I was reminded of Nagesh Kukunoor’s Hyderabad Blues way back in 1998. That film was released minus hype, was technically very average, was made on a skeleton budget and yet became a hit amidst the normal commercial films. Its success could be entirely attributed to its story and script and wonder of wonders—The film was mainly in English!
27 years later comes Mahavatar Narsimha, made on a less paltry budget. The Hyderabad connection here (the earlier film was made by NRIs rooted in that city) is that this film is originally in Telugu, though distributed by Karnataka-based Hombale Films.
The film is planned as the first instalment in the animated seven-part Mahavatar Cinematic Universe, based on the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. It narrates the time-tested legend of Prahlad, his father Hiranyakashipu and Narsimha.
Varaha, a mighty boar, rescues Bhudevi (Mother Earth) from the demon, Hiranyaksha and kills him. Hiranyakashipu, Hiranyaksha’s brother, wants revenge as well as power, and after penance, gains a boon from Lord Brahma that he can never be destroyed and so declares himself as a god. He torments Lord Vishnu’s followers.
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Prahlad, Hiranyakashipu’s son, is a devoted follower of Vishnu. To save Prahlad (after his father makes several attempts to kill him) and defeat evil, Vishnu appears as Narsimha, a half-man, half-lion, who kills Hiranyakashipu while outwitting the conditions of the demon’s boon from Lord Brahma. Blending two major episodes from the Dashavatara, Mahavatar Narsimha talks of divine justice, unshakable faith and the eternal protection to the righteous who do not cow down before evil.
Laced with several interesting and heartwarming episodes better watched than described, I would strongly recommend watching this film in 3D rather than the normal 2D in which I got to check out this animation movie. Those acquaintances and colleagues who watched the 3D version loved it for its imagery, while the 2D one had several sequences from the first to the last in which I saw many half-blurred images that one sees in a 3D film if one removes the glasses!
Better still, watch this one when it streams. I was distracted by the outright tackiness of many a key sequence even outside these shots, which no doubt must have been thanks to budgetary constraints! This considerably diluted the charm for me and I had to constantly remind myself that it was the age-old Puranas story that had connected so much! Mahavatar Narsimha remains the first-ever Indian animation film to do business of over Rs. 125 crore!
A liability the film has is the cacophonous BGM by Sam C.S., a man known for some excellent work like in Rocketry: The Nambi Effect and Vikram Vedha. His songs too are quite noisy and the Hindi lyrics functional.
Any such film is made or unmade, besides the basic animation, by the script and direction and most tellingly by the voice-over actors and their naturally exaggerated intonations.
Here, I must mention Aditya Raj Sharma as Hiranyakashipu, Haripriya Matta as Prahlad, Priyanka Bhandari as Kayadhu (Prahlad’s mother), Vasundhra Bose as Lakshmi, Harjeet Walia as Lord Narsimha, Saanwari Yagnik as Holika, Uplaksh Kochhar as Lord Vishnu and Sanchit Wartak as Hiranyaaksh and Shahid Zafar as Varun Dev.
One small nitpick: at the climax, some sequences are a figment of cinematic imagination and also stretched. But I feel that today’s children must know the original story in its original form and not as per the trendily modified way it is shown here.
Rating: *** (For the 2D version due to the technical shortcomings)
Kleem Productions’ Mahavatar Narsimha Produced by: Shilpaa Dhawan, Kushal Desai & Chaitanya Desai Directed by: Ashwin Kumar Written by: Jayapurna Das Music: Sam C.S. Voice Cast: Aditya Raj Sharma, Haripriya Matta, Sanket Jaiswal (Narrator), Priyanka Bhandari, Vasundhra Bose, Harjeet Walia, Saanwari Yagnik, Uplaksh Kochha, Sanchit Wartak, Shahid Zafar, Abhishek Sharma, Dixoan Shah, Anshul Sharma & others