The Netflix series stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, among many, many others. The eight-episode format allows Bhansali to be more patient with his material, and the result is lovely, mellow storytelling.
What would you call a willful woman who insists that her daughter follow the family tradition of becoming a tawaif, a courtesan, despite the daughter’s reluctance? And what would you call this same woman, if she is willing to undergo the ultimate humiliation to save this very daughter from a very difficult situation? Let’s just call her what Heeramandi calls her: Mallika-jaan. The title of this series may refer to the Diamond Bazaar in pre-Independence Lahore, but you could say that it applies to Mallika-jaan, too. Her glittering surface hides a heart that’s as hard as rock. I don’t mean this in a bad way. If you transformed Mallika-jaan into a power suit-wearing corporate head from today’s world, her schemings and wily dealings would be seen as “strategies” to overthrow the competition and keep her company at the top. In fact, you can see Mallika-jaan being best friends with Tara from Made in Heaven. In a dog-eat-dog world, you have to be willing to be labelled a bitch, if you’ll pardon the usage.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/hindi/movie/review/heeramandi/
You can watch the trailer / video review here:
Copyright ©2024 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
KK
May 1, 2024
“A film of this nature requires faces and actors…”. Shouldn’t it be called project or series? Nitpicking aside, terrific writing. It seems like you get to do your best writing when your favourite creators are at their best; like Mani or SLB. I plan to watch it soon.
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Anu Warrier
May 1, 2024
Can’t wait to watch this, BR. Except for Devdas, which I couldn’t sit through, I have been – not quite a fan – but certainly an admirer of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s vision. And I love period pieces.
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MANK
May 1, 2024
it was obvious from the trailer that the casting was all wrong. Except for Aditi, i couldn’t buy anybody else belonging to that world. Dialogue delivery sucks all round, especially Sonakshi’s. I guess SLB will not get the right actresses for a Netflix series the way he could for a movie. On the positive side, aurally and visually it does feel like a typical SLB film
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mvky
May 1, 2024
Impressed. The visuals are simply out of this world. Happy with the casting so far. Farida Jalal and Manisha Koirala and the girl who plays the daughter. I dont mind some imperfections as the overall picture is good. In one word, Heeramandi is mesmerising. What a great year for Ott! First Amarsingh Chamkila and now Heeramandi.
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brangan
May 2, 2024
Anu Warrier: Good to hear from you 🙂
About “period piece”, this is not just about the setting of the film, but also the making (which harks back to BAHU BEGUM, MERE MEHBOOB, etc.) SLB has done a great job evoking both a historic and a cinematic era – but my interest is in how many people are going to be interested in watching thumri-s being performed in a mujra, etc.
In a film like BAJIRAO, say, the old-ness of the milieu is balanced out by the vigour of the actors, the filmmakers, thrilling songs like “Malhari” etc. But here?
My main pique is that even with all this money, they could not get bigger, better actors (though as I said, I thought Manisha just killed it). You really need to OWN these lines (the translations do no justice).
But then, maybe bigger stars are tough to get for a project that goes on for a year-plus? Or maybe big stars won’t appear in an ensemble piece? Who knows!
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Rocky
May 3, 2024
Stopped watching ( or maybe taking a break) after the first episode . It gave me Kalank vibes. Pretentious , fake sets, fake acting and fake dialogs .
Not impressed at all.
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Nimmi Rangaswamy
May 3, 2024
I finished with all 8 episodes – it was impressive and I do like the Netflix series Bhansali – it is not just the detailed opulence and production excellence- I loved the script and character arcs – Fareedan’s change of heart over her excesses; the build up to Bibbo’s patriotism; Mallika’s complexity; Tajdar’s arc; the wonderful dialogues- the one that comes in the last episode between Mallikajaan and Zulfikar’s wife about loyalty is breathtaking. The progressing melancholy through the episodes is haunting. Overall a sumptuous serving!
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brangan
May 4, 2024
Nimmi Rangaswamy: Yes, we don’t really see the wives’ POV — and this was a slap in the face. And I loved the fact that this happened at the very point we are meant to be feeling sorry for the plight of the tawaif-s. Solid melodrama.
The writing — barring the love angle’s generic-ness — is really solid in this show. Yeah, and of course, the dialogues.
