Tanhaji shows what bollywood could be if it stops pandering to the brain dead audience

I was really excited to see this film and its a rare case with a Bollywood film.Not a lot of them are actually good and almost all of them are some form of a love story for no reason other then to pander to the brain dead crowd.I guess the mantra of Bollywood is to keep rinsing and repeating the same stuff over and over again because it just works as long as the big so called 'Stars' are in the movie.I mean how many times a complete piece of garbage made by our Bhai Salman 'Being Human' Khan crosses the 100 crore club?Enough times that now it is just another day with no surprises.Yeah we hear people whining and complaining after leaving the theater but they watch it anyway.Its like they know that it will probably be shit but they watch it anyway because 'Bhai hai toh mumkin hai'.Too many love stories have plagued Bollywood and that too the non intelligent type that will make me lose every ounce of my brain cell.And that is why I have pretty much quit Bollywood,I mean I have pretty much quit watching movies in general and its very rare that I watch movies in my free time and watching in theaters is even more rare.And so Tanhaji:The Unsung Warrior became the first Bollywood film in 84 years that I have watched in theaters!The last Bollywood movie I watched before Tanhaji was probably Akshay Kumar's Baby(No I am not joking!I am dead serious) so yeah It has actually been a while!But watching Tanhaji was a good decision because it surprised me.Never did I thought that I will see such great level of VFX(room for improvement),action sequences,gore,storytelling,emotions and most importantly,direction in a Bollywood movie.I still cannot believe that I watched such epic action sequences in a Bollywood movie.No unnecessary drama,just pure raw hand to hand combat and sword fights.I saw hands and heads getting completely amputated and severed in a Bollywood movie for the first time.It was like watching John Wick with a sword!A special thank you to the Indian censor board for not performing unnecessary cuts(Kind of surprised that it was rated U/A instead of a A considering it has gore even if the gore is pretty light{My standard of disturbing Gore is very high and barely anything unnerves me}).Despite such raw and grounded focus on the action,what really impressed me about the movie was its focus on the brain!The film has quite a few exceptional war strategies and tactics that elevate the film even higher.Be it the opening sequence with the rope slides or the Trap set by Saif Ali Khan's character Udaybhan Singh Rathore or the fort infiltration(only part which is a little historically inaccurate due to the missing Lizard),the writers really did spend a lot of time to come up with these tactics and strategies.And the direction along with the camerawork was so much phenomenal specially the mountain climbing sequences which were shot really wide which improved the depth of the scene.I could feel the height of the mountains from my seat and was getting chills.The movie has emotions and the energetic type with every dialog and every action! I got amped up and got that patriotic feeling and there were some sad moments too with a little sprinkle of light situational comedy and the acting had a very important role to play.Ajay Devgn has nailed the role of Tanaji Malusare and has brought his 'A' Game along with Kajol who plays Tanaji's wife Savitribai Malusare who although does not have too much screen time but still delivers with what she has got.Then there is Sharad Kelkar who plays Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and he embraced the role so well and the power in his role was visible and the only disappointment was the low screen time.But the MVP in the whole cast and the guy who stole all the spotlight was Saif Ali Khan and the way he portrayed Udaybhan Singh Rathore.He bought everything to the table and gave all the dimensions to the character that I never thought he could.He has given his everything to portray a mentally unstable,sociopath,narcissist and psychopath character who just does not care about the Mughals but only himself.He kills because it is fun and he enjoys it.Elevating the movie even further is the background score which again is amazing.The final sequence is amazing with his rather unique style of using a sword.

A great movie with great action sequences and set pieces and really convincing Vfx(still room for improvement but I guess we are getting there)amazing camera work and great acting specially from Saif,a movie that you should watch with your family and in 3D because it actually has great 3D effects.

On the end note The Quint sucks.