The Perfect Conclusion For Baahubali

That drive of Kattappa’s sword through Amarendra Baahubali’s back rattled everyone at the end of Baahubali: The Beginning, causing a huge ripple of anticipation for the reason in the sequel, The Conclusion.

The world received the answer yesterday.

I technically received it from last night’s show.

And I loved it.

The story leading to that backstab owns three quarters of the movie and not one scene was out of place or unnecessary. Mr Rajamouli’s affinity for a neat, steady-paced, majestic, romantic and emotional movie was worth every single second I spent in the theatre and I declare there can be no better conclusion than this.

Apparently, the pack of wolves that sat behind me and my family think they’re better than Rajamouli. I had to resist the urge to get up, turn around and punch every single retard so bad that they can never abuse another brilliant movie ever again.

Anyone else who thinks the reason Kattappa killed Amarendra Baahubali is lame, well, then, I think no story has ever been good enough for you before. Rajamouli and the other creators can be least bothered by that, since the rest of us who know what it takes to make a good movie or write a well-written book know there can be no better reason.

The first time I saw Baahubali: The Beginning was a night show too, on the third day of release, and I initially had no intention of watching it, only tagging along because of my parents’ insistence. I settled down in my seat to fall asleep but ended up on the edge of it, courtesy of that mighty waterfall, Sivagami protecting baby Baahubali and then holding him above the river’s surface. The characters of Baahubali (Prabhas), Devasena (Anushka Shetty), Kattappa (Sathyaraj), Sivagami (Ramya Krishnan), Bhallala Deva (Rana Daggubati) and Pinggalathevan (Nassar) struck parallels with Yudhishtira/Arjuna, Draupadi, Bhishma, Satyavati, Duryodhana and Dhritarashtra from Mahabharata, yet, this story had its own style and uniqueness that was a keeper. I remember how my Dad went, ‘The director has huge guts stopping the movie at a crucial moment and dropping a bombshell’, as we went out of the theatre. Because people have only read similar stuff in books written in English and seen them in Hollywood movies, both of which don’t have that large an Indian audience. And if anything to do with kingdom and thrones was featured on screen, we’ve only had our epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, made into TV series. Epic fantasy movies haven’t been a part of Indian cinema before, let alone a series of them, and there was a huge chance people wouldn’t have taken to this kindly. But they did, to an immense level, and it increased the pressure more and more on The Conclusion.

But I don’t think that had any major impact on Rajamouli. He had the map drawn. He had all the missing pieces ready to fix onto the puzzle. And he steadily slid them in place with agility, splendour and emotions. I do admit some parts of the fight scenes had slight exaggeration but we had some of that in the first movie too, with the soar over snow mountains and climbing the waterfall mountain, but that’s why the movie comes under the genre – fantasy. The stunts in both movies raised eyebrows only in a, ‘Well, hey, that’s a way to go about it’ manner.

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SPOILER ALERT:

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t read this paragraph. And if you want to, that’s your own risk 😀

The scene before the interval was one of the best. And I loved how it was similar to the interval scene in the first movie too, did anyone notice that? In the first movie, Mahendra Baahubali assists the people to establish a gargantuan golden statue of Bhallala Deva, signifying him as King. And in the second movie, Amarendra Baahubali, as the Commander-In-Chief, assists Bhallala Deva to the throne for his coronation as King. I really loved how the father and son had similar interval scenes.

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If there’s one thing I draw the line with loving The Conclusion, it’s the songs. They were great, but didn’t meet the musical majesty of The Beginning. The classic Baahubali tune from Irul Konda Vaanil and Moochile Theeyumai that is the background score in the important scenes of The Conclusion were one of the factors to elevate their glory. In terms of the song videos, I missed Tammanah, whose elegance, grace and beauty outmatched Anushka. Tammanah was a stunning nymph in the songs Deerane and Patchai Thee Neeyada.

But that was one thing to easily overlook of Anushka Shetty. She ruled the screen in her fierce princess avatar with those swords, which didn’t lose any time to slash when they needed to, her boldness in speaking out, as a loving wife to Amarendra Baahubali and as a proud, passionate mother to Mahendra Baahubali.

Not every woman in a princess role can be made to look valiant when they’re handed a sword to wield, no matter how hard they try to do so.  Tammanah didn’t suit her character, Avantika’s, warrior role the way Anushka did as Devasena. In those scenes, I wished Rajamouli cast Kajal Aggarwal as Avantika.

 

Anushka had a commanding presence.

And it goes without saying Prabhas commanded twice as much.

Be it a smirk, or a wink, or a flash in his eyes, he knows how to execute those expressions flawlessly. And even though both roles are played by the same man, Amarendra Baahubali rules the roost, in both movies.

Everything came together wonderfully in the end, that the Lord Shiva who is ardently worshipped in the story carried out His plan well.

I award Baahubali: The Conclusion a rating of 4.5/5 stars. A project well done by Director S. S. Rajamouli, the rest of the crew, and all of the cast. This is definitely a must watch. I’d love to hear what you thought of it, please share your views in the comment section below.