I posted this yesterday 🙂
https://x.com/baradwajrangan/status/1786450628438364475
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abishekspeare
May 4, 2024
There are people I know who are watching Heeramandi in 1.5x on Netflix
“Everything is in slow motion, every dialogue is announced slowly and melodramatically”
The Saawariya fan in me was admitted in ICU
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abishekspeare
May 4, 2024
This reminded me of when Simtaangaaran from Sarkar released. It didn’t get good reception at first, and a few days later, there were people claiming that if you listened to the song at 2x speed, it is very catchy, and that’s where you’d see ARR’s genius
Ada paavingala
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mvky
May 4, 2024
https://www.indiatvnews.com/entertainment/news/heeramandi-the-diamond-bazaar-netizens-point-out-factual-errors-in-sanjay-leela-bhansali-series-2024-05-04-929518
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mvky
May 4, 2024
Also Sonakshi sinha reading 1920 paper where coronavirus news was printed.
Alamzeb reading urdu shairi book from left to right instead of from right to left.
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madhusudhan194
May 5, 2024
Have finished two episodes and gotta say it’s a challenging watch. Tests your patience but just enough drama to keep me watching. Neither mighty impressed nor disappointed.
Is it just me or does anyone feel completely empty or unmoved when these vastly tragic events happen in Bhansali’s films? Even the tragedy is portrayed through the lens of grandeur and all the killings, sacrifices, suicides register with the depth of a painting on a tissue paper. Great to see but quickly forgettable.
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Madan
May 5, 2024
“Is it just me or does anyone feel completely empty or unmoved when these vastly tragic events happen in Bhansali’s films?” - Definitely not alone. I guess this is why his two medieval era films worked best for me because it’s the only setting where everything being rendered in elevated sensibility doesn’t sound artificial. I have heard his approach compared to Guru Dutt films but while I am not well versed in the latter’s filmography, I didn’t have that problem with Dutt’s rendering of tragedy in Pyaasa or KKP. SLB renders the whole world like a beautiful tapestry of watercolours. But while the beauty is riveting, I still want a flesh and bone viscerality which is missing in his work.
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Nappinai
May 6, 2024
I watched few episodes of Heeramandi and lost interest. It soon occured to me that I wasn’t invested enough in either Mallikajaan or Fareedan enough to care what happened to them anyway. I also thought Richa Chaddha was a miscast. She landed too harsh on that landscape unlike say an ARH.
Also, what is with SLB’s obsession with the tawaif world? Apart from his aesthetics, I don’t see his story telling moving in an arc across his many films that explore this theme repeatedly. I don’t think the series format lends itself well to the SLB style of film making.
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Vikram s
May 6, 2024
I am going to regrettably give this one a miss for the following reasons –
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KK
May 6, 2024
“SLB’s obsession with the tawaif/ golden hearted prostitute has been overdone. Devdas, Saawariya, Ram Leela (PC’s song), Gangubai, now Heeramandi.There are other themes to explore. It’s time he moves on.”
Why should he? Every director sees the world in a different way and it’s up to them which topics they find the most interesting to talk about or which characters they want to repeat. Like Nolan is interested in a widowed main character. And in a lot of movies he repeats that. Hansal Mehta is interested in the causes and consequences of the Radical Islam and tries to showcase it through his movies, Shaahid, Omerta and a recent one whose name I have forgotten. Imitiaz ali is always looking for an outcast who can’t agree with the society. Hirani is also interested in an outsider who doesn’t agree with the methods of the environment they find themselves in. Isn’t this what is called a Director’s signature?
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Vikram s
May 6, 2024
KK, I agree it’s his prerogative to keep on making tawaif-focused works. And it’s my prerogative (as a fan who is staying away from the latest one) to keep expressing my disappointment at the narrow zone he wants to keep focusing on. Apart from this subject rabbit hole he has got into, I love love love his works. But will keep away from his latest.
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MANK
May 6, 2024
Finally crawled across the final episode of Heeramandi. i feel like a marathon runner who came last. it was exhausting and excruciating. It didn’t help that the final episode was the worst. Bhansali should stay very far away from these seriesserials. He is a true blue movie maker who makes moviesfeature films. they may be long and maybe very long, but still there is a pace and economy (not in his visuals but in his narrative) that carries his exaggerated Nautanki theatrical style. But now left with no obligation to commit to a 3 or even 3 12 hr running time and no pressure of the box office, his worst instincts as a filmmaker takes over. By that i mean the slow and excruciatingly slow pace of the narrative, abundance of subplots that finally has little bearing on the main plot and even slower pace of the camera movements and editing. At 3 hrs, Heeramandi had the potential to being a riveting and enthralling movie, albeit repetitive & derivative- most of the characters, plot points and even images are taken from Bhansali’s previous films ( jeez how many times can we see ladies dressed to the nines slowly walking into a pool of water holding a lantern in hand) and some are taken from Pakeezah; tawaif forced to dance at her lover’s wedding, the heroine being pure despite being raised in a Kotha etc etc.
