I know we remember, because we have been obsessively crawling through this film moment by moment and scene by scene. But would anybody else? (part 21 here, you can crawl back through the archives from there)
Previously, a whole bunch of stuff happened! Rana evilly manipulated events so that Prabhas 1 would be taken out of the line of succession and then killed. He tried to kill Baby Prabhas 2, and control Queen Mother Ramya, but Ramya escaped with the baby. The only enemy left was Anushka, who Rana obsessed over for 25 years, keeping her locked in a cage, while Baby Prabhas 2 was being raised far away from all this in the forest where Ramya managed to hide him away before dying. 25 years later, through a series of coincidences and fate, Prabhas 2 ends up rescuing his mother and hearing the entire life story of his father. He is furious about everything he has just been told and immediately orders that the word be put out, they are going to battle IMMEDIATELY.
I talked in my last section about how differently Prabhas 2 handled the battle prep than his father would have. It’s a sign of what different people they are, Prabhas 2 always sees his way forward and goes for it. Prabhas 1 sees his way, but then waits for the perfect moment and the perfect setting and the perfect allies before moving forward. Which is often what causes him to lose ground, if he was a little more impatient, a little less striving for perfection, he might have had a happier life.
But the other thing I find interesting is to consider the allies that Prabhas 2 brings with him to his final battle. Prabhas 1 never really had any “allies”, at least not like this. His relationships outside of his inner circle were always over-shadowed by his mother, and his position. Whereas Prabhas 2 was just plain friendly! And nice and open and welcoming. He was down on the ground with everyone else making friends and getting his hands dirty. The kind of connections Prabhas 1 only was able to build with Kattappa, Anushka, and Subbaraju at the very end of his life when he started to feel comfortable and able to interact as a person, instead of always as a prince. But Prabhas 2 is newly come to his royal status, he had 25 years of learning to connect on a human level and ask for help when he needed it.
(Remember before this song started, he had tried asking his mother to stop, asking the priest to stop her, and asking his father for help. Only then did he do it for himself)
And so Prabhas 2 brings with him the forest tribe he grew up with, the Kuntala rebels who trust him based on Tamannah’s word before they even knew he was the king, Kattappa’s elite band of soldiers who similar trust him on Kattappa’s word (and Prabhas 2 has no problem accepting Kattappa as his “grandfather” who he asks for help), and finally the villagers and peasants who Prabhas 2 saw and heard cheering for him at the statue raising. Oh! And who he helped save at the statue raising! Not as a gesture of kingly nobility, but just because they needed help, and he had been raised to pitch in and help others as needed.
Prabhas 2’s battle plan is based on the strengths and weaknesses of his allies, not a perfect concept of battle. Part of that strength is their devotion to him and willingness to follow, and he does not discount that in his planning. Remember back in the Kalakeya battle, how the army started to fall back until Prabhas 1 went back and reminded them what they were fighting for? Prabhas 2 doesn’t have to remind them, because they are fighting for something from the beginning, for something they care about, not just army pay and following orders. And that’s one of their biggest assets, that the will follow him where ever he leads, without retreat or hesitation.
Prabhas 2’s plan is also based on the strengths and weaknesses of his enemies. I don’t think he sat down and worked out in his head “Rana doesn’t know his son is dead, and is obsessed with Anushka, and doesn’t know I am alive, let’s start by shocking him with all these things which will cause him to fly into a rage and lose all sense of battle tactics”. I think Prabhas 2 doesn’t work out stuff like that, he just makes these amazing leaps from conception of idea to execution without worrying about failing. Remember how he climbed the waterfall? Like that. So he declares they are going to battle immediately, rattles off all the people to be gathered as allies, and then immediately moves into orders for battle, no pause to explain even to himself why these things should be so.
