Reviews & Ratings for
Bahubali: The Beginning (2015)

Missed first 20 minutes of the movie but glad I did. The first half was a typical telugu movie. Hero is super strong. He does super-action. Everyone loves the hero.There is a supposedly "romantic" scene where the actor forces himself on the actress. Typical !! The cinematography and VFX are really good though. Second half is good story-wise too. There is a cool half hour war sequence.But the story will have a conclusion in the second part.So it is a one time watch for the Bollywood masala lovers. Strictly not for the Hollywood "Inception"-philes.

Baahubali – The Beginning is a film co-written and directed by S S Rajamouli. As I remember watching the trailer about 3 years ago, I could go on praising the grandeur of the film. And I watched the film back then and couldn’t stop praising it. Watching it again after a long time, made me feel nostalgic.

Plot: Shivudu’s life changes after he meets Avanthika

Story and direction: I still don’t think that there is nothing that is quite great with the story. It is a mishmash of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Anyone watching it will know what I am talking about. But the way S S Rajamouli has taken what we know and incorporated into the world of Mahismati is incredible. The story also doesn’t provide you all the information at once. It keeps the mystery so that the audience stay intrigued and interested. You can see the hard work that has gone into the making of this magnum-opus. I can go on praising the Mahismati kingdom. The characters are also varied and interesting. You can care for each character that is in the film. The stunt sequences are also great and look very much real (quite rare in South Indian cinema). But everything has faults and so does this one. I felt the romantic track was added just to bring the audience to the theatres. It just added to the runtime and nothing substantial was there in that. Also the VFX was OK. In some scenes, you can just guess that green/blue screen was used. Also the editing is not crisp. Characters happen to just pop up at some places. Some scenes also never made sense.

Performances: Prabhas stole the show. His dual roles as Babhubali and Shivudu were impressive. Rana Daggubati was great too. The stern and angered looks were nicely carried by him. Sathyaraj was impressive as Katappa. Nassar looked cruel as Bijjalaeva. Ramya Krishnan was beyond praise as Sivagami. Tamannah Bhatia was eye-candy for me. Anushka Shetty was also good in the role provided.

Music: Very rarely I do love South Indian music. M M Keeravani delivers some great songs and an impressive background score. Although I liked each and every song of the film, ‘Dheevera’ was the one that impressed me the most.

Favorite Scene: The scene just before the interval where Shivudu helps in the installation of the golden statue of Bhallaladeva. When one person happens to see Shivudu and says ‘Baahubali’ and everyone just repeat the same, the energy they get helps in the installation of the statue. The sheer grandness and respect for Baahubali the people have inspired me a lot.

Verdict: Even with its faults and some stupidity, Baahubali is an enjoyable experience. I was never bored even for a milli-second.
I am going with an 8/10.

My first Telugu film and it was beyond amazing!

Nish, my neighbor, had heard about Baahubali that is playing in Telugu at the theater five minutes from us, and asked if I'd be interested in seeing it.

So we get to the theater, and it is $20! Twenty dollars for the ticket and it's not even IMAX or 3D! Nish mutters "it better be worth it" and is convinced we'll be by ourselves in the theater at that price on a Wed. night.

Nope, the theater was filled up most of the way by the time the movie started. There was also an adorable trailer for the Kangana/Imran Khan movie coming out in Sept.

Baahubali was EPIC. It was huge in scale like Gladiator or Lord of the Rings or something. The CGI scenes looked very good -- maybe not always Hollywood level, but you can tell from the trailer that there is just stunning imagination to the scenery and setups. I said Wow out loud more than once in the theater. Just stunning. There was one fight sequence in the snow, and there are trees and bushes covered in ice. As bad guys get thrown in to them-- gorgeous showers of snow and ice. There is a scene with a battle with a bull where there is even the initials C.G.I. in the corner -- just so you know the bull isn't really getting hurt, I guess. Never seen that before in a movie.

Prabhas -- the actor who plays the hero is........words escape me he is so everything. Sweet at first, hot body, amazing action hero, tender lover, sexy as hell. He is just all that and huge bag of chips.

The film opens as a mother is running away from soldiers and trying to save her baby. She seems brave and all, but I knew I was in for something really different when she pulls an arrow out of her back to stab a soldier, grabs his sword as he falls and stabs the next guy ..... all while holding a newborn in the other hand. That's the kind of over the top action with multiple kick ass women, too, as a cherry on top! She bargains with Shiva to save her baby's life, and later he discovers like Superman or something that he has special powers and super strength.
I have not seen another Telugu film, and Nish really hasn't either so she couldn't tell me if this was typical to have supernatural powers and all.

Baahubali's love interest is a warrior. She is kick ass. The mother is kick ass as I mentioned above. And THEN, there is this queen mother who while holding a newborn pulls a dagger out of her sari and knifes a guy. Then calmly sits down on the throne, takes another infant, nurses both of them under her sari, and lays down her queenly law. It was awesome.

And after huge battles and half the length of the movie flashbacks and all.....it ends on a huge cliffhanger because it is just THE BEGINNING. I cried out "Noooo!" Have to wait a year just like between Lord of the Rings movies for The Conclusion!

To say I loved this movie would be a huge understatement. Nish and I both came out agreeing it was totally worth the $20! Heck, I'm probably going to go see it again! Five out of five stars for me.

To start off, Baahubali is Indian period film based on the legendary mythological character of the same name, although the storyline incorporates a lot of fiction. It certainly was a mammoth task to complete the film for the crew, even with a massive budget of 250 Crore rupees and three years' time. In the end, it paid off - big time. Be it the background score, the songs, visual effects, production design, costume, make-up - everything was spot on. The performances of the main cast, Prabhas, Rana, Ramya Krishnan, Sathyaraj and Tamannah were absolutely brilliant.

Although the film was technically sound and an absolute visual treat, the cliche Tollywood masala didn't go amiss. Nonetheless, as a first, largely successful Indian effort in effective storytelling in the historical genre, this movie is a big WIN and is a stepping stone for quality Indian cinema of international standards.

To sum up, this movie was an #actionPacked #visualTreat. A definite