'Baahubali' ('Bahubali - The Beginning') Review Round-up: A Visual Treat

Director SS Rajmouli's "Baahubali" ((Bahubali - The Beginning), starring Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia and Anushka Shetty, has been on every movie enthusiast's radar for weeks now. With the phenomenal social media buzz and over 90% advance booking rate, the film is sure to earn big at the box office.

Made in Tamil and Telugu, dubbed in Hindi and Malayalam, the magnum opus has successfully covered a wide audience.

Below are some of the movie reviews:

Deepanjana Pal of First Post writes: "This battle is Rajamouli's tour de force. It's elaborate, well-choreographed and has some breathtaking moments. Prabhas and Dagubatti are both in their elements as the warriors who approach warfare in two distinctive styles. The outcome of the battle is no surprise, but there are enough clever tactics and twists to keep the audience hooked. The biggest surprise, however, lies in the film's final shot, which gives you a glimpse into the sequel that will come out next year. And it's good enough to make you wish 2016 was here already."

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV writes: "The spectacular universe that the film conjures up is filled with magic, but the larger-than-life characters that populate its extraordinary expanse do not belong to any known mythic landscape. To that extent, Baahubali, driven by the titular superhero who pulls off mind-boggling feats both in love and in war, throws up many a surprise that isn't altogether meaningless."

Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express writes: "Right from its opening frames, 'Baahubali' holds out many promises: of adventure and romance, love and betrayal, valour and weakness. And it delivers magnificently on each of them. This is full-tilt ,fully-assured filmmaking of a very high order. 'Baahubali' is simply spectacular."

The Hindu writes: "The war formations that form a chunk of the latter portions of the film are the best we've seen in Indian cinema so far. These portions are spectacular and show the technical finesse of the cinematographer (K.K. Senthil Kumar) and the visual effects teams. The waterfall, the mystical forests and water bodies above the cliffs and the lead pair escaping an avalanche all add to the spectacle. Give into its magic, without drawing comparisons to Hollywood flicks."

Srishti Dixit of Bollywood Life opines: "From covering wide expanses of waterfalls, forests and mountains to erecting a whole city with a mix of real locations and computer effects, Baahubali takes you on a visual retreat that will linger for days. SS Rajamouli's vision as a director is something I laud as he gives us a story of epic proportions, mythical in depiction and mythological in feel, encased in the modern day innovations of CGI and visual effects. In the acting department, Prabhas and Rana do a commendable job."

India-forums writes: "By far this has been the best VFX an Indian movie has ever been able to come up with. The way the movie has so well shot along with the VFX that one can hardly differentiate between the effects and the real shoot. The use of international artists for the VFX has surely proven to be the best decision by the makers of this movie."