Also this one is boring and that must be a first in Bhansali’s case. his films are lot of things but except for some portions of Guzaarish , i never found them boring. This one is and not to mention sometimes bland and sometimes unintentionally funny and amateurish. A plot point revolving around a 25 year old police file is school drama level amateurish and it goes nowhere, like a lot of subplots in the series. It’s just Bhansali getting used to the nature of these episodic series where every episode should end with a cliffhanger- not his strong point at all.
The positives , as in every Bhansali films, is the whole audio visual feel of it. The lush cinematography, sets and costumes conjure up a magical world that has no relation with any historical reality- as in Pakeezah and Mere mehboob and as we expect from Bhansali’s films, if we want a realistic brothel there’s always Shyam Benegal’s Mandi. Like Padmaavat Bhansali has adopted a more darker tone in both set decor and costumes. The music though not extraordinary is very apt , with the lyrics and the dialogues taking us back to the pre-independent period. I really loved hearing all that sophisticated urdu after a long time. And manisha Koirala gives perhaps her career-best performance , even surpassing her previous best which was incidentally in Bhansali’s own Khamoshi. i see a marked difference in her acting style. earlier even her more serious performances where interspersed with coy glances and smiles and whispering. She’s gotten rid of it completely and her voice has the authoritativeness of the the ‘Don’ of Heeramandi. Earlier her voice was very weak and shrill, breaking off in the middle while delivering long dialogues. I don’t know if it’s aging or postproduction trickery that gave her voice this power and gravitas, but it was definitely a surprise. Her acting in the scenes in the police station and immediately after the ‘gangrape’ was phenomenal. And surrounded by rather poor or miscast actors her performance shines even more, making her more believable than ever as she lords over the rest. Another fantastic scene was the Wife vs tawaif scene that Brangan mentioned above . That little bit of brilliance came out of nowhere and surprised me. The series needed more of it. The entire freedom struggle angle was contrived at best and the police lathi charge and other action scenes were very poorly executed.
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Ashok
May 7, 2024
I thought that your review would say something to the effect of – watching Heeramandi is like going to a 5 star hotel with gold plated plating and exquisite dining ambience, but getting khichdi as the main course.
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brangan
May 8, 2024
Received via email. Sharing with permission.
Dear Baradwaj Rangan (if I may),
Warm greetings from Delhi NCR. My name is Siddharth Pandey, and I am a writer, academic, cultural historian and artist hailing from the Shimla Himalayas. I write this mail by way of introduction and, most importantly, to express my huge delight at your wonderful work, particularly your writings on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s cinema, that I have found so inspiring. I hope you won’t mind this random mail from a complete stranger, and I would be very grateful if you could allow me some space for this note of appreciation.
I first encountered your writings on cinema sometime in late 2019, and it came as such a massive joy to ‘finally’ find someone who ‘gets’ SLB’s cinema in so many similar ways like myself. As long as I remember, I have been deeply moved and incredibly compelled by the vision of this auteur, but to my utter disappointment, when I first started thinking about his work in some ‘critical’ terms, almost everything I encountered in existing criticism was an exercise in negativity. Yours therefore was among the first voices on his cinema that literally ‘sang’ to my sensibilities (if I can put it that way), and I was thrilled to come across your sensitive disposition towards this maximalist’s vision. Your recent review of ‘Heeramandi’ once again displayed this very disposition, persuading me to ‘finally’ write to you after having waited for so long.
I grew up in the Himachal Himalayas and did my higher studies in English from Delhi and Cambridge Universities, the latter being my alma mater for my PhD. It was while submitting my PhD that I got a wonderful opportunity to present a paper at a conference in Lahore in November 2018, on the topic of ‘Art, Democracy and Tolerance’. And it was there that I read a full length presentation on the politics of aesthetics and tolerance in and around Padmaavat. My starting point was a disagreement with both the right and left wing positions, since, given the richness of the film, I simply couldn’t align myself with either of the views. It was much later that I encountered your beautiful perspective on the ‘ending’ of the film, and the first emotion I felt was ‘Yes!!! This is what I have been thinking all along!’ So thank you so much for making sense of that controversial climax, and also for being so utterly nuanced and layered. My paper was published in a journal from Pakistan, and I attach it here for your kind perusal.
