For all its theatrics, Brahmastra is an amateurish spectacle. We deserve better

Brahmastra was clearly too big a project for Ayan, who has approached the film with the same sensibilities as Wake Up Sid and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. The conflict stemming from the epic power struggles between the superhuman beings takes a back seat, while Ayan focuses on the soulless love story between Shiva and Isha (Alia Bhatt).

Ayan takes the most outdated ideas and passes them off as ‘true love’, a love so powerful that it can save the world from painful destruction. The romantic story is presented as the dramatic core of the entire movie and should’ve been handled more competently.

Where’s the drama?

The chemistry between Alia and Ranbir looks forced in the film, which is surprising because the real-life couple look more natural together even when they casually pose together every day for the paparazzi. But, in this film, they come across as too insincere to care for. The lead characters in this movie are in some kind of a hurry. The audience never gets a moment to absorb this new cinematic universe that Ayan is trying to establish.

A still from Brahmastra.

The filmmaker attempts to establish Dev as a menace who is lurking in the dark, waiting for the right moment to strike like Sauron from the Lord Of The Rings series. However, the sense of dread never reaches the audience. If MCU has taught us anything, it is the importance of the villain in the tale of a superhero — to establish the supremacy of good, you need to trounce powerful evil. Dev’s dangled in front of us as humanity’s biggest threat, but never turns into a full-realised threat.

Ayan may argue that this will be shown in the Brahmastra sequel. But, what incentive do we have to go and watch the sequel when the first iteration didn’t capture our interest? And it’s just not Dev, even Shiva, Isha, or Amitabh Bachchan’s Guru can’t take me back to theatre. “Do. Or do not. There is no try,” Yoda told Luke Skywalker to inspire him to shun self-doubt and embrace the path of light. Guru, meanwhile, comes up with the gem, “If you leave now, I will never tell you about your parents.”

“There are no accidents,” said Master Oogway to his student Shifu to nudge him to let go of the illusion of control. “We should find your button,” is Guru’s gem to Shiva as he teaches him how to put his superpowers to use.

Fails to inspire

Shah Rukh Khan in Brahmastra.

The deep, meaningful, philosophical, and uplifting conversations that were supposed to be the high points of this movie leave you cold. The film has very little inspiration to offer, which is by and large the USP of this genre.

The action scenes are another wasted opportunity. The villains use the ‘astras’ more effectively and spectacularly than the good guys. Take, for instance, Nandi Astra, which is wielded by Nagarjuna Akkineni’s Anish Shetty. That weapon can channel the strength and energy of 1000 bulls. One can think of 1000 things a man could do with such enormous power. But, what Ayan and the team do is use it to flip a truck and Anish gets fatally injured while doing that.

The experience of watching Brahmastra can be summed up in what Ayan has done with Shah Rukh Khan’s character Mohan Bhargav. This film claims Vanarastra possesses the strength of the King Kong. Instead, we get a playful monkey, who likes to just fool around.

Hopefully, both Shiva and Ayan would be more mature when they save the world in the following movies. To paraphrase Spider-man’s uncle: ‘With great budgets and expectations, come great responsibility’.