Baahubali: Crown of Blood Review: SS Rajamouli Crafts A Masterful Prequel With Some Hits And Misses

The series manages quite well to evoke nostalgia in viewers. Add to it bite-sized twenty-minute long episodes and we have a breezy weekend watch. (Image via X)

The following review contains spoilers for the show 'Baahubali: Crown of Blood'.

In a scene from episode 8 of SS Rajamouli’s 'Baahubali: Crown of Blood', Mahishmati’s army led by Kattappa locks horns with Rakhtadeva, the mighty warrior who wants to destroy the Mahishmati kingdom. It is at that moment when Baauhubali asks the army men to pick up hose pipes to discharge water on the battlefield. Seeing this, Rakhtadeva and his minions—including his henchman Bhairva burst into laughter.

As water begins flooding the battlefield, Rakhtadeva’s army attacks Mahishmati’s soldiers. That is when Baahubali uses an automatic machine to throw huge bombs of dry mud on the soldiers. Soon, the mud mixes with water creating a bog which traps Rakhtadeva’s soldiers. Such clever tricks which played around with weaponry made the battle sequences of Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) iconic. The trick is so simple, yet it works wonders.

Created by SS Rajamouli and Sharad Devarajan, Baahubali: Crown of Blood packs a solid punch with each episode. The plot is strong, engaging and gives us a peek into the history of Mahishmati, before Bhallaladeva and Baahubali turned staunch enemies, they would fight alongside in a war against Kaaldoota (a pseudonym of Rakhtadeva). The plot of the animated series has just the correct amount of twists, double crossings and intense battles sequences one associates with the franchise.

The series manages quite well to evoke nostalgia in viewers. Add to it bite-sized twenty-minute long episodes and we have a breezy weekend watch. Each episode ends at a crucial moment— a cliffhanger which makes the viewer want to watch the next episode. Granted, this seems like a basic requirement in the world of OTT releases but it is often a requirement which is often not fulfilled by streaming giants.

Add to it the intriguing backstories of characters, the parentage of Rakhtadeva, the ongoing rivalry between Bhallaladeva, Baahubali—and we have the perfect epic fantasy saga. What I liked the most was that Rajamouli gave Rakhtdeva a compelling backstory—why does he want to destroy Mahishmati? What is in it for him? Why did Kattappa switch over and side with the enemy? The series will answer these questions and more.

The animated series also offers commentary on toxic masculinity and the rich-poor divide. On being betrayed by the people whose lives he saved, Baahubali is left dejected. He wonders why he was betrayed by the marginalised. In another scene, we see a double-crossing old man opine that rich Kings like Baahubali, who are born with the silver spoon, do not care about the poor.

Unlike Bhallaladeva, Baahubali is kind to refugees, the old, the children and those in need. Unlike his brother who is trigger-happy, always ready to fight it out, Baahubali readily chooses peace over war if there’s an option, much to the dismay of his brother. His soft qualities make him a favourite of Sivagami and the people of Mahishmati, much to the dismay of Bhallaladeva. In a flashback, it is revealed that Bijjaldeva, the father of Bhallaladeva didn’t want his son to cry or show vulnerability—he raised him to be a violent man who isn’t in touch with his emotional side.

Meanwhile, Baahubali grows up with emotionally healthy people and keeps in touch with his sensitive side, which also helps him pass with flying colours in the battlefield. The commentary on toxic masculinity is sharp and pierces through the viewer, especially when Bijjaldeva forces a young Bhallaladeva to act violently.

The final battle sequence is nothing short of majestic—Mahishmati’s soldiers and Rakhtdeva’s wolves fight it out in a battlefield in the backdrop of an exploding volcano which also serves as Kaalbhatti (the forgery where far superior swords are made).

Dialogues are the strongest and the weakest part of this show. They are hard-hitting and thought-provoking in places but sometimes don’t quite land, especially when the guardsmen communicate with each other using euphemisms like “Ae kuttey…” or “Rokda tera baap dega?”. One instantly gets traumatic flashbacks from Adipurush (2023), last year’s box office debacle.

The unnecessarily evil tactics of Rakhtadeva’s men—like whiplashing an old man who is dying of thirst and hunger, forcing him to continue working as he crawls in the desert—are jarring to say the least. Perhaps, a little room could have been left for subtlety. We get it, they are the bad guys—why make it so painfully obvious? The series is also bogged down by animation which frankly is very basic and simplistic—the vector based animation often dampens the spirits in battlefield sequences which aren’t as majestic as they could have been.

'Baahubali: Crown of Blood' is no The Boy and The Heron. But the series with its bite-sized easily digestible episodes wrapped meticulously in nostalgia-flavoured wrapper might just be the show you want to binge on this weekend.

The first two episodes of Baahubali: Crown of Blood are streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.