Movie: Baahubali 2
Rating: 3.5/5
Banner: Arka Media Works
Cast: Prabhas, Rana, Anushka, Ramya Krishna, Tamanna, Sathya Raj and others
Story: V Vijayendra Prasad
Music: M M Keeravan
Cinematography: K K Senthil Kumar
Production Design: Sabu Cyril
Editor: Kotagiri Venkateshwara Rao
VFS Supervision: Kamal Kannan
Producers: Prasad Devineni, Shobu Yarlagadda
Screenplay and directed by: S S Rajamouli
Release date: Apr 27, 2017
"Baahubali The Beginning" created history. It set new records for a Telugu movie. It won National Film awards. "Baahubali The Beginning" was a box-office phenomena nationwide, the movie's ending became a trending top - "Why Kattappa Killed Baahubali".
Such was the hysteria that it had created. People have been waiting for the release of "Baahubali 2" since 2015. Finally, the much-awaited, much-publicized, and much-hyped "Baahubali The Conclusion" is here.
Let's find out whether Rajamouli has weaved magic again or not?
Story:
Story begins from where "Baahubali The Beginning" has ended. Rajamata Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) asks Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) to tour entire country before swearing in as emperor.
While touring, he heads to Kuntala rajyam and sees beautiful princess Deva Sena (Anushka). He introduces himself as a wanderer to her and not as soon-to-be emperor. They fall in love.
Due to some incidents Sivagami makes Bhallala the emperor and Baahubali as chief of army staff. Bhallala and his father Bijjala feed wrong information to Sivagami who takes a bold decision. Rest of the movie is about how Sivudu's story and Bhalladeva's story gets mixed.
Artistes’ Performances:
Prabhas is exceptionally good as Amarendra Baahubali. This part completely focuses on his story. He has given a spotless performance. He is terrific in every aspect, from acting to looks, to royal gait and action stunts. The Sivudu's portion is restricted to only the final portions.
After Prabhas, Anushka as Deva Sena gets more footage and her characterization is terrific. Although it is evident that her face and body has been digitally corrected, she looks absolutely stunning.
Rana is a perfect foil to Prabhas. He has shown his talent in the climax sequences. Ramya Krishna as Sivagami has not got much role here.
Sathya Raj as Kattappa has not only got more space, but has also shown varied emotions. Nasser as kind of Sakuni is excellent. He steals the show actually. In other roles, Subbaraju gets noticed.
Technical Excellence:
"Baahubali The Beginning" showcased the technical mastery this team had achieved. Except the VFX supervisor, same team has worked for "Baahubali The Conclusion", hence the technical standards are exceptionally good in all terms.
Senthil's cinematography is beyond words to describe. He has achieved command in handling such massive movies. Sound design is superb. Background score is also terrific though songs fail to impress totally. Editing is sharp.
The action stunts are of international standards, the film has many fights including a lengthy climax episode. The action stunts are a total paisa vasool to the action lovers.
Visual effects are mixed bag - in some parts they are simply superb, in other sequences they are awfully bad. Dialogues are okay.
Highlights:
Amazing interval bang
High emotional content
Gripping narration
Astounding technical values
Drawback:
Silly comedy in the first half
Not-so-great visual effects
Lengthy and predictable climax
Analysis:
A film is told in two-parts is not new to Tollywood audiences but the scale of "Baahubali: The Beginning" and "Baahubali: The Conclusion" was never witnessed before.
The first part ended on a cliffhanger and made us want to know why the trusted aide Kattappa killed his own emperor Baahubali. The master director Rajamouli has kept the secret intact till the second half in this second part as he introduces more intrigue in the first half.
The movie begins where the first part concluded with Amarendra Baahubali ready to take the oath of emperor. Before becoming emperor, Sivagami asks him to find out how the people are leading their lives and what are the conditions of the families under their rule.
This sets a new course of drama and introduces us to the Kuntala rajyam that wasn't shown in the first part. Rajamouli cleverly uses this time to focus on the romance of Prabhas and Anushka by withholding the first question - “Why Kattappa Killed Baahubali?”
Though the romantic part is not good as the comic scenes inserted are out rightly silly, but the grand visuals makeup for these shortcomings.
The drama moves back to Mahismati when Prabhas and Devasena come to Sivagami, the story progresses into high emotional pitch and ends with an interval bang that would surely bring claps from the audiences.
Post-interval, the story further moves with more emotional scenes, and palace conspiracies. The Shakuni kind of drama goes on and on and slowly builds the drama towards the answer to the pertinent question - Why Kattappa Killed Baahubali? This sequence is handled deftly by Rajamouli.
Whether the reason shown here is unique or predictable is debatable. After this the drama goes down and turns pretty predictable.
The penultimate sequence - a nearly 20 minutes lengthy war sequence involving Bhallala Deva and Sivudu is too cliched. Though the war techniques used by Shivudu aka Mahendra Baahubali are unique, they totally lack believability. Added to these, the visual effects fails to awe us.
The second part has revolved around only six characters - Amarendra Baahubali, Deva Sena, Sivagami, Kattappa, Ballaladeva and Sivudu. Tamanna only appears during the climax for few seconds. Many portions also lack clarity and seem rushed.
Overall, "Baahubali The Conclusion" is a true blockbuster movie that is aimed to impress the larger section of audiences.
Rajamouli has stressed more on emotions which were lacking in the first part. So, the film caters to both sections that look for emotions and that want to get swayed by the visuals and war scenes.
Bottom-line: Exceptional, Emotional!
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