YouTubeblack
Joined May 2016
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Reviews41
YouTubeblack's rating
There is a trend now in India to hype up all the south films irrespective of how good or bad they are. The same has happened with this film too. By no means this is a bad film but to be honest, it's neither a masterpiece.
The film has a strong start, you feel like you are watching old school legends about the supernatural but it does not last long. The first 20 mins and the last 10 mins has the UNIQUE factor in the film which is mostly making people go crazy but to keep things in perspective is that enough given the fact that it's a 2hr 30min long film? The performances by the main cast are good and especially great in the climax but everything in the middle is just fluff.
You can see shades of pushpa and even Asuran in terms of setting, conflicts between the authorities and the common villegers. At the core it's just another the oppressed vs the oppresor theme which has been seen multiple times in South cinema, and Asuran is a great example of how it's done. Kantara feels flat in the middle with the same tropes of South Indian cinema and offers nothing new except the first and the Last act.
The film has a strong start, you feel like you are watching old school legends about the supernatural but it does not last long. The first 20 mins and the last 10 mins has the UNIQUE factor in the film which is mostly making people go crazy but to keep things in perspective is that enough given the fact that it's a 2hr 30min long film? The performances by the main cast are good and especially great in the climax but everything in the middle is just fluff.
You can see shades of pushpa and even Asuran in terms of setting, conflicts between the authorities and the common villegers. At the core it's just another the oppressed vs the oppresor theme which has been seen multiple times in South cinema, and Asuran is a great example of how it's done. Kantara feels flat in the middle with the same tropes of South Indian cinema and offers nothing new except the first and the Last act.
Brahmastra part 1 had so much potential but the infamous Bollywood trope of Love storiya really dumbs it down to Lazy writing. Why is Bollywood still obsessed with love stories being the core of the film which sells as a Mythological Epic is beyond logic.
The Good:
1. The main premise and Lore of the Astras are interesting. All the power sets shown in the film aren't necessarily new but they work well in this universe.
2. VFX for most of the part are impressive, especially in 3D. Generally, lighting isn't taken into consideration when it comes to VFX in Bollywood but in this film, it was handled pretty well.
3. The BGM elevates the action scenes and I think should be given more credit. There are some unreleased Devine one-liner tracks in the voice of Arijit which are integrated with the BGM so well that you'll surely have goosebumps all over. This happens predominantly in the climax of the film.
The Mediocre:
1. Screenplay: The Film head starts with so much adrenaline that it hypes up your expectations just to disappoint you later. It would have been great if the film stuck with the Brahmastra premise rather than jumping in and out of it just to address Shiva and Isha's unrealistic relationship. The first and last act of the film is the only thing which is holding it up. Everything else is a hit or a miss.
2. wardrobe: This might be a nitpick but the costume designs could have been way better than what we got in here. When it comes to Mythical Epics, having a distinct look is very important for world-building which I think was missing from this movie. For an instance, Shiva is bursting out fire and also taking a lot of damage in a regular shirt and jeans which are indestructible, in that case, I need a pair too!
3. Songs: Bollywood just loves to insert songs in the middle of an act just because that's how they roll since the beginning. In films like YJHD it worked well, but here it did feel out of place because the world is at stake and the characters are.... singing. The problem is not with the songs & they are beautiful on their own but they drag down the pace of the film and do not feel compatible with its genre.
The Bad:
1. Dialogues: Very.. very.. bad. When the film is marketed by saying it's around a decade in the making, people will expect it to be well written or at least passable when it comes to writing. The dialogues In this film sounded like a typical cringe Hindi dub of a C-tier Hollywood film. Except for Big B, everyone else had immature dialogues.
2. The Love story: The very last thing which this movie needed was a 1000 times used love story trope as a central piece of the story. Protagonists having a love interest in Mythic/superhero movies is not a new thing, but it shouldn't put that aspect of the film on a pedestal. Sam Raimi's original Spiderman trilogy also had a decent chunk of a love story but it was so subtle that it didn't overpower the cool stuff that the audiences had signed up for. Just like that, Isha could have been MJ to Shiva's Peter or Pepper to Tony stark. It had to be Subtle.
Conclusion: You might get disappointed with some tropes of the film but as an experience, you'll enjoy it for what it is.
The Good:
1. The main premise and Lore of the Astras are interesting. All the power sets shown in the film aren't necessarily new but they work well in this universe.
2. VFX for most of the part are impressive, especially in 3D. Generally, lighting isn't taken into consideration when it comes to VFX in Bollywood but in this film, it was handled pretty well.
3. The BGM elevates the action scenes and I think should be given more credit. There are some unreleased Devine one-liner tracks in the voice of Arijit which are integrated with the BGM so well that you'll surely have goosebumps all over. This happens predominantly in the climax of the film.
The Mediocre:
1. Screenplay: The Film head starts with so much adrenaline that it hypes up your expectations just to disappoint you later. It would have been great if the film stuck with the Brahmastra premise rather than jumping in and out of it just to address Shiva and Isha's unrealistic relationship. The first and last act of the film is the only thing which is holding it up. Everything else is a hit or a miss.
2. wardrobe: This might be a nitpick but the costume designs could have been way better than what we got in here. When it comes to Mythical Epics, having a distinct look is very important for world-building which I think was missing from this movie. For an instance, Shiva is bursting out fire and also taking a lot of damage in a regular shirt and jeans which are indestructible, in that case, I need a pair too!
3. Songs: Bollywood just loves to insert songs in the middle of an act just because that's how they roll since the beginning. In films like YJHD it worked well, but here it did feel out of place because the world is at stake and the characters are.... singing. The problem is not with the songs & they are beautiful on their own but they drag down the pace of the film and do not feel compatible with its genre.
The Bad:
1. Dialogues: Very.. very.. bad. When the film is marketed by saying it's around a decade in the making, people will expect it to be well written or at least passable when it comes to writing. The dialogues In this film sounded like a typical cringe Hindi dub of a C-tier Hollywood film. Except for Big B, everyone else had immature dialogues.
2. The Love story: The very last thing which this movie needed was a 1000 times used love story trope as a central piece of the story. Protagonists having a love interest in Mythic/superhero movies is not a new thing, but it shouldn't put that aspect of the film on a pedestal. Sam Raimi's original Spiderman trilogy also had a decent chunk of a love story but it was so subtle that it didn't overpower the cool stuff that the audiences had signed up for. Just like that, Isha could have been MJ to Shiva's Peter or Pepper to Tony stark. It had to be Subtle.
Conclusion: You might get disappointed with some tropes of the film but as an experience, you'll enjoy it for what it is.
