Baahubali:The Beginning

India is a breeding ground for incredible folklores, myths and legends, with Mahabharata, Panchatantra, Ramayana and Puranas being profound examples. Naturally, since the roots are strong, we are bound to see cinematic adaptations of it once in a while. When a gifted filmmaker like S. S. Rajamouli comes onboard to direct his own version of an epic historical fiction film entitled Baahubali: The Beginning, the country went nuts! So, how good or bad is it?

The overall premise of the motion picture is disappointing actually, simply because of how unoriginal it is. Father's killed by antagonists and son arises to avenge the unfair death. And fundamentally, these two characters' appearances must resemble each other, as per the first unwritten rule of Indian Cinema. It's the 21st century, ladies and gentleman. Can't stories be a little more innovative than what it used to be? If this story's based on a prose or literature, then a faithful onscreen transliteration is acceptable. But, Baahubali: The Beginning is a brand new fiction from the minds of S. S. Rajamouli and K. V. Vijayendra Prasad. Definitely revolutionary alterations could have been made, to prevent clichés and blatant predictability.

Setting that aside, we can't do much about a story that could have been. It all boils down to the story we got at the end. Baahubali: The Beginning itself is a film that can be divided into 2 parts for analysis - the current events and the flashback. As per the film's setting, in present time, the narration follows Shivu (Prabhas) as the mysterious child who's brought down by Sivagami (Ramya Krishnan). Right from the start, he is detached from his belonging that's far, far away. The journey to bridge the path towards his destiny is the chronic patient here. The plot strays pointlessly, with the script forcing ends to meet by ensuring our protagonist reach where he should, by hook or by crook. The route is neither organic nor enticing. Sadly, along the way, we learn little to nothing about Shivu. We know he is stronger than a common man, which we shall discuss about shortly. But, where is his character building? What is his dramatic need? At first, he's interested about climbing the waterfalls. The next minute, he's all about the mask that falls down from up above. We are not sure how he knows the mask is of a female's as he starts envisioning hair for the sand imprint. And of course, the girl is the first person he conveniently meets upon reaching top cliff, with wooing episodes naturally taking place after. Of course, a stage is automatically erected for the pair to duet as they brawl and roll down the snowy forest. Does our heroine has a choice but to say yes to our hero?

There are no emotional reasons nor logics as to why Avanthika (Tamannaah) would fall in love with Shivu out of nowhere. Her true self-revelation is affirmatively not the strongest justification for the romance to ensue. This is followed by a, again, conveniently drafted action-chase sequence which is unavoidably lousy. It is to note that post this point, our protagonist Shivu officially has a dramatic need. He takes up the responsibility mantle of saving Devasena (Anushka Shetty) from his lover's shoulders onto his. Crowd slaves chanting the name Baahubali in an abruptly unjustified chorus, Shivu meeting the king on purpose who couldn't identify the uncanny resemblance to Amarendra Baahubali even though the former's so close to his sight, and hero setting fire to evade the castle are just plain nonsense.Again, we are not sure how everyone manages to converge at a random similar location before the actual narration begins, but the moment Kattappa's (Sathyaraj) muscles decide to kneel instead of attack Shivu, the gate to our 2nd part of analysis opens up. The flashback is where the actual meat is stored. The story focuses on the kingdom of Mahishmati, the initial betrayal it faces upon the king's death, Kattappa's loyalty towards the royal rulers, the fairness Sivagami is determined to have in raising both kids and the desire for throne based on lineage by Pingaladeva & Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubati). Growing up montages of Amarendra Baahubali and Bhallaladeva are mediocre, but the tests they both go through to become the official king are interesting. But, the part where they travel to Singapuram and jump into a club song, with Kattappa's men conveniently joining them both at the edge of a cliff from Mahishmati is idiotic.

The last 40 minutes of battle with the Kalakeyas tribe is the true redeeming segment of this motion picture. Using this to decide the future king is a smart story point! War plan discussion on a scheme tablet, terms negotiation with the Kalakeyas, Kalakeya Warlord's four-wheeled spider skeleton carriage, tent charge for fire burial, spear line of defense, army configuration, zoomed-in stab suppressed in slow-motion from afar, Bhallaladeva's vehicle and its lion bust as Baahubali's fist armor are amazing to watch! Cliffhanger at the climax is supreme, although you know it is Kattappa's loyalty to the royal clan that would have caused him to kill Amarendra Baahubali. We know the why, The Conclusion will show the how.

