Panipat Review: An Uninspiring Lackluster Drama!

Panipat Movie Review: Recounting the real-life events of the legendary Third Battle of Panipat between the Maratha Empire and the Afghan army, the movie – Panipat explores the episodes that occurred before and during the battle within a two-hour fifty-three-minute runtime. With Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, and Kriti Sanon in the lead roles, this Ashutosh Gowariker directorial is, for the most part, an underwhelming fare. Thanks to its lackluster and uninspired screenwriting issues.

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The storyline of the film begins with the Maratha Empire; which is on its way of becoming the most powerful domain in India led by a ferocious army and their commander-in-chief, Sadashiv Rao Bhau. Quickly after proving their dominance in the region, the Marathas face an enormous threat in the form of the Afghan army led by Ahmad Shah Abdali. As the Afghanis plan to invade Hindustan, the narrative takes us through every negotiation and discussion which took place before the battle precisely without rushing even for a single second.

Now, taking your sweet little time to develop the narrative is always a double-edged sword. Sometimes, allowing time to embrace and explore the characters more will fetch good results and improve the film’s quality as a whole. However, taking an ungodly amount of time to get to the main crux of the narrative can make the viewer lose interest which is always a red flag when you are showcasing a significant piece of history on the silver screen. Gowariker’s Panipat faces a multitude of problems similar to what I mentioned, and the result is a disaster.

When you roll the dice and take a shot with a three-hour movie, you should make sure to captivate the audience member and keep them entertained. As far as Panipat goes, I failed to recall at least a couple of scenes that moved me emotionally or spark a tiny bit of excitement. The needless lengthy scenes lacked emotion as I honestly felt like watching two characters having a long, boring conversation. The writers somehow managed to make an intriguing plot mundane, with their underwhelming screenwriting ability. The transition between the scenes or moving from one point to another felt very spotty, and the voice-over explanation and the animated maps didn’t help the narration cruise through placidly.

After watching a litany of historical war films in the recent past, the audience is, at least, accustomed to those battle sequences which carry that epic larger-than-life vibe inside and out. Panipat, once again, dropped the ball and failed to capitalize on these moments as the action scenes largely felt uninspired, impactless, and neglected the viewer experience. Additionally, the dreary romantic angle between the two main leads only added extra minutes to the overall runtime and succeeded in not making me care at all.

The lifeless characters didn’t bring out the best from any of the cast members. The lack of motivation, the typical dialogue didn’t make me show any remorse and it looked to me that even the cast didn’t feel that much to go out there and give their best. But, moving past the dark, gloomy clouds, few departments actually deserve some appreciation here for putting in their honest effort.

First off, the production design in the movie looked grand, majestic, and extremely attractive. Particularly, the efforts to light and decorate a particular shot systematically to highlight the art design should be appreciated alongside the camera work by C. K. Muraleedharan. Ajay-Atul knocked it out of the park as far as orchestral background music go and were a perfect fit for the film.

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Overall, Panipat suffers primarily because of its never-ending runtime and a myriad of screenwriting issues. The cast had nothing to offer as I was hoping to walk back home with at least one memorable moment to share with my family and friends. This movie should’ve never been three hours long as it not only bored the audience to death but, it also managed to somehow do a disservice to the rich source material of the Maratha Empire.

Rating – 2/5 | Grade – C

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