BAAHUBALI: THE BEGINNING

In an ancient Indian kingdom, a woman pursued by soldiers sacrifices herself to save a child. Raised in a remote tribal village, the boy Shivudu grows up a carefree young man, relentlessly pursuing his heart’s desire, which leads him on an adventure to unfamiliar territory. An epic journey on which he will find love, uncover his roots and fulfil his true destiny to become the mighty-armed Baahubali.

Telugu cinema and the boundless imagination of S. S. Rajamouli present India’s most expensive film production to date. But underneath the film’s joyous bombastic abundance we can sense the mischievous grin of a seasoned and thoughtful filmmaker. Baahubali is a feast for the eyes, a heroic epic, war spectacle, love story and Tollywood musical all rolled into one.

“You want to see a man wrestling a bull with his bare hands? You got it. Two lovers fleeing an avalanche on a rock? Check. A hero swatting 10,000 arrows using his sword alone? Why not. … And that’s finally the film’s appeal: it’s a throwback, the kind of peppy serial that would have graced the multiplex in the days before product-placement, billion-dollar PR campaigns and obligation 3D, when the sole components required for a blockbuster were a hero, a villain, a few fights, a few songs, and a happy ending. Rajamouli defers on the latter for now, but his skilful choreography of these elements shucks off any cynicism one might carry into Screen 1: wide-eyed and wondrous, his film could be a blockbuster reboot, or the first blockbuster ever made, a reinvigoration of archetypes that is always entertaining, and often thrilling, to behold.”
– Mike McCahill, The Guardian

“The word epic gets thrown around a lot these days. Thanks to meme culture, the word has been misused and overused so often that it has lost much of its meaning. However, for a film experience like S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali – The Beginning, there is no more appropriate term. This film, the first of two planned features, does nothing by half measures. Every aspect of Baahubali – The Beginning is oversized, however, where that may bloat some films with less judicious aspirations, Rajamouli makes sure that every moment counts, and I’ve never seen a two-and-a-half hour film with so many clearly memorable moments.”
– J. Hurtado, Twitch