When I got the idea to watch fifty-two movies from fifty-two countries throughout 2018, I knew I’d have to start with India.
Indian cinema is the world’s largest film industry. According to multiple sources, the country produces over a thousand movies a year (some sites put that average closer to two thousand).So choosing which movie I’d watch was a challenge in upon itself. My choice wasn’t necessarily meant to “represent” the country or sum up its history (try finding a movie that “sums up” America). I simply wanted a fantastic, memorable film.
In the end I chose…
BÃHUBALI: THE BEGINNING (2015)
RUNNING TIME: 159 Minutes
WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT: Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant.
PLOT: An infant found drowning in a river grows up to be Shivudu, a free-spirited boy who spends his days exploring the surrounding mountains. When Shivudu becomes a man, he leaves his home and discovers he is connected to a vast kingdom ruled by a psychotic warlord.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: An insane musical number in which our hero (Prabhas) climbs an impossibly tall waterfall in pursuit of a woman covered in blue butterflies.
- The most expensive film ever made in India.
- The first of two movies filmed simultaneously. The sequel Bãhubali: The Conclusion was released in 2017.
- Has an animated television series which is a part of the franchise.
Then there is the treatment of animals. Not only does the movie open with a statement that no animals were harmed during the making of the film, but whenever an animal appears to be in danger, the letters “CGI” flash in the lower left-hand corner, assuring viewers that the water buffalo or the horses being killed are just pixels on the screen. Most Hollywood movies are so desperate to look real (even when the computer effects are cruddy) they would never consider such a disclaimer. 
Part of me wanted to go for an older, “classic Bollywood” movie. Bãhubali is a beautiful film but it definitely has that recognizable international blockbuster feel to it (just watch the trailer above). Despite the song and dance numbers, there are sections that could almost be mistaken for scenes from Hollywood fantasy films. One could argue that maybe I should have gone for a film unlike anything I’d find in an American Cineplex. (Bãhubali was literally playing in a movie theater ten minutes from my house.) With this in mind, I might write a couple “bonus posts” throughout the year, touching on other Indian films (I’ll probably do the same for countries like France, Japan and Korea).Feel free to leave suggestions.
