Courtney Howard Boy meets girl. Girl falls for boy. Boy discovers he’s got a hazardous superpower and is called away to save the world from a burgeoning evil.
This isn’t the usual formula for a romantic comedy, nor is it typical for Indian cinema, which roots itself in ancient mysticism and mythology.
Yet that’s what makes writer-director Ayan Mukerji’s sprawling epic “Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva” special and innovative. He smashes up genre conventions as Western cinematic influences readily comingle with pure Bollywood razzle-dazzle.
And though the story is occasionally overcomplicated and the spectacle excites and exhausts in equal measure (as even Marvel movies do), it’s a wildly entertaining jump start to a planned trilogy – touted as Bollywood’s first original cinematic universe, the “Astraverse.” The journey begins with the legend of the Astras, or “weapons of the Light.” They derive from elements in the natural world (Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, as well as animal and plant essences).
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