Baahubali: The Beginning

Weird Waia. Hello everyone, and welcome to the Bollywood Cinema Club, where we take a look at Indian cinema every other week. I am the host of the Culture Cast, Christasue, and I am joined by my good friend. He's a graphic artist, but you've heard him here before because we've kind of made it a point to talk about, well, these kinds of movies, and we're going to be talking about another epic action movie, your friend of mine, Dustin Heyo. I'm going to start off with my favorite, one of my favorite quotes from the movie Ready in Battle, you are your best weapon.

I thought your best weapon was a giant cloth you light on fire. I feel like, you know, the actual idea is a good one, but in execution it leaves something to be desired. Because on this episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we're gonna be taking a look at twenty fifteen's little film, but not really a little film, because it is a massively successful film that spawned not only a sequel, but also another film that has now come out that I think is kind of almost even superseded this one in terms of visibility for Western audiences. We're talking about the director of Triple R's first film like this in a lot of ways, we're talking about twenty fifteen's Bahubali the Beginning. So the film is directed by S.

S. Raja Movie based on a screenplay by S. S. Raja Movie and it's star prabhus as the titular bahu Bali both af Amarendra Brahu Bali the father and ma Freendra bahu Bali the son. And well, what is this movie about.

It's all about bahu Bali is a child who gets sent out of his kingdom on the hand of his aunt and he has to find out his secret past. I guess it's a finding out your place in the world, a coming of age story in a way. And yeah, we're gonna talk all about it, but Dustin, tell me a little bit because this is the first time that we're talking about an ss rajah Mouli film, which I think is important to mention now. Like I said at the top, here we are living in a post Triple R world, which I think is the most since maybe slum Dog Millionaire. It might be the most visible Western Indian cinema film, most visible to westerners.

It's what it feels like like I know people who watch Triple R that would never have watched any other Indian cinema film. But this is where it begins here with twenty five teens bah about. Yeah, definitely had like that blockbuster feel to it where I mean there was money there obviously, but it had that three hundred epic you know, building soundtrack and big back at all. But then there's also just visuals itself were pretty cool, and there's probably something to just the culture differences of you know, me watching these films. There's some things that I probably recall, I don't know, cheeky and kind of a little corny.

I get a kick out of them. In these movies we've watched thus far. There's just a lot of lightness to some of the movie, just something I'm not accustomed to. There's just this real childish lightness to certain parts of it. There is a certain sense of joy, Yeah, that comes through with Indian cinema that like, I'm not saying it's gone in American cinema specific, but it Yeah that you know what, That's a fantastic way of putting it, and I could not have put it any better.

You're completely right. It feels like in a lot of ways. Again, coming at this as two Westerners, one of us has watched more Indian cinema than the other. But I don't think that that necessarily makes my opinion more valid. It makes it different than yours, which is what's important here, because again it's less about whose opinion is right and more where we're coming at this from.

Because the person that you are is closer to most people who have never seen Indian cinema, so it's a harder It might be a harder sell for something like this immediately, I would think that, like you just mentioned, something like this is so much more in the wheelhouse of Western audiences then, other than triple r more than anything else that I have seen Indian cinema wise, But like, that's because action movies, similarly to why our action movies are so popular overseas. You don't need dialogue to be wowed by wild stuff happen in your movie. This isn't moundram Pirai or on Handhun or even what was the one not Brahmastra but the other Ron Beer Kapor movie that we watched. It was like a ram com.

You need the dialogue here, You don't need it to the point where again I'm not advocating people doing this, but if you're so, if you're so subtitle averse, you can watch this movie dubbed totally in English. I wouldn't advocate for it. I think a lot. You know what's funny, I've actually watched this movie four times. I've watched this movie with the English dubs, and then I've watched it twice two times in its original language of Telugu and then Tamil.

I've watched it in both, and then I've also watched it in Hindi just to see because it, like you mentioned to me privately, like, oh my god, how many versions of this movie are there? Well? On Netflix there's a lot because there's a Tamil and Telugu because it was shot in Tamil and in Telugu to start with, and then it's also dubbed in Hindi and then it's also dubbed in English. You can watch it four different ways, the same movie, four separate times, and frankly, I think you get something different out of it each time, at least when it's between uh Tamil slash Telugu and Hindi. Because I think you know, obviously all the actors in this film are Telugu or Tamil actors, so they're acting in their dialect that they're comfortable with, and I think there is something to be said for that when you're watching a movie.

Because we can watch this movie again in Hindi, and I think that's surprising to a lot of people who may be listening to the show for the first time that you know, in the United States, it's English, that's what we speak. I mean, there are dialects of English, but it's more like regional dialects that have specific words but less an entire language. And in India, similarly to China where there's Mandarin and Cantonese, similar thing here where there's Tamil and Telugu and Hindi, and so the actors really are in there. I guess they're in their home world when they're filming it in Telugu and Tamil. But even with it dubbed in Hindi, you get something different because again the actors who are bringing their voices and performances to those roles do change it in a way that's a little different than it is, not necessarily what the actor is saying versus the dub which is why we always advocate to not watch things dubbed because it will change the performance.

