Bahubali: The Beginning Baahubali: The Beginning

India, 2015, DCP, 1.85, colour, 137′, with Slovene and English subtitles
15.4. | 21:00 | Kinodvor

directed and written by S.S. Rajamouli cinematography K.K. Senthil Kumar music M.M. Keeravaani editing Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao visual effects V. Srinivas Mohan cast Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah festivals Busan, Sitges, Golden Horse Taipei, Tallinn Black Nights, L’Etrange Paris, Hawaii International Film Festival in Honolulu

Introduced by festival guest François Da Silva, Head of International Sales and Marketing for Baahubali: The Beginning.

BOLLYWOOD MEETS TOLLYWOOD AFTERPARTY!
A night of traditional Indian dances with dance group Nataraj, delicious food provided by Indian restaurant Namasté, the songs of Bollywood and the rhythms of Bhangra with DJ Shanti Priya!

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 abundance and bombastic baroque kitsch, we can sense the mischievous grin of a seasoned and thoughtful filmmaker. Baahubali is a feast for the eyes, a heroic epic, a war spectacle, a love story, and a tollywood musical all rolled into one. The most sublime incarnation of film entertainment.

“I have been asked time and time again – what factors or traits make a director, a story teller, successful. I stand by my answer – the courage to go with what your heart tells you. You may succeed or you may fail – but the lessons you learn from that failure can take you miles ahead. I have been telling stories since I was in the 2nd grade. My story-telling has changed little since. I fell in love with the Amar Chitra Katha comic series and the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, so naturally, as a film maker now, I lean towards bringing that magic to the big screen. … With Baahubali, my imagination breathes to life an epic. The entire kingdom of Mahishmati – from the architecture, to the culture and lives of its people – is a complete fantasy. At the heart of Baahubali, are the principal characters created by my father – Vijayendra Prasad. His characterization, aspirations and emotions is the life that runs in the veins of this mammoth project. /…/ It is every director’s dream to have their story seen by audiences all over the world. I am privileged and honoured to showcase Baahubali on an international platform. I hope you enjoy the journey into the world of Baahubali as much as I enjoyed creating it.”
– S. S. Rajamouli

“The eponymous hero (“The One with Strong Arms”) embodies several legends for the price of one. Plucked from a river, the infant Baahubali could be Moses; shifting a stone shrine several hundred feet, his teenage self is as hefty as Hercules; swinging from vines so as to climb the waterfall his village sits under, he’s as romantic a figure as Tarzan. The film, like its hero, keeps flexing its muscles; Rajamouli clearly asked ‘What can’t we do with this cash?’ 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

“A World Class Epic … 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

“The fact that this is the most expensive film in the history of Hindu cinema will give you an idea of the ambition of this project that tells the story of hero Shivudu’s epic journey. This is one of the most visually striking and narratively boundless films of the year; a feast for the eyes that doesn’t let up and that has us looking forward to the conclusion of this story, scheduled for 2016.”
– Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival