Brahmastra part one: Shiva

A young man experiencing love for the first time gets his whole world turned upside down when he discovers that he has the power to control fire, and also a connection to a secret society of guardians.

Clocking in at a pretty noticeable three hours, I dare you to watch this film and take a drink every time someone says the word “astra.”

The first in an intended trilogy, this Hindi language star-studded spectacular is obviously meant to kick off a fantasy superhero universe (the “Astraverse”) based on Hindu mythology set loose in the modern world, all while wearing its mega-successful Hollywood franchise influences VERY clearly on its sleeve. Now, I am only passingly familiar with Bollywood films, but this is clearly a huge film, with a huge budget, that features major stars both young and old, stars that I would easily recognize, if I was a little more than passingly familiar with Bollywood.

My main takeaway, from my admitted position as a neophyte, is that this film is shooting for the MCU moon, hoping to mimic that particularly heady concoction of fun spectacle and characters that audiences can connect to, but unfortunately, this first entry in the “Astraverse” falls pretty short. Part of this might just be me, due to the cultural differences and storytelling styles maybe, but still, to borrow somewhat loosely from the Bard, this is a film full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

But in the film’s defense… it’s a very pretty nothing.

Speaking of pretty nothings… Ranbir Kapoor plays Shiva, a young man who falls in love at first sight with the ridiculously pretty Isha (Alia Bhatt), while at a spectacular festival/flash mob thing, in a moment of such sudden and intense passion as they lock eyes, that the only thing that seems to be lacking is “Dreamweaver” by Aerosmith as an accompaniment. That, and sexual chemsitry…

They are a beautiful pair, but together they are also… blanks, zero sparks. Apparently, the actors are married in real life too, not that you’d guess from their absolute absence of on-screen chemistry. To be fair, these type of films tend to be fairy tales, very chaste as far as relationships go, and with a pretty binary good versus evil outlook in general. This is fine, obviously, but this film in particular really strains to redefine bombastic and melodramatic in favor of actual connections.

Also, holy shit, do the characters enjoy explaining stuff to each other, at great length, repeatedly…

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, there’s definitely an Avengers/Xmen feel to this movie, especially since everyone involved seems to have little glowing trinkets that give them unique abilities and/or weapons, all during a a story that is a pretty familiar tale of The One, and it does look pretty cool as they all fly about and clash and blow shit up, but none of it ever feels rooted in any of the characters, so in the end, all that spectacle just feels more like an awesome fireworks display than an actual story.

The song and dance numbers are amazing though, so there’s that. The superpower fights are definitely fantastic too. I’d almost say that it’s worth a watch just for the fun spectacle alone, but at the same time, I’d caution you… sound and fury, my friends, sound and fury.