Shreesh’s review published on Letterboxd:
My first Indian movie review here, my GOD it was a phenomenal experience. First I urge all my Letterboxd followers to watch this in your theaters nearby, it had a wide release today globally. I am sure you will have a blast.
The director SS Rajamouli crafted a crazy, insane and epic action bonanza. This was pure joy and entertainment from start to finish. The way the man envisioned his ideas and executed it in a brilliant and mind boggling way is mesmerizing. Before people mock about certain visual effects and some unbelievable action sequences, keep in mind this movie’s budget $70 million( which is much less than Hollywood’s big blockbusters ) so we can’t expect pitch perfectness. And the second being actors doing insane stunts basically like superhero’s, the director wants you to believe they are super powerful persons achieving impossible things, and you will believe it because of the core plot and the emotions of this movie, it works effectively. It might bother you in some scenes but you will just get along with it.
The action sequences and the stunt choreography were wild, every scene were crafted and executed in a stunning way. The lead actors opening sequences ( especially Ram’s character ), the intermission sequence and the third act, it was pure joy to witness these beautiful presentation.
Performances wise both the leads were amazing. NTR playing Bheem was naive, energetic, intense and he portrayed it amazingly. But the scene stealer here was Ram Charan as Rama Raju. His character arc was complicated and layered, he was magnificent. The fierce and emotional performance by him was brilliant. Olivia Morris as the only good British character here was nice, she was good in the limited screen time she had. Alison Doody and Ray Stevenson were meh, they were just too evil and slightly hilarious in some of the lines they had to say.
The score and the soundtrack of this movie is terrific. The score elevates the movie in a massive way, especially when the two main characters meet for the first time and the last 30 minutes. There is one dance off sequence and it was absolutely heart pumping, you will just want to get out of your seat and dance.
The logic mistakes and bits of pacing issues in the second half were the only problems this movie has. Other than that this is a roller coaster ride you don’t wanna miss. It is 3 hours of wild fun.
A solid 90% for this.
