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Baahubali The Conclusion Movie Review

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‘Baahubali The Beginning’ set a new benchmark for grandeur, technique, and storytelling in Indian cinema and gave the audience the kind of cinematic experience that they do not get to have very often. Director S.S Rajamouli was known to mount films on a huge scale but with that film, he took things to a different level altogether. The film not only created waves in home turf down South, it worked hugely on a national level. ‘Baahubali The Conclusion’, which arrives two years after the first part, carries huge expectations and is expected to deliver the answer to the question that has been playing on moviegoers’ minds since they watched the original, ‘why did Katappa kill Bahubali?’.

After Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) is crowned the king of Mahishmati, Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) expresses her desire to get him married. Baahubali goes on a tour across the country with Katappa (Sathyaraj). After traveling across different kingdoms, Baahubali finally gets besotted by a young woman named Devasena (Anushka Shetty). Devasena turns out to be the princess of Kuntala, a small kingdom. Baahubali decides to woo Devasena in an unconventional way. He pretends to be a commoner and requests Devasena to provide her with some sort of employment. Devasena buys into his lies but an incident, which happens a while later, forces Baahubali to reveal his true identity.

‘Baahubali The Conclusion’ not just serves as a fitting finale to this epic saga but goes several notches higher than the first part in every department. The first part, itself, was a riveting film and this one manages to surpass that. The screenplay, direction, visual effects, grandeur – everything is better than what was served to one in the first part. The film does provide a logical answer to why Katappa killed Baahubali but that is one of the several things that drive the film. The screenplay is filled with a plethora of twists and turns that are unraveled at a feverish pace and punctuated with gut-wrenching dramatic moments. This visual extravaganza manages to keep one thoroughly entertained throughout its duration. There is not a single dull moment and you find yourself asking what happens next. Right from the clever ideas Amarendra/Mahendra come up with to counter the enemy on different occasions to the complex dynamics shared by the different characters, the film manages to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The only thing which could have been done with a bit of polishing is the way the present-day events are introduced in the film. The first part made one familiar with the setup but some sort of a build-up would have made the transition from the flashback to the present-day sequence smoother. One needs a bit of a suspicion of disbelief to get acquainted with the way the story and the world it is set in, has been envisioned but one feels certain action pieces towards the end of the film could have been a little subtle.

The background score (MM Kreem) compliments the grandeur and scale of the film but the songs are lackluster and not a single track lingers in your mind after you hear/see it. Writing dialogues for a film that has the actors originally speaking in Telugu is an arduous task but Manoj Muntashir rises to the occasion and gives the actors to speak lines that fit within the context of the narrative and do not seem super-imposed on them. K.K Senthil Kumar’s contributes greatly towards the visual appeal of the film.

Prabhas delivered a respectable performance in ‘Baahubali The Beginning’ but he is simply extraordinary here. Of course, his character has a better etched-out the graph here but there is a good difference between the kind of performance he put across in the first part and the one he delivers here. Anushka Shetty is fabulous both as the feisty princess and the aging woman. Rana Daggubatti lends a menacing charm to the character of Bhallala Deva and performs exceedingly well. You hate the character more and more as the narrative moves forward. Ramya Krishna brings out the complexities in Sivagami’s character very well. It is refreshing to see Sathyaraj showing a lighter, comical side of Katappa apart from the intensity he possesses throughout most of the film. The otherwise dependable Nassar goes overboard with his evil act in several scenes. Tamannaah gets limited scope in the second part.

S.S Rajamouli has made a cinematic masterpiece that is going to serve as an inspiration and a blueprint for filmmakers who venture into this rarely explored genre in Indian cinema. A film like ‘Baahubali The Conclusion’ is an event which should not be missed at any cost.

Rating: 4.5/5

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