And now we come to the part where you have to remember something that happened aaaaaaalllllllllll the way back in hour 2 of the first film. Which is probably why we also saw it in the opening credits part of this film. The whiny irritating sexually gross son of Rana was the one who went off to bring back Anushka after Prabhas 2 rescued her. He was beating her and insinuating nasty things about her, so Prabhas 2 beat him up and then beheaded him. As I said in the post in the relevant section, this is a clear parallel with the moment when Prabhas 1 similarly executed a man for misbehaving with a woman, after having been incited into a rage by seeing Anushka in chains.
It’s hard to remember, but for Rana, all that happened just now. He wasn’t part of the flashback journey that our heroes (and the audience) have all been on for the past 3 hours. For Rana, in the past 24 hours, the name “Bahubali” was chanted in the square exactly as it had been 26 years earlier at his coronation, he started obsessing over it and then caught a glimpse of Prabhas 2 in the throne room in disguise, and shortly afterwards Anushka was rescued. Rana has suspicions that Prabhas 2 might be back, but on the other hand, he is also the only person who can be sure he is dead. Remember, Ramya was shot from a great distance, alone in the palace courtyard, and immediately slipped into the water and disappeared. Even Nassar didn’t witness the arrow striking her and the body falling. Sure, intellectually Rana knows that Prabhas 2 must have died with Ramya, but the doubt could make him crazy.
I think doubt has been Rana’s problem for 25 years. Not doubt in Prabhas 2’s death in particular, but doubt of everything. Do the people really love him, is the kingdom fully under his control, is he still as young and strong and powerful as he once was? Remember, our introduction to him is fighting off a bull, clearly challenging himself against the greatest opponent he could find just to prove that he could win. And watching him from the sidelines are his son and his father, the two people he needs most to provide validation and reinforcement of his worldview.
And in this little glimpse we get of him before the final battle, we see what has always been his security blanket against those doubts, his chains on Anushka. She was living proof that he had conquered Prabhas 1, that he was “better” than Prabhas 1, that his mother was dead and gone, that the kingdom was his. But it was a double edged sword, because she was also proof that he hadn’t achieved all these things. So long as Anushka was in chains, he could be happy. But until she admitted defeat, gave into him by word or deed, he would never feel secure. Now, with Anushka gone, his happiness is gone and his security is on the weakest balance it has been in ages.
(I wanted a photo of Rana with a teddy bear, but such a photo does not exist, so you will have to make do with this)
This is everything that Prabhas 2 understood instinctively, in the same way he knew the exact place to grab the branch to save himself from falling down the waterfall. And so he arranged for the first sight that Rana sees of his enemy to be Anushka, out of her chains and more defiant than ever, carrying the head of his son, one of the two people on whom his power and sense of self rests. And finally, behind her, Prabhas 2 slowly reveals himself, the perfect culmination to drive Rana to complete distraction.
Oh, before moving on, can we take a moment for the telescope which Rana is using to view all this? So STRANGE!!! I mean, I am pretty sure the science is sound, having a row of crystals cut to varying thicknesses would turn into a telescope. But first, it made me go “wait, do they not have glass in Mahishmati? Have we seen glass anywhere?” And second, WHY DOES HE NEED HIS ASSISTANT TO PUT IN THE LAST CRYSTAL PIECE??? Why not have it just always set up with all the crystals lined up? Is it like at the top of the Empire State building, you have to hand the assistant 5 cents and then he will activate the telescope for you? Is this a sign of how petty and money grubbing Mahishmati has become, that they don’t leave their telescopes unlocked for just anyone to use?
(See, the cheating spouses of Mahishmati can’t use this telescope, because the first crystal is missing!)
Moving on, with great difficulty, we now reach one of those points where you just have to accept physics as fluid and changeable depending on if Right is on your side. Like when you watch a Rohit Shetty car chase. I really don’t think that a) you can shoot an arrow through a skull that is in the air already in such a way that it will perfectly land in someone’s hands, and b) that said skull would survive the trip without getting all smooshy. But I’m not going to complain, because I don’t really want to see a realistically smooshy decapitated head, with the brain leaking out and the face kind of dented and all.
