Prabhas’ Adipurush has finally seen the light of the day today, June 16, after multiple postponements and controversies. In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, early morning shows at 4 am went sold out and fans celebrated Prabhas’ arrival as Lord Ram in Adipurush.
Now that the first show has come to an end, Twitter is abuzz with the first reviews of the film. Netizens called Adipurush as Prabhas’ comeback and termed it as a ‘modern retelling of Ramayana.’
As the first day first shows came to a close, Twitteratis took to the social media platform to share their excitement and their reviews for the film. While some called it Prabhas’ comeback film, others felt that films like Adipurush ‘shouldn’t be judged, but just be appreciated.’
Adipurush is derived into a film based on Rishi Valmiki’s epic, Ramayan. It is a story that almost every Indian has grown up listening to or watching. With Prabhas as Raghav, Kriti Sanon as Janaki and Sunny Singh as Shesh (one of the many names of Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman, respectively), the star-studded cast was one of the film’s main attractions.
However, the film suffered setbacks in terms of its VFX and dialogues, which proved to be significant drawbacks.
For a minute, leave behind all the buzz and fanfare Adipurush has received until now. Watch the film without any preconceived notions and it will grab your attention from the word ‘go’! And to top it all, what is even a Prabhas film without a heroic entry?
You are glued to the screen as the camera pans inside the deep blue ocean and there you see your Raghav sitting peacefully underwater, busy with his tapasya. However, before you can enjoy the calmness of the screen, the hall breaks into thunderous applause.
He emerges from the water and kills an array of dementer-like creatures, which provides an insight into the excitement, VFX, and of course, Raghav’s strength. A larger-than-life film demands heroic shots and you will find low-angle shots in abundance.
Prabhas is believable as Raghav right from the first scene and his past film choices (read Baahubali) have a great deal to play in it. He is strong, mighty, kind and just. However, one must look past his stardom to be able to enjoy what he has to offer on screen. He is a big reason why Adipurush deserves a chance and can be rightfully deemed as the saving grace of the film.
Kriti Sanon as Janaki is beautiful on screen but has way less screen time than we had expected. The actress is mostly juxtaposed amid cleverly crafted VFX. However, it is her chemistry with Prabhas that stands out. Sunny Singh as Shesh is sparsely spread across the film and has a handful of dialogues. Mostly, to substantiate Prabhas.
The screenplay for him is built in a way to not let him overpower Prabhas. But not to mention, he does have his moments here and there.
Devdatta Nage is Adipurush’s Bajrangbali. Previously, we have seen a veteran like Dara Singh, play the pivotal Ramayana character. Hence, the expectations with Bajrangbali was beyond measure. Nage’s character has been written with a dash of safe humour. And it is worth mentioning how a segment of the audience in the theatres did a small namaskara as soon as he appeared on the screen.
There have been inhibitions about Saif Ali Khan as Raavana in Adipurush. The pressure was doubled with having had the mighty task of sharing screen space and appearing alongside Prabhas and still standing out. Saif did a rather decent job with it. His very presence, the dark monotone that followed, successfully created a sense of terror, which is generally associated with the mythological character.
Though a bit stretched, the first half of Adipurush will leave you looking forward to what’s next. No, we aren’t talking about the dialogues and VFX, yet. The second half is cleverly planned and that’s when we realised where the maximum work was done. However, it isn’t up to the mark. Not quite.
Delving into the VFX first, the makers pushed the release date by six months. For this? Reportedly, Adipurush is one of the most expensive films ever. But the VFX mars the visuals. You see a Ravan landing on a dragon at his palace, on a dragon pad. Really?
Then you have VFX monkeys residing in a forest, in strapped leather gear. If you also notice the fight scenes cleverly, you’ll notice that it’s never mostly finished. It’s rather covered with dust, smoke or an explosion where your entire screen will be covered by glittery particles during an intense moment. Though we’d give it to director Om Raut for trying to cleverly cut scenes that sparked a meme fest last year, the VFX was still a no-show.
About dialogues. The same was probably crafted keeping in mind the modern-day audience, but the moment you hear Lord Bajrangbali say, “Jo hamari behno ko hath lagayenge, unki lanka laga denge”, you know there’s something to think about.
Also, you have a Vatsal Sheth as Indrajeet, challenging Raghav in the most unimaginable way possible! You need to watch the film to know the hows and the whats. Oh wait, there are also some gems like ‘Bua ka bagicha hain kya?’ and ‘marega bete’! And we are talking about the era of Lord Ram here.
Soundtracks play a pivotal role in larger-than-life mythologies and Jai Shri Ram appears in several important segments of Adipurush. And it is bound to leave you with goosebumps. No complaints about the background score too. You also have a Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal duet after a long time with Tu Hai Sheetal Dhaara and it will soothe your soul.
Though Adipurush can be safely deemed as one of Om Raut’s biggest works, the film could surely have called for a better visual package. However, it’s a job that is moderately done. If not worse.
All in all, we can’t put a stamp on all the hype that Adipurush has been gathering, but it surely deserves one watch at the theatres. For Prabhas, if nothing else.
