Finally, after almost 2 months and cuts way more than the logical people in Karni Sena, Padmavati released this week on 25th January. The reviews had a different story to say as the ratings the movie has got are pretty decent also, in no way was the Karni Sena’s expectations fulfilled about the distortion of the past.
The first call
Last year, around this time a group of People from Rajput Karni Sena ( a Rajput Caste) broke into the Jaipur Set of Padmavati and slapped the director of the movie, Sanjay Leela Bhansali without any knowledge of the script or the character relations. With this a famous “Nationalist” Twitter celebrity posted on her Twitter handle that “If what Sanjay Leela Bhansali does to history is art then what Karni Sena did was facial”. The entire issue was condemned by all the logical and sane people around the nation and the director, makers and actors of the movie got full support from the industry.
The release date issue
In Mid 2017, the trailer of the movie was released giving the release date of December Start however the protests by the Karni Sena postponed the release of the movie till almost two months. Even after its release, the situation was pretty tensed with the people breaking cars and setting pictures of the actors on fire. However, in a hilarious goof-up, A member of Karni Sena accidentally burned his fellow mate’s car on fire while protesting at the Jyoti Talkies in Bhopal. The amount of frustration in the people was vent out in a hilarious manner.
Why doesn’t Karni Sena want us to watch the movie?
Although, there are many aspects which we don’t know about the movie and the controversy. Apparently, there were few reasons as to why the Rajputs or moreover the Karni Sena protested against the movie.
The Glorification of the character of Alauddin Khilji was resented by them but however, the movie when released showed a completely different standby antagonizing his character. Moreover, there were speculations that they
were against the portrayal of an intimacy between Alauddin Khilji and Padmavati which gain was solely on the basis of assumptions and was later proved wrong.
Distortion of Historical facts played an important point for them to protest against the makers of the movie. Since years Period dramas have been made after Kings and Queens and creative liberty has always been taken. Unless and until the creative liberty antagonizes a person, who was, in reality, nothing like that which in turn creates a misconception among the masses is when it should be considered offensive but in no way or the other it is an excuse for creating violence or threatening the security of the people.
Has Rani Padmini really existed?
As controversial as it may seem, with the movie’s controversy going around, there was a question of the authenticity of the character. It is said that the Rani Padmini was born out of the Poet Malik Mohammad Jayasi’s work in 1540, Padmavati. It is also said that soon after the poem came out Jayasi himself called the poem a work of fiction, however, the professor of History in Rajasthan, Krishna Gopal Sharma believes that Rani Padmini did exist and was situated near Sri Lanka. With all the contradictory statements regarding Khilji’s attack or Padmini’s existence with a talking parrot, we all wonder what was the truth.
Why does the intolerance need to be stopped?
With various social evils and problems going around in the world, a historic character seemed to be apt to fight for and it is the high time people sought their priorities. Fighting and protesting for issues like dowry, rape, poverty or bullying is more important than fighting for a character which we aren’t even sure existed or not. After all making our priorities clear will only help us in our development.
Over to you
Let us know your opinions on Padmavati and the Karni Sena controversy in the comments section below.
