Ashdoc's movie review----Tanhaji , the unsung warrior

by ashdoc Sun Feb 09, 2020 3:36 am

The movie shows Ajay Devgan play Tanaji Malusare , the Maratha warrior who was instrumental in the recapture of the fort of Kondhana from the Mughals by the forces of Shivaji maharaj .

However , the history of what actually happened has been considerably changed in the movie . The entire movie has considerable fiction though some touch with what had really happened has been barely maintained somehow .

The one major plus point of the movie is that it gives publicity to Tanaji Malusare in regions of India outside Maharashtra in a similar manner in which the movie 'Bajirao Mastani' gave publicity to Bajirao . Thus warriors popular in Maharashtra but little known outside it now have become known outside Maharashtra . This has been helped by the tremendous box office success of both movies .

The fort of kondhana was defended for the Mughals by it's Rajput commander Udaybhan , who was nothing but a soldier doing his job in real life . But in the movie the character of Udaybhan has been raised to the status of a villain by the acting of Saif Ali Khan . He has kidnapped a Rajput widow with whom he was in love before her marriage and she and her brother play a part in helping Maratha forces capture the fort by keeping Udaybhan distracted---all completely fictional and no such Rajput widow ever existed .

Amazingly , in the movie Tanaji makes a trip to the fort even before he actually captures it---needless to say , all this is completely fictional . Also completely fictional is the huge cannon called 'naagin' ( female cobra ) which Udaybhan has towed to the fort and has pointed towards Shivaji's capital Rajgad .

The character played by Shivaji is relatively sidelined in the movie ; his mother Jijabai has relatively more prominence . The movie is dominated by the rivalry between the character played by Ajay Devgan ( Tanaji called Tanhaji in the movie ) and the character played by Saif Ali Khan ( Udaybhan Rathod ) . Saif hardly looks like a Rajput warrior . His clothes are almost completely black like a Muslim warrior.

Kajol plays Tanaji's wife and she looks and acts nicely . Acting by Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan in their respective roles is decent without being spectacular . Colours and photography are decent while songs and background music are okay . The film has some well directed action scenes of fighting between the opposing forces .

As a hindu nationalist I liked the prominence given to the bhagwa jhenda which is the saffron flag of Hinduism throughout the movie. Inspite of all the changes made by the movie makers to the real story of the capture of kondhana , the movie was entertaining enough for me to forgive the radical changes made to the history I had heard since childhood .

Verdict---Decent .

Three stars out of five .