Every year, the Telugu film (Tollywood) industry produces an average of 100-150 movies i.e. on an average 2-3 new movies get released every Friday. There was a time when Tollywood would produce about 200 movies a year since the Telugu Film Industry is not restricted to the 2 Telugu states but also to the entire Southern India, Orissa, Maharashtra, Delhi, North America and South East Asia.

Most movies anyway sink without a trace. Of the remaining few, some become hits and some super hits. Rarely comes a film that challenges the status quo and disrupts the thinking of the entire industry to propel it towards deeper depths or greater heights. Mayabazaar, hailed by most Telugu and people in South India as the greatest movie ever made, was one such earth shaking event. It was released in 1957. Then came Andala Ramudu in 1973 which redefined 'heroism' in Telugu for over a decade. 1979 saw one of the greatest movies ever made - Shankarabharanam. It not only changed the industry but also changed the way people thought and encouraged many to learn Carnatic music. A decade later saw Ram Gopal Varma's seminal entry in the form of Shiva. After Shiva there's been a sort of status quo. Until now that is. Bahubali has shattered it and let’s explore how.

I am not comparing Bahubali with Mayabazaar or Shiva or Shankarabharanam. Not at all.

That would be doing grave injustice to both of them. Those movies were a product of a different time and context in terms of society, maturity of audience and technology. So is Bahubali.

SS Rajamouli did something with Bahubali that TFI (Tollywood) and all of India seems to have forgotten. Earlier in the 'good old days' [read: 50s 60s], TFI had a lot of history based movies primarily based on Mahabharata and Ramayana. Then came the social movies which still had some characterization based off the Mahabharata but not all of them. SS Rajamouli has made that mainstream again with Bahubali. I saw shades of Bhishma in Kattappa: slave to the throne not to the person, a great warrior but who sides with the evil, helpless in preventing a great travesty on a woman, whose heart lies with truth (or dharma).

Bhallaaladeva is probably characterized on Duryodhana with a tinge of Shakuni: great strength but always bridesmaid to the eventual king, weapon of choice being the gadha (mace), always trying to kill or remove Bahubali. Bijjaladeva is of course Dhristarasthra: the actual heir to the throne but isn’t given his due to physical limitation so therefore wants to live the dream of being the king through his son.

Amarendra Bahubali, in what we could see from the 1st part, seems to be an amalgamation of some of the Pandavas - Dharmaraja in upholding dharma, Bheema in strength, Arjuna in planning/warfare, Nakula in looks and Sahadeva in being just and wise.

Devasena is probably a different take on Draupadi, in the sense that vastrapaharanam (more than anything else) was the cause of destruction of Kauravas  and for Devasena, shackling her for 25 years is probably the main cause for Bhallaaladeva's eventual demise. Having said that, one character which outshone everyone else is Sivagami. Her character has some shades of Gandhari but not quite Gandhari.  Right at the outset she asks Eswara to punish her for her sins and spare the child, something that does not associate her with Gandhari. Probably this is a question that can be answered only in 2016 when the second part is released. Is she Gandhari or mix of various characters?

For someone who has grown up watching Hollywood movies for action sequences and watching Telugu / Hindi movies for dialogues and emotional connect, Bahubali felt like the perfect amalgamation. Lord of the Rings, 300 etc. even though magnificent movies, they felt a bit alien. Bahubali struck the chord. Bahubali reminded me of what I was missing when watching Hollywood  films like Lord of the Rings or 300. That emotional connect which SS Rajamouli generated is probably what is making this movie break all known records. One of the best scenes of the movie is when Prabhas carries the Shiva lingam and Siva Tandava Stotram plays in the background. That scene was indeed breathtaking.

There is richness in every frame of the movie (even in that unwarranted song). Every frame shows where the budget of 250 crores INR went. Typically, there are fights and fight scenes but rarely is strategy explained and depicted. SS Rajamouli has the knack of explaining things very beautifully [example: rugby was introduced to Telugu audience in a crystal clear way in the movie Sye], and this has come to the fore with the way in which war strategy was explained in Bahubali. The battle itself is something that needs to be seen on the big screen. It was shot with over 2000 junior artists and a new language "killiki" created specifically for the movie!! That's something very rare given our penchant for coining words from various languages.

No review of this movie can be complete without mentioning the awesome background music by MM Keeravani who happens to be SS Rajamouli’s cousin. It is my contention that background scores in Indian movies is usually ignored. That changed significantly with Maestro Illayaraaja whose background scores are as popular as his other compositions. Keeravani looks up to Illayaraaja in this regard (he has mentioned this too in various interviews). As someone who has followed Keeravani’s music since his debut (Kshana Kshanam in 91), this is one of his best compositions. He has mentioned in multiple interviews that he would like to retire in 2016 so Bahubali: The Conclusion may well be his swan song. As a music aficionado, I would be sad if that truly happens.

This film has taken Telugu movies to unseen heights. Not only Telugu but the entire Indian movie industry has climbed to international standards on the shoulders of Bahubali. For that alone S Rajamouli needs to be applauded. Our audience is used to seeing "The End" for any movie. But S Rajamouli has challenged that as well.  It takes a HUGE belief in the story to 'abruptly' end an Indian movie and force audiences to come back to see part 2. We all want closures but this movie doesn’t give us any. It leaves us with more questions than answers at the end of the Beginning... answers for which will have to wait for Sankranti of 2016.