Loud music, bombastic action scenes, over-the-top dialogues that don't have any ring of truth to it followed by scenes of blood-oozing bodies floating in a river definitely don't make for a magnum opus!' exclaims Prasanna D Zore after watching the Chhaava trailer.
When someone makes a biopic on Maharashtra's most neglected history icon (a personal opinion) Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, or Shambhu Raje, as his family fondly called him, and promises to make him -- and his eight-year long reign as the Chhatrapati who ruled the Maratha Empire his illustrious father Chhatrapati Shivaji had so painstakingly built battling huge odds -- a household name in India, just like Shivaji, it definitely makes news -- and controversies.
Producer Dinesh Vijan, actors Vicky Kaushal, who plays Sambhaji, Rashmika Mandanna, who plays Maharani Yesubai, and Director Laxman Utekar did just that -- created news -- when they released the trailer of Chhaava with fanfare at the Plaza Cinema -- in the heart of Dadar, a largely Marathi Manoos-dominated neighbourhood -- on January 22.
And true to their vocation, the politicians, have raised their objections -- while Maharashtra Industries Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant has already threatened to block the film's release objecting to some 'objectionable' scenes until history 'experts' clear them, the direct descendant of Shivaji and former BJP Rajya Sabha MP Chhatrapati Sambhaji too has called upon the filmmakers to consult 'historians' and revisit certain scenes, especially the one where the warrior king and his maharani dance a Maharashtrian lezim dance.
The Sambhaji Brigade, an organisation based out of Pune and dedicated to espouse the historic legacy of Chhatrapati Sambhaji, is yet to -- interestingly and curiously -- enter the arena.
The Sambhaji Brigade is known for its often violent protests against anything touchy about Sambhaji. Seems like Vijan and company has lot of work to do before the film's scheduled release on February 14.
Be that as it may, but here's what happened during the release of Chhava's trailer on January 22.
"It was important to get that Marathi vibe," says a crew member from Maddock Films -- Vijan's production company -- when asked why the producer chose Plaza as the venue to release the two-minute trailer, abandoning tony multiplexes in Juhu where movie trailers and film premieres often enfold with boring regularity.
Doesn't mind that the film has been made in Hindi and the producer shared no hints about the film getting dubbed in various regional languages, not to forget the Marathi manoos' maay-boli Marathi -- so much for Vicky's and Vijan's tall claim of making Sambhaji a household name in India with Chhaava's release.
As part of the trailer's over-hyped promotion, the cast and crew of Chhaava, a biopic that skims through -- not deep dives, of course -- the 127 small and big battles Sambhaji fought during his rule as the Chhatrapati between 1681 and 1689, and won against Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and a number of smaller principalities in the Deccan, who owed their allegiance to the Mughal empire, to bring out Sambhaji's unwavering, unyielding bravery in the face of certain death and brutal torture -- took a detour first to the Siddhivinayak temple, following which the actor accompanied by band of dhol and tasha -- traditional Marathi percussion musical instruments -- entered Plaza to the loud cheers of 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Ki Jai' and 'Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Ki Jai' from 'fans' who had gathered to cheer the actors "of their own will" (if one was to believe Maddock's crew, that is).
Outside Plaza, before the cast arrived, the 'fans' were frenzied. There were no cops or bouncers to manage these 'fans'. No lessons seem to have been learned from the stampede tragedy that took the life of a 35-year-old woman on December 4 during the screening of Pushpa 2 at Hyderabad's Sandhya theatre.
The same 'fans' occupied the entire balcony and rear seats in the stall area inside the theatre and continued with their 'Hi Mandanna,' 'I love you Vicky' and 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Ko Jai' and 'Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Ki Jais' to ramp up the noise levels amid dhol and tasha.
If these cheerleaders were not enough, the media fraternity too played its bit in raising the hype around the trailer release.
One could hear someone emphatically declare that "looking at the trailer it looks like Chhaava is a magnum opus," to which a floored Kaushal said, "this is the first time I am hearing any of my films being called a magnum opus."
Magnum opus? Loud music, bombastic action scenes, over-the-top dialogues that don't have any ring of truth to it -- like Akshay Khanna playing a vengeful Aurangzeb crying 'laal kar do' followed by scenes of blood-oozing bodies floating in a river, definitely don't make for a magnum opus!
Another mediaperson, from the other extreme, offered his manacha mujra (a greeting to show respect, loyalty and obedience to the kings made popular at the Mughal courts, which later found its way even to Shivaji's court when he became the Chhatrapati) adding another bit of false-majesty to the over-hyped proceedings.
Hype apart, one wonders about the 'cinematic liberties' Director Utekar and his team of writers and researchers -- the writer spent four years working on Chhaava's script said Vijan, who emhpasised that with biopics like Chhaava he would rather back his writers and researchers -- could have taken while portraying the unidimensional character of Sambhaji -- that of a brave warrior king, the second Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire, who did not lose a single battle after ascending the throne and remained unflinching in his zest to take on the mighty Mughals and expand the wings of the Empire that Chhatrapati Shivaji established.
A dancing Sambhaji (Uday Samant's and Chhatrapati Sambhaji's 'experts' take note), a Sambhaji fighting a lion, a Sambhaji using a gada and bow and arrows to attack the enemy would definitely upset the purists and historians.
And there are many from Maharashtra like author Shivaji Sawant on whose eponymous novel the film Chhaava is based and Vishwas Patil (Sambhaji) who have researched tomes of documents and bakhars (historic documents, especially in Maharashtra, that describe the lives of kings, great men and epochal events through songs) on the life and times of Sambhaji.
One also wonders -- the trailer didn't offer any clue -- if Chhaava would also throw light on how Sambhaji was betrayed by his own -- some would prefer the euphemism 'insider' to describe these backstabbers -- and the circumstances that led to his capture and subsequent brutal torture, including gouging out of his eyes, on Aurangzeb's orders.
And his tussle with his step-mother Soyrabai -- Shivaji's second wife and Rajaram's mother -- who wanted her son Rajaram, all of 10 when Sambhaji ascended the throne on January 16, 1681, to become the Chhatrapati instead of Sambhaji.
Sambhaji's mother Saibai died in 1659, just a month before the storied Shivaji-Afzal Khan meeting at the footsteps of Pratapgad fort, and when Sambhaji born on May 14, 1657, was all of two.
PS: To Laxman Utekar and Dinesh Vijan: What was the need to create so much hype and hoopla to endear a warrior king who fought 127 battles, and won all, to save and expand the Maratha Empire?
Request you to dub the movie (howsoever, unidimensional) in a regional languages, including Marathi, for a wider audience to enjoy it, and make Sambhaji a national hero, as you asserted time and again during the trailer release.
The scene where Sambhhaji fights the lion and attempts to break the animal's jaw (we know it is animated and no animal must have been hurt while shooting Chhaava and we thank you for that) is a terrible way of taking 'cinematic liberties' to highlight the Maratha warrior's fighting skills and bravery.
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