Baahubali, Bela Seshe and Premam pick of the films this week

As far as films go, Baahubali is apparently quite an epic. It is actually a two-part Indian film shot in Tamil and Telugu, the first part of which was released on Friday, and is touted as India’s answer to Gerald Butler’s 300.

Firstpost (read more) says director S.S.Rajamouli has done some remarkable things with this film: one, he’s made a film that actually gets better after the intermission and two, he’s given viewers a new epic.

And the imaginary terrain of Baahubali that Rajamouli’s VFX team has dreamed up will blind the viewer to the film’s weaknesses.

With the Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan releasing only next week, Hindi movie options are otherwise limited. This quick review in the Indian Express on Second Hand Husband (read more) has the reviewer wishing she had listened to the usher who tried to dissuade her from watching the film.

Subash Kapoor’s Guddu Rangeela apparently works because of its gritty writing but The Economic Times (read more) says that what could have genuinely raised the bar is a slicker pace, additional gloss and superstar charisma.

Papanasam, the Tamil remake of the Malayalam movie Drishyam, is still going strong with Kamal Haasan and Gauthami in the lead. The Hindu says about this film that is directed by Jeethu Joseph that it’s a white-knuckle treat. The reviewer writes that the thrill is in watching the good guy do the kind of things the bad guy usually does. “It’s a spin on the classic Hitchcockian scenario of an innocent man on the run. Only, Jeethu Joseph is no Hitchcock. He relies on reaction shots to tell us what to feel.” Read more

And about Alphonse Puthren’s Malayalam film Premam, The Hindu (read more), says that the movie is well on its way to becoming a cult. “Scenes, which were believed to have been relegated to sepia-tinted memories of Malayalam cinema in its pomp, are being played out in movie houses across the State.”

From East India comes a “poignant story of togetherness” in the form of the Bengali film Bela Seshe which IBNlive.com (read more) says churns out the best lessons on marriage in modern times. The plotline is intriguing: Successful publisher Biswanath Mazumdar decides to divorce his wife Aarti Mazumdar after 49 years of marriage much to the discomfort of his gown up children, their spouses and grandchildren. He gathers his brood for Durga Puja to announce his plans to separate from his wife on the last day of the festival.

As for the English options, there is Amy about the late singer Amy Winehouse that The Telegraph (read more) calls ‘piercingly sad’. The review says that the filmmaker Asif Kapadia makes “you feel that pressure bearing down on her (Amy) from the start”

While Amy tells the story through archive footage and photographs, Margy Kinmonth’s documentary gives an official guidebook-style tour of the history of St. Petersburg’s great museum in Hermitage Revealed. Read review here.