Can you watch a film just for its flawless
brilliance at technical fronts for like 3 hours? Why not? If the vision,
passion and implementation are guided by none other than one of most imaginative
filmmakers in India today Mr. S S Rajamouli, it doesn’t really look or feel a
hard task. Though the plot sounds submissive to the south Indian emotions at
its purest form and doesn’t quite amaze you like the filmmaker’s previous best
EEGA in which he dares us to feel for a fly seeking vengeance for its murder in
past life, BAHUBALI- THE BEGINNING succeeds to surprise you with its grandeur
scale, breathtaking visuals, high-octane drama and a cinematic excellence
mostly achieved in VFX technology. This is definitely something you have never
seen before on Indian screen, and I am vouching mostly for the visual effect
parts.
If you have crossed the 30th
milestone of your life and could remember your parents/grandparents telling you
the bedtime-stories that always had same starting line as ‘once upon a time,
there was a king…’; the plot of BAHUBALI- THE BEGINNING will never look an extraterrestrial
to you. Shiva [Prabhas] is a strong young man with miraculous powers raised by
a tribal family. His real identity is under-wrap till he meets the love of his
life Avanthika [Tamannaah] and decides to help her in a rescue-mission. The twists
in the tale aren’t much unseen but the way they drop their curtains are very
much dramatic and dynamic. A mother is waiting in custody for his son to come
and set her free. The people of a territory are waiting for their savior in
shining armor to save them from the evil forces. And there lies the legend of love,
hope, betrayal and valor!
Rajamauli makes sure every frame of
the film tempts your eyes with spectacularly larger-than-life visuals painted
beautifully on screen. Be it the hike on the invincible waterfall, lifting up
the gigantic Shiva Linga or the war-sequence in the finale; you can’t hold
yourself being an admirer of Rajamouli’s amazing visualization and the art
& craft to bring one’s dream out in reality with so much confidence. The landscape
of a fictional kingdom Mahishmati is created in great details. Watching this
film could lure the outsiders from different parts of the world to explore the
outskirts of our beautiful country but only to find a much degraded, tainted
and spoiled ruins with packaged food wrappers flying here and those passionate ‘love-confessions’
written there on the walls.
Prabhas is the second best thing
happened to BAHUBALI- THE BEGINNING, first being the visual effects of course. The
stature, strength and swag he brings with him on screen are matchless. He is
fiery and could switch well between the emotional and the action scenes. Rana
Daggubati is perfectly cast as the mean, mighty and scheming counterpart to Prabhas.
Tamannaah and Anushka Shetty hardly impress. Ramya Krishnan is superb and I love
the way she walks into frames like a tigress. She sure hasn’t lost the sparks
in her beauty. Sudeep makes a quick appearance with a promise to be back in the
second part.
Overall, BAHUBALI- THE BEGINNING is
a film best celebrated for one man’s passion to dream beyond boundaries and the
biggest accomplishment achieved by the Indian cinema in terms of visual effects
and graphics. The conventional content and overtly melodramatic emotions may make
you cringe in your seats for more than a couple of times but I think you should
never ask yourself the question I asked at the very start in this write-up. Watch
it, at least once; as our traditional story-telling takes another leap. [3.5/5]
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