ordinary, a tad too convenient to even hope to compete with the passion of the past.

Beauty Unparalleled
Whether the untainted innocence in Padmini’s eyes, the riches of the royal court of Chittorgarh, the battle scenes replete with their own terrible beauty, every moment is invested with so much vividness and grace, not even the occasional film-goer could hope to resist the lure of this magnum opus.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali had earlier directed this timeless tale as an opera in Paris and Rome; the first Indian, incidentally, to direct an opera internationally. The applause had been thunderous. It will be a scenario most likely repeated in cinema halls come December 1, as many hordes will break their months of fasting at the box office to stand in line for this stunning cinematic experience.

Face of Evil
Would bravery look so heart-wrenching if it were not pitted against evil so twisted, so terrible, that it hooked you so irretrievably? Ranveer Singh lives the role of Alauddin Khilji, the cruel conqueror, the obsessed monarch, whose infatuation grows to monstrous heights, engulfing all reason…and ultimately even the object of his fatal attraction.

Bristling with brutish magnetism, this is not an ordinary man with tame ambitions and tame passions. The animal-skin encasing his shoulders mirrors the beast within, the flick of an eyebrow tells you more about his maniacal, mercurial inner world than words could. He makes bad look dangerously good, yes, even at the risk of making good pale into the background. We want more and we want it now!