(Dir. S.S. Rajamouli 2017)
Not Rated but I'd give it a PG-13, there's violence but it's not graphic You may notice that this is a review for Bahubali 2, but there's been no review for Bahubali 1. No need to panic you didn't miss anything, I just shamelessly skipped the first movie. Before you judge me let me explain, I watched a clip of the second movie that was so insane I knew I had to watch it. One word: tree catapults. I found both of them on Netflix, but they're both almost three hours long. I know the limits of my attention span and it was one or the other. Luckily for me, the second movie is independent enough from the first that it was easy enough for me to pick up on what was happening. That being said I experienced the normal amount of confusion that any Bollywood movie gives me. Part of that is I don't know enough about the culture to understand all the references and motivations of the characters at first. When watching these, google is my friend. Anyway, the plot! In the first movie, Shivudu discovers that he is the son of Amarendra Bahubali and is the rightful heir to the throne of Mahishmati. The first movie follows his journey to save his imprisoned mother and to take back his kingdom with the help of a rebel group. The second movie starts as a sort of prequel sequel and follows the life of Amarendra Bahubali (for the rest of the review I am going to refer to him as Bahu because that's mostly what they call him in the film and it's easier), Shivudu's father. Bahu is the crown prince of Mahishmati. Until his coronation the kingdom is being ruled by his aunt, Sivagami, who is acting as a sort of regent (this isn't really covered too much but from what I gathered Bahu's parents were killed at some point). Bahu is loved by everyone. He is brave, clever, honorable, strong, and truly cares about everyone in his kingdom. Basically he's Mr. Perfect and everyone loves him. Well, almost everyone. His uncle, who was passed over for the throne due to his corrupt nature, feels that he was cheated and that his son, Bahu's cousin, should be king. **Major spoilers past this point** Together Bahu's uncle and cousin scheme to take the throne and eventually succeed. Despite having won the throne for himself, Bahu's cousin still feels threatened by Bahu. The people of the kingdom know that Bahu is the rightful king and more than that they prefer him. So Bahu's cousin has him killed. However, Bahu's wife and aunt manage to sneak Bahu's newborn son (Shivudu!!!!) out of the kingdom and into safety in a poor village. **Spoilers are over** Shivudu's background now fully explained, he and the rebel forces attack the corrupt forces of Mahishmati to retake the kingdom! Bahubali imitates the classic Indian epics and let me tell you this is the first movie I've seen where it feels like I'm watching an epic. Generally movies based off of epics just take the general plot and characters and turn it into a sort of block buster action film (looking at you every single modern version of the Homeric epics). What really set this one apart is that it wasn't based off of an epic (that I know of please let me know if I am wrong) and was made as an original plot with the intent of putting the epic style into film form. Another part of what makes this work so well is the fact that the Bollywood style lends itself to epics. They're both so over the top in the best way possible. One thing I noticed that music played a huge role in this film. There was just enough dialogue to say what needed to be said and pretty much everything else deeper than that was covered in the songs. When characters were scared, tense music would play and the actors would put on their best "I'm scared" face. When characters were sad, sad music would play and actors would put on their best "I'm sad" face. When characters were in love they'd play a love song and actors put on their best "Come hither" face etc. If you have time on your hands and want to watch something fun, Bahubali is a good pick. Everything is so over the top in the best way possible. And, despite most of it being entirely ridiculous, I still got really invested in the plot. I seriously almost cried watching this movie. That's something that I think is true of a lot of Bollywood films. Are they kind of ridiculous and over the top? Yes. Are you still going to love every minute that you are watching them? Yes. Am I going to watch the first Bahubali now despite it being almost three hours long? Absolutely.
1 Comment
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Aubrey KirchhoffI'm just screaming into the void and somehow getting graded on it. Archives
April 2018
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