Adipurush, Epic Fail & Joke Of 2023

Adipurush, the supposed blockbuster return of Prabhas to the silver screen left a rather sour taste in the mouths of the moviegoers. The film was to be a game-changing project that would leave the audience speechless, well it did actually, but by being utter trash. It makes me wonder what was going through the minds of the cast and crew when they were making this abomination!

The big-budget movie of the T-Series Films is failing miserably at the box office as it should. The three-hour-long torture to the eyes can never be a success, even if it had a premium promotion and an ensemble cast. Adipurush is one of the most expensive Indian movies ever made with an approximate budget of $63 million, and with that sum of money, they ended up creating a B-grade garbage.

Adipurush is a mythological action-adventure flick based on the Hindu Epic Ramayana. However, the film utterly failed to do justice to the timeless Ramayana as it should have. Now it begs the question of why this lazy and undeserving attempt was allowed to happen in the first place since it is a sensitive issue to the people of the Hindu faith!

Peerless Plot

The plot of Adipurush is based on Ramayana, and few in the world can match up to such an epic. Lord Rama aka Raghava is the legendary prince of Ayodhya, in the kingdom of Kosala. He is forced to go on a 14-year exile to a treacherous forest also known as Banabasa of Lord Rama. Raghava is accompanied by his wife, Janaki and brother, Shesh in this unfair exile. However, they seem to live a rather happy life among the guiles of nature and mesmerizing animals.

After getting rejected by Raghava in her pursuit of love and lust, Shurpanakha goes on to harm Janaki aka Lady Seeta, the beloved wife of Raghava. In retaliation, Shesh aka Laxman, brother of Raghava fires an arrow that defiles the nose of Shurpanakha. In her rage and frustration, she heads back and demands justice from her brother the Lord of Lanka Lankesh aka Ravana, the antagonist of the story.

Determined to take revenge for his dear sister Lankesh embarks on a journey of vengeance. Smitten by the beauty of Janaki he ends up kidnaping her with much trickery and goes back to Lanka. With this fated incident begins the epic journey of Lord Rama to rescue his beloved wife with the help of Banar Raj (Monkey King) Bajrang aka Hanuman and the monkey army. With such rich content, how Adipurush managed to absolutely butcher the lore is beyond my understanding.

Recipe For Disaster

The most critical aspect of any good film is the flow and rhythm of flawless storytelling, which was entirely an utter mess in Adipurush. I was shocked at how the director of such a big-budget movie can be absolutely clueless about sequence blending. The ending of each sequence was stretched to the point of annoyance that it felt like a B-grade flick with no essence. I mean where you absolutely must end the sequence with impactful dialogue so that the audience can clap in awe but rather you decide to prolong it with unnecessary expressions and BGM; talk about dumb!

Adipurush boasts an ensemble cast that includes Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, and Saif Ali Khan. Watching Prabhas in this film can be the cause of absolute irritation. I want to say to him, “Dude, Baahubali is long gone! Can you get out of that character already?!” Well, that sums it all up, I guess. As for Kriti, she seemed unsure of what she was trying to do. Nothing can be more vexing for an actor in such a project. And what do I say about Saif?! The worst performance by the actor in his career.

Now let’s shed some light on the VFX, costumes and crafts of Adipurush. After the poor VFX showing in the early teaser there was significant backlash and the production team decided to increase the budget for better VFX. What is the end result you ask? The quack video editor down the road from my home can do a better job. And what is with the Orcs and Goblins copied from the Lord of the Rings, I mean at least follow the historical illustrations of monsters and beasts commanded by Raavana.

As for the costumes and crafts, they were subpar, and the weapons used by the Lanka army reminded me of Game of Thrones, sigh! A multi-million dollar project like this and they expect us to witness costumes resembling that of Avengers, crafts resembling that of Star Wars, and a Raavana resembling an angry Viking right out of Valhalla. Where is the creativity and hunger for genuine art?! Give me a break please and stop torturing the audience with your wet dream fantasies!

And what should I say about the Music of Adipurush?! Let’s just say I don’t even want to remember it! The music and the songs were nice, to be honest, but not at all fitting for a film that is based on Ramayana. Also, the ‘Chapri’ dialogues used in Adipurush make me want to vomit and it makes me think about how the people of the Hindu faith reacted. Writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla defended this by saying it’s simplified for the general audience. My response to that is, “Take a hike with that FIR that’s been lodged against you and your team!”

Adipurush’s Ravaging Reception

Adipurush has an approval rating of 9%, with an average score of 4.6/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. Need I say more?! That is the disastrous critic rating the film has gotten. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express described the film as “a series of clunky computer graphics, bathed in Bollywoodese” and gave it 1.5/5. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV called the film a “weird blend of fantasy and fallacy” and also gave it 1.5/5. And I Abir Hasan of Deshi Geek am calling Adipurush, “A torture for the human eye!’ and I refuse to give it any rating!

Surprisingly Adipurush made a splash at the box office in the opening week. Well, not so surprising as the cast and extravagant promotions lured the audience towards this fallacy. According to Box Office India, Adipurush has grossed $51 million worldwide so far. However, the initial hype is dying down fast and a sharp decline in the collection is documented.

My Final Remarks On Adipurush

What remarks?! Do not watch this film if you’re in the right state of mind. And if you have so much time that a mere waste of three hours is nothing and you like to torture yourself by watching wet dream fantasies then be my guest by all means.

Enough of this idiocy. Can’t believe I had to write all this about such ‘Poopery’! Let me give it a rest and on another note, do check out my review on Vinland Saga Season 2!