It just cur being able to hear the actor. Even though you can't understand necessarily what they're saying. There is still a lot with nonverbal cues and nonverbal ways of saying things that you know, go fuck yourself and go fuck yourself, or two different things said the exact same way. Getting the right inflection happens in the language it's meant to be in, right, and so English, and the English dub of things is always That's why I always say to just stay away from it, as I know so many other folks who watch a lot of foreign film do, because again, you lose something in the trans and it's not intentional, it's just it is the way it is. All of that aside, this movie is so much fun that it didn't feel like a chore watching it four times.

I watched something that is the same movie four times, but I got something different from it each time because I was focusing on something different. And it's such an expansive movie with so much going on, even this first one, because mind you, this is the first one of a two parter, and this movie is one hundred and fifty eight minutes on its own, This movie, if you were making it in the States, is like six fucking movies. Wors like these two movies are six movies worth, is what it's probably going to feel like, because it feels like this feels like two movies because it is two movies. But you could even go as far as to say this is three movies because there's things that they hint at that they don't talk about that they could totally make a movie on itself, and if this was a Western franchise, they totally would because you have bah Bali, then you have his dad, and then you have there you know his dad that they talk about that probably crazy things were happening with him too, So you have three movies worth of stuff crammed into this one movie, and it doesn't even feel like it's crammed in.

The fact that this movie works as well as it does technically from a narrative standpoint may be the most impressive thing about the movie. And if you were to sit down and watch it, which you totally should, that would be surprising that its ability to navigate a complex narrative is the most impressive thing about it, because it's technically visually impressive, and it's well act Yeah, agreed, Like it's so much fun in a way that I feel like so many Westerners do not expect foreign cinema to be, do you know what I mean? Yeah, this is Indian cinema. And I feel like if we had watched this as the first movie we did together, I feel like that would have taken you more as a surprise by surprise than it has now.

Yeah, and I got like, I mean how it starts. You kind of mentioned it already, like Grandma carrying baby Bahu Bali. It's a tongue twister through the river. It kind of had like a Moses vibe to it, or you know, Moses in the basket floating down the river until somebody finds him and meant for great things and like, and it makes it so epic from frame one. And Grandma's got some she's got some lungs on her to be able to and some some lake strength to hold against that current, the way she holds that baby above the water.

Those of you listening, you got to see it to know what we're talking about. It's pretty like you said, it's an epic way to start a movie. And it just gets better and and on top of everything else. I mean again, this is not based on anything. I mean, this is not based on a book.

It's somewhat loosely inspired by the Mahabarna, but okay, wine, I mean that's a great place to start. But again, it's it's its own thing, which like an if that that alone feels so strange in twenty twenty three as a Westerner, like, we rarely have things anymore that are their own thing. This popular, this successful, that takes hold as much as I mean again, we're we have Triple R now because of how successful this movie. That's why this movie is so important. Even if again, even if you watch this and oh it's just an action movie, it would lead to a movie that now I think is crossing cultural boundaries in a really exciting way.

We don't have Triple R without this movie. But this movie is amazing on its own, which is yeah, which is surprising because it is it's an original idea and those feel so rare anymorey Yeah, because anymore, everything's got a comic book, or everything has a book or video game or a movie that was done in the seventies or eighties at the remaking. That's pretty much all movies are anymore. And like that's not us being cynical. I mean it is partially, but at the same time, like it isn't because it really is like as someone who watches a lot of content, as do you.

You know some of the shows that I watch, like what We Do in the Shadows, that show is based off of a movie that was its own original thing, but it is based on something else, or you know, Star Wars or Marvel or Indiana Jones or most of the things, right, everything was from something else and it was a pre established ip. And again, yes, Baho Bali is inspired by the Mahabarda, but that's like saying my movie's inspired by tales from the Bible. It's like, so it's it's not something that you're really having to go very far outside of a mainstream pop culture like track to say you're inspired by most people would understand in India the Mahabarda. It's inspired by that. Okay, that's a cultural touchstone that almost everybody understands.

So like that's why you're inspired by it, because it's it's just a base cultural indicator. Now, like in a way that almost marvel is now, you know, like I'm not necessarily but in that same kind of like biggest common denominator, you need to find the way to appeal to the most people as quickly as possible with something like this, it's just inspired by an epic that everybody has a frame of reference for the other thing. That was just how the movie started out. That big looming mountain, waterfall. It just seemed like it was impossible.

And so I guess to preface a little bit. You know, bag Bali's in this village that's at the base of a mountain, base of a waterfall. It's basically their own world. They don't even know if there's a world up there. That's what I gather.

Anyway, they may some people have an inkling, but they have no interest in finding out. And but that's always in the shot at the beginning of the movie. There's always a background of like this huge, unclimbable mountain and Bahubali keeps trying to climb it keeps falling down. Which that's when I kind of realized, like he's more than just to me, and like he's there's something to him because he falls hard a lot. So I'm like, Okay, he's got something a little something extra well, and that's you know, that is the thing about this specific movie is that you know, like like you were just talking about with this like opening, I guess first more or less first act of the movie, it is not a superhero.

But that's like the only comparison I think we have criculars. Yeah, it's it's hurt again, like it's not a superhero story. But people don't. We don't make these kinds of movies in the West anymore. Like that.

