My fascination with pre-Eega Rajamouli continues. Although, this is easily the most watchable Rajamouli film so far. For starters, it's got Prabhas firing on all cylinders. Not acting wise, no, because he's clearly struggling to emote here, as usual. But he looks a thousand bucks. Kicks ass in the action blocks. But, typical Rajamouli shenanigans pulls the film down. Rape jokes? Don't worry, the movie's got like 4-5 rape jokes in it. Navel and cleavage jokes? Check. Sexual harassment? Double check. Ah, good old times, am I right? The film really peaks during the midpoint with a terrific intermission sequence. Fuck that was good. But rest of the film is painfully bad. Horribly placed comedy tracks and songs, what the fuck. At one point, the film introduces a woman just so she can have an item number with Prabhas. Beautiful work, Rajamouli. Just wasted potential, but sure I hate Masala cinema, right? 😔 Apparently I'm too artsy to like commercial cinema. Sure. If it helps you sleep, then sure. PS: Hey, at least it's better than Simhadri and Sye. Yikes.
15 years of CHATRAPATHI: As I mentioned in my Pokiri and Gudumba Shankar anniversary posts, whenever there was an A or U/A rated movie, my father used to not take me for such movies until I turned 10 or so and after a lot of hue and cry and alagadam in all those cases, my late Grandfather used to come to my rescue! When getting tickets in the first week for a star hero's (hit)film was a herculean task back then, he slogged hard at the counter to get the tickets just for his grandson's happiness for many such movies and now in the case of Chatrapathi, on its first weekend, it got so tough as he even tried asking for some help in Ladies' line but they were not giving more than 2 tickets per person and ultimately he managed to get two 10 Rs tickets. At that age, I was least concerned about how his neck would pain upon watching from 10 Rs ticket (although the seating was pretty much flat wrt the screen at that time, but still...) seat so close to the screen and the only thing on my mind was "Cinema, Cinema, Cinema".It was the legendary single screen Sathyam theatre at Ameerpet and for those who know this place, it goes without saying how euphoric the experience will be in watching a mass commercial movie there, that too something on the goosebumps scale of Chatrapathi. I watched movies like Simhadri and Okkadu in the theatre only but couldn't respond or celebrate all the elevation scenes in them at an age of just 6, but by the time I watched Chatrapathi, I developed a bit [of course, I couldn't comprehend some adult dialogues (courtesy of Katraj) or lyrics... come on, "GunduSoodi" lyrics were too deep to get at that age, IYKWIM] and was soaking in all the joy of people cheering, whistling at the top of their lungs, enhanced by the fact that we were already in the NelaTicket section of the theatre. Now coming back to the movie, what else I can bring new to the table about its first half? From "Aadi Body Box-office" To "Thipparaa Meesam" - sheer mass with many scenes capable of quenching the thirst of commercial cinema lovers on any day even after n repeats and has probably one of the best arcs in terms of 'The Hero's Journey' template an established mass hero could ever dream of!"Bheemakshmaapathiiiiii" used to be the go-to catchphrase whenever someone got angry during school days and the raging "Agni Skalana" song (some 4 to 5 years ago... it was a revelation when I came to know that it's actually the modified version of the theme song of a German video game named 'Myst IV: Revelation' released in 2004, but I read that they took the copyrights for the song) lyrics easily holds the record for the most number of days I kept singing wrong lyrics for a song during my childhood!Not sure whether Prabhas was lucky in getting such heavy content so early in his career or Rajamouli was lucky to have discovered him as the right fit for that role! Both of them have grown in their stature by leaps and bounds since then to place themselves among the top positions in Indian Cinema now and especially when it comes to Prabhas' market with all the big-budgeted projects lined up now, I feel sad for the fact that we might not get to see him in a local mass movie like Chatrapathi or class movie like Darling anytime soon, but anyway, if he chooses to do one such quickie like Chatrapathi in between his big projects maybe 4 or 5 years down the line, I wish we get to see that old fit-cum-energetic Rebel Star once again in all his glory!
