Riveting special effects, Is it enough?

Spoiler Alert: Don’t read this if you want to but yet to watch this much awaited movie.

I generally don’t take effort to review movies because either I see them so late that it is reviewed to death and becomes a fact or I don’t see them at all.

I saw Baahubali relatively early, which is after the ticket prize for the first weekend came down to an affordable number. I did have the excitement and anticipation that everyone who saw the part 1 had.

It is definitely a movie that you have to watch it in a movie theatre, much like Jurassic part or Avatar. Beautiful background, apt beautiful actors and their paraphernalia, stylish stunt sequences and wonderful imagination, again with respect to special effects.

But it definitely did not move me or carry me away. I felt bored at certain points and was thinking of something else in middle of a movie and most important of all I didn’t feel surprised for anything after the point the character of Sivagami was sabotaged.

So tell me honestly, anyone from India who wanted to catch the movie as soon as possible is to know why Kattapa killed Baahubali, right? I guess it must be, going by the popular memes circulating prior to the release of the movie. Even after two years of the first part, the reason people wanted to go to this movie was because of the cliff-hanger from part 1.And one of the endearing aspect of the first movie is the unbiased Sivagami as the queen who is not influenced by evil people or thoughts and chooses her adopted son to be a king, even when she knows her biological son and husband are not happy with it. So to me, that sets the premise for the second part. Character integrity is primary for a strong story, according to me at least.

The movie starts of stylishly and scene after scene tells the wonderful bond shared between the queen and Baahubali (the bonding with the biological son is not shown till the hero leaves on a tour).The part where the hero meets the heroine is also beautifully captured. But just one promise of marrying a girl made to the villain erases the earlier promise of making Baahubali a king? From this part on I lost interest in the movie. The character change is not strong enough to convince me. If they can put in some so much effort and screen time to capture a pig hunting sequence, shouldn’t the primary reason for the queen’s change given more thought?

That is why I think the story becomes a sub plot to the style, imagination of lots of unwanted (with respect to the primary reason you went to the movie that is) sequences and special effects.

If the queen is shown as evil or wavering in her decision to make Baahubali a king in the first movie, this change would have been consistent. The only character with lots of conviction and character preservation is that of Nasser and to a certain extent Sathyaraj.

I am not a big director or anyone important but, to me, if the reason for kattapa killing Baahubali with the same Sivagami as part1, was told, it would have been more convincing, interesting and the suspense maintained till the actual scene of killing takes place. .I do not want to totally critique scene by scene, just that I am not fully convinced with the continuity in certain scenes, it seemed abrupt. Even the reason for the killing of baahubali is not deep enough. For a person with the caliber to be a queen amongst opposing evil views till the first movie, she seems easily confused in this part.

What makes moving tales is the character in the stories and consistency. It seems, this movie was primarily made to wow the audience with unbelievable scenes and carrot of the cliff-hanger from movie 1.It is like silencing truth with money.The movie oozes money.

That said, the actors are beautiful and convincing within the scope of the story. Special effects are truly amazing, never seen anything like this before from an Indian movie and proud that it is from South India and its technicians.

This movie is a big salute to the special effects team and director (Except for the story) but is that enough for a movie?

Fondant cakes are beautiful to look at, but fondant tastes yucky ,mostly ,without a good cake J

Movies are primarily stories told via visuals, stunning or not. But if visuals are enough, this is enough J and if it was from some other run of the mill director, this is definitely more than enough.