Bahubali - The Beginning...
The movie starts with showing an enormous waterfall. About
30 times bigger than Niagara. A royal lady (Sivagami), carrying an infant in her arms, emerges
from a cave at the bottom of the falls. There is an arrow pierced into her
back. Two soldiers follow her in order to kill her and more importantly the
baby. Sivagami manages to kill the soldiers and hands off the baby to a local
tribe, while drowning in the rapids. And the childless wife of head of the
tribe, Sanga, takes the baby and assessing the threat to the child's life,
seeing the dead soldiers, gets the cave blocked with huge rocks.
The boy is named Shiva. As a child he is fascinated by
the enormous waterfall and wants to know what is on top of it. Hence,
always tries to climb it. But keeps failing and falling off from great heights.
Sanga is always worried about his fascination for climbing the falls thinking
he might get severely injured. The child grows up to be the mighty Shiva, who
can single handedly carry a Shivalinga weighing atleast half a ton across the
river. One day he finds a wooden mask which falls from the waterfall, and he
comes to know it belongs a beautiful woman, by seeing its impression on sand. And
sets out to climb the waterfall chasing her vision/image. And succeeds this
time.
On reaching the top, he sees the owner of the mask,
Avantika, a warrior woman belonging to a resistance (Kunthala) against the
Mahismathi kingdom. The resistance has been waging a guerilla war with the Mahismathi
kingdom for years, to rescue their queen Devasena, who has been held captive
for 25 years, by the cruel king Bhalaldeva. After some conflict Avantika falls
for Shiva. And Shiva promises to rescue Devasena for her. Unknown to the fact
that Devasena is his own biological mother.
Katappa, the head of Defense and arm’s manufacturing unit
of Mahishmathi kingdom is introduced. He is part of a bloodline loyal to the
throne and will continue to do so. He is living with guilt of wronging the
previous and most loved king Bahubali. And says even though his body is alive,
he is dead from inside. He has tried a couple of times to rescue Devasena from
captivity. But she refuses being sure about her son being alive and will one day free her and avenge his father’s death. Kattappa is
pained when seeing Bhalaldeva and his son Bhadra, torturing and humiliating her.
The kingdom is preparing for erection of a 50 feet gold
statue of King Bhalaldeva. Much of the gold has been forcefully extracted
from the people. Shiva enters the
Mahismathi kingdom as lightning strikes the ground. When he sets foot inside
the kingdom walls his mother feels his presence and becomes eager to see her son.
The statue is being erected on Ekadashi. Elaborate
arrangements have been done to celebrate the occasion. With hundreds of
musicians and dancers performing. And holy men chanting shlokas. People are
asked to hail the king when the Statue stands. Slaves are whipped to pull ropes
to erect the statue. There are hundreds of such slaves pulling 15-20 ropes
using levers and pulleys to pull the statue to standing position. Couple
hundred are working from top of wooden foundations. Suddenly, an old slave
standing at the end of line falls of exertion. The whole line loses grip on the
rope and Statue starts falling on a machan with couple hundred workers on it.
Everyone, scampering to escape the sure death by getting crushed under the
statue. When Shiva catches hold of the end of the rope and stopping the statue
from falling on the people. He single-handedly with his mighty strength starts
pulling the rope. All fallen slaves join him astonished at his strength. He
picks up the old man and hands him the end of the rope, when his scarf comes
off his face due to whiff of wind. The old man sees his face resembles the late
beloved king Bahubali. And starts chanting his name in bewilderment. The others
follow and chant of the name Bahubali becomes a rallying call. The people
gathered for the occasion join in and the whole stadium starts chanting
Bahubali’s name. They had been suppressed by the new ruler for 25 years and all
of sudden they have found their voice. All the musicians, dancers, sadhus now
find a new zeal and start doing the acts with passion. King Bhalaldeva is
insulted by this and is left sulking, for even though it is his statue being
erected and people are remembering the earlier king who he killed and took the
throne. Devasena looks at him with pride as he had told her that people have
forgotten Bahubali. Bhalaldeva imagines Bahubali’s gold statue being 10 times
bigger than his.
