Baahubali 2: SS Rajamouli's epic takes you back to grandma’s lap, innocent times

Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (Bahubali 2) reconnects you to the days of innocence. The days a real kingdom called Mahishmati existed somewhere beyond the horizon as did evil princes, good princes, valiant royal mothers and courageous young queens, demons, witches, scheming members of the royal family, winged vehicles and what not.

Those were the days when the good always defeated the evil, young lovers surmounted obstacles to unite in the end and subjects in a kingdom always ended up finding hope and happiness.

On the grandmother’s lap, listening to her, you not just savoured her stories, you lived them.

SS Rajamouli takes you back to grandmother’s lap, where suspension of disbelief was not a matter of choice; disbelief simply did not exist.  Imagination ruled here, untainted by logic and reasoning layers of which we keep developing in the process of growing up. Rajamouli makes you a child again, makes your world of fantasy real.

That’s no easy task for a film-maker or a writer or a creator of any kind. As a genre fantasy is tough to handle, as is humour or horror. You either get it right or you get it wrong. There’s no midway. In so-called serious movies, a director’s and scriptwriter’s flaws can hide behind the faux gravitas and presumed intellectuality of the proceedings. They can use the word realism to escape. Not so in the genre’s mentioned above, particularly fantasy. That is one reason why so many of these movies vanish without a trace.

One crucial element in grandma’s tales — they could be from mythology, history or from our imagination – was strong characters. Villains have to be big so that heroes look bigger. The bigger the villain the bigger is the hero and the more captivating is the tension built around them– that’s one of the golden principles behind good drama. If the villain is not a person but circumstances then the latter has to be so menacing that only a person with superhuman courage and determination can overcome them.

Imagine what the Ramayana would be without the magnified evilness of Ravana and the Mahabharat without that of Duryodhan. Imagine Sholay without Gabbar Singh and Batman without The Joker. Imagine Harry Potter without Dark Lord Voldemort. Baahubali gives you a strong antagonist. In Vallala Deva you have the viciousness of a classical villain plus the power. He personifies everything wrong and yet becomes a compelling character. The protagonist, representing everything good, has to measure up to him as a counterforce.

Like in grandma’s tales, none of the characters in Bahubali remains in the moral grey zone. They are either black or white. From royal mothers Shivagami and Devasena to the people in the forested hinterland everyone is well fleshed out with the innate goodness or badness standing out pronounced. Nuances and characters in shades are for adults. Rajamouli banishes the adult in us to recreate the world of our childhood imagination.

The first part of the movie left the big question around Kattappa’s action hanging, deliberately. This became the biggest talking point in the interim before the release of part II. However, this certainly is not the only reason why people would wait so desperately for the prequel of the story. They were waiting to relive the total experience that Bahubali — the Beginning brought to them. The second part allows them that amply by taking them deeper into the intrigues in the royal family and the battle between equals on the opposite sides of the moral divide between the right and the wrong.

Special effects are fine but you still need the skill of story-telling transport the audience to another world, another reality. Many Hollywood movies create fantasy worlds — obviously, with deep pockets they can afford it — but where most falter is the effortless way to plant the story in the audience’s mind and let it grow. Rajamouli’s brilliance lies in the fact that he blends technology and story-telling seamlessly.

He makes Mahishmati believable. Just like the grandmother would do. Thanks Rajamouli for making us kids again.