My affair with SLB’s vision however began much earlier, especially with ‘Saawariya’, a film that I often think of as the starting point of my interest in cinema studies. I must have watched it over a hundred times now, and often think of it as an extraordinary work of creativity. On its 15th anniversary last year, I wrote a piece for Live Wire on how Saawariya influenced by critical and aesthetic sensibilities, and I attach its MS Word form here, again for your kind perusal. Only recently did I encounter an essay by you in which you spoke of Rani Mukherji’s character as ‘THE’ Bhansali heroine, and yet again that description spoke to me in a highly convincing, relatable manner (what a fantastic role that is!!)
I also attach a third article on SLB’s cinema that I wrote for The Hindu, which concentrates on the ideas of celebration and festivity and what they mean for his narratives. As someone working deeply in the areas of literary and cultural aesthetics, I find SLB’s cinema’s hugely rewarding to return to time and again, and since two years now, I have been hosting a number of workshops on his cinema so as to (hopefully) generate a bigger and more appreciative discourse around his work than what currently exists (both in academic and popular domains). My ultimate aim is to write a book (which, well, I have been compiling for a long time now) on the ideas of beauty, imagination and reality in SLB’s oeuvre.
Since my PhD was on Fantasy Literature, I have been much involved with these issues from an academic standpoint. But the book I have in mind would definitely be catering to a wider public, and it also hopes to be a creative work in some form. This is because SLB’s work has influenced me not only intellectually but also creatively, given that I am a photographer and curator. In every exhibition on built and natural landscapes I have held till now in India and Europe, I have thanked the director’s vision for influencing my own vision so deeply, and I hope to bring all of this together in some way soon. While at the moment I am also involved in the writing of a new history of India’s hill stations (with particular focus on Shimla) as well as a monograph based on my PhD, my work on SLB continues alongside in various capacities (as mentioned above). As a self-taught musician too, I again find myself returning to SLB’s aural aesthetics, deriving inspiration and solace, both.
Which brings me to two requests: I very much hope that you will be able to conduct an interview with SLB soon, as I am pretty sure that yours will be a unique set of queries, probing and profound at the same time. And secondly, may I also request you to give me some time in the near future to have an online conversation with you online, as this would very much help me with my research. I have already read the couple of articles you have written on SLB’s work, but it would be especially wonderful to have a chat and to learn from you (I have thoroughly enjoyed your interviews online), and also to get the opportunity to thank you face-to-face.
Once again, my warm, heartfelt gratitude for your nuanced eye and ear and also for your sophisticated critical vocabulary that is surely needed to gauge a complex maker, master and maestro like SLB. And thank you too for inspiring me and my work. (I am already following you on Instagram, and I am present there as @shimlasiddharthpandey).
Looking forward to hearing from you.
In admiration, and with kind regards,
Siddharth
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Rocky
May 8, 2024
I actually liked Saawariyan, HDDCS, Bajirao and Devdas, Black and Gangubai.
Don’t remember much of Khamoshi. Did not care much for Padmavat, Gujarish and Goliyyon keeee…..
Heeramandi IMO is suffering from too much content available in OTT vs so slow, testing your patience syndrome.
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MANK
May 8, 2024
I was disappointed when Bhansali shelved Baiju Bawra. It would have been great to see a tale of revenge in which the battle is fought between the protagonists, two of the GOAT musicians, using music as the weapon and Bhansali was the maker to do it. But maybe he did the right thing. In this post-covid era, the tastes of the audiences have changed drastically and Bhansali’s heightened Nautanki is sure to be laughed off the screen. He needs to finetune his aesthetic if he wants to continue making movies and I hope whatever he is cooking up for Love and War would be a more refined version of his style that will survive in today’s marketplace. There has been jokes about his style since Devdas – Kiran Kher’s scenes still generate memes – and we all know what happened with Saawariya. But then a fortuitous collaboration with Ranveer, who’s the only actor who understood and perfectly executed the Bhansali aesthetic, resurrected him along with Spectacle+Music (+controversy) quotient of his films. But with Ranveer faltering and almost losing his stardom (what a tragedy for such a talented actor) and the audience itself changing, I don’t see Bhansali’s films working with the audience the same way they did in the last decide, especially taking into account the huge budget of his films.
