The fantasy-action movie opens with a narration by Amitabh Bachchan, explaining the ancient story of the astras – powerful weapons – and the most powerful of all, the Brahmastra, and brings attention to the hero, Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor), a DJ who was raised in an orphanage, and who is unaware of the power within him.
In the next scene, actor Shah Rukh Khan has a surprise cameo as a scientist, Mohan Bhargav, who is trying to escape from some baddies with the astra called Vanaastra, but gets caught by their female leader, Junoon (Mouni Roy).
Junoon tortures Mohan into revealing the identity of a secret group called Brahmansh, and its members – Anish Shetty (Nagarjuna Akkineni) and their leader, the Guru of Brahmansh (Amitabh Bachchan) – who are hiding the broken pieces of Brahmastra, as well as the secret location of the ashram.
Brahmansh members have promised to protect the location of Brahmansh for many centuries, but Junoon wants to steal and reunite the broken pieces in order to release a powerful villain called Brahm-Dev, resulting in the destruction of the world.
Meanwhile, Shiva meets Isha (Alia Bhatt) and falls in love with her. That night, Shiva experiences sudden flashes of Mohan being tortured by Junoon, and learns about the search for the pieces of Brahmansh.
Shiva is traumatised and cannot comprehend what is happening to him, but the next day, he reads about Mohan’s death, and together with Isha, he sets out to search for Anish to warn him.
However, just as they find him, Junoon and the hunters arrive at the same place. After a battle, Anish gets killed and the two escape and land at Guru-ji’s ashram in the Himalayas.
At the ashram, Shiva discovers his powers – agniyastra, the power of fire – and is taught by Guru-ji to harness his powers.
Shiva also learns that his parents were once Brahmansh members.
Towards the end, the Brahmansh members wielding astras fight against Junoon and her newly formed ‘army’ to protect the remaining Brahmastra pieces, and the battle between the light and the darkness begins ...
The good ...
Let’s begin with the good. The opening scene with Shah Rukh Khan is not only surprising, but the popular Hindi film actor’s presence in the movie is simply amazing.
The filmmakers should have prolonged his scenes, as the 56-year-old was quite entertaining to watch. Though SRK appears in only a few scenes, his performance definitely charmed the audience.
Nagarjuna, a popular Telegu actor, excels in the fight scenes and his chase sequence is also exciting to watch, while veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan, who recently turned 79 years old, also surprises with his sword-fighting action.
Among the female cast, Mouni Roy, who became famous for playing a shape-shifting serpent in the TV series Naagin, does quite well as a female villain with terrifying red eyes.
The movie has good special effects, especially in the Nandi scenes, where a larger-than-life Nandi (a bull) appears. In another scene, SRK flies into space with a huge Hanuman-like image appearing in the background.
The songs Kesariya and Om Deva Deva are also quite delightful to experience.
Produced by Karan Johar and directed by Ayan Mukerji, the film deserves praise for a brave attempt to break from the norm and to venture into a new superhero concept, but it is not without its flaws.
... and the bad
To begin with, the story is supposedly based on astras and Hindu mythology, but very little is explained in the movie. In fact, we only get a glimpse, and that is quite disappointing.
Instead, the story focuses more on the love story between Shiva and Isha, and it is a tad boring. Though the story emphasises the power of love in the end, there is nothing really extraordinary about a love story between a poor boy and a rich girl, a common theme in Indian movies.
Interestingly, the real-life couple, who got married in April 2022, did not have that much chemistry onscreen, and though Ranbir’s acting is fine, Alia’s was just about average.
Although the story is unique, some scenes bring to mind famous Hollywood movies.
Members of the Brahmansh, for example, are very similar to the Priory of Scion in The Da Vinci Code – members of a group, existed for centuries, sworn to protect Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene’s descendants.
The story of the supervillain being (spoiler!) the father of the hero felt similar to the relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies.
The Guru-ji character reminded me of Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men series, and the climax scene, where young Brahmansh members fight and show off their powers, or ‘astras’, felt as if the Avengers were suddenly thrown into the movie.
Basically, the story is about good vs. evil, with the Brahmansh led by Shiva fighting against Junoon and her army over the most powerful weapon in the world, the Brahmastra.
The first half is fine, but the second half, even with the climactic fight scene, seems so stretched, perhaps to highlight each Brahmansh member’s superpowers.
At the end of the three-hour runtime, the title of the next sequel, Brahmastra Part 2: Dev, is shown on the screen, indicating a sequel.
In the movie, Dev’s face was never shown and that leaves us with a question: who is Brahm-Dev (or rather, which actor will be playing the role)?
Overall, the movie is enjoyable for an Indian audience, but it’s not something entirely new if you have seen enough superhero movies.