Meanwhile, Shiva is also amused at the chant of the name
Bahubali. Earlier an elder soldier called him by the same name, seeing his resemblance
to the righteous king. He manages to knock a soldier unconscious to get his
uniform.
Later at night, he spots Devasena, in the open space in
front of the palace. He also sees and escape route, being perched on top of
Palace dome. As he tries to walk out of the palace, a group of soldiers spot
him and ask him to join them to see the King. Who has summoned them to know who
started the bahubali chant during the ceremony. The King is visually upset at
the turn of events during the day and curious to know what made the people take
Bahubali’s name. He is accompanied by his son and his father. He asks the
soldiers for who started the chant. Shiva,
being in the group of soldiers, steps forward saying he knows who
started it. As he steps forward, someone pushes him from behind and he knocks a
fire lantern, which sets the curtains on fire. The fire quickly rages and in
resulting chaos, Bhalaldeva only manages to see his eyes and feels something
familiar about them. Shiva escapes via the balcony in this melee. Bhalaldeva
asks his son Bhadra to catch the soldier (Shiva) alive and bring him back to
him. Shiva jumps from one balcony to another with the soldiers chasing him. He
reaches Devasena and finds her in tied with iron chains. This angers him and
vents out on the chasing soldiers. Katappa sees Shiva kidnapping Devasena and
riding off on a horse chariot. He tries to stop him by blocking the gates with
fire lit hay balls. But Shiva escapes. Bhadra takes another route to cut off
Shiva and his soldiers knock him off the chariot by using tree branch as a
catapult. He is knocked unconscious by being hit on head by a wooden log.
On waking up he sees Bhadra holding Devasena by a
leash, hitting her and insulting her character. This again infuriates Shiva who
beats the hell out of all the soldiers, killing them. And tries to kill a
scared Bhadra with his bare hands. When Katappa arrives and assures Bhadra that
Shiva will have fight and kill him first, to get to Bhadra. A fight ensues
between skilled katappa and mighty Shiva. Katappa is overwhelmed with Shiva’s
strength. He calls out for his horse which has Bahubali sword strapped to its
saddle. Shiva sees this and both run towards the arriving horse. Katappa
snatches the sword by its Sheath, and Shiva jumps in the air to withdraw the
sword from the sheath in Katappa’s hand. And in same action cuts Bhadra’s head
off. Meanwhile, Kunthala bandits and Shiva’s folks have arrived to the same
spot and witness this fight and decapitation of the prince. Katappa is angered
and again attacks Shiva, but this time sees his face and drops his weapon by
recognizing him as Bahubali’s son. He places Shiva’s right feet on his bald
head. A flashback shows him doing the same with Shiva’s tiny feet when he was
born.
At dawn, Katappa speaks to Shiva’s tribal parents about how
they found him. Shiva is curious as why people look at him with hope and
devotion and why for the first time his mother has a look of empathy for him.
To which Katappa tells him that he is Mahendra Bahubali, the son of most
beloved king Amarendra Bahubali. And the rightful heir to the throne. And tells
him his father’s story.
The story goes back 50 years ago, King Vikramadeva
(Bahubali’s father) was chosen as King over his elder brother Bijjaladeva.
Bijjaladeva has one crippled hand, but he wasn’t chosen as king because of his
self-indulgence and incapability. But he assumes it was because he being
crippled was denied an opportunity to be the King. Hence, nurtures bitterness
towards his younger brother. Bijjaldeva and his wife Sivagamini already have an
infant son. Sivagamini is a virtuous woman.