There was that Hercules movie that came out with Dwayne the Rock Johnson a couple of years ago that I don't think anybody really saw. I had near anybody talk about it past when it came out, other than you know, the Rock maybe lamenting it wasn't as successful as he wanted it to be. But the scope of this movie feels so like old school, like the story it's telling with horses and swords, and I like that INDI Cinema seemingly is tapping into that era of storytelling in a really natural way that just works because it works in Triple R it. You know, it didn't really work in Ramstra, but Rahmstra is less inspired by those kinds of movies that Ben Herb the Ten Commandment style film and more a Marvel movie specifically, but it still does have that kind of mythological touch to it, because that movie's more inspired by the gods of the Hindu religion more than it is any specific epic.

But that's why I think this works. This movie for me, is essentially neck and neck with Triple R in terms of the pinnacle, or at least the current pinnacle of what Indian cinema can be in an epic format. This movie and Triple R are kind of that pinnacle right now, and I don't think that that's I don't think that that's the peak that they can ultimately we'll get to. I think it's lower down. I think we're going to see something that's really going to blow people away and catch the attention of the world more than Triple R did.

But this really sets a tone for in my mind with this first act of like, you're about to see something that is even more over the top than what we're showing you now. And right now we're showing you a guy climbing a waterfall by his bearing, Like how much more epic do we need to show you, but then we escalate it and it is kind of a cheat, And I wonder how you feel about this. It feels like a cheat to tell the story of bau Bali's dad in this movie because we sideline our character that we're following in the first act for the rest of the movie. But yeah, like, I know that if we had been watching this as a Western style film, that we wouldn't have had it told this way. We would have had this its own movie and then another movie and then another movie.

But it feels like I'm more invested in that story of his father because I got invested in his story initially, and that's such smart storytelling. Yes, it kind of it kind of holds bad the uh, I guess the payoff for the audience you kind of by the end of this movie. It's a little disappointing. Right by the end of it, you're like, oh, man, like that's how you're doing it. But I mean again, we live in a post Bahubali two world where we could just crank it up right now on the internet and watch it.

We don't have to wait, so it kind of doesn't matter. But I appreciate the way they do the storytelling here because again, like it just it. I'm invested, and I would not have been if they had started it with, oh, this is his dad and then you meet him. Meeting him first and seeing his story I think was a really smart way of telling the story. Even if he gets sidetracked and sidelined in the second and third act of his own movie.

Well, what I liked about it the storytelling aspect you're talking about is again they've got these top mountain dweller people and these bottom mountain dweller people, and you know, like it gives you the feeling that these are good they're gonna meet. You know, it's gonna happen. Bahubali's going to get to the top of that mountains to see what's up there. And so they do a good job of like those two worlds are gonna come to a head and they're gonna slam into each other. And they tell, you know, it's his brother that's up there, right, No, it's it's his uncle.

It's his uncle that's up there. Okay, But again, like that's the problem with this movie is, yeah, he plays his own father, which kind of just like not that the narrative doesn't make it clear that that's what happens. But if you miss that line of dialogue on the screen, you are fucked big. Yeah. Yeah, like it gets a little.

When it first happened, I was like, well, what, because he's just playing he looks the same, he looks like his dad looks just like he did the Bahubali that we've been following the entire movie. Yeah. So, but but I like the fact that they're drawing them closer and closer. It's coming to a head. And then it's like, Okay, we're gonna take a moment and tell you what got us to this point, which I appreciate that I needed to know it well.

And that's and again like it's it's just interesting because I don't think that would have been the choice that would have been made if they had been telling it as a as a Western style meriatige. Oh yeah, it wouldn't have. But it works really well here and I think it also, I mean, again, it leads to some confusion, but I think ultimately with the right decision to have Pravas play his father playing the dual role, I think it is obviously kind of confusing because they could look the same they don't look any different. I mean, they could have had him like a different style of facial hair or a different kind of hair. He's just wearing armor as opposed to not wearing armor.

Like that kind of is what it comes down to. But it was so smart to have him playing the dual role that it works and it pays off, and it it doesn't feel like a gimmick, and it totally should have, and it totally would have, but it doesn't. It doesn't feel like a gimmick. But it also really helps kind of make you fall in love with the character that you saw to begin with all over again, because it is still the same actor playing the guy's dad, doing a lot of the same mannerisms, a lot of the same just playing the same character. So it doesn't really feel like we're not seeing him the entire movie, even though we aren't part of the story, like his journey to get to that point to see his uncle.

Here, there's like another tribe of people or another band of people that are I'm guessing we're outcasts from the city is kind of what I gather. Anyway, the the love interest enters at that point, and that whole story was kind of where the that that point of the movie is kind of where that joy we talked about kicked in. It was just this childlike joy this you know, he's pursuing this girl who's tough and like the warrior, and there is a moment where it's kind of like whoa by oh, belly, take a foot off the gas. But that girl. Let that poor girl make her own decision.

The I'm talking, I'm you're talking about the the musical number between the two of them where he's stripping her and spraying her at the water. Yeah, watching that part, I mean I get what's happening. It's trying to like get rid of the warrior part of her and like, hey, you know, let your beauty show. But how he's doing and it's like, who oh, buddy. I really like that actress Tamana.

I haven't seen her in anything else, and she's a again huge actress in Telugu and Tamil cinema. But she's she can stand up to the charisma bomb that is Promus. I mean he is he's a charismatic dude and like and and then so he has just I don't know, he looks like he's just one of those people that looks like a nice person, Like does that make sense? Like when he smiles, it's just like all right, like you've got me, You've you've got me, like and all you've got to do is just continue to be charming. And he's charming throughout like this.

