Adipurush

Adipurush

Let’s say you want to watch a mythological action-fantasy film called “Adipurush,” but without any baggage. You want to know as little as possible going in, except that it stars Prabhas, the guy from those two S.S. Rajamouli “Baahubali” movies that were period-action blockbusters and trend-setters and all. Maybe you just want to see a good adaptation of The Ramayana or at least the part of that Sanskrit epic where Raghava, an arrow slinging god also known as Ram (Prabhas), rescues his wife Sita, or Janaki (Kriti Sanon), from the multi-headed god Lankesh/Ravana (Saif Ali Khan).

“Adipurush” has only opened in America this week, but it’s already been controversial for a while back in India, where writers of think pieces and interviews and reviews have been grappling with what Lankesh means not just his weird nu-metal gel-spiked haircut; people are saying he looks like Muslim leader Alauddin Khilji and also with who’s been cast as Sita. That last one resulted in some outrage, which unfortunately led to some effective demands for censorship: Turns out some people aren’t happy that Sanon, playing Sita in “India’s Daughter,” once danced suggestively in earlier movies.

Is it possible to see any story like this without making too many real world politics comparisons? Or are those associations simultaneously both the biggest draw and problem for “Adipurush” (whose Sanskrit title can be read as “First Man”), whose budget is reportedly half a billion rupees ($67 million) or so, allegedly more money than anyone’s ever spent on an Indian movie before? I honestly don’t know if there’s anything else to say about these bad green-screen composites other than that there’s so much bad green-screen composite in “Adipurush,” and it looks cheap and uninspired.

Your mileage may vary, but slapdash and tacky-looking special effects make the first hour (or more) of “Adipurush” feel interminable. At this afternoon’s packed matinee at the Union Square theater here in Manhattan, the screams of Prabhas’ fans died down quickly after his triumphant first scene the one where Raghava single-handedly fights off a horde of demonic wraiths but it took a moment to hear the auditorium go silent beneath all the movie’s bombastic soundtrack cues. People have been pre-sold on “Adipurush” by what they already know: How could you pass up an opportunity to watch an epic that features superheroic Hindu gods, uncanny valley animal-people and monstrous villains? Have you seen any good Marvel movies lately?

Recent news reports about underpaid, overworked employees at Marvel visual-effects studios make it easier to understand how an SFX-driven event title like “Adipurush” could cost so much and still look so bad. Harder to understand is how anyone could look at a key establishing shot where Janaki swoons as she and Raghava are romantically encircled by a flock of conspicuously rendered pink flamingos and think, Yep! That’ll do!

Given that a lot of the characters’ movements only emphasize computer graphics which made the theatrical cut of “Justice League” look polished, some musical numbers particularly those featuring Janaki and Lankesh suffer from dramatic inertia. There’s the ersatz and seemingly literally translated poetry of the song lyrics and expository dialogue.

And then there are the totally bogus visual effects that make everything, especially the uninflected facial expressions of a normally generous ensemble cast, look like video game cutscenes. “Adipurush” has problems upon problems, in other words, though it’s hard to imagine many viewers squinting past the movie’s surface issues. There is an opportunity at the end but only if you look at “Adipurush” as one among several trend-chasers: a film whose many generic elements tip their hat to everything from HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series to Peter Jackson’s original “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to, yes, Rajamouli’s “Baahubali” two-parter.

The scenes featuring pure-hearted simian god Bajrang/Hanuman (Devdatta Nage), for example, shamelessly crib from recent Andy Serkis-led, motion capture focused “Planet of the Apes” movies. But this movie is so dramatically flat-footed that its derivative nature doesn’t really matter; it still only occasionally comes alive during its big showdown between Raghava, Lankesh and their respective armies.

“Adipurush,” in other words, does not often feel like a directed movie as much as one that was merely covered during its slowly escalating finale: when Raghava and his brother Sesh/Laxmana (Sunny Singh), along with Bajrang, face off against Lankesh and his superhumanly fast second-in-command Indrajit (Vatsal Sheth).

Some of us got excited about watching “Adipurush” because it was directed by Om Raut, whose “Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior” also pulled itself together during splashy, climactic battle scenes. But even during its slow motion battles, “Adipurush” still looks rough and moves gracelessly; the movie only comes alive when the end is in sight.

It’s hard to imagine any moviegoer who will be satisfied with this underwhelming spectacle, looking solely at what’s presented in “Adipurush.” Here, everybody swims about a vast computer-generated wasteland but as maxi-sized roles that dwarf their singular qualities. Everything is big here but nothing looks grand.

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