Animated Mayhem:
Director of the two splashy Baahubali films, SS Rajamouli, is quoted as listing Amar Chitra Katha comics and Chandamama as his inspirations. The latter would not mean anything to the kids who are the target audience for the animated series (on Disney+Hotstar) Baahubali: Crown Of Blood, but the children’s magazine was staple reading for earlier generations. Assuming, of course, that the series is meant for children, because a few of the plot points are for grown-ups, but the story-telling is juvenile.
Baahubali: Crown Of Blood is a prequel to the two films, in which Mahishmati is grand but not like the fairy-tale CGI generated kingdom of the films. Queen Sivagami (voiced by Mausam) is imperious and arrogant; Bijjaladeva (Deepak Sinha) is devious as ever, trying to get his son Bhallaladeva (Manoj Pande) on the throne. Baahubali (Sharad Kelkar) is the kind prince, who cares for his people, and walks among them, playing with the kids and listening to the woes of the poor. Katappa (Samay Thakkar) is around too, getting a significant part to play in the plot.
A new villain Raktadeva (Rajesh Khattar) turns up with frighteningly modern weaponry, a hidden agenda and an anti-nepotism (bhai-bhatijawad, he calls it) stance, that rewards birth over merit. He is for democracy before the word was invented, and wants to crush Mahishmati, just to destroy an unjust system of governance. Koteshwar (Pramod Mathur), the man who makes the complicated machines of destruction has a mad scientist look, almost like Einstein.)
That would not be considered evil enough in today’s times, so giving it a modern touch, the writers and directors Jeevan K. Kang and Navin John, have Raktadeva abduct and indoctrinate children, turning them into masked warriors, full of hate for their past and undying loyalty for him. If these sound like modern-day terrorists, the nod to the corruption of young minds seems deliberate.
Baahubali, who is almost saintly with his compassion and forgiveness, is nevertheless a fearless fighter on the battlefield, and there are quite a few elaborately animated war sequences, which again, keeping a young or family audience in mind, have lots of killing but no blood spilt.
Audiences today are used to sophisticated 3D computer animation, so the old-style 2D animation, competently done though it is (Kang is credited for character designs and art direction) cannot match up to the other content on streaming platforms. The Hindi dialogue is a bizarre mix of Sanskritised Hindi, Urdu (barkhurdar!), and Mumbai slang (words like rokda), that would give no indication of time and place, had Mahishmati not been a fictional place that could have existed any time in the distant past.
With nine-episodes of around 20 minutes, the story moves fast, packs in a lot, and sets up the scene for a sequel but briefly introducing two clearly wicked characters. It is intermittently entertaining, but if the franchise has to grow, it needs better storylines. As it is, Baahubali has generated an enterprise of TV spin-offs, video games, graphic novels and what not, but a memorable Game Of Thrones it is not.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