This is a role that, again I don't think anybody could have played it, but with the right person in that role, it really sings. And he is just so damn charismatic that I watch him do anything, even play his own fop. Well, again, there might be like this cultural difference, but his whole pursuit of her I just found kind of silly, almost like fun silly. It could have been creepy, right right, Like he just keeps sneaking up on her and like tattooing her, tattooing her hand in the river while she's not paying attention. Yeah, which is a strange scene, but it it's it's a fucking weird it's it's it's again, It's not like it's just weird because again, like this is a scene that this is a scene between two characters that in any other context would not work this well, and yet it does here.

Yeah, and at one point in the movie. And at one point, and when I say by one point, I mean when he's introduced, they introduce him by having him wrestle a massive bull barehead grabs the bull by the horns, literally, and it's what a way to introduce the villain of your film. I guess, Holy shit, because at that point, now you know, Okay, here are these two herculean style characters, both strong ones happy and charismatic. The other one is just mean and I don't know, sticking the mud. Yeah, Like I will say, that's kind of the one issue I have with the film is I feel like and maybe again, maybe this is maybe this is rectified in bahu Bali the conclusion, but I was I felt a little lacking in the villain in the Baha Deva character.

He's just when we see him, because we don't really see him a whole lot. We see him a couple of times in the present day story, but he's a bigger force in the past story. Because the ultimate kind of conflict here is bah Bali was king because his mom, who was queen, said, whoever kills the head of this tribe of I guess nomadic Indian monsters like human monster people describe whoever kills their leader becomes king, and it's Balladeva and Bahu Bali, the dad Babu Bali. And even though Balladeva kills that guy, Babu Bali still becomes king. And that's the entire conflict that our movie is centering around.

Hers I guess kind of existing in the fallout of and well, it's because because of his ruthless methods to do so. The character of Bija La Deva played by Nassar, the man with the kind of uh, the deformed arm. He again, he's more the villain than Balladeva is. He's more kind of pushing the the issue of you know, you should have been king and you're not king and you are king now and we don't know how he is the prince now king. We don't know how until the end of the movie.

But I really kind of wanted more from Rana Dagubadi's character in this movie, and again, I'm sure we'll see more of it in the conclusion, because while he's the main villain, at least that's what we're led to believe here going into the end of this movie, but he's not really a villain in those past scenes. Like you said, he's just kind of his methods may be a little too extreme for everybody to get on board with. One of the key moments of that hole, like, whoever kills this guy will be king. One of the methods that he does is he mows through a bunch of his own people to get to this guy that he's supposed to kill. Whereas Babubali saves the people and the lion here is a warrior can become a hero by killing ten people in a battlefield, but by saving one life, a warrior becomes a god.

Oh heavy, well, and I think that that, I mean, it ties right into kind of it's a little on the nose that Bahubali looks like his dad, right, m hm, right, I mean again, like it it makes sense, But when you have a line like that in the movie, it kind of puts it into context of the epic nature and scale of the film kind of makes more sense than a generational tale of kind of like again the chickens coming home to roost in a way, because by the end of the movie were shown that a character who has scruples clearly like beyond having scruples, the Katapata or I guess that Katatapa. I guess that's Katapa. The Katapa character played by Sathuraj He he has scruples throughout the entire movie. He gets to try, he tries to be bought at one point, and he's the leader of the armed forces for Babu Bali you know, in the past and Balla Deva in the present.

He has scrupled, but by the end of the movie, we figure out why Bahubali's dad is dead and it has to do directly with him, and it again, I think it just for the reinforces. This kind of like the you know, like everything happens for a reason, and boy, now we're gonna have to see what happens when you know, again the gods have their way with the situation, and it's interesting, Like it's an interesting kind of layer to the story that I wasn't necessarily expecting. Yeah, that did kind of come out of lust Field. Did not expect that. I like the Katapa character, especially that duel that he has at the beginning of the movie with that trader who's trying to buye him.

He's kind of a bad ass and I like that he's like an older guy. It's not like, you know, it's not a younger character. We have this kind of like old bad ass guy kicking the ass of this this trader who comes to a I guess he comes to kind of like gets set all sorts. I guess so, and he's trying to I guess, sell his sell his wares and really talk up his wares. But I like that while we do have a you know, the Katapa character and Avantika, the female character played by Timana, I like that they are in the movie, but it really is more or less Promise is filmed throughout.

I mean he is he owns Yeah, he owns it. And again, to the detriment of the movie, do we have somebody like Rana Dagubody being underused. But Promise is so good it kind of elevates everything else. I'm not really missing a villain because he's such a good hero. And yeah, I mean the Kala Kea tribe there are so interesting to look at and so kind of mustache twirlingly dastardly.

Really that I'm okay with them being the stand in villains for the second act of this movie. But I really hope in the sequel we get to see more of how kind of how much of a bastard Rana Dagubody is or how much of a bastard he isn't And this is just you know, put upon him again, it's not really clear because we don't really get to spend a whole lot of time with him in the present. Yeah, it definitely had me. I was hooked on it, and so when it ended and how it hit ended, I had that moment of ah, come on, and I wanted more. I want to see more of a Bali character.