One of the major drawbacks of Baahubali: The Beginning is lack of moderation. Shivu is not a God-God's or God-human's son, which would have made him either a God or Demigod respectively. From the little background explanation on him, it's clear that he's the child of a burly king. In other words, he's a human nonetheless and therefore, mortal. The idea is to establish this particular persona as someone who's stronger than a commoner, but the line of limit is missing! Climbing on top of a slippery waterfalls crag, getting hit multiple times at it and plunging down without a drop of blood spill or injury at all are too much! The way Shivu makes an instant boat by tapping on a boulder is another example of similar atrocity!

Just because a film is called fantasy, that doesn't mean any occurrences can be shown for make-believe purposes. There are too many sequences where one can't help but wonder the existence of logics. It is such due to the absence of proper vindications that show adherence to the universe created:

Baahubali: The Beginning also lacks natural acting performances from the extras and some of the leads, mainly Tamannaah. The way the actress moves around with overdone shoulder broads is laughable. Since most of the performances were well-rehearsed, it became like a stage drama playing out in front of you. Guerilla members in the cave show off fakeness with ease! Ramya Krishnan is excellent though! The way she retracts from shouting instructions to tapping the babies on lap is pure class! What is the purpose of Aslam Khan (Sudeep) in this film again, no one knows.

To create the visually stunning world of Mahishmati is a challenging and momentous task. But, the waterfalls, Sivagami in water submersion, Shivu hopping down from one building top to another, avalanche escape, Pingaladeva's disabled arm during the character's introduction, mask dropping off from heights, title credit animation and Baahubali pulling off an arrow from his chest while delivering a motivational speech to his troop of armies are nothing but patchy and immature outputs! Bhallaladeva's bull fight, blue fishes and butterflies though, are nice. If the writing is immensely powerful, there is potential to ignore the fact that the graphics are absolute third-rate. If you can't get the basics right, there's no point building towering skyscrapers on top of it. It won't help in any ways.

There's one factor which lifts this movie from just being the below average drama it is. M. M. Keeravani's energetically pulsating music! His work has the goosebumps inducing grandiose flavor that pumps the veins of the audiences throughout! Sadly, most of the songs are nothing but flow stoppers. No purposes are found in including numbers like Deerane, Pachchai Thee and Manogari. By scraping off these unneeded elements, the makers could have planted the investment on visual effects companies with prospects to provide better computer graphics outcomes. This should have been the film's priority alongside with the writing.

When you can clearly see the settings where a story is taking place, props and extras' costumes look artificial, mood disappears to continue watching the film. Lingam carried across the river and stones shown to close a cave are obvious plastics! However, the statue of Kaali, overhead shifts showing the palaces of Mahishmati, snow filled forest, dreamy landscape and tattoo matches for Pachai Thee are well done. Make-up and special effects designed for the Kalakeya tribe are good. Kilikili language despite being a profound effort, comes off forced and practiced since it has the absence of naturality. Cinematography is good. When period epics are rendered using inessential and bad slow-mo edits, coupled with fast-forwarded sword swirling, it makes the end product poor and cheap. Seriousness of the film as a whole drains away.

Even fables need to be on a believable execution spectrum for the willing suspension of disbelief to work, when it comes to movies. If only the money exhausted for this project was funneled onto the right departments of better computer graphics and sturdier screenwriting, Baahubali: The Beginning could have truly been India's biggest motion picture in terms of quality instead of asinine commercial mess. S. S. Rajamouli's grandiose visions are unequivocally ambitious, but the jejune writing, toon-like characters, stage drama acting performances, ludicrous filmmaking style & nascent visual effects keep this epic million miles away from Perfect Bay. This first instalment is nothing but a huge set-up to a story that's anticipated to be told in the upcoming The Conclusion. But, each film should stand on its own regardless of whether its fabricating a potential continuation, sequel, prequel, spin-off or anything on those lines. In this case, unfortunately, Baahubali: The Beginning doesn't.