King Vikramadeva dies of illness when his wife is 6 months pregnant. The whole
kingdom is in grief for 3 months. The queen also dies after giving birth to a
son. Sivagamini vows to raise the son as her own and names him Bahubali. Sivagamini
takes the responsibility to run the state and looks after the people. But there
are some traitors who conspire to take over the throne. Sivagamini is aware of
this. And with the help of loyal Katappa gets them killed. Seeing her as a
capable leader and stateswoman, the loyal ministers request her to ascend the
throne and rule the kingdom. But she refuses to do so saying she is only a
guardian of the throne. Bijjaladeva wants his son to be the king. But
Sivagamini says both her sons (her own son Bhalaldeva and Bahubali) have equal
right to the throne. Whoever grows up to be more capable and earns respect of
the people will become the king. And this is her promise.
Both the princes grow up learning fighting skills as well as
acquiring knowledge from learned gurus. Bahubali shows more respect and care
for people around him. And hence is more liked by everyone than Bhalaldeva.
Both grow up to be equal in knowledge, strength and fighting skills. Bahubali
prefers a sword and Bhalaldeva a gada (Mace), whose ball is extensible doubling
up as a wrecking ball. If Bahubali could stop hundreds of arrow shot at him
with his sword, Bhalaldeva could smash a huge rock into pieces with his mace.
Both pass the knowledge tests too taken by the learned gurus. Sivagamini asks
Katappa to make further tests more difficult.
While everything was fine, a trusted minister Saket in army
steals all secrets of the royal army (called Mahasena). The princes go in search
of Saket and catch him and take him prisoner, before he tries to commit
suicide. He reveals that he gave the army secrets to the dreaded tribe
Kalakeya’s chief. Who intends to attack Mahishmathi. He tells them that
Kalakeya do not follow the rules of war, they’ll kill each and every child and
pounce on every woman if they enter the kingdom. They’ll destroy the kingdom
like a bunch of pigs would destroy a farm. And their army strength is 1 lakh
soldiers, while Mahasena has only 25,000 soldiers. While discussing strategy,
Bahubali proposes Trishul formation on the battlefield, which Bhalaldeva
supports. The formation involves Katappa forming an iron wall, in shape of a
arrow head, with Shields in the middle. And Bhalaldeva and Bahubali will on the
sides of this formation. On signal from Katappa, both will attack the Kalakeya
chief by flanking the enemy from either side. Thus forming a Trishul. Katappa
says he can hold off the army for half a day, in the meantime if the Kalakeya
chief is killed their army will break down. Bahubali and Bhalaldeva assure that
half a day will be enough for them to kill the chief. Sivagamini approves the
plan. Bijjaldeva proposes that whoever kills the enemy chief should be named
the King. Sivagamini agrees and orders to divide the army into 2 halves and be
given to Bahu and Bhalal. Bijjaladeva plays a trick by assigning artillery
machiney to Bhalaldeva which are useful in battleground. And giving Bahubali
machines which throw huge canon balls only useful to break fort walls. Katappa
tells Bahubali that he should have contended this unfair allotment. Bahubali
comes up with a clever plan to use his machines. And asks his men to gather
cloth material from all tents.
At the dawn of battle, both princes are asked to offer
sacrifice of a bull to Goddess Mahakali. Bhalaldeva does, but Bahubali offers
his own blood by cutting his palm instead of offering an innocent animals
sacrifice. Most of the army cheer for Bahubali clearly showing he is their
favorite and more loved one. Bahubali and Bijjaladeva aren't very pleased with this.
Before the fight, Mahishmathi offers one chance to Kalakeya
to retreat and be forgiven. During this meeting the arrogant hillybilly Kalakeya chief tells
Sivagamini “I heard of the competition between the two princes to kill me and you’ll
make the winner the new King. How about I kill them both, and make the son I produce
with you, the king.” This makes Bahubali and Bhalaldeva furious. And an angry
Sivagamini tells them both, that he should be kept alive even if every drop of
blood is drained from his body, even if his eyes and intestines are gorged by
vultures, he should be alive. Bahubali resolves to fulfill her wish.
