Baahubali brings back big screen magic

Indian blockbuster cuts across language barriers as it opens to packed shows

Iam a huge Baahubali fan but I must admit that I was a late viewer to the big show. I caught up with the characters after everybody had seen them. It was in 2016, a year after the first version was released. It happened perchance when I was travelling from Mangalore to Hyderabad on an overnight bus journey for a friend’s wedding. I was glued to the small screen as the movie played (possibly a pirated version). It dawned on me that the story about the powerful kingdom of Mahismati was not just any other movie that was dubbed into several languages to rake in the moolah.

It was a big screen movie that had to be experienced in a cinema hall. Watching it on any other screen would not do justice to such a lavish production. I promised myself that the next time it would be only on the big screen.

So last week, I bought the ‘first day, first show’ ticket for Baahubali: The Conclusion. I reached Ibn Batuta Mall (where the movie hall was situated) at 4pm for the show. What unfolded before the show took me by surprise. I was shocked and surprised to see a huge crowd that had turned up to see ‘the biggest Indian movie’ that was breaking all box office records.

The scene literally transported me to a multiplex in a city in South India. Call it coincidence or whatever (some call it sixth sense), I happened to bump into two of my close friends in the theatre, and they too kept ‘meeting and greeting’ some of their friends. Oh, what a small world we live in! Before entering the mall, I thought I would be the only ‘outsider’ in a totally Southie affair, but that was not the case!

I have never witnessed such hysteria for an Indian film on a working day when people are busy and leave work only after 7pm. I have seen similar curiosity and craze in theatres in certain parts of India for a Salman Khan movie, but this was a first for me for a non-Bollywood movie.

For some movies like Baahubali, language is no barrier to whopping success.

The takeaways from Baahubali are different for every viewer. For me, it was not about why Kattappa killed Baahubali — I think many of us already had an idea about what was coming anyway. In fact, I was slightly disappointed and peeved about how it ended.

I fell in love with the character of Devasana, played by Anushka Shetty, a solid, headstrong women who would not let others make decisions for her. My favourite character Sivagami, who is a strong woman, (played by Ramya Krishnan) unfortunately, came a cropper.

The Baahubali fan club is only growing, and the response to the movie from the masses is to be seen to believed. Just visit a movie hall closest to you to see what I mean.

I have not witnessed such hysteria for an Indian film on a working day when people are busy and leave work only after 7pm