I want to see more of everybody. Well, and that's the thing. I think that is the thing for me. You know about this movie, you know when we get to the end and we have this kind of revelation that you know, Katapa killed Bahubali's dad, He's the reason effectively all of this has happened. I feel like it is a little bit of a cheat because I don't know, you know, we always talk about like did they tell a complete narrative here?

I kind of doesn't feel like they did. And that is a little bit of a problem for me, just because again, yes, I know that there is another movie, but at one point there wasn't another movie. It was just this one, and I don't feel like the movie necessarily tells a complete narrative. I feel like it does a good job of setting up a narrative that we're going to see in the next movie, but people had to wait over two years to see the conclusion. Oh wow, yeah like that.

I have a little I take a little bit of an issue with that, because they don't really tell a whole st here. If they had told the second act entirely and it ended, because that's the thing, they're gonna have to go back to the past in the next movie because they're gonna show us how Katapa killed Bahubali's dead. They have to write. While I like that, they more or less land the complex narrative of the movie. I think by it being so kind of narratively disjointed by the time that they're doing, you know, the flashback halfway through the movie, I feel like it does undercut a whole movie existing here.

It feels like half of the story for two stories. It feels like half of the story. It feels like half of the story for the past and half of the story for the present and button up right, and it feels like they might have wanted to tell one of those as a complete narrative in one of these movies, because it is kind of a cheat, and I might be a little upset if I had seen this movie in the theaters and it was like it ended that way. I'm like, ah, fuck, Really, it's like in the Hobbit you remember in the second Hobbit movie where like, you know, just leaves the cave and then you see him flying over the city. It's like that.

It's like, man, you couldn't have even given us a conclusion to one of the stories because I mean, yeah, we see that Bahubali becomes king, but that is only half of that story. Yeah, you buy a movie ticket to go see one movie, you get to in one movie, and neither one gets concluded. Yeah, they're both really compellingly told. That's why I think we're both completely willing to give it a pass. But yeah, if this movie were not as successful as it is, I would one hundred percent have a issue with it, and it would really undercut how successful this movie because again, yes, there is a second movie that we can totally just watch right now as opposed to talking about the first one.

But that wasn't the case when it came out, and that's how we're watching this, and it's one hundred and fifty eight minutes on its own, Like that's that is to almost two movies. So you spent almost two movies telling half of a story of two stories. It's a little that's a little underwhelming, unfortunately, But yeah, what we get is so exciting and different and unique that it really just I kind of forget, and that's that's the important part. But it does kind of fair mentioning because most of the time it's not that successful. Nine times out of ten, they're not this successful because we've seen it.

And again, like mentioning the Hobbit or I'm sure we could start rattling off plenty of other movies that are kind of not a full story. They tell two thirds of a story and then the conclusion comes in another movie it ever comes at all. So we've seen plenty of movies that it's setting up another movie that never even happens. So like Jesus Christ, I'm not sure that's any better than this, probably worse. Frankly, Yeah, it guarantees that second movie ticket, if anything.

How did so how did you feel about the CGI and kind of the special effects in this movie. Well, I mean, you could tell it wasn't like a twenty twenty three CGI. I mean, but I think it was still well done in the areas that they did it, Like that huge statue they were trying to erect, like that looked good, like that that seemed like a fit right in. Like you couldn't really tell too much that that was CGI is well done in some parts. In some parts it was a little not there.

I think the spots where I was noticing kind of maybe less polish was towards the end of the film and a lot of the fight scenes it felt like they were using some tricks to maybe get around better CGI than they had. Like a lot of the like kind of far away shots of them on the battlefield are they'll look great where they're trying to like set you know, Rana Dago body or provase like in the thick of the fight and try to show that there's an actual battle going on around them and it's not just them with a green screen in the background. Like it doesn't look great, but the stuff at the beginning with the waterfall and all of that, it's so bright and colorful even and if it doesn't look amazing. It makes up for it by being kind of stylistically interesting to look at and so different from again like you, like you mentioned at the top here, like this movie really has a lot of like heart and joy and you can tell that everyone making it was having a good time together.

And like we were talking about with you know, everything being just a franchise. Now, that's such a cynical way of looking at it, but it's true. Like anymore, I don't know how much joy and love goes into making stuff that we consume like this, because my assumption, as I'm sure your assumption, is it's all very soulless and corporate. Yeah, just coming to do a job right, getting your check. I don't know how true that is.

I don't know how real true to life that is. But when we see you know, thirteen million Marvel things in the span of ten years, or however many failed DC things or failed universe you know, connected universe attempts, like the universal our universe stuff, it all feels kind of corporatety and not for the reason the right reasons. You know. I'm sure ss Roger Billy is not complaining that there's a franchise surrounding Bahubali now with novels and an upcoming TV show and a video game and a sequel to the first film. Sure he's not complaining went on to make Triple R, which has a sequel to it coming out.

I'm sure nobody's complaining about these movies being successful, but that was wasn't the intent going into this was to make a franchise for a comparison, just about people really enjoying what they do. Is Tom Hittleston played Loki and he's appeared I think in the most marvel things out of any character, right. I think by now, like is he still like, yeah, I'm Lokey. I'm gonna come in and be Loki wa yeah? Or is it like that'd be an interesting want you know?

Interesting thing to know is like by now, is it like, okay, I gotta do Loky right? Like was Robert Downey Junior not wanting to do Iron Man because he was done? Or was it because he wanted to work on other things? Right? Like I'm with you like it again?

