Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

Who can now tell the real reason for the success of the worlds longest Good Earth advertisement, yaniki Padmaavat. I went to see it as a sporadic fan of Mr. Bhansalis campy flamboyance which has earned me endless derision from intellectual friends. Well, whether you like him or not, he deserves a place in Bollywood history just for Jab Se Tere Naina, a song where male beauty lit a soft light in many eyes, across genders and sexual orientations, creating a national moment of erotic unity in diversity. But, anyway, all that, like Rajput glory, is kinda in the past. Here we are. At Padmaavat.