I like how Rana’s immediate reaction to his son’s death is to vow to build up a funeral pyre out of all who witnessed the death. It is very very telling of his character. His response is not sorrow, or even vengeance, but rather embarrassment? He wants to save face, his focus is on who saw this event occur, this event which is shameful for him as a king and a father. It was a similar reaction to the shouting of Bahubali’s name at the statue raising, he wanted to know where it started and how.
I think this might be the price of his careful self-control in his early life. Over and over again, for 25 years, he played not exactly the fool, but the humble one. He let Prabhas 1 twit him without reacting, he accepted his mother’s obvious lack of interest in him without complaint. He even refused to join in and encourage his father’s complaints on his behalf. And his greatest plan involved forcing a woman to publicly humiliate him. It all wore away at his soul little by little. And now, any moment where he appears to be ignored, made fun of, insulted, it destroys him.
Rana goes to war not with planning of any kind, even the loose plans that Prabhas 2 made. He is driven so mad with rage, and the need to prove his strength, that he sends his army out thoughtlessly, into the trap set by Prabhas 2. And notice this trap relies on Rana being not just crazed with anger, but in discounting the very people that Prabhas 2 is counting on.
Rana knows that Kattappa went out the night before with his elite devoutly loyal band of soldiers and has not returned. But he doesn’t even consider that they might have joined Prabhas 2 in rebellion. He knows that Prabhas 2 is backed by villagers and farmers, but he doesn’t consider that they might have unique skills that will be hard to combat with army training. Because Rana doesn’t consider Kattappa, or the lessor people of the kingdom, at all. Someone (the comment was anonymous, feel free to identify yourself) posted that Rana’s exact order to Ramya was to announce Prabhas 1’s death because the “lambs” are bleating in the courtyard. That’s how he sees the people, as lambs.
That’s closer to how Prabhas 1 saw them than how Prabhas 2 does. Prabhas 1, when he allied in battle with the common people, sent Kattappa to act as liaison. I don’t think he really knew how to talk to people the way Prabhas 2 does. How could he? He has been trained his whole life to protect others, to throw himself in front and ahead of them. Whereas Prabhas 2 has been taught that they are the same as he. And so his battle plan is a very “use every part of the buffalo” kind of plan. He knows the farmers/forest people may not be able to use weapons, but they can help set-up boobytraps and throw stones, something the army will not know how to combat. So his first line of defense is to use them. And then to bring in Kattapa’s troupe from the side, the trained warriors ready to fight and die without hesitation who need less of an element of surprise. And finally the rebels from Kuntala as skirmish fighters, coming into the battle and breaking through the ranks.
And everything kind of works, until Rana himself joins the battle. At which point they lose, but win. Or win, but lose. But I will have to get into that tomorrow.
dontcallitbollywood 
But isn’t Rana told about how Kattappa is leading a rebellion right before the fight begins.
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Yea and then nassar gives a weird reaction and says his name, “Kattapa” in an accusatory tone.
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Not the night before but immediately before the telescope scene. The exact words are
“Maharaja, kattappa has gathered all the villagers and people – who chanted against him during statue coronation – into an open rebellion”
When this was said Nazar is shocked at sudden lack of loyalty and Rana is confused.
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Yeah. I said right before the fight begins as in immediately before, not the night before 🙂
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Oops 😛
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And for Rana his obsession with Anushka must have stemmed from the fact that she was the only person left Alive who prabhas 1 truly loved. Though kattapa was also there, I think by that point Rana would have started to think that he was his dog, seeing as he killed prabhas 1. So all his attention shifted to Anushka. Torturing her by putting her in chains because he knew what prabhas 1’s reaction was to that. It was like he was trying to spite him even after his death. Kind of like, “Ha! In your face. I chained your wife. Watcha gonna do about that small bro.” That’s the moment when his true psychotic inner self broke out and then there was no turning back. All those people who loved prabhas 1 and chanted his name during coronation, ” Die, burn all of you. Go bankrupt. Hahaha while I watch you all from my high throne.”
