CAST: Ranbir Kapoor, Aliaa Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Nagarjuna, Mouni roy

DIRECTOR: AYAAN MUKERJI

Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva has a number of attributes American viewers may associate with when thinking of Indian cinema.

For a movie that started its theater promos in the US in February 2022, the expectations were immense, yet we just saw it fizzle in front of our eyes on the screen in the 2 hours and 40 minutes that it ran.

Brahmāstra has a colorful disposition, incorporates several sensational musical numbers, and runs reasonably long even by Bollywood standards, making it a pain in your backside to be lounging- waiting for the splash to get over.

We hear many outlets stating a constant comparison to MCU, but we just found Brahmāstra a pathetic, tackier attempt at creating a cinematic universe. The reasons? Let us explain.

Produced by Star Studios, once co-owned by the companies Star India and 20th Century Fox, and now yet another Disney subsidiary, Brahmāstra is the most expensive Hindi production ever with a budget of over $51 million. Brahmāstra clearly has its eye on a cinematic universe, with “Part One” featured in its title and “Part Two” inevitably teased by the story’s end, but we feel that the confidence to get to Part Two is indeed misplaced.

Writer-director Ayan Mukerji opens his movie with a shower of elucidation about the Astras, Eternals-like beings saturated with the power of elements or animals.

SRK (playing a scientist called Mohan Bhargava, in an allusion to his character from movie Swades) battles the agents of the chief villain of the cosmos, followed by a lively song and dance introducing Shiva to the audience. 

There are also members of the Brahmānsh, a group sworn to protect humankind from the dangers of the Brahmāstra, a magic stone that can be used as a world-ending weapon.

That is where all the energy of the opening scene leaves the room.

The weapon has been split into fragments, and a rather mild-mannered DJ named Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor) becomes enmeshed in the race to find them. Primarily armed only with his ability to “find the light” in a vicious world, Shiva will need to crack his own untested fire-harnessing power in order to face off against the evil Junoon (Mouni Roy).

It takes a while for Shiva to be sent off on his pursuit, and that is one of the diversions of Brahmāstra. There is barely any adult depth to Shiva’s budding relationship with his rich-girl crush Isha (Alia Bhatt), their initial flirtation gets more screen space than most superhero romances do in their totality.

This includes a couple of musical numbers ranging from a music-video type with loads of dancers to intimate numbers, allowing both Kapoor and Bhatt to play the a very frothy, smitten couple that they are off-screen. We wait for all this to pass so someone can get down to business.

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The deeper Brahmāstra gets into its mythology, the muddier it gets for us. The meat of the plot is loaded post interval all with its VFX which is largely composed of beam of colorful lights.

The  $50 million production has a fairly spectacular special effects with good quality execution though they are not impressive technically compared to our Hollywood blockbusters. At times, the impact on the scenes was caricaturish.

Brahmāstra was shot on and off over the period of five years and the pace of the movie tells the story of the gaps, while the long runtime disengages the audiences towards the end.

Disclosures about Shiva’s family and the massive battles over the real McGuffin cannot be compared to the setup scenes of Alia and Ranbir deciding to venture together. The movie does try to come back to its initial love story, but by then we are already fatigued beyond repair.

Big, massive sets, effects-heavy Indian films have hit our shores with great effect and we have seen how RRR was received, Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva stands out as a poor cousin.

In North America, the release date comes during the summer travel month when not many big movies are scheduled and people who suffer from several withdrawal symptoms of missing popcorn and soda might venture this fizz fare.