Gautama Putra Shathakarni is an epic, historical saga of a less popular Indian hero ‘Shathakarni’ who has united all small dynasties of India to protect ‘Bharatha’ from foreign invasions. GPS literally translates to ‘Shathakarni: the son of Gautami’ and ‘Shathakarni’ translates to one who has hundred arms or arrows. Concisely the entire story of the movie is how he has conquered largest part of India and prevented a biggest Greek invasion after Alexander which left us with 1500 years of no foreign invasion.
As there is very little and inconsistent information available on GPS, the entire narration of the story could be subjected to historical incorrectness. Only the best possible research has been presented and dramatized accordingly for better cinematic experience. The director Krish has made use of this very effectively in terms of sets, background and costumes. So, you won’t encounter some unfit or boring attire in the movie. In fact, he has presented the entire movie with grand coloring and made it visually stunning. His style partly reminded me of Bhansali’s style.
Director opens up the movie with a small conversation between Shathakarni as a kid and his mother Balashri (Played by Hema Malini) about war. Precisely why we need war? why he thought uniting all kingdoms by conquering and making them all into one is the solution for all internal conflicts and external invasions. This sets up the core theme of the movie elegantly. Not only that at the end of the movie again when he repeats the same conversation after we have known his intentions intensifies the whole theme to another level, which is a bit rare in Indian cinema and a clear sign of good writing. Then the story explores how he has defeated everyone, his bravery, his attitude towards opponents, his wife, mother and some Buddhist monks in a heroic manner. He has made a couple of things relevant to present times like internal conflicts in India, how preaching is not enough but doing etc.Overall Writer, director Krish has done an awesome job of balancing all the characters, dramatizing and making a simple & straight forward story interesting.
The entire story narration is well designed and worked out. The dialogues, the music, actors performance, costumes and all completely aids the story narration. The biggest flaw in this movie could be CGI. As such it is not a fantasy movie, so CGI has no scope in it except for the war sequences. Action or fight sequences are well choreographed but whenever he went for CGI, it was a bad but considering he shot the entire movie in 79 days and CGI has no considerable scope in the story, I can’t complain about it. The music is mind blowing, actors have done an extraordinary job, cinematography is stunning everything’s adds up well and if something has to stand out in this movie, I would say it is the flawless narration along with powerful dialogues.
Gautamiputra Satakarni Links: IMDb, Wikipedia.
