I was thinking while analyzing Beyhadh couple of days back why this line came to my mind. When I watched Bahubali today I understood why it came. I had gone to watch Bahubali with the idea that when I write the perspective I will be comparing it to Mahabharatha. Because from the first part it looked more correct from MB perspective.
But when I watched Bahubali the conclusion the first thing that caught my attention my Amarendra Bahubali watching two birds romancing and telling Katappa what a beautiful sight. In his mind at that time was the love he was feeling for Devasena the princess of Kundala kingdom and also the knowledge she too was feeling same about him. Seeing those birds he sees the pure feeling of love, pure feeling of union but what does Katappa say. Yes it is beautiful, we need to take them , fry them, put masala and eat them. Here you go. The fulcrum of the story is that.
Amarendra Bahubali and Devasena represented the power of love , its beauty, its divinity and Kattappa represented the society who never liked the true union of souls and always destroyed the love with its rules, with its hypocrisy and its so called dharma and vachanpalan. Dharma and Vachanpalan good as long as its suits the society, it suits its hypocrisy, but if it is applied in the right sense exposing its hypocrisy well the criminal becomes victim and the victim criminal.
Yes the first sloka of Ramayana was Maa Nishadha which Valmiki has recited seeing a hunter hunting down the mating bird. Yes the society came in between the divine love of Ram and Sita forcing Ram to sacrifice his beloved Janaki because they believed she was not pure enough to be a queen. A society then didn't realize the Mahalakshmi standing in front of them. A society today also doesn't realize the Mahalakshmi in front of them, ends up making her a Durga.
When Shivgami walked carrying the vessel of fire on her head a custom which they tell the daughter in law of Mahismati has to do to kill the demon, I knew what the last scene would be. Devasena will burn the man, who burned her life.
The story was that, the love of Amarendra Bahubali and Devasena standing the test of time. Passing the test of fire. But for analysis I would like to use Shivgami as the centre point. Because the story starts from her and ends with her. It is her battle, in a sense. A battle where her ideals are questioned because she makes the choices as a woman and not as a mother. Yes Shivgami is a woman whose choices superside the mother role. She was queen mother who always kept the benefit of Mahismathi before herself. All her decisions, judgement are for Mahismathi. She is not just the mother of Bhalla Deva but mother of Mahismathi and Shivgami makes every effort to live upto this role.
Her relation with Amarendra Bahubali is pure, divine. She knows he is the one who will practice her ideals, who will protect Mahismathi.
But then when has society allowed a woman to take charge, when has society allowed her to make her decisions. She is supposed to perform the roles daughter, wife, mother. If she doesn't then the society will harp her. Same happens with Shivgami. The constant chanting she is not doing right to her son Bhalla Deva makes her fall to her son's trap and give him the word that she will bring the princess of Kundala Desa Devasena as his bride. It was a mother's promise to the son.
What happens is that, in front of the world Devasena and Amarendra make her fail on that promise. Publicly in front of her son, she fails as a mother. Shivgami the woman knows what Devasena tells is true. A princess has the right to chose her husband. Shivgami knows what Bahubali did is right. She knows. The Rajmatha of Mahismathi knows, but she is overpowered by mother of Bhalla Deva who has failed him.
Bhalla Deva comes as a man who has given away kingdom for his brother, while Amarendra Bahubali comes as a man who cannot leave the woman he loves to his brother in front of Shivgami. Criminal become victim and victim becomes criminal.
From this point starts Shivgami's journey from reality to perception. Her heart knows Amarendra Bahubali is practicing what she has taught. But then she cant take it. For her he throws away the kingdom his mother has given him for the woman he loved. But that was what Shivgami taught him, stand up for the honor of a woman, stand up for what is right, question even if it is God. He does exactly that.
Bhalla Deva is not happy even after getting kingdom because Bahubali lives in the heart of the people. He wants to insult him more. For the pregnancy ceremony of Devasena he takes away the powers of Bahubali as army chieftan. Angry Devasena questions Rajmatha and tells Bahubali she wants him to be the king. It was an angry outburst of a wife, whose husband is humiliated. But for Shivgami it is rebellion, a girl questioning her decision.
Devasena ends up in court tied for cutting the fingers of army chieftan and Bahubali executes him and liberates his wife. Once again what Bahubali did was right. He asked the victim what happened. He realized who the victim is. Unless the king who was making the criminal a victim. Shivgami is challenged once again and she uses what Devasena said in anger to tell her verdict that Bahubali behaved like a king and outcasts him. In that position she was right. Because Bhalla Deva was king, Bahubali was not. Every action of Bahubali reminds her, she is wrong in her decision to make Bhalla Deva king. But mother of Bhalla Deva pushes on. She cannot go wrong. Her son cannot go wrong. The one whom she gave birth cannot go wrong.
