#astraverse

(btw its free to use credit if you want i couldnt care less) (also original image under cut)

so basically its

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A: Wore my Hatsune Miku Socks to a KFC interview 💪💪💪

(1 Hour Later)

A: I got rejected…

B: Their just haters! They don’t wanna have all their staff go nuts over Miku socks

A: So True 😀

I...have mixed feelings.

(What else is new?)

First off, the worldbuilding is excellent, and I love the nod to the fact that astras technically don't have to be arrows; instead, they are more sources of power that can be infused into anything, even (as in the Mahabharata, famously) a piece of straw.

(Actually, this does bring up the intriguing possibility that Sita's taunt to Ravana that she can hold him off with just a blade of grass isn't just an insanely bold bluff. This is a woman who grew up surrounded by rishis--who usually are the ones to hand out the secrets to using astras--and whose husband definitely knows how to use at least a few by the point. If you go with the Adbhuta Ramayana version, where Sita takes the form of Kali to defeat Ravana's brother, it's pretty much canon.)

However, the love story bored me to tears, and the lack of female characters (Junoon, in fairness, gets to be an interesting, competent and relatively unsexualized villain--and gets promptly killed off. Isha has nothing even vaguely approaching a character arc, much less any backstory besides "being from London") honestly keeps me from working up any fervent fannish interest. Even say, Padmaavat with all its problems, had multiple female characters with different points of view; Brahmastra: Part 1 really lacks that for me.

But Amrita in Part 2 absolutely looks poised to change all that--and Deepika in particular can pull it off, I suspect.

Fellow 90s born Indians, Remember Digimon and Beyblade?

Brahmastra is the love child of ‘Digimon, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Beyblade & Star Wars’ Jessa kuch banyenge dreams which had arranged marriage with Bollywood Love Story.

First of all I had no expectations, because from trailer. I knew Brahmastra  is visual extravaganza. It almost did deliver the promise except for too much ‘kesariya tera’ playing on loop every 2mins and a really irritating set design that to and fro from Bansali to Marvel.

Main complaint: Terrible dialogue writing. And something was really off with dialogue recording/delivery too. It felt like I was watching a masala Telugu movie with atrocious Hindi dub on Sony Max on a Sunday afternoon. No effort was put to make it impactful.

Story is so cliche, that it was obvious from trailer only. Orphan special one meets the manic pixie dream girl and grand old theme of Power Of Love. Nice idea badly executed; Do better Ayan, I know you can— I have seen Wake Up Sid when I was 17; you cant fool me.

But it was fun to watch if the audience is like me—who grew up on steady diet of anime as Ayan definitely had lot of Naruto, Digimon, Beyblade, and Dragon Ball dreams for his characters’ visual powers. I know my anime and star wars and comics so it was easy spot.

The visual depictions of power were sadly very marvelish; the hyper cracking Bisexual colours that look great on screen when characters clash. I was expecting more of Shaktiman colour tones; not like the 90s but, something less Disney colours and more homegrown.

I wanted more of the astra lore; look I love superhuman stories! And Astra wielders sound so much fun! So mythological part was shaky. Give more lore and cut out the songs! Too much songs! Nahi chaiye!

Most reviews are saying it is inspired from LOTR+HP+Marvel+Starwars! Pffft— I am telling you; IT WAS TOTALLY INSPIRED FROM ANIME THAT STARTED AIRING IN INDIA FROM LATE 90s and crowded our homes till 2010s! Ayan is totally an otaku. And I relate and appreciate it!

There many cameos! The first cameo was a surprise to me! But man the dialogues were so bad that they wasted such a great opening. I mean you literally the king of Bollywood building the story for you! But damn those badly written dialogues!

I love Mouni Roy! She did her best to be the devoted antagonist! Mouni really carried her Nagin from small screen to big screen well and made it much more! I wish we got to see her do the hiss hiss! Please keep her for the next two movies! I need her!

Alia was really a manic pixie dream girl; if she is Partvati to this Shiva! You better make her have powers or some key function in next two parts; otherwise Isha will be remembered just like Orihime for her “Kurosaki Kun” and Skura for her “Sauske-kun!”cries!

But I had loads of fun watching it, because my suspension of disbelief is commendable. I have many complaints but I am glad to finally have Indian fantasy of this scale on screen! That too in 3D! I want to know what is happening in this Astraverse! I am hooked!

✨ Theethiriyaai ✨