#PanipatTheGreatBetrayal – Indeed a Betrayal – PK Verdict: Tin**

#Panipat The Great Betrayal – Indeed a Betrayal.

The Biggest battle began when the trailer was released and the cast in lead was a question. The magnum opus and grandiose direction falls flat with not just the lead actor but with the story telling too. No doubt Arjun Kapoor gives his best performance; not so easy to deliver with this valor the way he does. Sanjay Dutt comes as a caricature and seems like he has written his own lines. In a scene where thousands of soldier try to run away from the battle he roars “ek ek k peechey bhaagkar unko maidaan main le aayunga” hilarious it looked, and the battle turned out to be a pure Bollywood spoof where people busted out laughing.

He probably would have to do the same with the audience of “Panipat”.

It is Kriti Sanon who saves the grace with her sheer presence; displaying innocence with a smile winning over not just Sadashiv’s heart but audiences too. Padmini Kolhapure’s screen presence is terrific but a waste opportunity. Her role is that of any “saas” out of Ekta Kapoor’s serial. Other ensemble cast shown in the trailer perform only few minutes more than their shelf life in the trailer. Zeenat Aman has more life in the trailer and posters of the film than IN the film. Rest of the breed of Kings too are caricatured with their looks, poor lines and Zero effort on dialogues.

Nothing saves a film than the better writing. Panipat suffers an effective writing, be it storytelling, dialogues, or the dialect. Initial couple of minutes characters toggle between Marathi and Hindi to look organic but nothing comes effective and looks a forced effort on the ears. Over the period of time, I guess they realized it is a Hindi film that language barriers were won over.

The interval point does raises the bar and you feel probably second half is where the Panipat lies and you have arrived. But no, you are still far away from Panipat and when you arrive you feel exhausted being in their Shaniwar wada Tamboo that you want this battle of time to get over.There are only few cinematography moments that you enjoy coupled with decent background score, at ground level the battle is a pure bore.

Looking at the trailers we wandered why Arjun Kapoor – yet he delivers. It is Sanjay Dutt who comes as a caricature and without a strong villain it is not easy to emerge as a HERO especially when one terminates at the end.

By now you know the verdict.

PK Verdict: Tin**