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KK
May 8, 2024
“But with Ranveer faltering and almost losing his stardom (what a tragedy for such a talented actor)..”. Didn’t he just bounce back with RARKPK? And I am also kind of curious to see what made Ranbir come back to SLB. Certainly he’s not looking for a hit. He already got a big one with Animal. Also the star cast, Ranbir, Alia and Vicky is an interesting combo. If Ranbir is indeed playing a grey character it will be a treat to watch.
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mvky
May 8, 2024
I read that SLB is short tempered and shouts because of his obsession for perfection. And they bring 25 dogs to make him calm as he loves dogs.
Well, Heeramandi is the most watched show on netflix as of now. I think ladies are loving it a lot. For men, it depends.
Currently he is the only one from bollywood who loves his craft with a true passion while others are fixed on only bo success.
You may like his offering or you may hate it but cant ignore it.
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mvky
May 8, 2024
While on Netflix, Ticket to Paradise which was released 2 years back and the recent Baby Reindeer, The Asunta case are not bad. Ticket to paradise is like a ticket to Bali tourism with interesting facts about bali hindus and seeweed farming.
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Anuja Chandramouli
May 9, 2024
I have never liked SLB, but to my surprise, I wanted to watch Heeramandi and actually enjoyed entire stretches that included Manisha’s bravura turn, Sonakshi’s sass, Man Candy as the dreamy nawab, the delightfully gossipy Ustaad dude, that brilliant scene between wife and tawaif, the mom – daughter tag team takedown of a nasty nawab’s lack of sexual prowess… Hell, I was happy to see Fardeen Khan (as a teen who didn’t know better, I thought he was kinda cute) back on the scene. But, since this is very much an SLB hysterically masturbatory affair, I gotta rant folks. You have been warned!!
For starters, I am so sick and tired of men making movies that are supposedly empowering women while sneakily doing the opposite. The undercurrent of shaming and judgement pervading the narrative is shocking in this day and age. Tawaifs clearly occupied a powerful and privileged position in society as purveyors of pleasure and the performance arts. They enjoyed autonomy, made ginormous amounts of money, sang, danced, drank to their heart’s content while romancing movers and shakers at will and were the beneficiaries of rocking sex lives. Why are they being painted as hot messes and tragic figures when they were so much better off than the wives in conservative homes who had to suffer suffocating strictures imposed on them by the grand old patriarchy?
It is so tiresome to have virtue equated with sexlessness in a movie about Tawaifs which ought to have been about powerful women who were not afraid of desire and were experts in giving and receiving pleasure. Instead, we are saddled with a wide – eyed virgin born and raised among tough as nails Tawaifs who remains stubbornly ‘pure and innocent’ in a script comitted to ensuring her virtue remains intact even when she is jailed for a protracted period by white rapists. In SLB’s sick fantasy saddled with his Oedipal complex, the so – called Queen of Heeramandi who has thus far been a cold, calculating, unapologetic bitch suddenly becomes a MOTHER who plays the sacrifice card and submits to gangrape. To make it worse, she seems incapable of making a smart move without her patron of many decades who can’t tell if he is being pleasured by a woman or a window! And that is not enough of course, in the end, all the Tawaifs have to make martyrs of themselves because females always, ALWAYS have to kowtow to male notions of what constitutes honor and respectability.
Therefore, we have a kickass Richa Chada killing herself over fricking Adhyayan Suman’s rejection, ARH getting a butch haircut before submitting to torture because she deserves it for sleeping with a nawab as well as a white cop for ostensibly furthering the cause of freedom, the wide – eyed loosu ponnu is denied her happy ending twice and imprisoned but not before she is impregnated, and in the end all the Tawaifs shut shop in an ill – advised attempt at self – destruction (a throwback to the horrendous scene of Jauhar glorification in Padmaavat) and become Krantikaris walking majestically to their doom, setting themselves up for a tragic finale that includes gang-rape, custodial torture and execution.
For all the splendour and sumptuousness on display, when it comes to SLB, there is clearly no escaping the fifty shades of glorious colour drenched stupid.
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mvky
May 9, 2024
That is a great comment @Anuja Chandramouli. Totally agree with you. Calling out that jauhar scene as horrendous is very apt. Manisha’s submitting herself to rape is also ridiculous compromise from the so called self confessed vile woman.
Your rant is as passionate as SLB’s passion for grand sets and great drama. Women have to make all the sacrifices while undeserving men can get away with anything. That ending in Padmaavat may look powerful but it leaves us with many questions. Heeramandi ending looks artificial, it is underwhelming and meaningless.
As Shakespeare said in Macbeth about perfumes of Arabia and smell of blood.
