RObservation: A young, orphaned DJ, Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor), leads a happy life around a bunch of orphans. His special relationship with fire – it doesn’t burn him – and the many scenes that come to him from time to time when he closes his eyes suck him into a world of superpowers. While it has a mythological background, it gradually connects Shiva to the story of his parents, which changes the course of his life. Her quest for love and light leads her on a path to destroying evil forces and discovering her true potential.
With comic-book-style visuals and Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone, the film establishes its premise and the genesis of its universe in an interesting way. Brahmastra: Part One: Shiva relies heavily on two aspects – its visual effects and the love story of its lead pair, Shiva and Isha, played by Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. The score of the film is quite good in terms of visual effects. It is well thought out, top notch and effective in most places. For example, the culmination of pre-interval scenes is a spectacle.
The film borrows from Indian mythology and folk tales, which is fantastic. Filled with minute detailing, the effort and passion put into creating the universe in this film is worthy of praise. And in doing so, the makers have lovingly taken off their hats for films like the Harry Potter franchise. The film shines in divisions like VFX. The film’s color palette is thoughtfully designed, and the depictions of the forces of nature and weapons made of mythological characters are beautiful. The action choreography, especially in the chase sequence before the interval, deserves whistles and claps as well.
It is a pleasure to see actors like Nagarjuna and Amitabh Bachchan playing pivotal roles in T, but not much of a surprise. They’ve done it a billion times before. Nagarjuna is quite effective in his limited screen time. And Mr Bachchan appears comfortable in his character’s skin, performing the action sequences with ease. Ranbir’s attempt to add emotional gravity to the proceedings is visible. The way he has portrayed Shiva, he tries his best to take the audience beyond the superficial layers of this film. It would have been great if the characters of Alia Bhatt and Mouni Roy were also developed with the same passion as it is for Ranbir to have that lasting effect. Not much attention has been paid to the secondary characters either, which is unlike any work done by director-writer Ayan Mukerji so far.
Even though Brahmastra: Part One: Shiva had potential and room for it, the film doesn’t score brownie points for its lead couple’s love story, which forms the thrust of the narrative here. In fact, it doesn’t seem plausible from the word Go that massively undermines the film at its core. As a result, the larger storyline in the film also feels weak and the script suffers as well. The dialogues are also not able to save anything special. Towards the latter, the runtime starts to look tedious. The story could have been better balanced between the two halves of the film. And although the songs are pleasing to the ears, at times, their presence affects the pace of the narrative.
The line between great and good lies in a believable, character-driven story that engages you emotionally. The most imaginative worlds created by the geniuses of cinema ultimately depend on writing so that everything else sticks perfectly in its place. With all its benefits, nothing happens to make up for the emotional deficit of Brahmastra. Had it been given more attention, it would have gone a long way in making the proceedings more laudable.