Bahubali – The Conclusion: The Raymond film from hitech India
The bigness of the film, and director SS Rajamouli’s mastery of cinema, can be gauged from the fact that Bahubali-The Conclusion as a film turned out to be much bigger than the billion-dollar question on which it stayed alive in public imagination for two long years.
The brilliant tapestry of VFX-aided visuals, the larger than life war sequences, the intricate action scenes, the pulsating romance, the hate, rage, envy and commitment that Rajamouli wraps the film in, the ultimate bigness he lends to the proceedings, the drama he enhances with real-time emotions, the pace he unleashes to turn this period drama into a modern thriller make the sequel as big a blockbuster as its prequel.
That he renders the much-awaited answer to the big question almost irrelevant in the face of a super splashy story is something that speaks volumes of his unmatched big-screen, big-movie acumen. It is somewhere just before the intermission that you get to know why Kattappa killed Bahubali. But that does not end your interest or sag the goings-on. That’s the reason why the film will score big, perhaps biggest ever, and Rajamouli will make the obvious more clear – that he is a master genius of filmdom.
It is a matter of pride that this is one Indian film that has the muscle to match up to Hollywood’s special effects and that will make it go down in history as the movie that turned the tables on Indian cinema’s VFX backwardness despite major strides in a host of films like Ra.One and others.
To ride such huge expectations with such a solid sequel is no mean achievement and the courage with which Rajamouli delayed his saga 2 for one extra year would tell you how much he believed in the power of his mount and his ability to deliver it as a runaway success.
The story picks up smoothly from where it left off in 2015. It opens beautifully with an animated run-through of Part 1 which seamlessly merges into what it’s going to reveal. The revelation may have come gently but it does not, at any time, lose its sheen and you feel the movie is worth the wait — and the hype.
The localing is out of the world too, almost ethereal, and the characters, especially of women, completely fleshed out. There are several messages the film delivers, many of gender sensitivity, but it never strays from its core aim: To tell a period tale with all the drama and the grandeur it deserves.
It is a film that turns exaggeration into a captivating art form, that too with a thumbs-up in all categories — story, visuals, choreography, pace, drama and emotion, the most wholesome entertainer in quite a while.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, 30 April, 2017