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Yash Raj Films’ Samrat Prithviraj (UA) is a historical based on the last Hindu warrior king of Delhi, Samrat Prithviraj. It traces his war and confrontations with enemy Mohammed Ghori, the Sultan of Ghazni in Afghanistan.
Samrat Prithviraj (Akshay Kumar) is the ruler of Ajmer. Sanyogita (Manushi Chhillar) silently loves him although the two have never met. However, Sanyogita’s father, Jaichand (Ashutosh Rana), can’t bear it when Prithviraj is made the king of Delhi too. Jaichand wants Delhi or at least a part of it and, therefore, treats Prithviraj as his enemy. He is shocked when Sanyogita expresses her desire to marry Prithviraj.
Mohammed Ghori (Manav Vij) is waiting for a chance to settle scores with Prithviraj who had given refuge to his brother, Mir Hussain (Anshuman Singh). He gets his chance when Jaichand approaches him through a wheeler-dealer (Manoj Joshi) to capture Prithviraj and hand him over to him (Jaichand). What happens thereafter?
The story of Samrat Prithviraj is full of incidents of Hindu philosophy and principles put into practice. Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi has penned a screenplay which speaks of those incidents, which will gladden the hearts of the staunch Hindu audiences. Although his screenplay does not have too many scenes arousing patriotic emotions, there are some which evoke claps. For instance, the scene in which a blind Prithviraj defeats animals in a fight-to-finish, the scene in which Prithviraj elopes with Sanyogita right under her father’s nose, and the scene in which Prithviraj kills Mohammed Ghori are clapworthy. The pace of the drama is not very fast, which is a minus point. Romance is almost missing. There is a little bit of comedy but the comic scenes hardly evoke laughter. The climax sequence is hair-raising.
Dr. Chandrapraksh Dwivedi’s dialogues are good but ought to have been more mass-oriented and punch-packed.
Akshay Kumar does well in the title role but his voice and dialogue delivery don’t befit the character. Manushi Chhillar makes a fair debut. In the role of Sanyogita, she looks quite pretty and delivers a fair performance. Sanjay Dutt lends decent support as Kaka; he gets limited scope, though. Sonu Sood is sincere and performs ably. Manav Vij has a voice befitting his character (of Mohammed Ghori) but he can’t quite match up to Akshay Kumar. Ashutosh Rana shines as Jaichand. His dialogue delivery and voice modulation are phenomenal. Sakshi Tanwar stands her own in a brief role as Sanyogita’s mother. Rajendra Gupta leaves a mark as Bade Thakur. Manoj Joshi has his moments as the wheeler-dealer. Digvijay Rohidas (as Chamund Rai), Kranti Prakash Jha (as Hada Hammir), Samar Singh Rathod (as Kaimas), Kamaljeet Rana (as Baluk Rai), Danish Bhatt (as Tatar Khan), Shahidur Rehman (as Qutubuddin Aibak), Abhishek Krishna (as Pavas), Arun Bali (as Dillipati), Lalit Mohan Tiwari (as Kannauj Purohit), Govind Pandey (as Jaichand’s main senapati), Sharad Joshi (as Harishchandra), Shivraj Walvekar (as Jaichand’s main samant), Anshuman Singh (as Mir Hussain), Radha Bhatt (as Chitrarekha), Palvi Jaswal (as Bhairavi), Aishwarya Raj (as Raagini), Annie Sekhon (as Inchini), Varun Buddhadev (as young Prithviraj), Mridul Anand (as the Ghazni soldier), Manan Bhardwaj, Sukanya Surve, Saniya Sharma, Mansi, Bandana Badhoria, Naznin Khan and Riya Chaudhary (all seven as Sanyogita’s sakhis), and the others provide routine support.
Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s direction is fair. But his narrative pace is a bit slow. Also, it appears that he has sometimes given so much importance to form (visual appeal) that the content takes a backseat. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is a minus point as there is not a single super-hit or even hit song. While the title track is fairly good, the other numbers are just okay. Varun Grover’s lyrics of the background songs are quite good. Vaibhavi Merchant’s choreography is eye-filling but absence of hit music dilutes its impact. Background music (by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara) should’ve been more impactful. Manushnandan’s cinematography is outstanding. Action and stunt scenes (by Franz Spillhaus and Parvez Shaikh) are quite nice but not outstanding. Editing of the action scenes is lazy because of which the thrill factor is reduced. Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray’s production designing is excellent. Aarif Sheikh’s editing ought to have been sharper.
On the whole, Samrat Prithviraj is an average entertainer which will do fair business in U.P., Bihar and C.P.C.I. Rajasthan. For its big canvas, huge cost and impressive star cast, its business will not be as big, huge or impressive.
Released on 3-6-’22 at Inox (daily 8 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Yash Raj Film Distributors. Publicity: good. Opening: so-so. …….Also released all over. Opening was good at places, and average at others. The dubbed Tamil and Telugu versions have also been released simultaneously.