Like there's two movies and a TV show coming out with Babu Bali and there's other kind of related epemera. But we're not getting Bahubali movies from here until eternity. You know, That's what we're getting with brah Mastra. At least that's their intention, their you know, outward intention, as they've said as much. You know, I feel like it'll be interesting to see if that continuous need for content that we clearly have here is one that is going to be reflected with stuff like brah Mastra, with movies and books and blah blah blah TV and everything.

Weize more juice out of the orange, right, Like, I wonder if how will that be received in India versus how we receive it, because again there's the whole DC and Marvel fanboys, which are just people who consume the content with you know, essentially with no filter. Is what the way of the way of direct those people, right? I don't think it's a fair criticism. I mean it's a criticism. I'm not sure how fair it is.

Like I know that there are plenty of people that are fanboys that do have discerning taste. But I wonder if something like this is something that will be received positive in Indian culture because again, like for us, I get why we're into tons of content all the time being bombarded with stuff. But Ramastra maybe won't be as successful that MCU style of storytelling. This had a definitive you know, definite one two, that's it. So yeah again, which I actually I mean, like you mentioned a bit of an old school storytelling, old school way of doing a movie, and I actually like having part one part two it's over that way.

If I ever wanted to go back and watch the story again, I can watch part one, part two and it's over again. If I ever wanted to do that with Marvel stuff, my god, I'm going to be watching stuff for years well and to the point where the story is still going, well, twelve years on now, thirteen years on, whatever the fuck it is. It's fifteen years, isn't it. Yeah? Oh eight, which, like it's cool to expand the universe.

But then if I ever wanted to like like share with my kids, oh you got to see this movie, well, now they've seen this one, they have to see all the others. I get that's the idea, right, But then it's like, well that's now, and now we're in this committed thing that we have to get through. Right, We've, as they say, we've opened this box, and now we're really like, and you know, like you just said, I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, but it is such a modern way of doing things that the expectation is more and more and more and more and more, like, oh my god, we're hitting more of this. How are you doing? How are you only doing two seasons?

You should be doing thirty seasons and keep printing money. And again, we talk about it a lot on the Culture Cast, and we've not really talked about it here because frankly, this may come as a surprise, and I think I've mentioned it when we've done these before. I don't know how many times I've mentioned it with other folks. Sequels in Indian cinema not a fucking thing. Not a thing.

Like there's DDLJ, there's no sequel to DDLJ. There's Kuskuch Hoo to Hi, which is a spiritual sequel, has a lot of the same actors but not the same characters. And then there's K three G similar to Kuchkuch hoota Hi similar to d DLJ, but different characters being played by the same actors. In American cinema or Western cinema, you would have had DDLJ three times, it wouldn't have been three different movies with different characters. This, you know, Bahubali having a sequel again not not as surprising as what went ended up happening and what they're trying to do with Brahmstra where it's actually a sequel.

This is less of a sequel for Bahubali but more of like the actual full story. That's I think. I mean, going back to my complaint with this movie, like it's not a full movie. It's just not. Yeah, they just didn't want to keep people in the movie theater seats for six hours, right, because I mean that's really well we're talking about this movie is one hundred and fifty eight minutes and Maajobali two is one hundred and seventy one minutes.

It's longer by ten minutes. I mean, that is it. That's a day's worth of watching a movie. But like you said, it's a day and that's it. It's not I don't even know what.

I don't know what it would take right now if you sat down and watched Iron Man too, I guess whatever's coming out next month, Quantum Mania. If you watched everything from Iron Man to quantumnia. What that would take including TV shows one shots, all the TV shows. I'm talking Shield, I'm talking fucking ghost writers, ghosts. I guess ghost Writer never had a show, but the not the Eternals, the other one, the one that the one that was on TV that they referenced in Doctor Strange, but like nobody actually thought anybody thought about it, the show with Anson Mount, Like there's all these weird things that you would have to watch to really get a entire understanding of the story.

And who knows how long that would take. Unrealistic amount of time is what, And it's I think it is kind of like it's made us as consumers cynical because there's never just and that's it, even when it's something like Halloween ends, like even everybody assumes like, well, they're gonna just make more. Anyways, it might not be that storyline, but like people want, right because the expectation is I want more and you will give me more. And you know, there's two Bahubali movies and a TV show like okay, that can be enough. That can be enough.

I know very little about the sequel. I know that there is you know, the second part of the story and it is a longer movie, and the poster for Bahubali the conclusion looks epic as fuck. But I don't know where the story goes because I'm genuinely invested in the story, and that, I think, for me, is something that I cannot say for most of the big budget content that I consume, that I'm genuinely invested, and I think that, again, that's a massive success here that the storytelling part, the actual narrative, as much as they don't finish it, it doesn't get lost. It's not secondary to the action. It is as important to the filmmakers as the action it.

I was just looking up the artwork. Yeah, that does look epic, right, looks awesome. And the thing about this movie that I also appreciate is when we say something is epic, like that's a subjective term. There's not really one definition for it. It's kind of a catch all definition we could use, like you mentioned, you know, Moses, like ten Commandments, ben her Lawrence of Arabia, like big epic, huge productions.