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Yes! In a weird way, the film shows the emptiness of envy. Because he will never really feel like he conquered Prabhas. Or rather, if he does conquer him, he will immediately feel empty and look for a new place to put his hatred.
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That I would say is the most sickest person/character I come across. I can understand anger and frustration and even madness forced by circumstances.
But Rana seems more like he has a big inventory full of hatred and evil, he is looking for places to put it. Instead of emptying much inventory he is filling up more and more inventories. His cruelty took vulgar and more darker turns as film progressed.
I am so sick of him, like if I see him in real life (I mean balls not actor Rana) I would keep my distance from him and never interact with him in any manner.
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Oh my foot. Typo again
Balls = bhalladeva
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What I love about how the character is portrayed is that it never feels unbelievable. Yes, he is sick and bad and wrong. But in a way that I can follow and which tracks through both films. It’s not one of those things where the bad guy kicks puppies and murders children for no reason. In his own twisted way, Rana has reasons for everything he does and everything follows through from one point to the next.
On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 9:16 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Most annoying thing about bhalladeva is that he keeps silent and let others do the talking. It is both sick and brilliant at the same time.
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I took took friends to B2 who had not seen B1 and it was very funny having to explain the severed head to them as briefly as possible. They had already forgotten its (his?) earlier appearance.
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That’s interesting. Did they still enjoy the movie even though they hadn’t seen part one? Did they end up seeing part one afterwards?
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I don’t know if they have seen the first movie yet, but they both loved B2 and were cheering and clapping during the final battle. And I gave them both the link to Einthusian, which is the best streaming source here in the USA.
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That poor actor, I don’t think I even looked up his name! His character just exists to be beheaded.
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His name is Adivi Sesh and he’s an upcoming young actor. He co-wrote and acted in a thriller called Kshanam (“Moment”) which went to become a sleeper hit last year. It was made on a budget of 2 crores and it ended up becoming one of the biggest hits out of the small budget films to come out. Kshanam was actually a pretty good movie if you want to check it out. Here’s the trailer with subtitles:
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This is so cool, you and Moimeme answered almost simultaneously and slightly differently! It’s like a tiny tiny version of crowdsourcing.
On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 11:50 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I forgot about Kshanam, but those were some of the interviews of Adivi Sesh’s that I looked up. It was fascinating to learn that he did so much more than just acting.
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His name is Adivi Sesh, and he is actually a good friend of Prabhas. After BB1 released, when I was just looking up random interviews of Prabhas, I found one where he was the lead in a film either produced by Prabhas’s company, or by his close friends. Anyway Prabhas was there to lend some star power to the production, and their interaction was quite delightful.
I should add, he also comes across as a very nice and intelligent person. I watched some other interviews of his (Adivi Sesh’s) just because of that.
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Wait which Adivi Sesh movie are you talking about? I know he acted in Run Raja Run which Prabhas’s company produced but that was more of supporting role with Sharwanand playing the lead.
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Yes, it was Run Raja Run. So I misremembered about who played the lead. It was Sujeeth’s first film as a director, right?
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Yup! I quite liked it when I saw it but I’m still not sure about Saaho. Apparently Run Raja Run had a budget around 4 crores and now they’re apparently handing a budget of 150 crores to Sujeeth for Saaho.
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Didn’t Sujeeth direct another movie after RRR? So Saaho would be his third movie, I think. Also, most of the budget is going into the production, since it is some grand science fiction story. Prabhas and the UV guys (as well as others in the industry) all seem to be extremely impressed by Sujeeth’s talents and vision, so let us hope for the best.
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Nope, Sujeeth was to do Prabhas’s next after Baahubali and he’s been waiting ever since. Originally, they said that Prabhas is going to finish Sujeeth’s film in the gap between Baahubali 1 and Baahubali 2 but then I think they realized that there isn’t going to be enough time to do that.
