Review: Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor) young and orphaned DJ, leads a happy life, full of light, around a bunch of orphaned kids. His special connection with fire - it doesn’t inflame him - and a host of visuals that appear before him

periodically when he shuts his eyes, suck him into a world of superpowers. While there’s a mythological background to this, it also, gradually, connects Shiva to the story of his parents, which changes the course of his life. His search for love and light puts him on the path to destroying evil forces and discovering his true potential.

Brahmastra: Part One: Shiva relies heavily on two aspects - its visual effects and the love story of its lead pair, Shiva and Isha, who is played by Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. The film scores a great deal on visual effects. It’s well-thought-out, top-notch, and effective in most places. For instance, the culmination of the pre-interval scenes is a spectacle.

The film borrows from Indian mythology and folk tales, which is fantastic. The effort and passion invested in creating the universe in this film, replete with minute detailing, are worthy of appreciation. And while doing so, the

makers lovingly doff their hats to movies like the Harry Potter franchise. The film shines in divisions like the VFX.

The film’s colour palette has been created thoughtfully, and the depiction of the astras created out of the powers of nature and mythological characters is beautiful. The action choreography, especially in the chase sequence before the interval, is fantastic.

Watching artists like Nagarjuna and Amitabh Bachchan playing pivotal parts of the T is a delight. Nagarjuna in his limited screen time is quite effective. And Mr. Bachchan appears comfortable in the skin of his character,

performing action scenes with ease. Ranbir’s effort to add emotional gravitas to the proceedings is visible. He tries really hard to take the audience beyond the superficial layers of this film with the way he’s played out Shiva. It would have been great if Alia Bhatt and Mouni Roy’s characters were also developed with the same passion as Ranbir’s for them to have that lasting impact. There’s not much attention paid to any of the secondary characters. The line between great and good lies in a believable, character-led story that emotionally engages you. The most

imaginative worlds created by cinema’s geniuses eventually rely on the writing to keep everything else glued perfectly in their places. With all its pluses, nothing makes up for the emotional deficits that Brahmastra suffers.