Yeah, that doesn't happen anymore. And not only does it not happen, but when it happens in American cinema, it's comic book movies or Star Wars movies. I'm not as invested in those movies as I am in something like this. They actually put in time and effort into this to get me invested in characters that I had no entry point for before I watched the movie. Yeah.

Yeah, it was a complete blank slate. How wild is that I'm more in in Baghu Bali than I ever was in Ben Affleck as Batman, a character that I genuinely have an immense amount of love and affection for outside of the films. I love Batman as a superhero. I'm more invested in Bagu Bali in his films than I ever was in a Batman character in DC's films. Yeah, I get that, And it goes back to the storytelling and the way that they do it and the fact that, again you have these charismatic leads just being able to convey to the audience without talking who they are as a character and what you're kind of expecting them to do.

Because again, I think that's a big success here. This movie is just an opportunity to not need to have dialogue that anybody really cares about. Again, it's really good and I'm really invested. But you can watch this without it. Yeah yeah, now you've got me thinking, I want to go watch it in one of the other languages or dialects.

It's different. Again, my preferred is probably teleg Telegu because again, I mean that's Probus is a a telgu actor, and if he is the lead, like I would prefer to see him in his native dialect that he's known for. But again, the Hindu one and the Tamil one have their own kind of flavor to them. This is a fun movie. I mean, this is a movie that is less needs to be watched and more needs to be experienced because there's nothing like it other than Triple R.

But there was nothing else like Triple R other than this mm hm. And you haven't seen Triple R yet though, right, I have not. I'll like, god, oh my god, it's it's kind it's it's the because this is this is set in kind of the Sword in Armor times, right, Triple R is set more in the British occupation, but it's this level of I guess, like over the top action and I don't like, what would you call this because it's not a superhero movie, but the characters are doing super human things like bab bally picking up the giant I forget what it's called the Lingam Lord Siva Lingam and he's walking down with it. I mean, that's a superhero thing. He's a superhero, but he's not my Yeah, and we just don't have that anymore, And like it's so weird because that, for the longest time was a huge part of storytelling, was going back to these old Greek and Roman myths of Hercules and Zeus and all on Haites and all of that.

Like that has a place in pop culture. It's just so much fun to see the Indian version of that in a lot of ways, and how different and now unique and how fun and again how completely over the top. And the best way, this movie is just like Triple R. And whatever the sequel to Triple R is will probably be even more bombastic and even more over the top than this, because mind you, this is over the top. Triple R is even more over the top than this movie because again you've got guns and swords and cars and motorcycles and it's more contemporary, so imagine what this movie is like but with access to more contemporary things.

And then you can go through all the machinations in your head of what that movie looks like, because you know what, it's even more insane than you're imagining it is. If this were an American film, who would you cast as Bahubali? I'm not sure there's anybody who's who's charismatic enough that can do it. Closest one that comes to my mind the Rock closest, but not. But like if ProBiS is one hundred, the Rock is like an eight out of one hundred, I think I honestly can say, and I take shit for take flack whatever.

I feel like Indian actors are just more charismatic than American actors Western I agree with that because there's parts of Bahubali that obviously the physical nature of the character. Yeah, the Rock could pull that off, but there's I can't picture the Rocks swimming up in a stream and tattoo in some girl's hand. There's a vulnerability to it that's there. It's a real human quality that doesn't feel fake. Yeah, put on, even even if it is a put on and promise is just acting.

I believe inherently that he has embodied that character completely. Yep, yep, Yeah, I can't You're right. I can't think anybody they can pull off that range of stuff that convincingly. Again, it's a convincing nature, right, Like, even even clearly someone like The Rock has his limitations. Black Adam was successful, but I don't think it was as a massive success as even he was expecting.

And I think that hurts someone like that's ability to perceive themselves as able to transcend as many boundaries as he can. Because again, The Rock is a massive movie star who is popular all over the world because he is charismatic, but I think it pales in comparison to the natural charisma that Amir Khan, shahru Khan, Ron Beer Kapor prov us. I don't think that we really can comprehend it. I think we're just sitting and being in that moment with them. But like, I genuinely cannot comprehend the amount of love that these acts have in India because we just don't have that here.

We just don't. It's not a thing, it just isn't. I feel like that they're overjoyed to be doing what they do and shouldn't you And that's like shouldn't you? Wouldn't you aren't like, Yeah, that's you. You're completely right and that I think again, like you said, leaving a space for that in storytelling to really like let the audience know, I'm happy you're here, thank you for coming to see the movie.

I'm going to show you something that is indicative of who I am as a creator. And it's something that I really want to show you. I can. I don't want to be a cynic and say it's not there in American cinema, because it is. It's in an American cinema.

It's in a lot of Western cinema still. But I think the perception, and rightfully so is a lot of it has been drained because again, that doesn't make money, so why do it? And you know what, Bahu Bali is the highest grossing, fifth highest grossing Indian film ever and the thirteenth highest grossing Indian film worldwide, so wow, yeah, and Babo Bali two ended up being the highest grossing film of all time in India. So like again, and that's with something like triple R being out, Baho Bali two made fourteen hundred crore. That's a lot.

That's a lot. It's not endgame, but so what it It doesn't have to be. And frankly, it's more entertaining the endgame ever was because I don't know where this is going. This is a completely unique thing that is not based on it's something else, one to one. Even if it is inspired by something, it's not based on it.

