Since you must have already read many well written reviews, praising the gigantic, never before kind of amazing effort made in Indian cinema all over the media, here is a different take on the subject that might become an eye opener for many changing their individual viewpoints about our rich regional cinema ignored since ages.
Beginning with a reality check, its simply great that BAHUBALI has released with such huge publicity campaign supported by Hindi film industry’s key representative Karan Johar in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi simultaneously in about 4000 screens in the country and widely in overseas too. And I am personally feeling charged to see this all, not because of the 250 crores spent on it with a definite vision or the CGI triumph achieved equivalent to the Hollywood standards, but because of the one man behind the epic, S. S. Rajamouli thankfully getting introduced to our Hindi film audience with a big bang giving him the long deserving recognition as an INDIAN film-maker and not only a Telugu director.
Taking the thought further, it was painful for me in the past, when I kept shouting from the BTC platform about his two earlier masterpieces namely EEGA and MAGADHEERA, but since the viewers today are more influenced by the media publicity than any authentic recommendations, very few watched the two films in the regional languages (with subtitles) and EEGA also didn’t do well when released in Hindi as MAKKHI. In fact its disappointing failure clearly revealed that the South Cinema and its viewership has a different perspective of watching films respecting the rare innovation tried by their talented directors along with a fair criticism, that remains unfortunately missing in the Hindi region.
For instance, the moment you suggest a person in the Hindi belt to watch a particular film, 8 out of 10 times he or she will ask, “Who is the Hero”, whereas in reality the question needs to be, “Who is the director?.” And that is the reason BAHUBALI is being called and promoted as a S. S. Rajamouli film rather than any particular hero’s venture, since its coming from that frame of mind in the South and should ideally be an ‘eye opener lesson’ for those largely watching films for just their lead cast.
Interestingly another reason for this ‘one sided ignoring approach’ towards our regional cinema is that we are just willing to watch what gets served with a fair amount of publicity ‘dubbed in Hindi’ and not willing to go for it in the original languages released with English subtitles. Supporting this open biased fact, I can bet that almost 80-90% of people going for BAHUBALI in Hindi would not have gone for it in Telugu (with English Subtitles) even after hearing loads of praises, great reviews and seeing stunning trailers with never before visuals on screen and a lot more. Because that is not the mindset with which we watch cinema here in our country unfortunately.
In other words, till it is not dubbed in Hindi, it remains THEIR FILM rather than OUR FILM which in my opinion is nothing less than RACISM quite shamefully.
Moreover the present net-age viewers are only interested in the newly released projects promoted well and not ready to dig in for classics from our own regional cinema repertoire following a completely biased approach, because for most of them, watching a regional Indian film with English subtitles is quite painstaking and boring, whereas we don’t feel the same watching World Cinema classics of various foreign languages………. displaying a silly hypocrisy.
So (though he might have ventured in just for his monetary reasons) I am thankful to Karan Johar for releasing this film exactly like a big Hindi project making it reach a wider ‘ignorant’ audience of our country, introducing them to one of the Top 5 directors of our Indian cinema at this moment, a name they might be hearing for the first time due to their own misconceptions.
Coming to BAHUBALI as a film, it needs to be seen (strictly) on the big screen at the earliest to believe the unbelievable achieved by its exceptionally talented team as a collective effort. As a matter of fact no amount of words can explain the gargantuan product delivered by the visionary S. S Rajamouli along with his impressive performers. But if you insist on knowing the words, then it’s a mesmerizing epic of 2 hours and 40 minutes that uses the silver screen as its magical canvas throwing amazing visuals one after another like never seen before in our Indian films. Ambitiously conceived by the path breaking filmmaker revolving around a traditional theme, BAHUBALI beautifully utilizes the modern VFX technology generating a larger than life impact on the screen with an incredible scale and grandeur.
It’s mind-boggling visuals of a massive waterfall, the out of the ordinary ancient empire, the 50 feet tall golden statue, the angry bull, the scary snow-storm and an almost 30 minutes long completely captivating, stunningly executed war-sequence in the end with outstanding background score and so detailed sound designing simply forces you to think that,
‘How the hell they managed to do it like this in India?”
