Chhaava

Shivaji dies and the Maratha state is left without a head. In Delhi, Aurangzeb counts it an opportunity; he sets out with his army to take the south and will not return to his throne. Shivaji's son Sambhaji takes over. Nobody trusts him; there are factions in his own court, some commanders do not recognise him, and the possibility of betrayal is always there. Sambhaji strikes first at Burhanpur. Then a war begins that lasts years. The Mughal army is far larger and the Maratha side fights in the hills. Laxman Utekar directs. Vicky Kaushal plays Sambhaji and Akshaye Khanna plays Aurangzeb; Rashmika Mandanna and Ashutosh Rana are in the cast. The language is Hindi. The source is Shivaji Sawant's Marathi novel, long read in the region. The film took a very large result at the Indian box office and was among the most watched Hindi productions of its year. The matter it treats is legitimacy; Sambhaji fights the enemy and his own court at once. Akshaye Khanna's reading of Aurangzeb is quiet and distant; the narrative does not build him as a shouting villain. Its last section is extremely hard and rests on the historical record. A. R. Rahman's music works inside the narrative. Its limit is approach; the narrative proceeds in the shape of epic and the historical complexity is simplified. Who it is for: viewers who like historical epic and Indian cinema. Who it is not for: the violence is very explicit, it runs long, and the history is told one way.