The fight begins, as thousands of kalakeya soldiers charge
towards the Mahismathi gate, where Mahasena waits for them. Katappa has formed
a formidable defense wall with soldiers holding iron shields. As the kalakeya
approach, Bhalaldeva uses his artillery machines to fire thousands of arrows
towards them. His archers also do the same. Bahubali has machines to through
hugh rock balls. He throws one ball and the enemy soldiers easily dodge and
jump over it, still running forward. Then he attaches two ends of a huge cloth
to 2 balls and launches them together. The enemy gets confused looking a huge
drape of cloth flying towards them. The cloth falls on them and covers atleast
few hundreds of them. They smell oil on the cloth and see Bahubali firing a
fire lit arrow at the cloth. The cloth catches fire instantly setting hundreds
of enemy soldiers on fire. Sivagami, Bijjaladeva and ministers watch the battle
from the gates from a height. The ministers praise the clever technique used by
Bahubali. Several such cloths on fire are launched onto the approaching army.
Thousands are killed. And finally the enemy reach the defense wall and clash
with Bahubali and Bhalaldeva’s units. The Shield wall is strong and the enemy
is not able to break it. Mahasena soldiers on the other side of the wall used Spears to
kill the approaching kalakeyas. Bhalaldeva grins as the kalakeyas approach him
and uses his mace and wrecking ball to kill 20 together. Bahubali kills many
with a sword and small axe. When the attack on the defense wall intensifies,
Katappa signals start of Trishul formation by hoisting a Trishul mark flag and
bugle sound.
Both the Prince see this and charge towards the Kalakeya
chief who stayed behind. Bhalaldeva’s chariot has blades in front of hit. Cutting
into approaching enemy soldiers. Bahubali rides his horse and with 2 spears in
his hands kills enemies as he rides into the Kalakeya defense. On approaching
the Kalakeya defense line the Kalakeyas play a trick, by holding villagers as
human shields in front of them. Bhalaldeva is unmoved by this, and in order to
get to enemy he kills the villagers too considering them as collateral damage.
Bahubali however stops as he sees the villagers. He signals his army to use
Bolas to make the villagers fall on the ground. Once they fell, the archers
fire arrows at the enemy soldiers behind them. The villagers show gratitude
towards Bahubali for saving them.
As Mahasena enters kalakeya defense line, they change their
strategy. This is signaled by a flag to soldiers in front attacking Katappa’s
defense line. The attack suddenly stops, and all soldiers behind the shields
get nervous wondering what to expect. When one of them peeps through the
shields to see battering ram being employed by the enemy to break open the
shield. He shouts out and many soldiers reinforce the area going to be hit.
First blow, somehow the soldiers manage to defend. Katappa sends more people to
block the impact. Second blow pushes the soldiers back. And third blow sends
the soldiers flying, the shield is broken and enemy enters the defense causing
mayhem. Katappa is engaged in a fight. One kalakeya hoists their army flag on
the pole used by Mahasena to communicate strategies. Everyone in the
battlefield sees this which means Mahasena’s defense is broken. Mahishmathi
soldiers’ moral is broken and they start retreating. The royal Pujari, who is
with Sivagami and others at the gate, sees this and says this is the first time
Mahishmathi’s defense has been breached, kalakeyas have entered our areas,
soldiers are being slaughtered, this is nothing but Death. The word spreads,
and there is chaos in Mahasena’s defense. All soldiers start retreating hearing
the word ‘Death’, resulting in more killings by the enemies. Katappa sees this
and gets worried.