The spectacularly designed world of BAHUBALI is full of many magical moments brilliantly executed on the silver screen by Rajamouli along with his Art director Sabu Cyril, Cinematographer KK Senthil Kumar, music composer M. M. Keerawani and the costume designers.And it does remind you of many blockbuster films of Hollywood in terms of visual treatment like TROY, THOR, 300 and more, that’s nothing less than a landmark achievement made by an Indian filmmaker. In fact, last time I felt and wrote something similar was after watching MAGADHEERA directed by the same genius. Keeping an over-emphasis on mighty visuals offering a colourful extravaganza, this time Rajamouli also stresses more on emotions, well supported by a terrific cast with Prabhas and Rana leading the show along with the impressive Ramya Krishna as the queen. Sathyaraj as Katappa, leaves a strong impact and Tamannah does the action well in her undefined role providing the required glamour. The otherwise dependable Nasser remains much close to hamming unexpectedly and it indeed must have been a hugely difficult task to manage the big number of people visible in its various sequences, particularly in the bloody war executed astonishingly before the climax.
Having said all the above, BAHUBALI isn’t a flawless venture when it comes to storytelling and entertainment as I honestly felt. Rajamouli has always been associated with novel subjects and extremely entertaining scripts winning over the audience just instantly. But the same cannot be said about his costliest film till date as it has nothing new to tell as far as the story goes. Reminding few reference of MAHABHARATA it’s the same old tale of betrayal and revenge around a fictional empire where we have two princes in rivalry for the reputed throne.
Plus following a neutral approach of revealing both sides of the coins here in the review, BAHUBALI doesn’t come up with a thoroughly engaging first half in comparison to the second. Heavily relying on technicalities and an obsession for visuals, the film delivers “less entertainment and more amazement” in its longer duration abruptly finishing on an incomplete note. And that’s probably a much bigger risk taken by the director ending his mega film with a shocking killing, reason for which he will be coming up in the second part releasing next year.
Also I was disheartened seeing few poor additions in the script (unlike a Rajamouli film), like Shiva suddenly dancing after replacing the enormous Shivling below the waterfall, the deliberately added romantic track with all those tattoos and tearing off Tamanna’s clothes giving you a feeling of ‘seen before’, an unconvincingly easy escape from the mahal by the prince, dialogues like “Mera Beta Aayega” (should have been avoided by the Hindi writers), and an unwanted item song coming after 120 minutes into the film, that is never a pleasant sight to say the least. In addition, with due respect to all the technical stalwarts and team working behind the special effects, the miniature models could easily be caught in a few particular long shots that was hard to believe in a Rajamouli film made on such a scale (I never felt that way while watching MAGADHEERA).
Putting it bluntly, where the south audience would surely be eager to watch the second part of the epic with the same energy and enthusiasm, a similar reaction is quite doubtful for the Hindi belt audience for the reasons mentioned above.
But then ending with a balanced insight, respecting the humongous attempt made by S. S. Rajamouli and his team, BAHUBALI deserves to be seen in the theatre as a must to experience the never before kind of magical execution undoubtedly. More so as it’s the biggest, the grandest and the most magnificent visual treat ever witnessed in our Indian Cinema till date.
However, since here we have the AMAZEMENT factor working much stronger than the ENTERTAINMENT one in the film, I would not be able to rate it higher than either Rajamouli’s own MAGADHEERA or EEGA as far as the novel content is concerned admitting it honestly. (Both the films are already there in my ‘Movies To See Before You Die List’)
So do watch BAAHUBALI at the earliest in whatever language you are comfortable with, though the dubbing does take away much of the actual essence, feel, emotion and impact of the scenes unarguably.
And remember S. S. Rajamouli is to be respected, adored, loved and celebrated as an INDIAN maestro director and not a Telugu filmmaker alone shedding off that sick, biased and racist approach for good.
Rating : 4 / 5 (Including an additional one for the enormously huge (visual) task accomplished superbly by the highly talented team led by the gifted director S. S. Rajamouli)
(Note : One of the film’s poster and an early sequence in the film is highly inspired from English film “Simon Birch” released in 1998.)
