Thinking of Bajirao Mastani:
So, is Sanjay Leela Bhansali a consummate craftsman obsessed with love themes, or Is he a resolute romantic who loves to make grand films?
I think it’s the former. Would have preferred had it been the latter.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB)’s latest is an epic, a labour of love, 12 years since it was first conceptualised. Its grand, its lavish and is everything that you have already read about the film.
Baijirao Mastani is for the aesthete by an aesthete. Every frame, painstakingly put together, is visually stunning, a carefully composed “painting”. Few films can boast of such rich and textured mise en scene.
All was good except that one didn’t feel the angst of the characters. One didn’t cry. One didn’t brood hours after it was over. A great director and a timeless work of art must have this evocative quality.

Perhaps the film is best understood by understanding the man himself. In an interview SLB says:
“I make passionate love stories because I don’t have love in my life. My art completes my life. My life may be unfulfilled. But it isn’t unhappy.”

And in another-
“No, I have chosen the life I lead….I am basically a nomadic loner. And I am not capable of moving ahead with the baggage of a relationship. I’ve seen relationships traumatize people. As a child, I’d helplessly watch relationships crumble around me. Every individual is a sum-total of his past experiences. Maybe that’s why I am wary of relationships.”

I sometimes wonder what his films would be like if he had had these defining relationships. Or if he were currently in one. Would his films have been even richer?
Perhaps. Maybe.

Lets hope he is in one then, for the sake of seeing some masterpieces, for he is a Master.