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I think two points need special mention here.
– we see during mahishmati anthem song in B1 how Rana is so cruel to people and snatching away all the gold. So clearly people are frustrated and rebellious already before prabahs2 came. All they needed was a spark and a leader. As everything came together, like lyrics in Shiva song explain about fate/destiny created by god, conspiracy theories broken and suddenly they have a leader. All the nearby villagers respond and far more people who haven’t visited capital city yet for ceremony are to come. So rana is obvious pushed into defense mode for his own safety.
– also with the most loyal person like kattappa shifting his loyalty would mean rana can no longer trust on a normal soldier to put for him. I bet soldiers were also frustrated by him. So, before soldiers abandon him he should be go defensive. As battle passes and he sees kattappa’s elite force facing his own soldiers he decides it’s enough and lets hold on to our defenses until we can find a battle plan to crush this rebellion.
Hey Margaret, I listened to second podcast with moviemangel and it’s awesome. Keep it going, but both of you speaking into same mic like baahubali2 review podcast would help. Thanks.
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The Baahubali2 review was me and my friend Dina. We go to the movies together every week, and record together in the car ride home. Unfortunately, moviemavengal and I live a lot farther apart, so we have to record over Skype. It’s not the best.
As the battle continues, it’s fascinating to see how rapidly Rana’s disregard for the common soldier is going to turn against him.
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It looks like some time has passed from Prabhas1 hearing the story and then dressing up to go into battle. I wish they showed us how he got his father’s armour and earrings. I mean, I am sure Katappa must have given them to him but the actual scene would have been nice.
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So many actual scenes would have been nice! I really really hope the DVD has them included
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Oops, I meant Prabhas2!
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My friend has a family friend who was classmates with Rajabali, Rajamouli’s cousin, who worked on the film. Apparently, they were thinking about cutting Kanna Nidurinchina and making the last battle longer but then they decided not to.
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I forgot to mention. Your friend’s voice is sweet. Convey her my greetings.
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Dina? She does have a nice voice, doesn’t she?
On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 9:51 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Can I just say how much I am enjoying the community here? I have coffee with you every morning!
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I feel the same. I happened to come across this community two days back when I was googling hidden stories in bahubali 2. And basically I think I learnt more about that movie here than from watching it three times.
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That’s so nice to hear! I am enjoying this a lot too. I always get comments on the blog, and I always enjoy them but the Bahubali comments have been a little extra special.
I don’t want it to end, but I know the movie will end eventually. I am in the middle of a similar scene by scene of DDLJ, but if you have a suggestion of any other film that you would be interested in this kind of discussion, let me know. I am happy to pick right up with something else once Bahubali ends.
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I am too! In the last 10 or so months, I’ve really grown to love spending time here 🙂
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Unrelated to the post…on how social media has colouring/ruining my movie watching experience in recent times.Case in point is baahubali the conclusion.
-The posters were awesome and I wish I limited myself to only these promos.
-The trailer was actually pretty good but it revealed the Ramya lifting the baby scene which would have been so much better if I saw it the first time in the theatre(same goes for the bb1 trailer revealing a lot more plot points and few scenes like the waterfall jump scene,etc.)
-I couldn’t see the movie on the 1st day and coz of my excitement and coz of me being part of the twitter world could not but glance at some opinions.They were damning of the comedy /romance (which actually enhanced those scenes for me),they said the interval scene was out of this world(which I liked but somehow would have been better if I didn’t know this info),I somehow also saw a post on a headcutting scene of the army general(u can imagine how I could predict what was to happen after prabhas enters the court in the 2nd half),I also saw a post on #wkkb with the reason being Kattappa killing coz he loved devasena(glad that was wrong).
-With all this happening I also saw the last paras of some reviews of so called reputed reviewers and was left disappointed with some of them.
