Baahubali 2

Baahubali 2

Look at what I’m calling the first great summer movie: a three-hour action-adventure saga about a hero whose mighty deeds put Conan to shame. The Indian action/period epic “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” is basically everything I want but seldom get from superhero and big budget fantasy movies. Here, larger than life characters including warrior-king Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) and his jealous cousin Bhalla (Rana Daggubati), who fight for the Mashimathi throne while declaiming dramatically, flying through the air, impaling/beheading foes, then singing about their exploits.

Thanks to mercifully brief flashbacks and appropriately bombastic expository dialogue, you don’t need to have seen the previous film in order to understand what’s at stake in “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion.” Better still: the action choreography is exciting, the operatic plot is involving, and an honest to God sense of optimistic feeling undercuts the geysers of blood/guts/gee-whiz sound effects that accompany each stirring set-piece. This splashy, big budget picture has such an infectious sense of momentum that it wins you over every time it glosses over key plot points in order to hurry up and get to whatever’s next. It’s loud; it’s gory; there are musical numbers.

One sure mark of quality: despite some seriously ostentatious moralizing, “Baahubali 2” is so alive with inspiration that you actually wind up caring about goody-goody characters who are as morally upright as Biblical figures and as relatable as refugees from a children’s fairy tale. Yes, Amarendra has superhuman strength, agility and filial piety (like many male heroes in Indian movies, he worships his mom).

But that’s only because right at first appears to make might in this universe. As the movie goes on, however, it becomes clear that even the best people can be manipulated into committing crimes against each other which is true of Bhalla, an innocent character whose natural jealousy is played upon by his petty father Bijjaladeva (Nassar) until he winds up hating his cousin; and it’s also eventually true of both Baahubali’s mother Sivagami (Ramya Krishnan) and uncle/adviser Kattappa (Sathyaraj).

What’s refreshing about these characters who are often seemingly painted as paragons of virtue and vice having their wills tested by various trials, and sometimes failing, is that these momentary lapses sometimes indicate character flaws (as in Bhalla’s case), but they also suggest that good people can make big mistakes. The film’s refusal to judge a character solely based on how they respond to mitigating circumstances is bracing.

So is the fact that both Sivagami and Baahubali’s devoted wife Devasena (Anushka Shetty) have more than a token amount of influence/power throughout the film: They fight alongside him as he struggles to remain unmoved by the promise of power (the throne!) while also not looking weak in front of his treacherous brother or manipulative uncle. Prabhas’ character isn’t just admirable because he can lift heavy things, but because like Solomon, he makes judgment calls before masterfully glaring at the camera, making a little speech then soaring into battle.

And I actually mean “soar.” So creative are the fight scenes in “Baahubali 2” that they make even the most overused creative shortcuts appear fresh, everything from CGI to speed-ramping (Zack Snyder’s signature technique of speeding up, then slowing down, then speeding up again the tempo of a given action or physical motion). You care what happens to the cast as, aided by wires, they launch volleys of arrows at disposable minions and CGI animals.

You have never seen action sequences with physics and logic defying choreography like this. Baahubali breaks massive chains with a mallet, shrugs off mortal wounds with one hand, and launches himself over castle walls with purposefulness and deceptive ease.

He is merciless on the warpath, devastating a legion of enemy soldiers by lashing them to a tree trunk that he places in the path of a lightning bolt. At one point Baahubali’s mom wields a severed head. And did I mention there is singing? Our heroes’ actions are valorized through poetic, Greek chorus-like swooning that perfectly fits the film’s paradoxically arch but playful tone.

This is an irony-free depiction of demigod-like men and the values/family members they fight to protect. And for once in what feels like forever, this kind of old fashioned entertainment works without feeling like either a throwback or an homage to some preexisting work of pop art. I love “Baahubali 2,” in part because it never once felt like a soulless piece of committee-assembled entertainment though many American viewers might wonder how a movie that received virtually no media coverage could out-gross “The Circle,” a new studio-produced/distributed thriller starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, at the U.S. box office (all you need to know about that is that you didn’t see “The Circle”). But you only have to see “Baahubali 2” to know why it had such a tremendous opening weekend. It’s grand and fun, and I hope there’s many more where that came from.

Watch Baahubali 2 For Free On Gomovies.