All the grandeur of these films cannot hide the hidden unpalatable happenings that happened to women in these films. In real life too, these injustices are playing out in a different way and in a different contest.
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vijee
May 9, 2024
“making a smart move without her patron of many decades who can’t tell if he is being pleasured by a woman or a window!: — wait @Anuja. What? Now I have to go watch this just to see what sentence is all about.
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mvky
May 9, 2024
How generic and boring our independence day struggle has become in the hands of our film makers! The angrez, deservedly perhaps, have become caricatures than characters. I am talking about bollywood here. While muslim rulers got such loving treatment with great songs, great romantic stories with the best looking actors portraying them. Even Heeramandi is a sort of tribute to nawabi times and their culture. While the English have become villains with no redeeming traits. Even their contribution in the fields of education, healthcare, railways, postal services etc. are being acknowledged rather half heartedly. Taj Mahal is still the best known monument visited by every dignitary visiting India. Not Victoria Memorial or other monuments.
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brangan
May 9, 2024
Anuja: I will never cease to be surprised by your continued interest in subjecting yourself to the works of filmmakers that don’t do it for you…. 🙂
I don’t have the time to address all the points, but Mallika-jaan is a complex character. Her one goal is to keep Shahi Mahal flourishing with “ameer qadr-daan” or rich patrons. Sadly, the nawab-s are being replaced by the British, and the courtesans are no longer considered artists (as MJ mourns) but “dancing girls”. So this series is not about joy but a lament to a lost era. And her determination to hold on to the last vestige of that era is what drives her to the police station. Plus, even with Richa Chadha, she calls her “meri bachchi” in front of a whole gathering — and as revenge for Zohravar’s insult of Lajjo, she reveals the truth about his birth, thus risking the non-patronage of many rich nawabs. She is not devoid of emotion. It’s just that her loyalty to her lineage (of tawaifs) and Shahi Mahal comes first
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brangan
May 9, 2024
Also, did Bhansali ever claim he writes “empowering” female characters? Can someone pointme to a story or video where he says this?
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Satya
May 10, 2024
“For all the splendour and sumptuousness on display, when it comes to SLB, there is clearly no escaping the fifty shades of glorious colour drenched stupid.”
Dear Lord! XD
My interest in Heeramandi has been kinda off, but this made my day and I am going to watch it.
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MANK
May 10, 2024
Jauhar is the pivotal plot point in the Rani Padmavati story. Whether you consider her a literary figure or a historical figure, her immortality is based on that. Without that there is no Padmaavat or Padmavati and it is stupid to expect an expressionistic , operatic filmmaker like Bhansali not to go all out with that in a film that itself is mounted on such an OTT larger than life scale.
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MANK
May 10, 2024
Didn’t he just bounce back with RARKPK? And I am also kind of curious to see what made Ranbir come back to SLB.
Yes , performance wise it was a great comeback, but even with Alia costarring and KJo producing\directing and pulling out all stops in promotion and even corporate booking, it didn’t cross 150 cr at Indian Box office. It was a very costly film, something like 200 cr i think. So his box office record is still rather spotty, he hasn’t had a big hit since Padmaavat. Makers are finding it difficult to get financing for his films and that’s one of the reasons Baiju Bawra got shelved, as it was going to be one of the costliest films ever made.
I am more surprised with Ranbir returning to SLB fold. He had publicly stated his reluctance in working with SLB again after how he was mistreated by the filmmaker on Saawariya. Ranveer and Ranbir are great actors in their own right, But Ranveer is the perfect SLB actor. I don’t know how well Ranbir is going to do in Love & war.
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MANK
May 10, 2024
Reg. good British characters, there was Aamir’s friend played by Toby stephens in “Mangal Pandey The Rising.” Even the villain in Lagaan had some layers and wasn’t and out and out caricature. In the bilingual Kaala Paani, there is the British Doctor character who does his best to help prove Mohanlal’s innocence and get him released from the cellular jails. There is his wife character in the film who argues about the same things like Railways, postal services etc that the British has brought to India and made it a unified country. yes, these instances are few and far between and the norm is the Tom Alter \ Bob Christo brand of cartoonish English villainy, but they do exist.
There is a great legacy of telling stories about Muslim kings and Nawabs in Hindi cinema right from the 1940s, because most of the filmmakers, actors and writers, at the time were muslims. So, they were able to create that milieu and characters very faithfully, entertainingly, and on a larger than life scale that films demand. Also, The blockbuster success of Mughal-e-Azam triggered an entire wave of Muslim socials and historicals in the ’60s. MEZ continues to be a big inspiration for filmmakers like SLB or Gowarikar who are interested in making period films or that kind of pre-Bollywood cinema.
