Bãhubali: The Beginning

Sometimes a movie comes along that causes a revolution in film history. A movie that people aspire to copy from and is talked about for the better half of a century. A movie which gets embedded in cultural history, and influences a whole generation. It stands as a symbol of pure art and culture, portraying the beauty, that is cinema.

This is not that movie. This is an ego-trip, following the need to present a spectacle to a spectacle-hungry audience which has never needed anything philosophical or intellectual. For such an audience, a simplistic plot and beautiful visuals are needed, which this film caters to. But beyond that, we cannot be persuaded to find any relevance of such an endeavor. The ideas and people get lost behind the purported veil of glamor and show. This leads to a disconnect from the characters themselves and we are left with a pot boiler which fizzles out before it even heats up. It'll leave you wanting, nay, craving to know the end and you will shell out even more of your money to follow it through. *sigh* The times we live in.