Finally Bhalla Deva and his father manages to create the illusion for Shivgami that Bahubali tried to execute Bhalla Deva and Shivgami signs his death warrant. I would say at that moment Shivgami loses as a woman in the fight against a society that never allowed a woman to take charge. That could never see a woman taking right decisions. She falls prey to the system, its demands, its expectations as a mother of the child she gave birth to over the child she has nurtured.
But what Bhalla Deva had not imagined was, what kind of a woman his mother is. The moment Katappa brings truth to her, she falls at Devasena's feet. Yes that scene was private, but that scene was poignant where she takes the child from Devasena's lap and announces him as the next king of Mahismathi.
A woman gives a promise to the woman and takes the child. No Bhalladeva's arrow couldn't stop Shivgami the woman from upholding the true dharma. That scene where she holds the baby atop while drowning herself asking Lord Shiva to protect the child and amend her sins with her death. Yes by holding the child atop, sacrificing her life Shivgami writes the death warrant of her own son Bhalla Deva.
Twenty five years later Mahendra Bahubali comes. History repeats itself. His father was not nurtured by the woman who gave birth to him. Same goes for Mahendra Bahubali. His foster mother is a tribal, not the queen who gave birth to him. He fights and brings down Bhalla Deva asking his mother to burn him.
Devasena burns the man along with the system that burned her. A system which tells a woman cannot take decision, a system which makes a woman criminal for the crimes happening to her, a system that denies a woman choice the system and the men supporting that system has to go. A man who values the woman, who keeps them in his heart, who knows to respect them has to take their place.
If that happens a Shivgami need not have to order to kill the child whom she has bought up dearly, a Devasena need not be in prison for twenty five years for loving a man and making a choice. Yes the last scene was very symbolic where Mahendra Bahubali taking the oath in the name of Shivgami while his foster mothers puts the Raj Tilak taking it from the thaali given by his wife Avantika and his birth mother Devasena putting the crown on him. The Purusharth surrounds the man. The 4 ladies, the one who took Moksha protecting him believing in his survival dharma will prevail, the mother who nurtured him, the mother who waited for him to liberate her and the wife who will bring new life to this world. His knowledge, wealth and power are the women in his life.
Shivgami's blood is erased, but her ideals lives through Mahendra Bahubali. The mother of Bhalla Deva loses but the mother of Mahismathi wins. The woman Shivgami wins in the end through her sacrifice, while her husband and son become non-entities.
And yes of course true love wins against the society that wants to kill , roast and eat the couple. Because it is reborn from fire and engulf the society that burned it.
Performance wise it was a treat to watch Ramya Krishnan and Anuskha Shetty as Shivgami and Devasena. Prabhas did a very good job as Bahubali. Overall I cannot point out a single medicore performance as all the cast has strived to give their best performance. Some of the poignant scene was Devasena in the court chained and Bahubali killing the army chieftan, Kattappa walking in and telling blood of Amarendra Bahubali, Shivgami falling on the feet of Devasena and the scene where Devasena put the fire on Bhalla Deva.
Character wise I would say Shivgami was Kaikeyi and Gandhari. A woman who loved her foster son more than her own son, momentarily blinded by the love of her son, believing him. Why the mix is because when Kaikeyi takes decision she doesn't know what Bharath wants, but here Shivgami believes Bhalla Deva making her Gandhari who believed her sons till the last moment even cursing Krishna. Here Shivgami doesn't go to that extend, like Kaikeyi she repents and protects her grandchild sacrificing herself.
Devasena was of course a mix of Sita, Devaki and Panchali. Her staunch devotion to her husband makes her a Sita, but her need to right, her outspoken nature makes her a Panchali as a woman born out of fire, and of course her wait for her child being a prisoner makes her a Devaki.
Amarendra Bahubali was a mix of Ram and Abhimanyu. A man of highest ideals, but unable to understand the Chakravyuha that is created to capture him, not knowing the exist route of Chakravyuha that he has entered. And that Vyuha takes him. His stance for his ideals publicly against the order of Rajmatha Shivgami makes him a criminal than a victim, and the power of the system takes him down.
Mahendra Bahubali of course was a mix of Pandavas. Strength of Bhima, charm of Arjuna, knowledge of Yudhi getting the direction of Krishna in the form of Kattappa. A man who knows the power. A man whose hands were binded, but Shivgami's declaration before her death gives him freedom to support Mahendra Bahubali. The power which took Amarendra Bahubali's life, finally brings back the power to his son. Kattappa is also actually a mix of Bhishma, Lakshmana, Krishna everything. The match maker, the societal watch dog and loving mentor he is everything.
What I want to tell is Rajamouli has used all the epics, he has not directly taken any character from the epic, nor has taken the story directly but in fact has mixed the characters of epics in various contrast in a beautiful way , but he has delivered the message our epics had always delivered. That whatever this society say or think, how much ever they try to put down love, finally power of love will win against the power of time. Love will change history. A man who wins the heart of a woman wins ultimately.
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