-After this I saw the film on the second day and while leaving the theatre was pleasantly surprised,esp with the Wkkb sequence but felt I had only enjoyed 60%-75% of what could have been an amazing experience.Damn u social media and my restless mind.
Btw I am not reading this particular section ,after the sad bits coz I don’t want to colour my memories of ,what I felt was, a really well executed, cathartic part of the movie.Will join for discussions of other movies.
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I have started to have a very different relationship to promotions and information about films since I started blogging. The only way I can be sure I am giving my opinion and analysis, completely and totally original, is if I am careful not to read anything anyone else says.
But, what I do let myself do is follow the official promotions. A well-crafted promotional campaign is its own story, lets the creators build the audience to the exact right kind of expectation before either surprising them, are fulfilling all they expected. So I will read the tweets that the actors/producers put out, and watch the teasers and the trailers, and look at the poster images. But I won’t read comments from “regular people” on twitter, or journalists discussion the teasers and trailers, or anything else beside the raw product.
On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 8:27 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Good point on only following the official promotions allowing the makers to build their market and the perception of the audience towards their movie…but I think even that is risky….coz the film makers kinda give away a lot of plot points in the trailers and other promos (example bb1 promo had given a lot up esp for the telugu audience which sees a lot of father-son revenge dramas,they were more confident for bb2 revealing a lot less)… I think I should just restrict myself to the posters.sigh.
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Posters are probably safe. They give kind of the headline news that the filmmakers want you to see, without spoiling any details.
On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 10:27 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I try to never read nothing about movie I’m going to watch. Only who did it, the cast, and the poster (I watch trailers very rarely, only for movies I’m really interested).
About Baahubali I knew only that it will be some epic story and that Prabhas is super hot (I knew it thanks to the poster with Prabhas carring Shiva lingam). I’m very happy I knew so little.
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I’m almost jealous! I went into B1 almost totally blank. Moviemavengal had told me it was wonderful and epic, but I didn’t know the details of who was who and what would happen and all of that.
And then B2, I was all about obsessing over what would happen and every little scrap of info.
Although, on the other hand, Rajamouli was kind to us and didn’t give much info in the trailer or posters or anything, so even if you were obsessing over the film, you still couldn’t learn much about it in advance.
On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 3:56 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This is why I don’t read anything about a film I am interested in, and I mean *anything*. With Bahubali 1 I found a whole online community that was bonkers over Prabhas, and then Prabhas-Anushka (they still are), but fortunately they were more into fan fiction over what they hoped would be in BB2, which I never read. Even so, I completely stopped reading anything about BB2 online for about a month before hand.
For most films I am interested in, I might watch their first trailer, but that’s about it. i never watch the song trailers, or listen to the music ahead of time, because I prefer to hear it in the context of the story.
The real problem is with the films that I am “kind of” interested in, where I need more information to decided if I want to watch it. After having a few “big” films completely spoiled by major twist revelations online, I completely avoid those, too. It basically means staying pretty much offline for a few weeks. But people are very inconsiderate, especially in India it seems to be a point of honor to see who can post spoilers fastest. And “critics” are hopeless, they don’t know how to review a film without giving away all details about it.
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For myself, I find “spoiler” reviews so much more interesting to read and write. That is, reviews like this, where we have all already seen the movie and made our own judgments and now we are coming together to discuss it in detail. It’s soooooo hard to find a review with the right balance of “telling you enough to entice you” without “sucking all the flavor of a film away in advance”.
My favorite reviews are when my friends text me from the movie theater after seeing a film just to say “great” or “don’t bother”. That’s it, that’s all I need.
On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 10:10 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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True! In India critical review means writing the entire movie story till the end card.
