Manikarnika: 5 Fixes That Could Have Made Kangana Ranaut’s Historical Drama a Masterpiece!

Kangana Ranaut's latest film, Manikarnika, is just as revolutionary as the Queen whose life it is based on. It is the costliest film in Bollywood cinema with a female lead, directed by herself. There is a lot to celebrate in Manikarnika, even if you are not a Kangana Ranaut fan. The success of this film will definitely push many financers to produce more female-oriented content with bigger budgets. We have had historical films with a female lead, but not on this kind of scale. Padmaavat comes the closest, but then Sanjay Leela Bhansali made the film more about Ranveer Singh's Alauddin Khilji and less about Deepika Padukone's Padmavati. Manikarnika Movie Review: Kangana Ranaut’s Dominant Show Gives an Energetic Appeal to This Faltering Historical Drama

This is why we need to root for Manikarnika. Based purely on its content, though, Manikarnika thrills only in parts. Kangana Ranaut is awesome in her most gallery-pleasing role ever. She dominates every scene, every frame with his fiery presence. As a director, a credit that she shares with Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, she has not done a bad job per se. Manikarnika has its moments, and yet it falls several feet away in turning out to be an ambitious masterpiece it wants to be. There are plenty of cinematic liberties taken with the narrative. Like for example, Rani Laxmibai had cordial relations with the British as per history texts, which changed when British remained adamant to annex Jhansi. This was changed in the movie to show that Manikarnika was rigid with the British right from the start. It isn't anything unforgivable, and it is the least of the movie's concerns. Box Office Report: Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika Off to a Decent Start, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Thackeray Witnesses Low Occupancy

The reason why Manikarnika fails to become a masterpiece has more to do with its editing, writing and a pure lack of goosebump-inducing moments. Here are fives fixes that could have made the film a much more palatable cinematic fare!

Reduce the Self-Obsessive Length

We have had period films with more than two hours runtime so Manikarnika's 148 minute-long runtime shouldn't really matter. However, there are times when the scenes feel repetitive, especially in the long-drawn war sequences. There are also a couple of sequences in the first half that could have been trimmed away like that quite unnecessary "Dankila" song sequence.

Better Use of Supporting Cast

Kangana is fine in the film, but the movie had an array of fine actors like Atul Kulkarni, Danny Denzongpa, Suresh Oberoi, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Jisshu Sengupta etc. However, save for Jisshu and to some extent, Danny, the rest of the actors has precious little to do. Kulkarni and Ayyub, especially, feel criminally underused. Ankita Lokhande's character is very randomly written into the story, though the actress does well in her final sequence. Some of these actors play important freedom fighters, along with Rani Laxmibai, so we wish that they could have given more scope to shine, unlike being cast behind Kangana's towering shadow.

More Goose-Bump Moments

A patriotic movie deserves many goosebump-inducing moments to enthral its audience. Manikarnika's visual opulence and theatricality have a lot of mainstream appeal, but there is a shockingly low emotional value in the film. A couple of scenes work like the interval sequence when Manikarnika refuses to follow the customs of a widow. Or the scene where she slays the men looking to kill her child single-handedly. The movie needed more scenes like this. Even her death scene lacks an emotional touch, though a little blame of that does fall on Kangana's OTT performance in the final scene.

Better Editing

I know that we have already talked about how the length of the film needs desperate trimming. Here, I want to talk about how the pace of the film gets affected by the placement of scenes. For example, we have a scene where Manikarnika refuses to bow down to the British like her husband. In the immediate scene, she goes horse-riding where she comes across a rebel in Sangram Singh, a subplot that has not much meat, and ruins the effect of the previous.

Avoid the Baahubali Influences

Sure, Manikarnika is written by Baahubali fame KV Vijayendra Prasad. That doesn't mean you need to rely on the influence of SS Rajamouli magnum opus to help you sail through. There is a bit too much of an influence of Baahubali in its visual look and the action sequences. However, by not having the same kind of budget, we can clearly see the constraints and limitations in the VFX.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 25, 2019 06:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).