Rajamouli, I feel for you,
So many sub-plots and splinters, yet just three hours to pack them all in!
I am a teacher. When the course runs behind schedule, every one in our profession enters panic mode. The classes that are taken towards the end of a term are more often just patch-work, usually covering only what's required and not what's of value. Students too, of all ages and levels, take this as an emergency pill and gulp it down with magnanimity. For the current system of education, this pill is not bitter, but even sweet. In systems more pragmatic and value-based, these short bursts of knowledge dissemination would form matters of severe scrutiny.
But that's just education; entertainment is an entirely different phenomenon, you might say, Mr. Rajamouli. From where I see, you are not running for the Academy or even Nationals; so perhaps you are right. But to call cinema entirely different, I disagree. What students experience and what a viewer watches are not very unlike. In fact, the stakes are way higher in cinema because here the span of attention demanded gets amplified 3-4 times, thus requiring a delivery that's compelling enough to hold on to the viewers' senses.
This you have done, and how!
Be it the raging cattle, or the humongous elephant carved along the river, the display of super-human strength by the central characters or innovative intrusion tactics in battle, grandeur has been your forte throughout: and understandably so. Without these spell-binding moments, the three-hour sit would be just another period fiction. The drama, the politics in monarchical settings , the heart-wrenching scenes of grief and the cosmetic episode of romance are all finely woven in for the viewer to get lost. And get lost, they will. Visuals and acting have been top notch from the entire cast. For some time to come, Prabhas, Sathyaraj and Rana Daggubatti might have to either take a sabbatical from acting or act like a De Niro to break the moulds they have conjured up for themselves through the Bahubali franchise. The characters have come alive through these men and women on the screen, this much I concede.
Another factor contributing to the rushes- social media- has also been catered to very deftly. The Kattappa-Bahubali twain has been built in amazing fashion and finally consummated with the death of Bahubali Senior. The much awaited answer is revealed without much aplomb, and justice is done to the story. Screenplay is outstanding, art-direction has a global appeal and the graphics are advanced, to say the least.
Having said all that, the plot of Bahubali, still cries for purchase. If Amarendra Bahubali has been brought to life, Mahendra Bahubali has been disproportionately given a subdued role. If Anushka takes charge of screen time, Tamanna has quietly languished back-stage. If Bahubali has been avenged in style, Shiva's foster parents have been kept under shadows- in all, there are flashes (in fact, a 3 hour long flash!) of unfulfilled roles and loopholes in the film. This is not unlike what students experience at the end of the term; they realise that they have learned all, yet they can't keep a finger on which is which. There is just too much pressure on their minds to stay focused.
But the good news is- and this is where cinema is so different a phenomenon- people, in general, will lap up the visual treat and bear with the little inadequacies of story telling to the extent of negligence.
Jai Mahishmati!
P.S: Gold doesn't float on water.
