Enjoy the unbiased Bahubali Movie Review. 

 

Bahubali: The Beginning released on 10^th July 2015 and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion released on 28^th April 2017. Although it’s a huge gap, but the storm of this amazing charisma never faded away. By one of another means, the movie was always in news by positive way:

• First Indian movie to release VR (Virtual Reality) experience of the movie sets
• India’s first AR (Augmented Reality) movie poster
• First look release of Bahubali 2 movie poster on birthday of Prabhas (22^nd October) at Jio MAMI (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image), Mumbai
• Online graphic novel comics range (animated series) of ‘Baahubali: The Lost Legends’ on Amazon Prime Video
• Extensive work out details of lead characters (Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty)
• The title track ‘Sahore Bahubali’ sung by our very own Bhangra king Daler Mehndi
• Baahubali 2 business figures: profit of Rs. 500 Crore even before the movie launch
• Speculation of Baahubali 3 from Director S. S. Rajamouli
• Pictures of Bahubali were one of the most searched keyword on internet
• Official first trailer launch of Prabhas new movie ‘Sahoo’ before starting Bahubali 2: The Conclusion movie

But naturally, Bahubali movie review contains spoilers. So, don’t go ahead if you haven’t seen the film yet. The waiting period of more than 1.8 years for Bahubali 2: The Conclusion has been worth.

Story / Screenplay:

The story is more aligned to prequel of the first chapter, Bahubali: The Beginning. It focuses more on the emotional life events of Amarendra Bahubali (Prabhas), Devasena (Anushka Shetty) and Sivagami (Ramya Krishnan) along with other vital characters Bhallala Deva (Rana Daggubati), Bijjaladeva (Nassar) and Katappa (Sathyaraj). 

The story unfolds several chapters, closely connected with each other: political war to get hold of Mahishmati kingdom, twisted tales of love and loyalty, how Amarendra met Devasena, chronicles of their marriage and the most awaited answer of the question ‘why Katappa killed Bahubali’ (WKKB).

The humour portion of Kumara Varma (Subbaraju) and Katappa feels forceful. Overall screenplay of half an hour could have been easily chopped off on the editing table. Climax is also dragged too far. 

Performance:

This is the biggest surprise. Despite being Bahubali franchise a masculine movie, female characterization is much more polished and powerful than male characterization in Baahubali 2. Hats off to Ramya Krishnan and Anushka Shetty for their top notch performances for the characters Sivagami and Devasena respectively. Practically, these two iconic characters lead the entire storyline. Ramya got the bigger space, as she was also one of the central characters of Bahubali: The Beginning. 

Prabhas, Rana, Nassar and Sathyaraj had done full justice to their roles. Avanthika (Tamannaah Bhatia) is mostly sidelined. She hardly got some screen space with other star cast. Overall, the second part has less gung-ho than the first part. 

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Why Katappa killed Bahubali:

Well, this was much hyped question for no reason. It just became swag to use the term, online and offline. Many WKKB memes, in various languages, got viral till date.  

The answer was very well hidden in the first part only. After the bull fight scene, angry bull ran to kill Bhallala Deva. But, Katappa came in between. Bhallala Deva defeats the bull and sarcastically praise Katappa for his loyalty to the king of the Mahishmati. In other interactions with child Amarendra Bahubali, Katappa says that he is nothing but the loyal servant of the kingdom. 

So, it was very much very clear that Katappa had to kill Bahubali because he was ordered by the present king / queen (Sivagami, in this movie). It was easy guess to the people who follow our very own Indian epic saga ‘Mahabharata’ (written by Maharishi Ved Vyas) or Game of Thrones (written by George R. R. Martin). In today’s language, Katappa is Kingsguard. You can relate him to Dronacharya / Bheeshma from Mahabharata.

CGI and VFX Sequences:

Opening credit sequence is purely mind blowing, superlative. Hats off to the creative director and all digital artists who pulled out this unforgettable master piece. It sets the pace of next three hours. 

Bahubali’s CGI and VFX sequences are a mixed bag and had been in debate from long time. There are obviously some flaws, but better not to go negative​ by comparing with Hollywood giants. It is very easy to comment sitting on comfortable chair and munching popcorns. The challenge is to accept the unachievable and then give your full effort to attain it. So, it doesn’t matter that the animals (cows, elephants, bulls) looks CG, running over them looks fake or some sequences denies gravity and looks jittery. We did best what we could with our knowledge, technology and financial constraints, rather than just sitting around and clapping for The Jungle Book‘s staggering CG and VFX. 

Gigantic box office revenue and mammoth critics appreciation of Bahubali franchise had changed the perspective towards Indian Animation and VFX industry in the mindset of Hollywood’s top notch post production studios. No doubt, quality of Bahubali visual effects cannot be compared with Hollywood movies, but our Indian artists had achieved the impossible on native level. The budget of Bahubali production is fractional amount of international Animation and visual effects movies. On such small scale if we achieved Baahubali, then we can surely do wonder if given needed technology and knowledge.

Rajamouli had used his favourite slow-motion shots a big time in Conclusion part also. The VFX of romantic track ‘Hamsa Naava’ is mesmerizing. 

On a verdict note, CG and Visual Effects of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion is remarkable, in context of Indian film making. It has set benchmark in our Indian Animation and VFX industry. Rajamouli and Srinivas Mohan (Visual Effects Supervisor) had achieved what we were not even able to think. Kudos to his vision and his entire team to produce such mammoth in Indian Animation and VFX history. Rather than criticizing, appreciate the work taken by hundreds of Animation and Visual Effects artists to make this magnum opus come alive.  

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So, as the final comment of Bahubali movie review, go for the movie rather than judging it on someone else’s viewpoints. Watch this box office shattering movie in theater only. Reportedly, it earned around Rs. 121 Crore from the first day collection, across all four languages.