"MANIKARNIKA" Movie Review

Lunatica
Feb 17, 2019
3 min read

Updated: Jan 28, 2021

Hey Readers!

This post is going to be about the movie 'Manikarnika'.

I finally managed to grab the opportunity to watch the movie, I was dying to have a look at.

Kangana Ranaut starrer,

And directed by Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, popularly known as Krish and the actress herself.

It is produced by Zee Studios, Kamal Jain, and Nishant Pitti. And music is by Shankar Ehsaan Loy.

The film opens with the birth of Manikarnika, who grows onto become a heroic figure, we Indians, popularly call as Rani Lakshmi Bai.

The story revolves around this young girl with strong motives and mannerisms, who becomes one personality having strong will and moral, thus an epitome of bravery.

The film manages to ignite the Indian in you as well as makes you cringe for all the ways Britishers have exploited the nations they traded with.

It does have its touch of history with moderate addition of story telling/entertainment.

I personally didn't feel the need for 'Dankila' song. As catchy as the music was, it was unnecessary. But as my friend says, we go for entertainment in the movie hall, it could be justified.

Looking closely at other songs, they are epic and makes us sing along. 'Vijayi bhava' being my personal favourite.

I stumbled upon one more song but didn't understand why it was removed from the movie. The song is named Lakira' (in case anyone is wondering ) and is sung by Rahal Fateh Ali Khan (Oh!).

Kangana excels as an actress and does quite a marvellous job as a beginner in directing. Specially for historical sagas involving war scenes it becomes very important not to divert in flow of imagining a lot.

I really enjoyed some of the realistically executed parts.

For instance, (in image)

The stumbling of Rani's horse during the bombing looks real and believable.

My favourite character other than Manu, is 'Ghaus khan'.

Mohammad Zeeshan does a convincing villain..

~~~Spoilers~~~

1.The child poisoning and the one scene with murder of a girl by the British general did hurt my core.

2.Just before Laxmi Bai takes on Gwalior, her conversation with the king has the theatre burst into witty laughter.

3.Gangadar Rao gifting 'Manu' library (oops I want that) reminds me of beauty and the beast and 'Kangana's' introduction reminds me of Brave (Disney)

~~~

Manikarnika managed to move me yet...didn't make me cry (I expected to since I'm very sensitive)

I adore Kangana even more for her talent after this.

And for some of the scenes I keep seeing character 'Rani' from Queen (Because its one of my favourite movie) (Spoiler: the one in which she laughs uncontrollably, just before the baby dies.)

She has done a great job in delivering 'Shudh' (pure) Hindi dialogues, a lot better than Deepika in Padmavat.

Despite the controversies and drama the film did a good job as an art...

I rate it 4/5

One for costumes and sets

One for Kangana

One for the songs

One for execution

End Note:

Well I guess bravery and courage aren't qualities one is often born with. Yes, one has morals to live by... but these two..are forged in battlefield of life as you face difficulties.

Like Manu wouldn't have imagined a drastic change waiting for her while she happily goes as a newly to be wed to Jhansi...

Similarly we don't expect changes. But we must welcome them.

Had Manu not accepted the baby's death, no other Damodar would have been adopted... and no future of Jhansi to be fought for, would have existed.

Had Manu not accepted her husband's hand or his death, no courageous women would have immersed from the sweet loving girl..

So, accept the change life throws at you. Learn the hard lessons that comes with them as you move to next level.