Availability: August 5, 2022

Rating 3.25 out of 5

Featuring: Warina Hussain, Catherine Tresa, Samyuktha Menon, and Nandamuri Kalyan Ram.

Mallidi Vashist is the director.

The creator is Hari Krishna K

M. M. Keeravani, Chirrantan Bhatt, and Varikuppala Yadagiri are among the composers

Filmmaking: Chota K. Naidu

Tammi Raju, editor

The previous few days have seen some effective advertising for the movie Bimbisara. A great deal of buzz surrounded the movie's release today. Let's see if it lives up to the hype or not.

Story

The merciless ruler of the Trigartala kingdom is named Bimbisara. He is evil, and his main goal is to ruthlessly conquer all kingdoms. But a curse causes his existence to shift, and he is suddenly thrust into the troubled modern era. That curse—what is it? What link exists between the past and the present? Who is Bimbisara to begin with? You must see the movie on a wide screen to learn the answers.

Better Points

With this movie, director Vasshist makes his directorial debut, and he deserves praise for crafting a compelling narrative. He did an excellent job of fusing the idea of time travel with present emotions and fantasy, giving the viewer a fresh experience.

Kalyan Ram puts on his best performance of his career and receives a dramatic makeover. He exudes a strong negative vibe in his character and is terrifying as the merciless ruler. Kalyan Ram exhibits regal body language and excellent facial expressions. He deserves praise for choosing a risky subject and sticking with it as well.

Another important component of the movie is MM Keeravani, who also provides a quality musical score. The renowned musician completely lifts the movie, whether it's through his BGM or the songs. As the princess, Catherine Tresa does a wonderful job. Srinivas Reddy finally has a good role and engages the viewers.

The plot is beautifully built in the first half of the movie. The way the time travel idea is established without any gaps in logic is the best aspect. Once the monarch arrives in the present, the situational humour is also extremely brilliant.

The filmmaker does a good job of setting up the action blocks, especially in the second half. A little girl's connection to the monarch and the strong feelings it inspires have a high emotional quotient.

The film's stunning visual effects and VFX make for an exciting viewing experience for the viewer. The audience is left impressed by the second half's wise conclusion. The supporting cast, which is lead by Prakash Raj, does well in the movie with Vennela Kishore.

Loss of Points

The movie's heroines don't have many action-packed scenes to play. Samyuktha Menen is merely a bystander throughout the entire story.

Once the major twists are known, the second half drags a little. More drama involving the monarch and Kalyan Ram, the other figure of Kalyan Ram, would have raised the proceedings even more.

The primary villain's weakness is one of the key flaws. The movie would have been significantly improved by a proper Telugu actor who was more intense.

The major antagonist's vulnerability is one of the biggest flaws. The movie would have been drastically different if it had had a true Telugu actor who was more intense.

a technical nature

The amount of money that Kalyan Ram invested in the project is evident in every scene. Amazing camera work and production design are used, especially to show off the kingdom. Songs are incorporated into the story fairly effectively. Particularly Kalyan Ram's delivery of the phrase is simply fantastic.

The king's outfits were chosen well. The choreography of the battle scenes is excellent, and special note should be made of the VFX. The majority of the screenplay is extremely engaging, however the last half drags a little.

The director Vasshist, who makes a shining debut, is the one to keep an eye on. His writing is a strength since it is difficult to persuade today's educated young of the validity of time travel. However, the director succeeds with flying colours and ends the movie on a pragmatic note.

The best component of the movie is how he portrayed Kalyan Ram as the ruthless monarch who undergoes a transformation. When you begin to lose interest in the movie, a surprising new twist is unveiled and keeps things exciting. The output would have been much more intense if he had filled the second half with additional drama.

Verdict

Bimbisara is an all-around competently produced fantasy drama with a strong setting and entertaining elements. The narration is captivating, and Kalyan Ram gives the performance of his career. With the exception of a few sporadic parts in the second half, this movie contains a lot of good visuals, action, humour, and emotions that the audience will enjoy watching on the big screen. Try it out.

In his films, Kalyan Ram has a tendency toward diversity. Once more, the actor-producer chose an original idea to carry out. Bimbisara, in which Kalyan Ram both acted and produced, is said to be based on the ideas of time travel. The legendary and fantastical notions in the Bimbisara teaser make it appealing. Today, the movie opened in theatres. This is a review.

What's the matter?

In the year 500 BC, Trigarala's merciless tyrant Bimbisara (Kalyan Ram) ruled. Bimbisara unexpectedly goes across time and arrives in the present without realising that Kethu (Ayyappa P Sharma) and a power-hungry doctor named Subramanya Sastry are already waiting for him to arrive. How did Bimbisara become a time traveller, and what did he do? The responses to these inquiries are all related to Bimbisara.

Performances

In order to seem as the same person in two different settings, Kalyan Ram had to. He performed the role admirably.

The only thing Catherine Tresa can do is sing and play a small part. She does fine in the role of princess.

Srinivasa Reddy had a challenging part and performed admirably. He makes us think of the humour in classic fantasy movies from the past.Samyuktha Menon’s role is small and there is nothing much for her to perform. Prakash Raj, Rajeev Kanakala, and Vennela Kishore were given routine roles. For a story like Bimbisara, a powerful villain would be great, but here the villain character is too weak and hollow.

Technicalities

The first thing that impresses Bimbisara is the graphics. Just like the trailer hinted at good VFX work, the movie has got the graphics part done very well. Though the movie did not have any foreign technicians, Bimbisara has got that visual effects part done well.