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Isai
May 10, 2024
I think some people got confused by the opening line of the promos:
“Step into the world of Heeramandi…where courtesans were once queens.”
I guess if Bhansali wanted to make a movie empowering women, the tagline would have been “..where courtesans were once kings”.
However, I am amazed by the brilliance of Bhansali who has managed to sum up the entire webseries in the title itself!
I was wondering if the title refers to the episodes, actors or their characters. But, the broad consensus among the viewers is that it brilliantly suits ALL of them: It is indeed a mandi (market) full of heeras (diamonds): very attractive to look at, but pretty much useless otherwise!
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tejas
May 10, 2024
”making a smart move without her patron of many decades who can’t tell if he is being pleasured by a woman or a window”
reminds me of Utsav.
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Anuja Chandramouli
May 10, 2024
BR: Anuja: I will never cease to be surprised by your continued interest in subjecting yourself to the works of filmmakers that don’t do it for you…. 🙂
😅😅 The subject matter interested me, I guess… And why pass up a chance to rant? 😝😝 But mostly, I found this to be an engaging show. So many complaints about the glacial pace and stilted language but those were not issues for me. As mentioned already, I did enjoy parts of Heeramandi somewhat.
Regarding MJ, yeah she is a complicated character but as envisaged by SLB, she is hardly convincing. There are moments where her strength shines through like the scene you mentioned where she drops a truth bombshell to devastating effect to avenge what has been done to one of her own (I don’t think she was showing heart though. It was more of a power play as she treats the members of her household as personal fiefs and if anybody is going to treat them badly it should be her). But mostly, she is shown to be remarkably stupid for such a smart, conniving and ruthless woman. The entire bit with the 25 year old file containing incriminating evidence is so badly written. I mean a woman in MJ’s position would never have made it there without knowing how to cover her ass. Similarly, it seems unlikely that she would put all her eggs in one wasted, treacherous basket but that is what she does. It is the nawab who helps her cover up a murder, get out of jail (the first time) and warns her about Cartwright before threatening to leave her naked, dead body floating in the pretty fountain adorned pool if she doesn’t retrieve the file. And with the gang rape scene, her Nawab isn’t in town so she goes to the station herself for her daughter’s sake but surely a woman like her would have tons of contacts she can turn to for help? Maybe powerful people in the bureaucracy who owe her favours, corrupt politicos she has dirt on regarding their peccadillos in the bourdoir who can be extorted into carrying out her will? It just felt really contrived that she would voluntarily put herself in such an unspeakable position. As a Queen, there are pawns she can use instead right? It just felt like a particular heavy handed and cheap SLB touch to me…
In MJ’s interactions with women she always comes out on top but with men, she is usually put in her place revealing the male bias underlying it all. Women can be beautiful, silly and flirty but clever, wicked and powerful? Hell no! Which is why HM doesn’t work as a lament to a lost era as well. Like the scene where dreamy Tajdar tells his father that Heeramandi is populated with the bastard daughters of Nawabs. If the nawabs open their homes and hearts to them, he says tearfully, Heeramandi would cease to exist! Lajjo wants out of the hellhole as does Bijjo and Alam but MJ and Fareedan like being Tawaifs which is why those two are the big bad bitches with a few redeeming traits thrown in towards the end while the others are more traditional and male approved. Why assume that decent, honorable women in the 1940s or whatever would only want marriage and that Tawaifs are actually just lowly women with non-existent morals beneath their fancy clothes unless they use their bodies for the freedom movement and get killed for it? Reminded of Bangalore Nagaratnammal’s response (which I loved ) to those who cast aspersions on her character for being a proud dasi. It went something like this: If chastity is a housewife’s dharma, then promiscuity is a dasi’s. And I have stayed true to my dharma! 👏🏻💪🏻
Here SLB has them all debasing themselves at various points and being ashamed of their monetized sex lives. Even with Fareedan there is a weird scene where she won’t let the tailor take her measurements unless it is from a distance, saying no man shall lay hands on her. Then, a few episodes later, since SLB can’t handle women with agency, she brags about how men always return to her bed for more and she is shown taking Wali and Cartwright as her lovers though she had only strung poor Chaudhury along earlier with empty promises! Either it is lousy writing or just bizarre bias and unwillingness to engage with this sexually fluid character in a nuanced, sensitive way.
