Reviews

The key to understanding this is that it is NOT the story of Peter Pan, rather it is a story about childhood and our own fear of growing old and the dream of leaving it all behind in search pf paradise. It reminded me of The Beach and Swiss Army man in some ways.

The themes of Peter Pan are picked up -- distrust of adults, revenge, the longing for the maternal; and interpreted in a new way in a story that is it's own. Some sequences are dreamlike and there are blank spaces which allows the viewer to use their imagination.

And for those that criticize the cinematography -- the film was shot with handheld cameras because the island was very inaccessible and dangerous.

A lot of reviewers on here have their panties tied over the fact that Bridgerton, a self-proclaimed interpretive fantasy, is not historically accurate. The anachronism is kind of the whole point of the show.

A lot of reviewers on here have their panties tied over the fact that Bridgerton, a self-proclaimed interpretive fantasy, is not historically accurate. The anachronism is kind of the whole point of the show. Still I'll say it -- Dickinson did it better, because it embraced it wholeheartedly, and didn't shrink back in bringing a modern perspective to the characters, whereas Bridgerton seems at times to waver. Still it's a fun watch, and the costumes and sets are dazzling.

The film is fun to watch, but the end just left me with a distaste. The message of the main character is supposed to be "don't judge me" for breaking gender roles, but he does this by judging and shaming others -- for being short, for falling in love with someone younger or of the same sex, or for learning the language of one's crush. It's not just the main character that shows intolerance -- the making fun of Muslim stereotypes was distasteful for me (am neither Muslim nor Hindu). Basically the beginning and middle of the film is great but the last part with the ubiquitous monologue is a disappointment.

Just the first few minutes had such bad dialogues, that it hurt my brain. Also Ajay Devgan -- what happened, I remember him as a good actor, but here he was delivering dialogues as if he couldn't be bothered.

This reminded me of the Archie comics of the 90s-- well-meaning Archie, scheming Veronica, dumb Moose and cute Betty, The script was also just as 2D as those comics were. Everyone, I repeat everyone, got at least one "I have a dream" monologue, and almost all sounded like they were copy-pasted. The ending, with prizes galore and everyone suddenly being super accepting of the film, pretty much devalued the struggles that were depicted in the first part. The main characters were rather boring, especially Camille, who apart from being stunningly beautiful and manipulating her boyfriend once, was totally forgettable. It was the older generation of actors which imho were brilliant -- Avis, Ellen, and even Ace were all amazing. The best of all was Jim Parsons as Henry Willson, who was deliciously over-the top. He had what the rest of the series lacked -- he was self-aware and played his ridiculously campy character tongue in cheek. The rest of the series took itself too seriously while still trying to be a light work of fiction.

I didn't get most of the people and their problems, they are mostly just annoying and narcissistic. Probably it's all relatable if you live in New York, but this European was just bewildered.

I'd have enjoyed this much more without the so cheezy dialogues.

Horribly cobbled together script make this film a torture to watch. The only saving grace is the acting of the three main actors, who try their best to rescue the cringey dialogues and awkward plot twists. They really deserved a much better script. Some of the scenes are so bad, so many plotholes. Also so much misogyny -- not just from Shahrukh's character, but in the entire film. Madhuri's character is infuriatingly childish to the point of appearing simple-minded. The aim was to make her naive, especially where Suraj is concerned, but she ends up coming off as an 8-year-old in a 30-year-old's body. The only redeeming moments are Shahrukh's comic moments, which he executes brilliantly.

I really wanted to like this movie since I liked Bhansali's other work, but the sets and Priyanka are the only good things about Bajirao Mastani.

I couldn't help comparing Bajirao Mastani to Devdas which is also opulent, also features a love triangle, and also has a tragic ending. But Devdas had a really solid plot and beautiful dialogs (it was after all based on a good novel), plus all the three actors did a fantastic job -- you could feel the love and chemistry on the screen. In the case of Bajirao Mastani the script is horribly clunky, the characters are not well fleshed out, the dialogs are poorly written with lots of clichés. Kudos for Priyanka Chopda who managed to create a believable character with believable motives and emotions out of this. She was the only person in this film who spoke naturally and didn't feel fake -- except the kids.

Ranveer Singh forgets how to act as soon as any female appears on the set. Till the end I didn't know what Bajirao felt towards his mother and Kashi, I think the actor had no idea either. He seems to have only two modes -- bad-ass warrior or frozen and expressionless. Deepika also disappointed me, she basically does 3-4 variations on the intense scene throughout the film. Neither can do micro-expressions, both "deliver dialogue" instead of just speaking, and Deepika has an annoying way of forgetting to breathe in before starting her sentences and then pausing an inhale randomly between words -- a small thing maybe, but it makes her lines sound unnatural (btw inhaling before the start of each sentence is something taught in every acting school).

The relationship of Bajirao and Mastani was given no chance to develop so I didn't "buy" her big love and her rebellion against her parents. A few scenes of them getting to know each other would have been great. It was kind of hard to believe in this great love between them.

Someone should have told Bhansali that quality trumps quality when it comes to special effects. The CGI fire was pretty awful and distracting even on my low-quality small screen, on the big screen it must have been a joke. Also, who did the awful makeup on Deepika's brows? A couple of obviously-fake shaved heads were also distracting.

The good things in this movie, apart from Priyanka are the breathtaking sets, the costumes and the beautiful cinematography.