Saturday, July 18

3 things you didn't notice in Bāhubali: The Beginning

So, I have finally watched the most expensive film ever made in India, Bāhubali, in Telugu. Since I had the chance to watch it on the largest IMAX screen in India at Prasad's, I happened to look at the "bigger picture" and observed a lot of things which for those who watched in silly theaters could go over the top of their heads. 

Here are some of those, starting from the most shocking ones:


1. Sivudu may be hallucinating the entire plot

To those who forgot the names of characters due to the overshadowing war episode, Sivudu, whose birth-name is Mahendra Bāhubali, is the son-Prabhas who, obviously, is the son of the father-Prabhas, Amarendra Bāhubali. The father-Prabhas is again, not so obviously, the son of a grandfather-Prabhas, Dharmendra Bāhubali (The name was to appeal to Hindi audience). The confusing part here is that all the 3 roles are played by the same actor, Prabhas. However, we can distinguish them by their body weights: son-Prabhas is leaner than father-Prabhas, and grandfather-Prabhas is only seen in a painting (at least for now).

Sivudu, with both his nostrils expanded to their fullest capacity

Now that you are reminded of who Sivudu is, you should also be reminded that he is a very naughty boy: He wants to see the world beyond the waterfall bordering his village. The catch here is that, he cannot climb up the waterfall (or can he?). So, he tries to climb a slippery rock hill on one side of the waterfall, and jump across the breadth of the waterfall, to land on the rock hill on the other side, and then climb over to wonderland. 

But, we see in the introduction scene that he cannot make the jump, and falls some 40 feet into the water. The reason for this is his lousy group of friends who are douchebags enough to discourage him, thereby stopping the plot from advancing.

However, to those of you who failed to see the "bigger picture", here's what I observed: Because of his 40-feet fall, Sivudu damages his skull, goes into psychosis, and starts hallucinating the entire plot. This idea can be illustrated by the following events that seem surreal, but subsequently unfold anyway:

  • Sivudu detaching a seemingly heavy Shiva linga, balancing it on his shoulders and head and planting it under the waterfall. 
Under normal circumstances, he would be killed by his tribe for hitting the idol with crowbars and insulting god. But since it's a hallucination, nothing of that sort happens.

  • Just when he finishes the above task, he sees a wooden mask falling from the waterfall. 
Come on, what are the chances that you happen to find wooden masks dropping from the sky when you go visit a waterfall, after you carry a Shiva linga on your head, unless you are chewing magic mushrooms?

  • He sticks this suspicious wooden mask into sand, and Tamanna's bust (head, not breasts you pervert) comes up. 
Too bad, Spiderman is an idiot trying to keep his identity a secret. If someone gets hold of his mask, they can go to beach, take a sunbath, and in the return trip get Toby Maguire arrested. Oh sorry, Toby Maguire is not Spiderman anymore, it is that guy who got screwed by Zuckerberg in the facebook movie.

  • He 'actually' starts hallucinating Tamanna (what was her character name again? Oh yes, Avantika) and her dance moves. 
Now, this is where Rajamouli gives you his Nolan-esque touch: putting clues in scenes so that you can decipher the "bigger picture", just in the way I did.

  • Sivudu finally manages to jump across the waterfall looking at the imaginary Avantika. 
This happens in the hallucination which Rajamouli shows you, which happens inside the actual hallucination that Rajamouli doesn't show you, but leaves clues in the hallucination he shows you, to decipher what's really going on. 

The key thing to note here is Sivudu's pose while jumping: it's a Superman-style flying pose. And, I remember another film other than Superman, where such pose is shown: The Big Lebowski where 'the Dude' dreams after being hit on the head.

That was some lovely lively dream, man!

See? That's Rajamouli again with a Nolan-esque touch: giving you another clue as to tell you what's actually happening. You didn't notice that, did you?

And lastly,

  • Sivudu manages to pull off the least-cost path algorithm of seducing a woman
I think he did this with the inspiration of K Raghavendra Rao BA. This is why you should do a BA, so that you can also come up with such techniques and change the world.

