Jithindurden

As a kid, when I used to see a lot of Hollywood adventure movies that infused some mythical element in the modern world, I would love watching that and would also start thinking about how awesome it would be to see stuff like that with Indian mythology. Mirai is exactly that, but maybe a bit too much of that formula, because even a lot of the stuff I used to like as a kid wasn't as great as I used to think. Now, I haven't seen Hanuman with the same actor, which seems to have followed this same formula, so this doesn't seem like it was repeating the same thing to me, but it might be the case.

When watching Kalki, I was put off by a lot of scenes of Prabhas and the kind of comedy they tried, but that movie had a lot more to offer besides that. The same issue is kind of present here, but there are a few comedy that lands, and overall it wasn't that bad, but then again this isn't as ambitious as it was either, so the toning down was at both ends.

The editing of the movie felt very clunky; sometimes there were continuity errors, sometimes it seemed like there were unnecessary cuts, and at least one dialogue definitely looked like it was muted. But after seeing a lot of issues, I started to wonder if that's an issue specifically with the Tamil dub, I'm not sure.

The way the villain is is pretty much the Killmonger Paradox; he talks about the issues with the system, his reason for retaliation is based on the right things, but then he goes way too evil for the cause to have any importance. But the way this movie presented those issues and what it represents with so little care, it almost comes off like they want to keep the unfair practices, at least they are pretty clear from the start that the whole thing is really about keeping the status quo.

Even though there were a lot of problems with it, both technically and thematically, I can't help but like it because this was something I really wanted to see as a child.

The immense influence of this film is mindboggling. While watching it, I could clearly see the huge influence on so many so-called action and political films of 80s Malayalam cinema, none of which comes close to this. But it also influenced world cinema by its influence on Hong Kong cinema, a direct remake which started a whole slew of movies, including those of John Woo, which in turn influenced Hollywood. The "wall" between the two brothers growing up to be on different sides of the law was explored in a way that had moments that reminded me of lesser films inspired by it, but even if those lesser films were able to take some of the visual cues, they couldn't match the dialogue writing. There are a lot of great dialogues that are sharp and cut too deeply. And Amitabh Bachchan is just incredible. He carries himself with such swag that even when the movie explores the societal collapse, inequalities, etc, his actions come off as something you can't completely disagree with. It can be said that Shashi Kapoor's character is not written well enough to show the other side of it, but even with that and even now, I think a lot of common people would relate to the kind of emotion that Bachchan's Vijay has. The success of the KGF films, which are so obviously inspired by this, but just focus a lot more on action and being anti-establishment, clearly shows this.

This and Sholay, the same year, 50 years ago, feel like such a big year for Bollywood. But both also feel like they had elements that ultimately also wanted to please the law and order of the system.

You expect to see great action with incredible animation from Demon Slayer with some emotional scenes, and it is delivered. As the first part in the trilogy to end the series, this movie does most things following the usual formula of the series regarding the kind of obstacles, emotions, flashbacks, etc. It is repeating the formula that has been successful in the earlier seasons, which kind of makes you not as impressed as the initial times, but it is still effective enough. The length could've been reduced a little bit; as of now, the length of certain sections makes me feel like they still plan to later release this in episodic format after the theatre run. Really glad to see the number of theatres and the occupancy this got.