My Brahmastra Review
Before I start the review, I would like to confess that I went in as a huge supporter of this film mainly due to its genre. Indian mythology punched with VFX is dope for me as I am huge fan of Marvel movies.
Brahmastra is an avant-garde theatrical experience , first of its kind , a promising never seen before visual spectacle derailed by clunky writing, uninspired screenplay and horrific dialogues. Yet, there's so much to appreciate, the effort and dedication shines through and lets be honest, far lesser films have minted money at the BO. Brahmastra should work because its not dull or boring despite its glaring flaws.Overall, its neither terrible not superior, but deserves a chance.
The film begins with the cameo of my favourite superstar(by now even the ants on your sofa know this, so definitely not a spoiler). He sets the fantastical tone of the film perfectly,he's so charming and witty, that you demand him more. By now, we are also introduced to the Astraverse by Amitji's masterful voice-over.
Next, we see the film's hero, a gareeb horcruxy Mumbai ka DJ with Mr Indiaish past who gets flashes of live events happening somewhere else much like our favourite Harry Puttar. He instantly falls in love with the myserious looking rich london returned Isha( Alas! She is not mysterious at all). The problem begins right here ! The love story is so unncessary and juvenile that it just doesnt fit in Ayan's universe which he creates with so much care. Isha is a glorified flowerpot who has repetitive dialogues like "Kaun ho tum Shiva" , "Mujhse sach kyun chupaya" , "Main tumhari pyaar mein kab ki jal gayi". I have to confess here that I waited for Alia's big character reveal till the last 4 seconds of the film but NO! She remained the annoying girlfriend till the end who had to be saved all the godamn time! All she did was scream "Shiva". This is majorly a writing flaw. So much could have been better if Alia had her own superpower apart from activating Shiva's Agniastra. Anyway, a jobless Isha immediately( we never know what she does for a living, maybe nothing?) join's Shiva in his newly found quest for saving the guardians of Brahmastra which take them to Varanasi(btw, the girl had just met him for like what? twice and she was okay to risk her life). At this point, the supporter in me was unsettled but I was still like "
theek hai chalo, afterall its a bollywood movie, we should not forget that
" . Anyway, they reach varanasi and sing Kesariya(a surprise is there!) and then enters Nagarjuna! The subsequent sequences of the trio evading the Dark force led by a sexy Junoon and her bandarmen (extremely useless with no impact whatsoever, again bad writing!) and their escape to Guru's ashram with a fantastic car chase sequence is my favourite part of this film. Especially, the Nandi-Astra reveal and the entire fight sequence. Magnificently done! The supporter in me squealed in excitement! 
Then comes the pre-interval sequence which was extraordinary and the supporter in me started dancing!
I was like YAY! Ayan has done it!
Then comes the second half! Enters Mr Bachchan as Brahmansh ka Guruji with his baritone voice and a paternal presence! I have to admit that even though we have seen Mr Bachchan play these roles to the T many times, I had no complaints. Guruji became Shiva's guide and our encyclopedia to the world of Astraverse! I don't know about others but I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the movie where new characters with different astras like pavan-astra, Nag-Dhanush, Gajastra were revealed. Even though these characters are not fleshed out, I enjoyed the light-hearted moments of Shiva's training at the ashram(while Isha was away
) until he fully realized his potential. It was breezy and aided with the fantastic Deva - Deva song.
Now comes the Achilles heel, the third Act 
which ruined the movie for me to a large extent. While Shiva was training, Junoon gained more powers from her deity Brahm-Dev(Not speaking much about him as its a spoiler) and gathered an army near the Ashram. They have only one motive and that's the "Brahmastra".
That's it! Within the next 10 minutes, there's too much of information about Shiva's parents, characters are comically placed next to each other in screenplay and there's forced fireworks! I mean Junoon and Guruji come face to face like a theatre show is happening in a closed auditorium! Hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time. Then quickly, there's an attack from Junoon's men clad in Black robes and voila! We see an overlong, boring battle which is supposedly the climax of the film! I have never seen a longer climax than this film! It goes on and on and on with VFX overdose and jarring sound effects and just when I thought its over, the climax continues with renewed VFX assualt with one thing remaining constant : Alia playing the damsel in distress.By the time the movie ended , I was exhausted and gasping for breath
The supporter in me had sank without a trace! I was like why? The execution could have been so much better! Why no one from the team pointed out these glaring flaws in writing/screenplay to Ayan or karan in these past 10 years? The dialogues throughout the film are abysmal and again I have the same question .. Why?
The VFX is the only department which is great! There's infact an overdose! If the action sequences had more finesse and less CGI then they would have been more impactful I guess! There's no emotional gravitas to the characters, I couldn't care less about Shiva-Isha love story. I did not understand why they fell in love apart from the fact that they are RaLia? I did not understand why Dimple kapadia whizzeled in and out of the frames?
Coming to the performances, Ranbir has the greatest character arc and he does well! He did look haggard in some scenes but most probably its because he had already become 37-38 by the time the film completed its shooting. He's earnest and does well with the green screen sequences! Alia is luminous, looks great but is given an annoying/thankless role which had the scope of hamming and she gave in bits and parts! Both have been saddled with cheesy dialogues which made the supporter in me feel like running away and hide my face somewhere in the dark! Nagarjuna does great with his character, terrific screen presence! Amit Ji was first rate :) just perfect. Mouni Roy was terrific in the film. Infact , she looked her part the most and was menacing throughout. I have problem with the people who are judging her because of her TV background. Just look at her as an actor in the film and not judge her because of her past and then rate her performance! There's nothing to comment on the Ashram kids, they had no presence.
The music is expectedly good, the BGM is also good but jarring in parts. Overall, I liked 3/4th of the movie overlooking the writing/screenplay/dialogue flaws. But this movie is not terrible as the samosa critics without payment are saying. Far lesser films have worked at the BO before. I would be highly disappointed if this doesnt work because it will mean, we will be deluged with more pushpa's and KGF's. Why no one judges the misogyny and crassness of those movies? If those movies can make 1000 crores then Brahmastra with its flaws should atleast make 500!
Edited by MrChatVsNorway - 3 years ago
Marathi TV
Anupamaa
7