| Cast: | Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan |
| Director: | Ayan Mukerji |
| Genre: | Action/Fantasy |
| Duration: | 2h 47m |
Shiva, a young DJ in Mumbai, discovers that he’s born with a special power that makes him immune and akin to fire. He gradually discovers the secrets behind his own existence that are also tied to a string of mythological incidents. How that changes the course of his life forms the rest of the narrative.
Almost everyone of any importance in the film can have pixie dust and fire-like swoosh emanating from their palms. They all twirl their hands like martial artists and have magical powers serve them. It seemed so common that as I walked out of the theatre I moved my palms to see if I could produce fire. Not exaggerating. That is a huge win for this first installment of Brahmastra because you want to know more despite Brahmastra being a pretty run-of-the-mill superhero film. Especially for those of us, seasoned on the likes of Star Wars, X-Men, to the latest The Sandman and The Rings of Power. Brahmastra manages this because of a decent underlying story, Ranbir Kapoor’s energy, and the Ranbir-Alia vibe.
And despite all these major-major irritants, the story carries an underlying strength. A story that seems to have a lot going on, and you enjoy knowing as it is told to Shiva. A story that holds promise. Sure, I wish I was allowed to figure it out instead. But, for this first installment and all that the film is trying to do in terms of breaking Hindi film norms, it will do.
The other problem is by interval, you are not really expecting the special effects to be any better than those on display in the first scene. With one exception, they all spin here and there and produce granular stuff and fire-like stuff, and their weapons produce granular stuff and fire-like stuff. We have to be happy that every once in a while, the stuff takes forms? And that each person is assigned a different colour?
Even though Brahmastra: Part One: Shiva had the potential and the room for it, the film doesn’t score brownie points for the love story of its lead couple which forms the thrust of the narrative here. In fact, it doesn’t seem plausible from the word go which weakens the film at its core in a big way. As a result, the larger story playing out in the film also feels weak and the screenplay suffers, too. The dialogues aren’t able to salvage much either. Towards the latter part, the runtime begins to feel tedious. The narrative could have been balanced better between the two halves of the film. And though the songs are pleasing to the ears, at times, their presence affects the momentum of the narrative.
The line between great and good lies in a believable, character-led story that emotionally engages you. The most imaginative worlds created by cinema’s geniuses eventually rely on the writing to keep everything else glued perfectly in their places. With all its pluses, nothing makes up for the emotional deficits that Brahmastra suffers.
Love is more powerful than Brahmastra
