Watched it, finally.
Mixed feelings.
This could have been so much more. Nothing was wrong , technically. I cannot fault the actors or story, not even the story telling.
The fault lies with the makers not familiarising the non Tamil audiences with the characters in advance. Literally everyone in the theatre was left confused with the names and dragging first half. The promotions of the film should have started a month in advance with all key characters being introduced. There was a new character every few minutes.
I went with a very annoying bunch of people who kept using their phones in between and then would go “ what happened “, “ who is this guy “ , “ I didn’t understand “ .. it was annoying ( and part hilarious) because even I had trouble recognising the characters and plot in the first half and by the time I was done explaining to them, I would miss out on some important scene ( or names ) . It helped that I had a slight clue about the story thanks to the many reviews and also because i had started reading the book sometime back. The makers should have never promoted it as pan India. That’s where my disappointment lies.
The second half is much better. And things finally start falling in place and start making sense.
I can completely understand why this is something book lovers would have enjoyed. But this is definitely not for the masses.
Cons - The climax fight sequence was kind of a drag. Towards the very end some four five people in the theatre even left and the cliffhanger imo was very interesting especially Ash’s face.
I didn’t expect any wow moments but dialogues could have been better , they lacked punch. Camera work was a little shaky . Dubbing could have been better. This is my complaint with pretty much all films with Rajamouli’s films as well.
I did not mind the vfx or action sequences.
Pros - All actors performed very well. Everything from costumes to jewellery were top notch. I loved both Nandini and Kundavai ‘s characters . Also , whatever little screen time Aishwarya Lakshmi had, her character Samundra Kumari was very endearing. Whoever said that the female characters are very well etched out was absolutely right. I was definitely left more intrigued with all the key female characters ( including vanathi ) than the male characters.
Should have had more scenes with Vikram. I hope there’s more to whatever we saw of Nandini and Adithya.
Actors - Anyone else find Vikram very hot ? I wished Chola Chola was a little longer. Anyway , he did his part very well. There’s not much to say here because he had little screen time. His scene with Kundavai was very interesting.
I will be watching more of Karthi’s films because I thoroughly enjoyed watching him here. Splendid actor.
Shobhita is very pretty , does not have much to do but she’s very elegant. I liked her more than Trisha who imo was probably the weakest ( strictly as an actor ). She wasn’t bad but not as good as the others, Should have cast Shobhita as Kundavai perhaps or even Aishwarya Lakshmi. They had more screen presence than Trisha.
I may be biased but Aishwarya was easily the best. Her screen presence is brilliant. Notches above everyone else. Anyone sharing the same frame with her just becomes invisible. I don’t know how.
She has obviously had quite a bit of Botox done and her face was frozen in certain scenes but even with all of that she was still very very captivating. My God, what a woman. 48 and still the most beautiful female actor iv ever seen. There will never ever ever be another Aishwarya and it kinda makes me sad that she’s no longer keen on doing more work. This probably is her last big screen venture, sadly.
Thankfully , we all enjoyed the film and mst importantly understood it. I was genuinely worried reading some reviews that we wouldn’t understand a thing. This is one film that might need another viewing for some people who enjoyed the screenplay but missed some key elements.
I did not understand Bahubali 1 either on first viewing tbh. Most of us didn’t. I’m hoping the makers release this on OTT before the second instalment so people understand it better.
Apologies for the long review if you can call it that. I obviously did not articulate it very well. Just wrote whatever my initial thoughts of the film are.
Will definitely watch the second instalment.
Edited by -PoisonIvy- - 2 years ago
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