Mahendra Baahubali and the Fate of Mahishmati!

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I have a confession to make. This is not the Baahubali blog post I originally planned to write. The real one is still lying in my drafts folder...since July 2015.

It still remains there because of a strange phenomenon with the first Baahubali movie.

After every viewing of ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’ it seemed exponentially better than the previous viewing (yes, I watched the movie a lot of times). By the sixth viewing or so I started feeling like Neo from the Matrix – seeing details, patterns and threads that weren’t easily visible earlier.

At one point of time I started maintaining an excel sheet to capture the complexity and intensity of thoughts that started hitting my mind. My blog post started looking like a PhD thesis, and I somehow never managed to publish it till date.

Fast forward to 2017 and we already have the second part ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ out.

Things are a bit different this time though. I don’t intend to write a thesis on the second part nor revisit my earlier draft yet, but there’s a critical observation that I wish to urgently share with you all. It concerns Junior – Mahendra Baahubali aka Sivudu/Siva, me, Rajamouli and the future of Mahishmati.

More than a regular blog post about the entire movie, you can treat this as a quick conversation starter – a tangential take on a particular aspect of the film.

Shall begin with my reactions while/after watching ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ for the first time. I watched it twice already by the way. Here it goes…

Take 1

Title Sequence: I already got my ticket’s worth of happiness. Where can I buy those figurines?

Interval: Wow…this is one insane first half. Can I watch it again?

End: Whyyyyyyy…why did Rajamouli kill the climax of Baahubali?

My biggest complaints:

Why did they rush through the parts once they come back from the flashback? Avantika, forget a dialogue, she doesn’t even have a decent close-up shot. And what’s wrong with junior, why the hell is he in such a hurry to go to war with Mahishmati? Why couldn’t he spend some time planning an intelligent attack that would reduce collateral damage? Was war really necessary?

The climax was all balls and no brains!

Junior and his army attacking the kingdom in such haste seemed like a bad idea. Not what I expected from Rajamouli.

Take 2

I then watched the movie for a second time. This time in 4K projection and Dolby Atoms for added effect.

Just like ‘Baahubali: The Beginning’, this part too seemed more enjoyable the second time around. Maybe because I already knew what the story was and the burden of expectation wasn’t there. The climax seemed bearable too for some strange reason.

It also struck me that not just Avantika, even Devasena doesn’t have a dialogue once we come back to present day from the flashback. Neither does Sanga nor any of the other characters get any time or space to come to terms with the developments in the story. Even junior has just one long monologue and all action post that.

It seemed like an intentional ploy by Rajamouli. I wondered why the hell he would do that except for saving time in telling the story. A lazy approach I thought. Was he tired by the end?

I held on to that thought till lightning struck me couple of days back, a good two and a half weeks after I last saw the film.

Too Crazy
Rajamouli had been telling us throughout but we (maybe just me) were too blind to see it coming.

Too blind to realize the fact that Mahendra Baahubali is a psycho!

 Definition: Psycho or Psychotic is a person suffering from delusions, hallucinations, or any mental state that includes a loss of reality.

 Now sample this:
  • Despite years of warnings from his mother, he is still obsessed with climbing that mountain.
  • Remember that Shivalingam he uproots and moves under the waterfall…that’s definitely a crazy move.
  • Remember his obsession with the mask and how he forgets the world after he gets it.
  • And what does he do once he realizes the mask belongs to a beautiful woman – he scoots to the mountains without informing anyone – no one at all.
  • And remember how he climbs the mountain – the Dhivara song, it’s nothing but junior chasing his hallucination.
It doesn’t stop there.
  • He finds Avantika - you know what he does to her without her permission. He just gets lucky later.
  • And then sets off to rescue an old lady (whom he doesn’t know anything about) just because of his love for Avantika.
  • He reaches Mahishmati, creates havoc in the palace.
  • Whisks the old lady away, manages to smash a mini army, and then beheads the crown prince in a fit of primal rage. He knows nothing about these folks except for the fact that they were mean to that old lady.

Junior is all about adrenaline and less about emotions, except for the primal kind towards the ones he loves.

I now have doubts if he held that rope at the statue ceremony for the kick of it or if he really meant to save those poor unsuspecting folks – stupid thought to tinker with right?

His story is one relentless piece of action after the other, all driven by his primal instincts.

His story takes a pause when Kattappa discovers him. Our focus then shifts to senior Baahubali till the second half of part 2. 

Senior

I really don’t have to say much about Amarendra Baahubali, he is the unanimous favorite of everyone, especially the ladies. He is a sensible and mature individual who knows when to be aggressive and when to let go – he is in short the perfect man – the best man to be KING.

No wonder Mahishmati is in love with him. Sad that he has an untimely death.

Back to the Future

In light of the new insights we now have, let’s try and make sense of what happens when Kattappa is done narrating the flashback and the buildup to the climax begins.

Hearing the story junior rages with anger and declares war in an instant. It’s not a surprise anymore right? That’s his style.

Rajamouli was just being true to the character he created. We can’t blame him anymore for the sins of the climax.

The fault actually lies with us, to expect junior to be a replica of his father. He isn’t. He is nowhere close. He is a hot headed impulsive guy, a bit like his mother Devasena. Remember how she cut the fingers of that guy? And how can you forget her looks and dialogues from part one – the mera beta aayega ones. Is she a psycho too?

Junior lacks the diplomacy, tact or the restraint to be like his father. Which now leads us to the 2000 crore question - HOW THE HELL WILL HE LEAD MAHISHMATHI WITH THIS ATTITUDE?

The subjects of Mahishmati blindly believe that junior is the reincarnate of senior. We can only make wild guesses as to what fate lies in store for them.

Rajamouli however leaves a clue for us when he says there can’t be anymore sequels of Baahubali; the story ends here. It now seems to make sense - there’s a reason why he named this film ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’.

What do you think?

Cheers!!!

Kartik Dayanand Boddapati

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