Manikarnika review thread *Final Warning Pg115*(move to next thread) - Page 13

Just walked out.

Originally posted by: Nishita123

Going to be my first Kangana movie in theatre too lol.

Mine too.. going tonight/tomorrow

I am in theatre waiting to watch the film

Go kangu ! I want this film to work for her .
It would amazing to reaction of HR fans and other people here on IF

Manikarnika Movie Review: Kangana Ranaut's Soulless Film Reduces Laxmi Bai To A Stunt Queen

Manikarnika Movie Review: The film is Kangana Ranaut all the way. Her belief in her ability to carry the film on her shoulders is touching
Entertainment | Saibal Chatterjee | Updated: January 25, 2019 13:56 IST
by Taboola

Manikarnika Movie Review: Kangana Ranaut's Soulless Film Reduces Laxmi Bai To A Stunt Queen

Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Movie Review - A still from the film. (Image courtesy Instagram)

Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Jisshu Sengupta, Zeeshan Ayyub, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni

Directors: Kangana Ranaut and Krish

Rating: 1 Star (out of 5)

Avowedly meant to stimulate patriotic zeal - "matrubhumi se niswarth prem (selfless love for the motherland)" - among Indian moviegoers 160 years after Rani Laxmi Bai laid down her life on the battlefield, Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi, is too exhausting a film to send the audience home bubbling with enthusiasm. The visual effects are low-grade, the stilted dialogues reek of laziness, the onscreen performances are pedestrian and the sets have a hurriedly-erected feel.

Manikarnika, for which lead actress Kangana Ranaut takes directing credit ahead of Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, blows history to smithereens and reduces the Rani of Jhansi, one of greatest warriors India has ever known, to a stunt queen, turning the film in the bargain into an outright travesty of cinema. The story of the queen's short but glorious life deserves a movie all right but a much better one than this.
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Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Movie Review - A still from the film. (Image courtesy Instagram)

In one surprising sequence, the Rani of Jhansi speaks unblemished English although the audience is never introduced to her language tutor. Stating that "words without culture have no meaning" - yes, in so many words and in Queen's English - she proceeds to extol the virtues of the mother tongue. "Matrubhasha maa hoti hai," she declares. Like much else in Manikarnika, this comes out of nowhere and leaves you scratching your head in disbelief.

In other scenes, the Rani runs and leaps like a champion athlete and mounts her steed with a hop, step and jump. We are expected to gape at the spectacle in wonder. We might have done so if only her exploits were lent a touch a believable humanity. She strikes no chords because all she does is deliver homilies on patriotism, courage and national pride. There is no room for nuance here. The real woman behind the irrepressible patriot is lost in the din.

In another crucial scene, the Rani's husband, Maharaja Gangadhar Rao Newalkar (Jisshu Sengupta in an extended role in which he isn't allowed to use his own voice), likens the bangles he wears to handcuffs, an emblem of enslavement. Why a film about a female ruler and warrior of unparalleled stature should treat a woman's accessory as a symbol of servitude is beyond comprehension unless one presumes that the makers of this movie do not know better.
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Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Movie Review - A still from the film. (Image courtesy YouTube)

The fact that Manikarnika, in an opening disclaimer, lays no claims to historical accuracy cannot, however, absolve its makers of the blame for producing a film so astonishingly inept. This despite the fact that it loses no opportunity to whip up exuberance - beginning with an introductory voiceover by Amitabh Bachchan drawing our attention to the hinsaa (violence) and atyachar (tortune) that the British East India Company unleashed on this "pavitra" bhoomi.

By turning Rani Laxmi Bai's valour into pulpy posturing about her wanting to be a mashaal (fire) of azaadi (freedom) in the hearts of her people for all times to come, the ho-hum screenplay (by KK Vijayendra Prasad) delivers a comic-strip rendition of a memorable, if tragic, chapter of Indian history, shorn of its intricacies. It captures neither the exemplary heroism nor the pathos of the queen's life. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, which triggered a widespread rebellion against the British rulers and was a key juncture in Rani Laxmi Bai's life, is ill-advisedly glossed over.
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Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Movie Review - A still from the film. (Image courtesy YouTube)

The film does devote sufficient footage to the birth and death of her only child as well as to the premature death of her husband, but the titular figure's single-note demeanour allows for no depth in the characterization of a woman who broke every conceivable societal norm of her times.

We first see Kangana in 1842 - when Rani Laxmi Bai was 14 - using a bow and arrow to stop a tiger from pouncing on a hapless goat. The next thing we know is she is nursing the predator's wound and then setting the creature free. A little later, she saves a calf from ending up as lunch for British officers. Can a film about nationalism be complete today without an act of gauraksha?
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Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Movie Review - A still from the film. (Image courtesy YouTube)

The queen lived for 16 more years from the time she incapacitates the tiger and the character passes through different stages of that time-frame, but no perceptible change registers on the actress' visage, which, in any case, is behind so much cosmetic goop that it rules out the possibility of any tangible emotions filtering through the layers of make-up.

Kangana settles into a predictable pattern. She smiles through many of the most difficult situations that the rani faces, sports a smirk when she has to exude insouciance, goes all wide-eyed and holds an unblinking gaze when the idea is to convey obduracy, and raises her voice several notches to represent unbridled rage. All through the film, Kangana flits from one of the above moods to another, but the film never sheds its monotony. Especially mechanical are the battle scenes - they might be sporadic but when one erupts it goes on forever, consuming a lot of the film's two-and-a-half-hour runtime.

