Even if you are not a Hindu or religious, the underlying message of loving animals and fellow human beings, and to choose love and peace over war is winning hearts, notes Divya Nair.
After Kantara, here’s a mythology-inspired film that has finally brought children and senior citizens back to the theatres.
But is it worth the hype?
After a long time, it has been an incredible week for Indian cinema. Saiyaara, Dhadak 2, Su From So, Middle Class Family… the list of recommended films has been compelling.
But the ground reality is very different.
Though social media has been raving about the success of Saiyaara, including a colleague in his 50s who has watched it twice, I was surprised that none of my friends wanted to watch it.
My in-laws recommended the Kannada horror comedy, Su From So.
A friend suggested that the Tulu film Middle Class Family is equally good.
My husband felt it would be apt to take our eight-year-old son for the 3D film Mahavatar Narsimha.
For those who haven’t watched or heard about this film, Mahavatar Narasimha is an animated film based on Indian mythology and claims to be based on THE Narasimha Purana, Vishnu Purana and Bhagavata Purana.
It is produced by Kleem Productions and presented by Hombale Films that gave us hits like KGF, Kantara and Salaar.
Directed by Ashwin Kumar, the Hindi animated film is the first installment of a seven-part series on the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. This one came with selective English subtitles and a generous tribute to the late actor Puneet Rajkumar.
While the movie is rated UA13+, the early scenes involved lust and lovemaking!
Thankfully, there were no subtitles in the initial scenes and we were glad that our son was too busy munching his popcorn to ask any embarrassing questions.
As someone who has grown up watching regional films about the various avatars of Vishnu, I can say that this was a detailed, and intentionally longer portrayal of the story between Prahlad and his father Hiranyakashipu.
The film primarily explores two avatars of Vishu — Varaha (boar), who rescued Bhudevi (Mother Earth) from Hiranyaksha and Narsimha (half lion-half man incarnation), who saved Prahlad, a five-year-old Vishnu devotee from his powerful father Hiranyakashipu’s tyranny.
The film released has managed to attract audiences through word-of-mouth and two weeks later, the theatre in Thane was houseful and despite the presence of kids, there was pin drop silence.
Twenty minutes into the film, my son announced that he did not need his 3D glasses.
In fact, several people were watching the film without protective glasses because honestly, there are very few 3D scenes.
Honestly, it wasn’t much of an immersive experience.
For a 2025 film made on a budget of Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million), the animation and graphics were shockingly basic.
My son had enjoyed watching The Legend of Hanuman on television, which was far superior in terms of visuals, details and characterisation.
For instance, here, when Hiranyaksha was killed by Lord Varaha, I couldn’t tell if his brother Hiranyakashipu was angry or happy. It was as if the animator had forgotten to insert the facial expressions.
You have to live with such ambiguity throughout the film.
Sam CS’s background music is not outstanding as one would expect.
If you are going with a sensitive audience, you have to brace yourself for an extremely graphic and violent climax with excessive blood and gore (imagine the frenzy of body parts flying in the air and blood splattered all over) which could have been avoided.
But the voiceover and storytelling is powerful and that is what keeps you hooked for the most parts of the film.
Prahlad’s cute face is also a redeeming factor.
Since my husband is from Udipi, our son had some idea about the Varaha avatar, but for many other kids, this was probably their first learning.
A lot of creative liberty has been followed to give importance to the lead characters. But several crucial details are missing, like how and why did Holika get burnt despite her special boon?
As for the length, Prahlad’s saga of devotion continued to drag till it got tiring in the second half.
Finally, when Narsimha emerged from the pillars, he looked more like an angry Shaktiman on steroids.
The scenes were certainly high on drama.
But the altercation between Narsimha and Hiranyakashipu doesn’t do enough justice to the buildup. The Holika dahan sequence is also poorly executed.
Overall, the movie is 132 minutes long and could have easily been cut short by 40 minutes.
Will kids enjoy the movie? Yes.
I know kids who think praying to Lord Vishnu will make their problems vanish.
Even if you are not a Hindu or religious, the underlying message of loving animals and fellow human beings, and to choose love and peace over war is winning hearts. All this, coming from a five year old, is the real gamechanger.
The movie ends with pictures and details of historical sites linked to the mythology.
Did you know there is a temple of Prahladpuri in Multan, Pakistan? Interestingly, that is the origin of Holika dahan, built by Prahlad and honours Lord Narsimha.
The next installment we are informed will be the story of Parshurama.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
