#bahubali2

Baahubali Memories 🥹❤️

YES PLEASE THANK UUUU. Do you mind if I explain the whole plot? (warning: all the spoilers).

Bahubali is a two-part 'historical' film series (there is a lot of magic) totaling about six hours, that covers the life and times of Amerendra Bahubali and his son, Mahendra Bahubali (both played by Prabhas).

It's an interesting format because the story of Amerendra is a framed story told to his son in the middle of the son's own tale, so both movies are divided into the father's half and the son's half of the story.

Amerendra is the orphaned child of the late king. He's adopted by Sivagami, the regent and ruler of Mahishmati; she is a wise and righteous queen who raises Amerendra alongside her own son, Bhallaldeva. But, where Bahubali is kind, Bhallaldeva is scheming, though they match one another in strength and wits. Sivagami lets them compete for the honor of ruling Mahishmati, and Bahubali wins it, BUT.

Sivagami tells Bahubali to travel through the empire in disguise, learning about his people by walking among them. He begins his journey, travelling with Katappa (who is the leader of the royal guard and part of a family that has sworn themselves into slave-service to the ruler of Mahishmati).

While he's travelling, he meets a beautiful and fierce warrior-princess, Devasena, and of COURSE they fall in love (in probably one of my favorite, most convoluted romantic journey ever?). This is them, they're wonderful:

Bhallaldeva hears word back (from spies?? I guess) that his adopted brother now has the kingdom *and* an eye on a lovely bride, and he can't take the jealousy any more. He goes to Sivagami, all innocence, and implores her to get him to wed the one woman he cannot stop thinking about: Princess Devasena. Sivagami, already aware that her blood son has been getting the short end of the stick, jumps at the chance to give her son some happiness, immediately writing to Devasena's father to arrange a marriage.

Problem is, the wording is vague enough that Bahubali, Kattapa, and Devasena all assume that the arranged marriage is going to be to BAHUBALI. Yeah. Troubles really, really set in at this point.

Obviously, when the happy couple return to Mahishmati, there is a RUCKUS, and it doesn't help that Devasena is just hot-headed enough to insult Sivagami, and Sivagami is stubborn enough from years of holding her empire together to sink her heels in. Bahubali is given the choice between keeping his wife, or keeping his place as the future ruler of Mahishmati, and he chooses Devasena.

He and Devasena are content enough with their new secondary position at court, but Bahubali *is* deeply troubled by the new coldness of his mother, who was previously deeply involved in his life.

Bhallaldeva, on the other hand, isn't content at all. Bahubali still has happiness and the regard of the people, and Bhallaldeva is supposed to content himself with a simple crown?

Through further manipulation of Sivagami's pride and Bahubali's willingness to protect Devasena, Bhallaldeva manages to have Bahubali, Devasena, and their unborn child cast out of the palace entirely, and forced to live as commoners. But even THERE, Bahubali continues to excel, building irrigation devices and grain mills to lighten everyone's load, and doing so with a good grace. So, finally, Bhallaldeva stages an attempt upon his own life, and tells Sivagami that Bahubali was behind it. So, on the night that Devasena is giving birth to their son, Amerendra is called away and quietly assassinated.

The assassin comes back to Sivagami, heartbroken, dragging a bloody sword, and lifts his stained hands up to catch hers, wiping the blood over them, and she breaks down, finally realizing that she's just killed her own son. Devasena comes in with her newborn in her arms, and Bhallaldeva finally pushes his luck too far, telling Sivagami that the baby is a threat to his throne and that the child must be killed.

Sivagami finally realizes what kind of man she's been planning to leave the kingdom to, and takes the child, planning to raise him up to be the next king; but Bhallaldeva tries to have them both killed, and she's forced to flee, running to protect the baby in spite of being mortally wounded, and ending up at a small village at the foot of a cliff, away from Mahishmati's reach.

The village cheiftan's wife raises the baby as her own, but little Mahendra Bahubali, or Shiva, as she names him, is constantly drawn to climb the great cliff, unsure what lies at the top, but desperately curious.

He's finally led up the cliff by a mysterious woman who disappears as soon as he reaches the top, and finds himself in a strange land. He finds a woman there, a warrior sworn to rebellion against the evil tyrant Bhallaldeva.

The woman has been given a quest--rescue their kidnapped and abused princess, Devasena, from the clutches of the tyrant, but she gets injured and Shiva tells her that he'll accept the quest on her behalf--unwittingly becoming responsible for the rescue of his own mother.

As he tries to complete the quest, people respond strangely to him, recognizing him as their dead king come alive again. Katappa also recognizes him, and tells him his father's story. Shiva becomes enraged against his uncle and leads a full-on attack against Mahishmati, and is finally locked in single combat with the man responsible for his father's death, finally winning back his throne, his family, and his kingdom.

(you see why this takes six hours to tell onscreen).

Again, these movies are absolutely gorgeous, but LOVE them for two main reasons:

First off, they are so incredibly respectful of mothers and of motherhood. Sivagami is shown teaching and loving her children and being a very badass queen, and these things are never contrasted against one another; they're shown as parts of a whole, very powerful, woman, in a way that western movies have never really manage.

Secondly, the movies really take the time to underscore the value and goodness of simple kindnesses. Shiva's first clue to his own history happens when he helps a fallen slave to their feet; Amerendra's righteousness shows in his courage, true, but also in his willingness to share food with a child. It's warm and it's vibrant and it's unapologetic, and I LOVE it.

'There's something abt a woman with a loud mind that sits in silence knowing she can crush u wid truth'