The cast of Manikarnika has some actors of proven class - Danny Denzongpa in the role of Mohammad Gouse Khan, Rani's Laxmi Bai's trusted cannon expert; Atul Kulkarni as freedom fighter Tatya Tope (a leading figure in the First War Of Independence) and Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub essaying the character of a treacherous man whose designs on the Jhansi throne are thwarted - but none is allowed the space to rise above the overwhelming mediocrity of the material.

Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Movie Review - A still from the film. (Image courtesy Instagram)

Not surprisingly, the British colonial officers, played by the likes of Richard Keep (General Hugh Rose) and Edward Sonnenblick (Captain John Gordon), are bad-guy caricatures. They have even less of a chance of making a mark.

Manikarnika is Kangana Ranaut all the way. Her belief in her ability to carry a historical saga of this scale on her shoulders is touching, even admirable. But her move into the director's seat couldn't obviously have helped the film's cause. She is everywhere, even where she isn't required. The result of the overreach is an overstretched, exaggerated drama that huffs and puffs its way through many a zone of utter redundancy.


Manikarnika is agonizingly soulless. Platitudes piled upon synthetic platitudes do not add up to great cinema, especially when none of the film's war cries delivers any bang for its buck. Save yours and give the film a miss unless you like the sound of misfires.

https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/manikarnika-movie-review-kangana-ranauts-soulless-film-reduces-laxmi-bai-to-a-stunt-queen-1-star-out-1982958

This Isn't the Manikarnika' We Shot For', An Actor from Kangana Ranaut's Film Speaks Up

By Subhash K Jha Tuesday, 22 January 2019
Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika' has been facing some controversy or the other for a long time. The film releases this Thursday in the UAE

This Isn't the Manikarnika' We Shot For', An Actor from Kangana Ranaut's Film Speaks Up
Kangana Ranaut in a still from 'Manikarnika'

For the last few months, Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika has had to face several controversies. First, the director Krish exited following which Kangana Ranaut herself took over the mantle. There were lots of stories floating how Krish and Team Kangana parted on a bad note, though the latter denied it. Thereafter, actors like Sonu Sood walked out followed by some technicians. However, all seemed well after the first trailer came out as it got great reviews from critics.

However, it seems there is a gigantic level of resentment in the ranks of actors and technicians who have pitched their talent into the controversial historical. While two of the prominent actors told this writer they had a "hellish time shooting for the film after the original director Krish was replaced, they also asserted that silence was the best policy for now. They will speak later after the film's release.

One actor from the film did speak up on condition of anonymity asserting that his name is kept out. "If you promise to not reveal my name I can tell you. Shooting for Manikarnika with Krish and without Krish as a director has been two different experiences. When she (Kangana Ranaut) came in, she changed everything including the dubbing by the actors. The film that is now going to release after she (Kangana) took over is very different from the one that Krish has made. Now it is truly Manikarnika because it is truly the story of one woman now, with all the other characters as mere props.

The actor says there are far more senior and respected actors in the film who feel they've been given a raw deal. "But we are keeping quiet for the sake of the film. We want it to work because all our blood sweat and tears have gone into it. But after Manikarnika releases, there will be plenty of voices of protest coming up.

That remains to be seen if actors really speak up after its release. However, in a recent interview, Kangana did admit that she had shot nearly 70 per cent of the film. In an interview to Mumbai Mirror, Kangana said that she had come on board as director in June and then reconceived the entire film, incorporating songs and reshooting large portions. "Only 30 per cent of the film, the action sequences shot by Krish and Nick, have been retained and I did lots of patchwork on those too. The remaining 70 per cent of the film was shot by me.
https://www.masala.com/this-isnt-the-manikarnika-we-shot-for-an-actor-from-kangana-ranauts-film-speaks-up-275371.html

Hope this movie works, not only for kangana because we don't have many movies about female warriors!!

Originally posted by: 2RsFan

Manikarnika Ordinary Start - Thackeray Low

Friday 25 January 2019 15.30 IST

Box Office India Trade Network

Manikarnika - The Queen Of Jhansi had an ordinary opening of 15-20% when it should have opened better considering the scale of the film. The problem is mass markets as UP, MP, Rajasthan etc should have had better collections. Maybe as the face value is limited to Kangana Ranaut who is not a big star has kept the audience way initially.

The opening will be okay if we look other heroine driven films but its a tough task to reach the biggest which was Veere Di Wedding featuring Kareena Kapoor. The hope will be the evening push as its a big national holiday. The film is the biggest budget film ever which has a heroine as the only face so there will have to be a huge jump over the weekend for the film.

There was a film made on the same story in 1953 called Jhansi Ki Rani which was one of the two big colour films made in India, the other being the Dilip Kumar starrer Aan. The colour prints of the film have been lost in time so only the black and white version survives. An English version of the film was also shot called The Tiger And The Flame and was released in USA a few years later. The colour print of that version survives though its an edited version of the original film probably due to the songs which were not needed for USA.

Jhansi Ki Rani was made on a huge budget at that time of around 50 lakhs inclusive of prints and promotion and proved to be a huge disaster with recovery being hardly 40% of the costs. The hope will be Manikarnika - The Queen Of Jhansi can pick up and not go that way.

The other release Thackeray had a low start of around 10% though the film is far better in Maharashtra where the bulk of the collections are coming from even though there is a Marathi version of the film playing in the state. The film only really has chances in Maharashtra and surrounding areas.

Uri - The Surgical Strike has maintained rock steady collection again on the third Friday and is pretty much unaffected by the new releases. Its hard to expect the same trend as last week where the film jumped on Friday but it will still a very solid third Friday.