Movie Review : HanuMan

"Baahubali" made us have a large than life look into the potential of movies outside of Bollywood, and made Prabhas and Rana Daggu household names....With "Pushpa", Allu Arjun entered into our drawing room discussions... "RRR" gave us Jr NTR and Ravi Teja...And now Teja Sajja is the new man in town. Young, unassuming, all of five movies old... The man to watch out for, though, is Prashanth Varma.... a Gurukul studied movie maker with strong beliefs in the ancient Indian History...

If you ever wondered as to why our extremely rich ancient history cannot be adapted to super hero movies, well, "Hanu Man" is the answer. It mixes Superhero tropes wonderfully with original storytelling. So while someone like "Adi Purush" buckled under the pressure of being attached to mythology and God, HanuMan does not forget to have it simple, religious and funny at the same time. And that is the success of our Writer-Director Prasanth Varma, where despite a limited budget of 25-30 Crores, a grand experience has been attempted to be created. The team dishes out a winner by walking a tight rope between religion , commercial cinema, super hero antiques and a low budget. As a movie, it certainly does not appear to be perfect; and this reality is its asset too, where it has been made like another commercial Telugu movie with comedy, drama and emotions all thrown in.

The superhero genre mostly thrives on an underdog character, who somehow gets his superpowers, and takes on an evil guy who wants to destroy everything around him. And in almost every such narration, the success lies in how the writers and directors make us root for the underdog character and what he/she stands for, while enjoying the larger-than-life possibilities that arise from the clash between good and evil. The Director of "HanuMan" follows this template and draws liberal inspiration from the Ramayana at a time when the whole country is immersing in the flavour of Lord Ram. So full marks for that. "HanuMan" has been successful in merging anecdotes of our ancient history with contemporary action and in the process create a nice viewing experience which has good story telling, a rustic simplicity and strong performances.

Right at the outset, a super-power hungry evil is created who is besotted with technology in a metropolitan landscape. And soon thereafter we are transported to the serenity of Anjanadri Village, flanked by mountains, valleys and a larger-than-life rock carving of Lord Hanuman, which has been effectively used to stage heroic moments, akin to Rajamouli’s Baahubali.

Now the hero has to acquire the superpowers somehow. How does it happen?

Spiderman acquired his powers through a radioactive spider and lots of Biology involved thereafter. Superman's powers came from the fact that he grew up on another planet, Krypton with its red Sun. Batman became exposed to the Blackrock symbiote and the exposure gave him the power to fly, as well as super strength, super durability, and the ability to absorb and project energy. So basically, there is a lot of science involved in the way all our Western superheroes have acquired their superpowers. But, our Desi HanuMan has kept it simple... and allowed the superpowers to be sourced from faith and historical facts, instead of science. You will certainly like the process.

But the villain's character could have been made more captivating. And in an attempt to increase the tempo of his villainy, the movie seems to be losing grip at a few places.

The narrative has enough emotional gravitas to keep us hooked. The day-to-day simplicity of a village life is nicely portrayed with womenfolk in the centre of it all. The action sequences in the village are choreographed to ensure ample fun moments. In the Auditorium where I watched, children and adults lapped it up with enthusiasm. The music and background score aptly build up the enormity of the experiences. There is a powerful usage of Sanskrit verses as background score in various places which enhance the effect manifold.

Last 15-20 minutes are extremely engrossing and reflect powerful storytelling. The entry of Lord Hanuman is powerfully presented, and adds a strong spiritual dimension to the superhero tale, and ends with a superb goose-bump narration of the Hanuman Chaalisa in an aggressive grandeur. The cameraman has delivered top-notch frames that enhance the visual grandeur on the big screen.

What is heartening is that the film does not overtly capitalise on religious sentiments and draws from stories we have heard since childhood to present an entertaining homegrown superhero story. Prashanth Varma has already created his Prashant Varma Cinematic Universe, which is soon to go on the floors with two more superhero movies; and 4 more in the pipeline; all based out of our ancient history including a female super hero. Exciting, is it not!! The movie ends with the announcement of another superhero film Jai Hanuman in 2025. Sounds interesting, specially because success of this movie will give its team more resources and options, which sometimes may be double edged too.

The run time of the movie is 2.40 hours and is a drawback and I am sure that the director could have made a better experience by reducing the duration of the movie by 15 to 20 minutes.

Do not miss to enjoy with family in theatres.

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Credits : World Wide Web