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My goodness, we are just flying through! I wander away for a few hours and we’re 40+ comments into the next post. And unsurprisingly, as a result I don’t have that much to add, except:
– Re: Prabhas 1 and not being impulsive enough – I don’t know, the more we kind of work our way through the movie, the less I feel like anything would have changed if he had been. In the Big Moments – defending Anushka, saving Kattappa – he already is pretty decisive, and I just don’t think he could have brought himself to seize the throne as long as Ramya was around. Now if it was from Rana ruling alone, I think that would be a different matter; but Prabhas 1 trusts, I think, that Ramya will rein in Rana’s worst impulses and that he, Prabhas, can do his best to protect the people from Rana’s offenses in other ways, either as commander-in-chief or as village head. As far as I can tell, there’s no big mistake that he makes that leads him down the path of misery – except falling in love with Anushka, which actually ruins both their lives (Rana never would have noticed Anushka if she wasn’t specifically identified to him as the woman Prabhas loved, and it’s definitely possible if Prabhas and Kattappa had never stopped at the rest stop in Kuntala, Anushka would have only have come to Mahishmati as a guest at Prabha’s coronation and then gone back to lead a perfectly comfortable life in Kuntala) – which is why Ramya is the tragic hero of this story, and Prabhas just the hero to whom Tragedy (yes, it deserves the capital letter! 😉 ) occurs.
– I know you were surprised that Prabhas 2 instinctively thought up the best way to psychologically terrorize Rana, but I actually assumed that was all Anushka. She’s been around them for 25 years, she knows that Rana is in his own way as emotionally isolated as she is, with no one to love but his father and son. And her appearing first, then showing off the head as another blow to Rana, then producing Prabhas 2 not only as a reminder of Prabhas 1, but also as a “your son is dead, but mine – who defeated yours- is right here beside me” image. (Yes, my mind immediately went to the modern day alternate universe, where Rana and Anushka’s rivalry is downgraded to sniping at each other over who’s kid made honor roll or whatever.). As I remember the blocking of the scene, Anushka is in the center, Prabhas 2 off slightly to the side? To me, that reads more as her in control, Prabhas 2 more following her instructions. (That said, I 100% agree that recruiting the villagers is definitely all Prabhas 2.)
– I also really enjoyed how Anushka literally gets to throw the first blow of the battle (…up until my logical brain starts questioning how she can throw a severed head with such strength and accuracy and then be totally helpless when Rana recaptures her. This is where I start coming up with crackpot theories like, “she let herself be captured!” but honestly, you are probably right, it’s more physics working as the plot demands rather than a show of extraordinary power.) The more I think about it, I know there’s a whole film genre out there with the vengeful mother/widow who wreaks vengeance through her son(s) – Karan Arjun, Ram Lakhan, etc. But I can’t think of any who get to participate in the final battle to this extent? Unless I’m forgetting someone, which is very likely.
– Maybe the last crystal piece is kept apart so it doesn’t get damaged/scratched? It’s larger and kind of at the very end, possibly it’s too delicate to be left in place. Or maybe it’s more budget cuts courtesy of the Terrible Rana Administration, they’re so busy building a giant statue that they can’t afford to keep a crystal in the telescope at all times.
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-With Prabhas 1 and 2, it feels like they each made the most-correct possible choice for their personality and situation. But if you swapped out the characters, you can see how they would have made a totally different decision. Like, we actually saw Prabhas 2 when Tamannah was captured (now that I think about it), and he went straight for the “hit first, ask questions later” approach. Killing multiple people without bothering to find out what their involvement level was in this whole thing or their motivation or if Tamannah might have been in the wrong. But Prabhas 2 could do that, because he only ever considered the rights and wrongs for himself in a particular situation and hadn’t been trained to think about All of Mahishmati. And then if Prabhas 1 was in that situation, he would have ordered the soldiers to stand down and enforced that with force as needed, but then asked questions and paused before making a decision. It’s a sign of how great the script is, that we can understand both characters, but also know that they would react totally differently and sympathize with them.
-Army! With Sridevi. But in that case, she wasn’t mother-of-grown-sons, she was just a young widow.
-Probably used the last crystal for statue eyes or something.
On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 11:49 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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