Modern Masters: S S Rajamouli Review: Intimate Portrait of A Visionary

Modern
Masters
aims
to
showcase
Rajamouli’s
enigmatic
career
and
paints
a
context
of
what
makes
him
the
singular
voice
that
defined
his
generation
of
film-makers
for
millions,
observes
Arjun
Menon.

‘I
am
a
slave
to
only
one
thing:
My
story,’
proclaims
S
S
Rajamouli
at
the
beginning
of
the
first
episode
of
Netflix’s
new
series,

Modern
Masters.

The
documentary
tries
to
explore
this
philosophy
of
one
of
Indian
cinema’s
most
popular
film-makers
and
curate
a
method
to
his
madness
that
has
given
us
some
of
the
biggest
motion
pictures
produced
in
the
country,
including

Magadheera
(2009),

Eega
(2012),

Baahubali:
The
Beginning
(2015),

Baahubali
2:
The
Conclusion
(2017)
and

RRR
(2022).

Rajamouli
sits
down
with
Anupama
Chopra
for
a
series
of
interview
sessions
happening
across
the
US
and
Tokyo.
Some
of
his
closest
collaborators
and
family
also
share
rare
insights
into
his
working
philosophy
and
personal
quirks.

He
can
perhaps
be
attributed
for
the
Pan
India
cinema
phenomenon
that
has
broken
out
in
the
last
few
years.
The
director
has
steadily
built
a
cult-like
obsession
overseas
for
his
imaginative
tentpole
projects,
the

Baahubali
movies
and

RRR,
featuring
extensive
use
of
CGI-driven
blockbuster
storytelling.

Modern
Masters:
S
S
Rajamouli
splices
his
life
into
various
phases,
starting
with
his
humble
beginnings
and
then
charting
a
linear
path
through
some
of
his
career-high
points.

It
tries
to
trace
his
origins
as
a
television
director
with
the
highly
popular
television
serial

Santhi
Nivasam
under
the
tutelage
of
legendary
Telugu
director
K
Raghavendra
Rao.

The
director,
who
helmed
many
episodes
of
the
show,
does
not
shy
away
from
acknowledging
the
importance
of
that
television
experience,
in
equipping
his
confidence
as
a
storyteller
and
bringing
him
closer
to
his
dream
of
making
it
on
the
big
screen.

In

Modern
Masters,
you
get
a
portrait
of
an
artist’s
hustle
recorded
from
up
close.

In
voice-over
narration
and
occasional
cutaway,
you
get
the
sense
of
a
hard
worker
painstakingly
working
away
at
his
vision,
amidst
financial
and
logistical
limitations.

The
film
offers
a
sneak
peek
into
the
sleepless,
tireless
slog
behind
movie-making,
and
tries
to
have
a
conversation
with
the
trade-offs
one
is
expected
to
make,
both
personal
and
professional
wise,
to
make
it
at
the
highest
level.

M
M
Keeravani,
one
of
Rajamouli’s
long-time
collaborators
and
cousin,
often
emphasises
the
director’s
‘eye
on
the
ball’
approach
to
his
work.

‘Rajamouli
is
always
focused
on
one
thigh
at
a
time.
People
who
can
keep
their
focus
on
one
thing
for
a
long
time
like
him,
will
be
successful,’
remarks
the
composer,
who
bagged
the
Golden
Globe
and
Academy
Awards
under
the
Original
Song
category
for
his
chartbuster

Naatu
Naatu
from

RRR.

The
documentary
also
paints
an
image
of
an
atheist,
whose
fascination
with
mythical
stories
and
larger-than-life
godly
symbolism
remains
a
mystery
to
himself
and
the
ones
around
him.

In
a
family
of
devout
believers,
we
are
told
that
the
director
stands
apart
for
his
atheistic
values
and
we
get
a
sense
of
that
from
his
spiritually
rigorous
father
and
frequent
script
collaborator
V
Vijayendra
Prasad.

We
also
get
the
rare
anecdote
of
a
random
trip
to
Bali
with
his
family
and
how
a
random
statue
of
Arjuna
-Ghatotkacha
led
him
to
conceive

Baahubali
as
a
means
to
recapture
that
imagery
in
some
way
in
his
films.

These
asides
are
in
plenty
and
the
most
important
collaborator
of
his
films,
his
actors,
seems
to
be
all
praise
for
the
visionary
director.
Ram
Charan,
Jr
NTR
and
Prabhas
are
careful
to
explore
the
strict,
nonchalant
side
of
the
genius,
who
sometimes
oscillates
between
being
a
loving
friend
to
a
grueling
taskmaster
on
sets.

James
Cameron
and
Joe
Russo
also
make
brief
appearances
with
their
admiration
for
their
Indian
counterpart,
and
try
to
make
sense
of
the
instant
connection
of
Rajamouli’s
film-making
sensibility
to
a
Western
audience,
which
has
rarely
been
acclimated
to
‘muscular
film-making’
of
this
caliber.

The
documentary
is
not
structured
to
be
a
deep
examination
of
the
authoritarian
trademarks
or
the
personality
ticks
that
make
him
such
a
unique
figure
in
Indian
cinema
history
and
his
far-reaching
global
impact.

The
focus
lies
in
exploring
a
portrait
of
an
obsessively-driven
man
with
a
contradictory
streak,
like
him
being
fluid
and
non-committed
to
the
idea
of
continuity
in
scenes
if
the
emotional
or
visual
flourishes
do
their
work.

Still,
we
are
not
provided
insights
or
context
into
the
artistic
process
that
makes
him
tick.

Anupama
Chopra
brings
up
a
few
of
the
criticisms
that
have
been
plaguing
his
work
over
the
years,
with
the
casteism
allegations
against
the
representation
of
Kattappa
and
other
lower
caste
characters
in
his
films
as
well
as
the
general
callousness
of
female
representation
and
consent
in
his
movies,
highlighting
a
highly
scrutinised
song
from

Baahubali:
The
Beginning.
But
Rajamouli
is
quick
to
sidestep
these
allegations
and
there
seems
to
be
an
air
of
squirminess
in
the
response.

The
director
is
wary
of
any
such
aspersions
on
his
body
of
work
and
resorts
to
the
‘I
am
only
a
slave
to
my
story’
rhetoric
that
seems
to
be
a
throughline
of
this
documentary.

The
documentary
does
not
delve
into
the
uncomfortable
side
of
the
criticism,
contributing
nothing
more
than
a
career
highlights
reel.

The
inclusion
of
this
relevant
criticism
seems
placed
in
the
narrative
as
an
afterthought.
It
is
not
followed
through
with
any
real
conviction,
as
the
interviewer
and
interviewee
move
on
to
the
next
part
of
the
doc
pretty
quickly.

To
people
familiar
with
Rajamouli’s
career
over
the
years,
the
jumps
might
seem
a
bit
shaky
as
the
film
omits
a
large
chunk
of
his
filmography,
to
favour
the
more
popular
entries.

A
large
chunk
of
his
mid-2000s
output
is
not
included.

You
get
amusing
analogies
like
the
‘Cinema
as
Upma’
philosophy
of
the
Rajamouli
family,
their
work
ethic
and
the
‘dark
night
of
the
soul’
moments
that
have
come
to
define
one
of
the
biggest
directors
in
Indian
cinema.

The
documentary
aims
to
showcase
his
enigmatic
career
and
paints
a
context
of
what
makes
Rajamouli
the
singular
voice
that
defined
his
generation
of
film-makers,
for
millions.

Modern
Masters:
S
S
Rajamouli
streams
on
Netflix.