Movie Review - Baahubali

Move over Hollywood, here comes Tollywood giving you tough competition. That is what Baahubali is all about; it is a marvel with highly impressive visual effects. The movie reminds us of two Hollywood movies especially Troy and 301.

If you are an adult who grew up reading small story books of the size of your palm published in Telugu about kings and kingdoms, one of those stories comes alive on the screen in this movie for you. The much-talked about movie with a mega budget that is produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad and on the sets for more than two years is definitely a great and successful attempt by Director S.S.Rajamouli catapulting his career to a new international level and increasing the expectations of Telugu audience from now on.

The first half deals with how a just-born Shivudu(Prabhas) ends up in a forest at the base of a huge waterfall and mountain. He will be brought up in a small tribal kingdom and Roshini plays his foster mother. Though he becomes a twenty five year-old young man, Roshini still looked almost the same though a few streaks of hair were painted grey. Right from the young age Shivudu is enamored of the huge waterfall and always wanted to climb up the mountain much against the wishes of his mother. In the process, he comes in contact with Avantika(Tamannaah). The romantic scenes between them were a bit unrealistic and absurd but were shot well. He makes her realize her femininity and they become one. From then on Avantika’s mission to rescue queen Devasena(Anushka Shetty),who is held captive in chains by Bhallaladeva( Rana) at Mahishmati Kingdom, becomes the mission of Shivudu. After rescuing Devasena from the clutches of Bhallaladeva and bringing her away from Mahishmati, Shivudu gets to know a bit of the past also that Devasena is his mother and he is the son of King Amarendra Baahubali( Prabhas).

The movie is a visual treat with each of one of the actors playing their roles extraordinarily well. Prabhas looks super both as Shivudu and Baahubali and so does Rana as Bhallaladeva. Rana seems to have been influenced by his uncle Venkatesh and so his mannerisms feel like his in one or two scenes. Anushka has nothing much to do except for remaining in shackles as an old lady throughout the movie. Tamannah looks stunning but her action scenes looked artificial especially the way she walked. Nasser and Sathyaraj(Kattappa) did a good job. Ramya Krishna as Sivagami played her role naturally and elegantly.  

The second part of the movie is a big drag with too much reel wasted on war between Mahishmati and Kalakeyas. The language of Kalakeyas was the only funny thing in the whole movie. If you are not the war-loving person, you could end up with a headache. If it is an Indian movie we have to expect an item song and so we did have one with three item girls. We could get to see Rajamouli himself playing a small role in one of the scenes just before the item song. The scene involving Shivudu and Avantika where they slide down an ice mountain reminds us of one of those James Bond movies. In the same manner, Shivudu putting on fire in the palace of Bhallaladeva in Mahishmati palace reminds us how Hanuman sets fire to Ravana’s palace in Lanka. If it was Sita in Asokavanam at Lanka, here it is Devasena in  Mahishmati. In line with how a warning has to appear that Smoking/drinking is injurious to health in smoking/drinking scenes, here we would find C.G.I wherever animals are involved in the scenes. 

The action scenes by Peter Heins are good and Keeravani’s music enhanced the pleasure of watching this movie. Director Rajamouli has been hugely successful in utilizing all departments involved in film production. So his team namely Vijayendra Prasad for writing the screen play, Senthil for the camera, Sabu for Art and Rama for costumes and Srinivas Mohan for visual effects and Kotagiri for editing, need to be equally appreciated for the wonderful work they have done in this film. Every person who is associated with this movie deserves a word of praise. Mahishmati Kingdom looked so real and stunningly rich. 

When you are attempting a big work naturally some minor mistakes happen. Like for example the Shivudu’s diction was not the same as the tribal family’s which brought him up right from as a just-born. In one scene he climbs up using a rope but he was always at the tail-end. When the 100 feet statue gets erected, the ropes which were being pulled by the workers and also Shivudu were loose.

Overall the 159 minute Baahubali- The Beginning is a superb and hugely successful attempt by Rajamouli and team. Indian film industry will not be the same post this day 10^th July 2015.

What to expect in part two?

If one remembered the dialogue of Sivagami in the initial frames when she saves Shivudu where she says “I have made mistakes, take my life but Shivudu must live”, part two might show us that Sivagami also would have played a negative role in reality though she appeared to favour Baahubali as King. So in the second part we may expect to see behind the scenes role of Sivagami and how she would have forced Kattappa to kill Baahubali to make Bhallaladeva, her own son, as King. We can also expect the romance of Baahubali and Devasena in part two.