Coming to seduction, another thing I observed in the film is that:


2. Female comrades wear sexy lingerie inside

I understand that Sivudu became a make-up man for Avantika, but he didn't become the costume designer, i.e., he didn't make her lingerie out of leaves and twigs. So, it follows that she was wearing it from before. Why? There may be 2 reasons:

  • Her masked revolutionary group prescribes sexy lingerie as part of uniform to all its members.
Why? Probably because when you become horny and want to have sex with your comrade in a dense forest in the middle of the revolution, the least your group can provide is some sexy lingerie and a chance for role-playing.

If this were true, then this would also be one of the hidden clues Rajamouli puts in the film for us to decipher and expand our understanding of revolutionary groups. He certainly did a lot of research while writing the script.

The other reason could be

  • When someone rips her sleeves and armor off, washes her, applies make up, and finally strips her down to the undies, she wants to look pretty, and not turn-off the guy. This is for the greater good: To advance the plot.
But then, why would Avantika think in such a way, unless she is either recruited as a femme fatale or is a closeted nymphomaniac? I would favor the former.


Avantika, before joining the revolutionary group

However, speaking of Avantika being mental,


3. Almost every character in the film suffers from a Psychological disorder

Now, I am not pulling off some Freudian psychoanalysis shit where every aspect of your behavior has got to do with either your genitals or your mother. My idea is that, if you pull any of the characters in this film out from the screen to the real world and take them to a psychiatrist, they have a good chance of being diagnosed with a clinical psychological disorder.

Here are some:

  • Sivudu: Hallucinations
He may also be eating magic mushrooms for all we know. You can't deny their supply where he comes from.

  • Devasena: Sadistic personality disorder
Boy, she really wants to see Bhallaladeva getting tortured real bad and being severed, and wishes to dump him on the funeral pyre herself. She even meticulously picks up twigs and tree branches and prepares it for 25 years.

  • Sivagami: Delusional disorder
Well, she has unusual faith in her lactating capacity. Even mothers with twins find it difficult to produce enough milk for both. She is also humorless and sensitive, and shows a taste for unusual sadistic revenge when the barbarian threatens rape.

  • Kattappa: Stockholm syndrome
He doesn't want to get out of slavery, and he is actually sympathetic towards his captors.

  • Avantika: Borderline personality disorder
She shows all its classic symptoms: Impulsiveness, unstable behavior, idealization and devaluation of others. We may get more information in the second part.

  • Bhallaladeva: Antisocial personality disorder, aka, Psychopathy
Symptoms: Cruelty towards animals, disregard and violation of others' rights, lack of remorse, false charisma

  • Bijjaladeva: Sexual frustration
Now, this is open for interpretation. This fellow has a wife who is busy with ruling the kingdom and lactating for 2 kids. His right-hand always holds a wine glass, and his left-hand is useless, so he can't have one off the wrist. Also taking into consideration his appearance without a shirt and with a walrus mustache, he is the prime candidate for a sexually frustrated old guy.

Bijjaladeva, showing both his hands and the walrus mustache. He is wearing clothes to appear less creepy
    And finally,

    • The headless dude who walks for a mile: Cougar fetish (preferably with bondage)
    Well, this cannot be classified as a psychological disorder, but I think it's worth mentioning.

    • All the soldiers guarding Devasena: Selective blindness disorder
    Come on, what were they doing when a prisoner is suspiciously collecting twigs and branches and pooling them together for 25 years? Are they thinking she's doing her part for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?


    Conclusion

    Since Rajamouli is a genius, I think he wanted to put a sane character, Bāhubali (the 2 of them) into a world of nutcases, including his foster-mother/grandmother and wife/mother, and see how these characters take the plot forward. If he were not a genius, we can say that all he can think of are blandness and clichés from films of the 70s while writing characters and doing character development.

    In conclusion, I think some of these observations can be more evident in the second part of the film, which I am expecting to contain another ample dose of character development and plot advancement in the most astonishing way, with Rajamouli dropping us more clues and Easter eggs to provide insights into revolutionary groups and psychological disorders.