‘Also, did Bhansali ever claim he writes “empowering” female characters? Can someone pointme to a story or video where he says this?’
Does it matter if he said it or not? Heeramandi has been marketed as a female centric saga with the blessings of Sabyasachi, Tanishq, etc. Here, empowerment is definitely implied. With supposedly powerful female characters striving to establish their dignity and earn respect and sympathy via protracted trauma that sees them set aside the demands of their profession in favour of the greater good by sacrificing their ‘soiled’ bodies on the altar of freedom. Which would be a very short – sighted, male notion of profound heroism as depicted by SLB.
P.S: I can’t have been the only one pissed off with that scene where Alam is entering a pool to search for a single pearl, lamp in hand in the dead of night and then goes deeper and deeper into the water, lamp still in hand… Till the lamp is submerged and then, extinguished! So did she conduct the rest of the search in pitch darkness and did she carry on looking impeccable as she did so? 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
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mvky
May 10, 2024
Well, Alam with the lamp was one of the most beautiful visuals in the series and I thought she would die than face her mother. As for her virginity being intact till she finds her love. Her mother might have allowed it till the daughter finds the right nawab during the first performance for the position of tawaif. As BR says that Mallika Jaan is a complex woman and her actions are inexplicable. She can do anything anytime without warning. Swallowing that pearl for which her daughter almost lost her life was a heartless act. And her mistakes like not burning the file, trusting her angry sister, not dragging Alam back in time all these point out to impulsive behaviour rather than great planning like a real brainy woman. And the story will not be there but for these blunders on MJ’s part. Was she suffering from some mental disorder like bipolar?
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Rocky
May 11, 2024
Attempted to watch Episode 2. and I thought aloud , I am having the same problem I had with PS-1 , too many characters , plus going they could have made Sonakhshi look thoda toh different .
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brangan
May 12, 2024
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Satya
May 14, 2024
If David Fincher can be his usual self in both films and web series, SLB can do that too, right?
Right?
GOD NO. What the hell is this? This is not even ‘style over substance’. It was bland and boring despite the visual and aural opulence. Except for Aditi and Manisha, none leaves a proper impression, and the former did her best to remind me of Mehrunnisa every step of the way. Can I blame her? No.
Many say only few can ace the SLB style of acting. What is that? I am more worried about the retinas of his actors than their careers, and their gaze is so potent that even apples and oranges would worry that something unholy may happen to them. The way they speak and their body language reflect a certain type of madness, and in Heeramandi, I was left frustrated to no end. This medium is not for you SLB saab, unless you make a distinguishable effort in adjusting to this medium’s requirements.
Such stuff flies in his films well because they are contained mediums. The madness and the method have a threshold, and the invisible dance is magical. When such style enters an episodic format, though, shit hits the ceiling. Why just SLB, I shudder to think of any mainstream filmmaking genius who would think of handling an episodic storytelling endeavour. They all would suck tremendously unless otherwise proving people like me wrong (which I wish happens).
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Madan
May 14, 2024
Well, you couldn’t compare SLB and Fincher in any case. With all allowances made for Indian style of filmmaking etc, they are simply at different levels altogether. I mean, we tend to overrate any Indian mainstream filmmaker the moment they show signs of having a distinct cinematic idiom which is a norm for a very good Hollywood director, let alone the greats. Fincher is distinct in a world that includes Hitchcock, FFC, Scorsese, Lumet etc. It’s a gulf SLB can’t possibly bridge.
But as for mainstream directors in the TV/web series format, I thought GVM did very well on Queen. Maybe better in some respects than his films. You might find the situation reverses itself for Tamil filmmakers because when they do get to make a web series they will be afforded a liberty that their 100-150 cr budget big screen projects don’t get. I know Guitar Kambi got trashed but Queen was excellent, esp the portrayal of JJ’s childhood and her years as a star.
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MANK
May 14, 2024
Most of the American directors, like Spielberg, started out working in TV. they first train in the long format then they learn the cinematic language and make the short format feature films. So for them its not a problem switching between the two mediums.. THe long format series has existed in Hollywood since the 1950s. That’s not the case here. we don’t have a culture of long format storytelling and the structure of our movies are very different from Hollywood films. Storytelling is mostly through song and dance and heightened emotions that last for about 3 hrs
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mvky
May 15, 2024
Pratibha Ranta who was Jaya in Lapataa ladies is Shama in Heeramandi.
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