Bahubali: The Beginning Review

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.