Bahubali who is at the forefront of the attack, sees this
and rides back on his horse as fast as he can. Sees the mayhem caused in the
defense, innumerous corpses of his soldiers. He says “Death”, then calls out in
a loud voice “Mahasena”. All soldiers look at him. “What is death? Death is
thinking the enemy’s strength is more than ours. Death is showing our back to
the enemy. The mother who raised us, not getting revenge for her insult is
Death. Dying in the battle field is immortality. I am going to tell the enemy
that they cannot enter out motherland. And I can die for that. Who will join me
to be immortal?” This words give fire to the soldier’s spirits, they stand
their ground and start pushing the enemy back. Even the ones with severed legs
and hands start fighting back. With this new energy and vigor in the army, Bahubali once
again goes to attack the Kalakeya head as part of the plan. He uses a flail to
knock kalakeyas off the ground, sending them flying in the air, as he moves forward rapidly. Kalakeya have a
wooden log barrier. Bahubali hooks a rope in a stone cannon ball and throws it
on the barrier smashing it and moves forward. Bhalaldeva sees this and also moves towards the Kalakeya
chief. He is worried about Bahubali killing Kalakeya
chief and hence becoming the King as per the competition. He reaches Kalakeya
chief first, who is sitting on an Elephant, decorated with iron thongs. Kalakeya
chief throws his mace made of rock and breaks one of wheels of Bhalaldeva’s
chariot, throwing him on the ground. Bhalaldeva gets up and lands a mighty blow
on the elephant’s head with his mace cum wrecking ball. The elephant collapses
making Kalakeya chief fall on ground, making him angry. In the ensuing fight
between the two, kalakeya chief hits Bhalaldeva with his Mace, pushing him
back. Others attack BHalaldeva and he gets engaged in fighting them. Now,
Bahubali jumps from cliff towards Kalakeya chief. After loosing their weapons,
both engage in a hand to hand fight. Kalakeya throws people at Bahubali,
burying him under 10-15 bodies. Bahubali emerges throwing all bodies in air,
couple of them falling on Kalakeya chief. He has gold plated metal lion head
covered in blood in his right hand. He lands couple of mightly blows on
Kalakeya’s face with lion head. He then grips kalakeya’s skull in jaws of the
metal lion head and drags him on ground by it. A general of his army sees this
and shouts in their language that the king has fallen. The kalakeya hear this
and start abandoning the battlefield. Mahasena soldiers chase them and starting
killing them. Bahubali picks up his sword and when he is about to severe
Kalakeya chief’s head, he remembers his mother’s words to keep him alive. At
this instant, Bhalaldeva’s wrecking ball strikes kalakeya chief instantly
killing him and thus claiming to win the war and winning the competition.
Bahubali just smiles at him acknowledging the victory.
After victory, everyone converge to the Mahakali statue
where Sivagami, Bijjaladeva and ministers are assembled. This include all
soldiers, including wounded ones, the villagers who were saved by Bahubali.
Bijjaladeva says as per the competition, my son has killed the Kalakeya chief
and hence he will become the new King. A calm Sivagami says, indeed BHalaldeva
has shown immense valor on the battlefield, make his statues all around the
kingdom and tell his tales bravery. I appoint him as the Chief of Mahasena. He
killed the enemies with both his hands, which shows that he will be a good army
general. While Bahubali killed the enemy with one hand and saved his people
with the other. Which is how a King should be. I appoint Bahubali as the new
King of Mahishmathi. Everyone look happy at this decisions, the soldiers and the
saved villagers. Bijjaldeva contends the decision by saying just by saving some
worthless lives he cannot become the king. Sivagami replies one who kills many
on the battlefield is a hero but one who saves a single life is god. Bahubali
will be the new king and he’ll be coronated at the earliest. This is my
promise. This shuts up Bijjaladeva. And everyone chants Bahubali’s name.
Bhalaladeva asks Bahubali to step forward. As Bahubali stands behind Sivagami
everyone hails him.
Katappa finishes the story. Shiva’ mother Sanga asks if she
can meet the great king. To which katappa replies, he not alive anymore. A
curious Shiva asks, a man who had such immense strength and skills that that no
weapon could even touch him, how did he die? Katappa replies with tears in his
eyes, someone killed him by betrayal. Shiva gets angry and asks who betrayed
the king. Katappa says “It was me”.
