Bahubali: Awesome fantasy

I recently watched dubbed Hindi film ‘Bahubali: the beginning’. The film has some awesome scenes of a historical fantasy world. This film is already a huge hit worldwide. Many accolades are showered though this is only a first of the two series, the second of which will follow in 2016.

Shiva is a village boy who is often curious to know what lies beyond the mountains that border his village. He is curious because he keeps getting indications of existence of other civilization beyond the natural boundary of mountains, jungles and the waterfalls. Once a mask found in the waterfall propels his desire to cross the mountains and meet his fantasy girl He then happens to land in the world of tribal’s fighting against the mighty forces of Mahishmati Kingdom to secure the release of Devasena. Shiva clandestinely understands the developments while befriending tribal warrior girl Avantika. For the sake of his love with Avantika he decides to engage himself in the mission of the releasing Devasena.

Avantika

Fantasy

Cut to grand Mahishmati: A fabulously wealthy state of Mahishmati is ruled by oppressive King Vallabh. Devasena, the jailed queen is in reality the mother of Shiva and sister in law of King Vallabh. Shiva successfully rescues Devasena from the clutches of Vallabh and in process gains the knowledge that he is revered by the folks and soldiers in Mahishmati as Bahubali.The mystery of his popularity by the name of Bahuabali unfolds in a flashback which is the story of succession battle between two princes - Bahubali and Vallabh. They are cousins being brought up by de facto queen of Mahishmati named Shivagami. Upon growing up, the succession battle takes a decisive turn in the ensuing war against oppressors Kalakeyas. After the victory, queen awards her judgement in the favour of immensely popular prince Bahuabali and decides to hand over reins of army to Prince Vallabh. Shiva, after successful release of Devasena, understands his true identity of being the son of Bahubali and Devasena. But the end takes a twist when loyal army guard Katappa declares that he was responsible for killing of King Bahubali.

Mahishmati

The biggest draw of the film is breathtaking visualization of the Mahishmati kingdom, war scenes and world of Shiva before leaving it in search of his ladylove. It’s truly world class and can easily pass of as a Hollywood work. No words are enough to praise the confidence and belief of the directors and producers of this cinema in their technical team. The only jarring part is that such graphics leave a better impact when they display humanly impossible work in a humanly possible way. The directors (including technical directors) here take the liberty with the technology to create stunts as if performed by a super flying alien. Shiva jumps and summersaults like a Superman or Spiderman. This takes away the seriousness of the struggle of a village boy to gain his love through a struggle. Though I watched dubbed movie, I can easily say that music is just passable.

The biggest test in the epic movie of this scale is to keep the audience hooked with great story alongside riveting grandeur of scenes. Bahubali successfully does it.It is a historical fantasy which takes you into the world of Shiva, Avantika and the succession battle for the Kingdom of Mahishmati. The test also lies in developing the minor characters and giving them significant roles. Here characters like Katappa, Queen Shivagami, Devsena, Avantika are well developed and seen playing their respective roles in the life of Shiva and Bahubali.

On the acting front Prabhas who duplicates as Shiva and Bahuabali, is seen doing what every Indian hero has to do in movies. Be a superhero, romance with the fantasy girl, be a darling of parents, enjoy adulation of the friends and folks and finally be the savior of the helpless. Prabhas though fits himself physically very well in both the roles, he looks awkward in places. Tamanna can look beautiful but its confirmed again that she has severe limitations in acting skills. Anushka Shetty and Ramya play their parts with ease. Special mention should be made of Rana Dugubatti and Satyaraj who respectively play Vallabh and Katappa. Rana, frankly speaking does a better job than Prabhas. This movie would not be the same without tremendous screen presence of Katappa. Kudos.

Vallabh

Katappa 

Final words are reserved for the war scenes between Mahishmati and oppressor Kalakeyas. The battle scenes are so grand that they will set a benchmark for every upcoming India movie. The efforts taken to create the environment of battle and its swings are sensitively picturised to bring the feel of battle to the viewers. However, the battle strategies, arms, arnours of the soldiers and the weaponry are apparently show deep influence of the western warfare tactics shown in numerous Hollywood movies. Yet they are passed off as Indian.

As a person grown up watching Hindi movies and equating them to Indian movies, time has possibly come to acknowledge the innovation brought to India by the regional cinema. It is growing is size, scale, innovation, grandeur and it may soon overshadow typed Bollywood unless they change. While resource wise the Hindi cinema is still a bigger industry, the out of the box thinking displayed here is missing. ‘Bahubali: the beginning’ is definitely a red flag for Bollywood.