Bahubali 2

The nation (and other nations) has finally got the answer to the ultimate question – Katappa ne Bahubali ko kyon maara?

I had never watched any dubbed South Indian movies until Bahubali 1. You can’t blame me as my exposure to them was thanks to Set Max. So I never got interested in Bahubali 1 until all the memes and jokes came flooding my Facebook wall and inbox. (Some of them were actually good, btw) By the time, I was ready to take the plunge (of watching the movie), it was not running in cinema halls anymore. So I watched it online with J* and halfway through the movie he was snoring away to glory. My problem is I can’t leave any movie which is reasonably good midway, I have to finish it. And surprisingly and because I started watching it with minimal expectations, I really liked most of Bahubali 1. I cringed at the song where the hero makes the heroine beautiful, and how she left her life’s mission in the hands of the hero whom she had met like 5 minutes before, because love. I was really curious about the ending too like the many many more, so Bahubali 2 was eagerly awaited.

In Toronto, it was playing in only 2 cinema halls which was really surprising because it’s usually more than 10 for any other Indian movie. So we went on Saturday April 28^th to the first cinema hall (CH1) and only the front row seats were available. The guy there advised us to go to CH2 which is a good 25 kms away and we went only to find the same scenario there. We booked the tickets of the next day there which is 50+ kms away from home. J* had not seen the first part and didn’t remember whatever little he had seen and he also thought it was unnecessarily hyped, so he was not very excited. BUT, we are glad we went.

We absolutely loved the movie and I didn’t want it to end. It was truly a cinematic experience and here is my random review of the same.

-Last I heard, it has done a business of 1500 crores worldwide. A couple of years back 100 crore used to be a big thing, but this is something else and this record is here to stay, considering the quality of movies Bollywood is churning every Friday.

-I have a new found respect for the South Indian movie industry. Owing to which I watched another movie named Magadheera by the same director and I cringed at the movie and the respect lowered a few levels.

-The sexism complaint from part 1 was addressed to some extent in this one. Anushka Shetty as Devasena is a treat to watch.

-I loved how Amrendra Bahubali dared to tell Sivagami that she is wrong to fix the alliance without asking the girl. Her husband got up and recited all the sacrifices she has done to raise Bahubali. If it was a Bollywood movie, at this point the hero would fall at the mother’s feet and say bye to his love interest, because sanskaar. I loved how he supported Devasena when she used to raise her voice against Sivagami because he knew she was right, without disrespecting his mother.

-Thankfully, Sridevi refused the role of Sivagami, because money not enough. I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing any of the characters. The casting is perfect and Prabhas is my new favorite now J I have watched some of his interviews and it’s refreshing to see that he is so incredibly shy and humble in real life!

 -Though I would have liked to see Devasena do more when they were banished from the kingdom and Bahubali was applying all his mechanical engineering skills to make the lives of villagers better.

-Similarly, Avantika did nothing when the hero was in picture, it was HER life’s mission in the first place.

-I could not forgive Katappa for killing Bahubali for the reason given. I discussed this with J* and another dear friend NSA. One of the argument was it was Satyug and they really meant what they said. Another chain was maybe he should have told him and killed himself.

-Thankfully Sivagami had declared Mahendra Bahubali as the king when he was born otherwise Katappa would have killed him too when Bhallalldev’s father asked him to. Phew!

-The stunts were amazing, despite some of them being physics-defying. The only illogical thing in the movie was the plan to enter the palace. It was hilarious.

-I like the songs too, even though they are not original, I mean the originals would be the Telegu ones right?! Angel likes them too. In fact, we listened to the songs of Bahubali 2 as nap time music last night J

-I think this would be the end to the magnificent Bahubali series. Will there be a Bollywood Bahubali? I hope not!