S. S. Rajamouli makes extravagant action worth caring about by taking his heroes’ feelings seriously. We admire his willingness to risk silliness, with one reservation: he often keeps explaining an emotion after the actors have made it clear.
Fi1m perspective
A Rajamouli hero can do impossible things in a fight, and the director expects us to care about why he is fighting. In Bāhubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), the choreography keeps finding fresh ways to make the impossible exciting. We were delighted by the fighting because the film lets its improbable ideas develop without apologising for their silliness. There is feeling behind these feats, and Rajamouli gives it as much attention as the action. We recommend the film, though its insistence on making every emotion unmistakable can become tiring.
He began directing features with Student No. 1 (2001), before the fantasy action and reincarnation of Magadheera (2009). Wider recognition came with Eega (2012), followed by the two-part story that opened with Baahubali: The Beginning (2015). With RRR (2022), he reached a wider international audience. His recurring interest in family bonds gives those extraordinary heroes recognisable reasons to act, however far their physical abilities exceed ours.
His regular collaborators include cinematographer K. K. Senthil Kumar, composer M. M. Keeravani and story writer V. Vijayendra Prasad. Mythological and historical references recur, and he often tells his stories through flashbacks. But a considerable part of the pleasure of Bāhubali 2: The Conclusion comes from the ease between Prabhas and Anushka Shetty. They make its impossible events worth caring about, giving Rajamouli something to work with beyond the next feat of strength.
At 167 minutes, that film could use a firmer cut, especially when its screenplay keeps explaining a feeling the performers have already made clear. We would not ask Rajamouli to become restrained; that would remove much of the reason to watch him. We would ask him to bring the decisiveness of the fights to the longer stretches between them. Give Bāhubali 2: The Conclusion an evening if action fantasy is yours, and accept that he will use most of it.
Biography
S. S. Rajamouli, also credited as Koduri Srisaila Sri Rajamouli, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Telugu cinema. He was born on 10 October 1973 in Raichur district, Karnataka.
Rajamouli directed and wrote the screenplay for Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017). His other notable films include Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), Eega (2012), Magadheera (2009) and RRR (2022). Many of his projects have involved his father V. Vijayendra Prasad as story writer and his cousin M. M. Keeravani as composer.
In 2016 the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri. RRR received a New York Film Critics Circle award for best director.