It's not why I'm taking these characters and we're gonna do un Infinity War thing or an Infinity Gauntlet story. Like, you know the beats, even if we change them. You know the beats. Yeah, before the movie comes out, you know what's going to hit, right, even if you don't know exactly, you got the basic idea because it's a marvel uh. And maybe we'll get there with Indian cinema.

Maybe we will. I just I'm not there yet, and I'm enjoying the journey of not being there as long as I can. Same. I've been really enjoying watching these is. This is let me ask you, between this and brah Mastra, how do you where where you where?

Where are you picking? You picking this oo bet or dialogue here? Yeah? Yeah, especially in that realm, I'm probably more pulled into this. I mean, I'm excited to see where the Bramuster stuff goes with the astroverse.

But I am enjoying this movie more. I think this makes a case for like a contemporary epic done in the in the vein of ben Hur and the Ten Commandments in a way that those filmmakers would see this and go, oh my god, it would just they would be floored. They would be floored by this versus something like you know, Avengers Endgame or whatever the fuck, Like they would they would watch this and go wow, like what what a what a continuing kind of evolution of our genre. And again, these kinds of movies don't get made anymore in the States, and I'm glad that we're still able to enjoy them for all from India. And hopefully, you know again with something like Triple R getting a sequel, who knows, who knows how that'll be received here in the States.

But this is where it all started. Was Bahubali and Babo Bali was a big deal when it came out on Netflix, Like it wasn't like it was a couple of years ago, but it didn't just come to Netflix and nobody heard about it like it was a big deal. So definitely worth checking out on Netflix. And yeah, I mean you could you could do worse, But I'm not sure you could do better in this in this sphere of Indian cinema other than maybe Triple R. But they're different.

They're they're scratching different itches. This is an itch that is non gun, non British Violet related. You want to see the Brits get their cumuppons, watch Triple R. You want to see an epic on a grand scale, this is what you're gonna watch. They scratch a different itch, but they're in that they're on the same They're on the same kind of plane.

It's just different, different expectation. Any other CGI for crowds of people that are used, sure, but they're kind of like you mentioned the ben Hur stuff. The large scale of cast is kind of cool to see because that just adds, I don't know, a vastness to it that. I mean, you watch Endgame, you know most of the things that show up and End Game, you know at the climax of the movie is all CGI things. Right you look at Bagaballa, Yeah, there's some of that in those wide shots, but there are a lot of people on the screen and there's just something cool about that.

You feel that when you watch it. The scope and the scale. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I kind of mentioned it at the at the top of the episode. I feel like now that we're we've kind of mentioned the a specific part of the movie, the idea of shooting cloth soaked in some sort of flammable liquid onto a crowd of soldiers and then lighting it on fire. While it seems like it would be a no brainer, like I've never seen that in a movie, No, it's so weird because it makes sense they light them on fire when they're on the ground, but then they start lighting them on fire when they're in the air, which, like what does that do?

Just terrifying. I mean, it's it's a it's like you said, it's a unique visual that I've never seen before. And if that is and if that is something that excites you to see things you've never seen before in cinema, you're in the right place. The Triple Are has some ship that would like this movie has some stuff I've never seen before, but the Triple R continues it and like that's yeah, yeah, I like that into the of part one, like the different strategies being used in the in the battlefield and stuff. It was just kind of like, oh, that's cool.

I haven't seen that one before. Oh that's neat, And I appreciate the movie doesn't pull any punches with the violence, like people are getting heads, arms, legs cut off. Oh yeah, because there is you know, baj Bali the Sun does kind of he he does get a moment where he gets he gets to cut a guy's head off, which I really I really did appreciate that sage talk about style, just like in Oh my God, It's it's so good. He just shunk and it like cuts to him like the head flying through the air. It's it's so much fun.

But it like again, like I don't expect movies like this to kind of hew close to the reality of things with people getting their arms and legs cut off and it's showing it, but it's here, you go. I appreciate that, Like, I do appreciate that because it it's not kind of dumbing it down for me. For no reason, I want to watch a movie like this. I want to see them showing people getting their arms and legs cut off, like that's what what happens, or show it. Yep, this is a fun movie, man, I'm excited to watch the sequel.

Is that gonna be our next one. I guess the conclusion. It's not even the sequel, it's a conclusion. It's you can't call it as equal because there's no story without the movie. True.

Yeah, well, I wanted to ask you, do you want to do? You wanna do the next movie as the next thing? Okay, so I watch it anyway. So yeah, So the next time you hear Dustin and I doing an episode of the Bollywood Cinema Club, we're gonna be talking about twenty seventeen's Bahubally to the conclusion. So until then, I want to thank you Dustin for joining me.

Obviously, if you want to find more episodes of Dustin and I talking about the Bollywood Cinema Club, go to Bollywood Cinema Club dot com. But if you want to hear more episodes of Dustin and I not talking about Indian cinema, you can go on over to weirdingwaymedia dot com, where you can find episodes of the Culture Cast where Dustin and I talk about all kinds of different stuff, not just Indian cinema shocking, I know. Or if you want to hear us talk about some other stuff, just one nine hundred what knowsat number and yeah for everything else Weirdingwaymedia dot Com, along with this show and so many other fantastic shows being made by the crew over at weirdingwaymedia dot com. Like, rate and review the show on iTunes and Spotify or wherever you get the show, and we'll catch you on the next episode.