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 28th 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!
