Bajirao Mastani is poignant because of the sweeping visuals and the engaging love story. Ranveer delivers his career's best performance. Deepika is subtle, lively and faultless, who fights the whole world for the man of her hearts, and she woos him 'shamelessly' and wins him over with her passion. Kashibai steals your heart. She is the pivot of the plot. To conclude, the movie has all the elements in it like pain, anguish, art, unattainable love, revolt, melodrama, perfect beauty and above all the inevitable, eternal triangle which makes it a must watch!

With Mastani’s scarcely recorded history, Bhansali had a beautiful premise of a love story that has never been explored onscreen. However, he makes it a tiring affair: Laden with the burden of self-indulgence and dramatic “dialoguebaazi”, the film drags on at its own sweet and laid-back pace. Bajirao Mastani is a lengthy film that moves at a snail’s pace, in signature Bhansali style. The lyrical dialogues and literary brilliance of the dialogues bog the story down with overindulgence instead of striking the audience in awe of the grandeur at show. The actors offer relief in this period saga, especially Deepika as she enters the scene with sparkling brilliance, stepping up the tempo every time she is in the frame. Priyanka’s subtle performance adds grace to her character of Kashibai, the Peshwa’s first wife. Ranveer has much more potential than what is at display in Bajirao Mastani. He just seems to be having fun with the sets and his costumes. He is not too convincing as the warrior or even the passionate lover. He does have a few moments of brilliance, nonetheless. If you appreciate Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s opulence and grandeur, this won’t disappoint. It can be a good one-time watch, for Deepika’s performance, if not anything else.

Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra are the stars in Bhansali's latest ill-fated romance. Technically the film is a marvel, even more so if you choose to watch Dilwale right after it. Bhansali's female characters have always looked like they have stepped out of a painting but here even Singh gets to strut about in some wonderful anarkalis. Bhansali is keen to highlight the religious divide which is the bane of Bajirao and Mastani's romance and he accomplishes it without the melodrama. Sadly excessive theatrics seep into the climax where Bhansali much like Bajirao loses control stretching the film for needless visual splendour.  If Bajirao Mastani disappoints, it is when Bhansali steps out of the carefully controlled interiors and heads out into the battlefield where he is unable to recreate the magic. SS Rajamouli's feat in Baahubali automatically flashes in memory as the fight sequences here never quite wow. Singh relishes delivering these theatrical lines with a Marathi twang. His body language demonstrates the bravado and hunger of a ruler and his eyes the passion and rage of a lover. He is wholeheartedly committed to the character, often losing himself as evident in the song "Malhari". He is an actor who is eager to appease the audiences and declare that he wants to reign supreme in Bollywood. He arrives and he conquers.  

Maratha history gets the full-on Sanjay Leela Bhansali treatment in Bajirao Mastani. Every emotion in the film - be it love, longing or valour on the battlefield - is translated into a grand and elaborate song-and-dance routine. Bajirao Mastani is, in many respects, Bhansali's most subversive film to date. Its central message is that all religions preach love but love has no religion. While it is difficult to take one's eyes off the screen, the pace of the narrative, which runs for more than two and a half hours, is not consistent. Large parts of the first half of Bajirao Mastani appear to serve only one purpose: setting the stage for a more explosive second half. But there is no missing the enormous hard work that has been done in order to get into the skin of the character. In one of the early scenes, Ranveer gets the Puneri accent to perfection, but, for an inexplicable reason, does not follow through with it.Despite its failings, Bajirao Mastani is the work of a director who never shies away from going the whole hog. Even when Bhansali isn't in full flight, he still manages to soar well above the mundane.Bajirao Mastani is for those that think history is boring. There isn't a dull moment in this colourful and dramatic film that embraces excess with unabashed abandon.

Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh film is just a costume drama. Deepika Padukone is lovely, and creates sizzle with Ranveer Singh, but hasn’t melded with the part. It is hard to imagine anyone else as Bajirao after Ranveer Singh finishes chewing up the part. But too quickly you tire of all the showiness. The grandiosity wears off. You long for a genuinely moving, exciting story, featuring all these beautiful people, all actors able to pull off characters, but buried under their mounds of clothes, mouthing dialogue. ‘Bajirao Mastani’ had the potential to be a terrific historical. You want to be transported. What it ends up being is a costume drama : too many costumes, too much revved-up, empty drama, and too little plot.

Straight away, Bajirao Mastani is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's most gorgeous - and most political - movie.  Bajirao Mastani's most outstanding star is its cinematography. Every visual resembles a grand painting - courts with shadows and chandeliers, courtiers with tilaks and teers, chambers gleaming with mirrors, skies blushing with passion. Ranveer pulls off Bajirao with chiseled muscles and glittering eyes, a Marathi lilt that delights, balancing vulnerability and vivaciousness. But Deepika's Mastani remains muted - you occasionally glimpse dark eyes drunk on love, the fire of a fighter-princess, but you miss the full-blown passion of this lead pair. In contrast, by the end, Priyanka impresses as quiet Kashi conveys the sorrow of a wife, a lover, a friend, forgotten. The end, by the way, is marvelous. Where the first half looks fabulous but slightly far-off - like watching an opera from seats high in a theatre's skies - the second half mesmerizes. Post-interval, Bhansali imbues every frame with epic, precise passion. Bajirao-Mastani resembles Jodhaa-Akbar with teeth that bite, Mughal-e-Azam with shades of philosophical grey. It rediscovers roots to Maratha pride - and bravely confronts one of India's most crucial questions now. Quickly 'chala' to the biggest screen you can find.