Bimbisara’s storyline starts as a unique line, but the commercial elements in the second half pull the graph down a bit. The screenplay is good. There are many dragged scenes in the second half. The cinematography is fine. The background music is very good, but the songs are just okay.

Thumbs Up

Sci-fi storyline
Kalyan Ram
Keeravani music

Thumbs Down

Weak villain
Rushed climax

Analysis

Besides Aditya 369, not many Telugu films have the time travel concept for a full-length movie. Bimbisara uses the idea of traveling in time and blends some commercial and fantasy elements.

The director cleverly made it uncomplicated with the parallel worlds concept. He also chose a simple mirror as a medium of non-stop travel. The logical question arises on why the travel is specific to two particular times, but the answer is just the relevance to the story.

The first half has got a few surprises that worked well. Though the introduction to the brutality of Bimbisara took a while, it slowly falls in track with the story until the interval.

The second half hardly touches the 5th century BC because the story goes completely into the commercial mode. Though the little girl’s sentiment is linked to the treasure from a parallel world, it slows down the pace at times.

The curiosity factor from the first half slowly falls back after the interval with the commercial formula approach dominating after each scene. The loud but weak villain remains one of the main drawbacks of the movie.

There are few scenes and dialogues that immediately remind us of Yamagola and Yamaleela, except that Bimbisara has the time travel theory. The villain gang kidnapping the whole family to get things done by the protagonist is a vintage idea that our filmmakers could avoid for good.

Overall, Bimbisara is a storyline that has a new concept of time travel that starts good but slows down with routine narrative later on. With the sci-fi storyline and Kalyan Ram’s performance, Bimbisara has got fair chance to impress the audience.

Story: The film, Bimbisara narrates an epic and grand tale of the transformation of the all-powerful, arrogant, selfish and cruel king of Trikarthala, Bimbisara, into a more humane and selfless individual. There is a king, kingdoms, supernatural elements and time travel. How did the king traverse between two timelines, and what did he encounter?

Mallidi Vashishta’s debut film Bimbisara is about a king from 500 BC who arrives in our current world against his wishes. Full of ego and manic energy, he doesn’t spare anyone who stands in his way, be it a sparrow or a child. But unceremoniously removed from his position as the emperor of Trigarthala, he begins to discover humanity and the meaning of dharma

Now this sounds like a very profound idea but Bimbisara, at its heart, is a masala film. For the first 20 minutes or so, it plays out like a terrible stage play. The visual effects are tacky; the sets look like they were borrowed from a school annual day. I was worried that a strong breeze would be enough for the whole palace to collapse on the actors. There’s also an item number with Warina Hussain – apparently, women dancers were gyrating in 500 BC in the exact same way as they do in our cinema now. There’s a historical fact I did not know. 

Also, Bimbisara (Kalyan Ram) has a bunch of ‘Cherokee’ tribal warriors guarding a secret cave of treasures. The descendents of these ‘Cherokee’ tribal people continue to guard the cave in our time too. I didn’t understand how any of this happened considering the Cherokee are indigeneous people who live in the Americas. The Cherokee people in the film also looked Indian, adding to my puzzlement. This cave has blood analysis and handprint and voice recognition as security measures. It’s almost like Tom Cruise time travelled to 500 BC and built it for Bimbisara.

But there’s something to be said about Kalyan Ram’s conviction as an actor. When he walks over a crocodile that looks like it’s from Chhota Bheem, he does so with a certain regal air that makes you buy into Bimbisara’s character. Srinivasa Reddy as his lackey is quite hilarious with his caricaturish moustache. The film becomes a lot better when it escapes the no-budget Baahubali sets and lands in present day Hyderabad. Kalyan Ram brings his comic timing to the fore, and there are some moments in the film that are laugh-out-loud funny. The conduit between the past and the present is a mirror and director Vashishta uses this well to generate humour. 

Vivan Bhatena plays Subramanya Shastry, a modern day doctor who desperately wants something from Bimbisara’s cave of treasures – a book on Ayurveda called Dhanwantari. Assisting Subramanya in this mission is a scary-looking man in saffron robes called Ketu (Ayyappa P Sharma). Vashishta airdrops Ketu on us; we don’t know where he came from or how he knows so much about Bimbisara. 

The careless writing extends to the other characters too. Samyuktha Menon plays a senior police officer but she’s never in uniform; are those short dresses meant to be ‘mufti’, and if so, why is she in disguise to begin with? More remarkably, when Bimbisara kills people around him like an expert pest control operator with an electric mosquito bat, she does nothing at all. Catherine Tresa gets a blink-and-miss role as a princess. Warina probably got more screen time than her with the item number. 

Bimbisara is enjoyable when it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and the hero bumbles around his new world. When it tries to pull off something beyond that though, it falters. There are simply too many holes in the plot that cannot be compensated for by MM Keeravani’s bombastic music. Sample this: Prakash Raj is a super rich royal family descendent. Yet, when his family is threatened, he is completely helpless and just stands around fatalistically. We’re also told that the ancient Dhanwantari has an ‘antidote’ for a new age virus called ‘D-40’ that can instantly cure a patient. It can be argued that it is part of the fantasy but it seemed more like an earnest inspiration drawn from pseudo science. 

Bimbisara is entertaining in parts, and is anchored mainly by Kalyan Ram’s performance. It would have worked better if Vashishta hadn’t tried to tick every box in the masala film genre and trusted the material more. 

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.

Sowmya Rajendran writes on gender, culture and cinema. She has written over 25 books, including a nonfiction book on gender for adolescents. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar for her novel Mayil Will Not Be Quiet in 2015.

Bottom Line: Box Office ki Aasara

Rating: 3/5