With the rapid development of the economy, in the past two decades, India's nationalism has been rising, and many anti-X films have been born, among which anti-British films rank first in both quantity and quality, and many excellent works such as "Anti-Riot Heroes", "Once Upon a Time in India", "Queen Of Zhangxi", "The Legend of Bahat Singh" and so on were born.
This year, southern India also produced an anti-British work, "Freedom Warrior No. 1".
Adapted from a true story, the film tells the story of the national hero Narasimha Reddy who fought against the British colonists for a full decade and was brutally hanged, that is, not long after his death, the famous national uprising in India broke out, and the leader was Queen Zhangxi.
The story follows the classic shaping mode of Indian heroes, with three steps of birth vision, childhood appearance, and adulthood is a hero, to establish the image of Narasimha, and when he becomes an adult, he is further carved from the three aspects of character, force value and personal charm, the overall is more routine, but there is no big mistake, and some shots are still quite brilliant.
For example, the scene of narasimha practicing breathlessly under the water as an adult is full of a sense of quiet and sacred ritual, rendering its characteristic divine color as an Indian hero;
Before the battlefield fight, Narasimha's eagle-like scanning of the surrounding camera is also very imposing, highlighting his fearlessness and justice as a fierce general.
Playing Narasimha is southern veteran star Trilanevi (Ram Charan's dad), who is 64 years old. At first, I was quite disgusted, thinking about how to find such an old and ugly man to play! But soon, his performance conquered me, Trilanevi was really flamboyant, too leaderly, and looking closely at his shape, in fact, there was a bit of a Hindu god feeling, in short, very emotional.
The film uses escalating conflicts to show Narasimha's ten-year struggle, which is simple but effective, and the audience's emotions are fully accumulated, reaching a climax in the final battle.
It is worth mentioning that one of the British officers actually resembles the big Hollywood star Tom Cruise, which is really laughing at me. (He also died a very tragic death.)
In the film, Amit Ba Qiang played the spiritual mentor of Narasimha, the performance is remarkable, the most important thing is that his role is just right, there is no "scene snatching" with Uncle Mi in "Indian Mob", and he is a competent supporting character.
Termana Pattia played Narasimha's lover, the second time she has starred in an epic blockbuster since "Baahubali King", but compared to the pure female fighter image in "Baahubali King", she played Lakshmi this time.
Lakshmi, a dancer who did not know how to state affairs, fell in love with Narasimha after being charmed by his heroism, but Narasimha was then told that he had already booked a doll and that in order to keep his promise, he had to give up Lakshmi. Lakshmi was very sad, but instead of being depressed, he followed Narasimha to join the anti-British army, cheered everyone up with dance, and was eventually captured by the British army and died in the fire with the enemy.
This scene of self-immolation was filmed concisely and magnificently, and I was in tears.
The film presents the audience with a vivid story of female consciousness awakening, rather than simply letting women fight and kill, but this internal transformation from weak to strong is more shocking than violence. During this period, lakshmi and Narasimha's wife, in the face of the survival of the country and the nation, let go of the entanglement of feelings and join hands to support Narasimha's resistance to Britain, which sublimated the female characters of the entire film - they are no longer props that set off the charm of male heroes.
The only regret is that Narasimha's relationship scene with Lakshmi was so awkward that there was no chemistry at all.
The special effects of the film are slightly cheap, but they are better than the beautiful colors and exquisite composition.
The final war scene is more mediocre, but fortunately the audience's emotions are in place. Therefore, it is still possible to look and feel.
The larger slot point is the repetition of the opening credits. Using Queen Zhangxi as the introduction and closing feels very unnecessary, as for the self-bragging, it is even more... That's it. There is not a single beggar and thief in all of India? This is also too fake.
After the release of the film, it was well received in India, and the Telugu version alone sold 1 billion rupees, and it also achieved a good score of 7.6 on IMDb, which can be regarded as a work above the standard.
I personally like this film more, but it also has many shortcomings, may not meet everyone's appetite (some fans clearly express their dislikes), everyone chooses whether to watch it or not!