Complex portrait of a cinematic icon

Parbina Rashid

Prabhas calls him a mad person. “He will beg, borrow, steal or even kill to get 100 per cent out of his actors,” NT Rama Rao Jr chips in. Grudgingly admiring words! Even his cousin, MM Keeravani, talks about his complete involvement in every aspect of filmmaking, which at times proves to be a dampener for the cast. But, to all his detractors, SS Rajamouli has one answer, “I am a slave to my story.” End of story!
So, his actors have built a defence mechanism. “Just give him what he wants and get the hell out. There is no point arguing,” they say. So does Keeravani and all other members of his family who are involved in filmmaking with him.
But Rajamouli, for whom ‘heroes are my missiles and I am their launch pad’, has a softer side to him too. His latest missile Ram Charan cribs that even watching ‘Naatu Naatu’ on screen makes his leg muscles cringe. He narrates how Rajamouli would stay in a shabby lodge to cut corners, but provide his actors the best of facilities, or how the filmmaker would sleep outside his flat rather than wake up his wife when late from shooting.
The complex portrait of one of the cinematic icons of present-day India takes shape as journalist Anupama Chopra, with the exuberance of a ‘fan girl’, interviews the filmmaker and other prominent personalities from the film fraternity, including James Cameron and Joe Russo. Director Raghav Khanna adds behind-the-scenes footage for ‘Modern Masters: SS Rajamouli’.
We see Chopra sometimes sitting in a cafe overlooking the Hollywood sign, prodding him to talk about his Hyderabad to Hollywood journey and then sometimes walking on some Tokyo street discussing the reactions of Japanese fans to ‘RRR’. The inputs that come from Prabhas, Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan, Rana Daggubati, MM Keeravani, father Vijayendra Prasad and wife Rama, who designs costumes for his productions, and his step-son Kartikeya, who assists him, tell us about the man behind blockbusters like ‘Simhadri’ (2003), ‘Magadheera’ (2009), ‘Eega’ (2012), ‘Baahubali The Beginning’ (2015), ‘Baahubali The Conclusion’ (2017), and ‘RRR’ (2022).
As the camera focuses on his face, Rajamouli comes across as affable and frank on occasion. He talks about how his mother, who had no respect for formal education, encouraged him to read comic books and play outdoors, building the foundation for storytelling. He talks about failures his family faced and his subsequent move to Hyderabad, where he started his career by directing a short film on literacy. But the facts he reveals are fine for a polite conversation, not a documentary.
His blockbusters ‘Bahubali’ and ‘RRR’ are given their due space. Daggubati calls ‘Bahubali The Beginning’ the first pan-India film moment in the true sense, and Karan Johar hails it as the “‘Sholay’ of our times”. Some BTS moments from ‘RRR’ show that Rajamouli is an excellent actor too, which Rama Rao Jr confirms in his interview with Chopra.
The documentary suffers from Chopra’s (she is also a producer) over-enthusiasm to keep its tone to mostly flattering. When the topic of sexism and casteism in ‘Bahubali’ comes up, Rajamouli dismisses it with ‘those who don’t understand symbolism, don’t understand story-telling’. And, she lets him go scot-free.
Unfortunately, Khanna has depended way too much on Chopra’s interviewing skills. He should have done his own independent research to add meat to the narrative. After all, it’s not every day that one gets to make a documentary on the ‘James Cameron of India’!