    PS: This piece is only about the bad writing of the film touted to be the pride of Telugu/Indian cinema. I liked the war sequence in the film, and I wish Rajamouli chops off junk like the above in his second part and in the international cuts. No one wants to go through half of the film with scenes establishing clichéd characters in the most annoying way.

    28 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    That was brilliantly written Sarath! Now I can't wait for the second part :)

    Anonymous said...

    Grinning like Joker high on nitrous ... guess you got maxed out!

    Arun said...

    Very funny... U say that all the characters portrayed has some disorders...
    May be stressful software engineer can find all these defects..ha ha
    There are many pigs in India who doesn't encourage a creativity and defaming others.
    mr.sarath better program ur coding in ur office correctly and u don't have the eligibility to judge or defame a movie..
    better fuckin.. u get direct a movie

    Anonymous said...

    I totally disagree with the above comments of Arun. How can u even mention such words..are computer programmers pigs? And how on earth is he defaming a movie?
    I think what Sarath wrote is quite correct . The movie has glitches & flaws and every movie does have some. Just because Sarath has highlighted it here doesn't mean u call hom in the filthiest way. This is democracy man. Everyone is entitled to his or her views here....

    Anonymous said...

    Plot Twist, the guy who wrote this (Sarath) has a disorder..

    Unknown said...

    I disagree wid sarath or whoever u r
    If u think dt d movie hs dis much amount of drawbacks ..I den me being jus a normal woman..challenges u to make dis movie on ur capability and ur so called brain ..
    Please I request u to make a movie which includes cinematography,graphics..and many more
    I do appreciate d sense of criticisms u gv but at least hv d balls to make a movie worth at least ten crore ...compared to a 200 crore pre released budget..

    Akky Aakash said...
    This comment has been removed by the author.
    Akky Aakash said...

    tell me one thing, why villager's and other female's or male character wearing costume used to wear in 19th to 21st century? like traditional indian saree which was actually not the outfits in history, or the people wearing dhoti and kurta !

    lol, they spend such a huge money on setting everything incredible, why didn't he think little about creating a real historic environment.

    atleast they should have checked ramayan, mahabharat or any historical serials Indian producers directors made before as we cannot compare this film with 300 or troy or serial like game of thrones :p

    every other mistake would get ignored with the flow of story but this film really fails to achieve the historic look or to create historical environment.

    Anonymous said...

    This Author has a disorder. Why would anyone beat Shivudu when he was taking Shivududu (Lingam) for Abhishekham. "Alankaraprayaho Vishnuhu Abhishekaprayaho Shivaha". Logicless post.

    Anonymous said...

    Wow...Mr. Sarath/Sharath or whatever... I find it ridiculous...and the thing is there arent any faults with other Bollywood/Hollywood films huh??? I cant blame you...there are people in this society who cant appreciate something creative or the hardwork...speaking up your views is completely fine but...do you think people went to watch the insanity of characters??? Making it an epic movie of 200 crores budget?! Think before you spit out your thoughts...

    harsha hiremath said...

    You follish sarath software engineer that's why you take the salary per month 1 lakh, prabhas take per film 55crore and belive in rajmouli converting story into screen play fabulously top character he created for those reason film has grossed 350crore club in India overseas 200crore club samajh mhe ai sarath you 1 lakh guy

    harsha hiremath said...

    Encourage about films who make those kind of film historic film and superman fiction film you foolish guy did you understood

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    Anonymous said...

    mr.sarath i am a great fan of baahubali then to i respect ur way of critizm but you should check this link to bro
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    and then comment again do u r homework properly read from the above link what people from hollywood industry want to say for the movie kk

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    Deepak Sethi said...

    Great article you have do hard. the work is really appreciable and the award winning are really nice and explained as much as possible....keep writing.

    oortcloud domicile said...
    This comment has been removed by the author.
    oortcloud domicile said...

    Dude, eagerly waiting for your review of Bāhubali - The Conclusion, or is it The Concussion?

    oortcloud domicile said...

    Dude, eagerly waiting for your review of Bāhubali - The Conclusion, or is it The Concussion?

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