A Tale of two-part movies - the best way to spend a lazy weekend

 

A Tale of two-part movies - the best way to spend a lazy weekend

After making a grand entrance, Thor has finally pierced Thanos with his strombreaker axe, the Avengers – the protectors of the Earth had thoroughly been shocked and nearly defeated by the alien demi-god Thanos’ invasion…the terrifyingly imposing villain needed the six infinity stones to make his wish come true…cause a universal genocide to restore balance…snap away half of the population…surely villains don’t succeed to this extent in any Marvel movie, they always end short of real tragedy…but Thanos actually snaps his fingers…and he succeeds…half of the universe’s population including many avengers…just turn into dust…the Avengers fail… a title card appears on the screen - 'Thanos will Return

That moment, that tease of having to wait a year to see how at all can Avengers succeed…the build -up and hype up to that moment is what made Endgame such a huge success despite being nearly not as good as Infinity War. This is the power of the two parter – or duology as we will be calling it for the purposes of this article.

While the trilogy- a beginning, middle and an end- whether planned like Lord of The Rings or unplanned like The Dark Knight trilogy (yes it was never planned as a trilogy) is a very popular format especially in mainstream franchise driven Hollywood, the two-parter or the duology has not been so. One could say the trend may have begun when Tarantino’s epic Kill Bill was split into two and released a few months apart in early 2000’s. Even the Matrix sequels – Reloaded and Revolutions were shot as one movie but released months apart.

But the trend really caught on when, Harry Potter split its last movie – The Deathly Hollows- into two parts. In terms of story-telling, it allowed for better fleshing out of the characters and the plot points instead of the usual Hollywood way of compressing a large story into 2 hours. But in terms of box office numbers, it REALLY worked its magic. Soon after many other franchises like Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent etc. did it with their series finale but didn’t see the same results as Harry Potter.

However, the duology hasn’t caught on as much as the trilogy. Of all the mainstream Hollywood movies – Horror movie It Chapters 1 and 2, the animated movie The Dark Knight Returns and Lars Von Triers’ Nymphomaniac are the only ones that tell their stories in two parts. Denis Villenueve’s faithful adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Sci-fi classic novel Dune is surely going to be a duology as confirmed by the Director.

 

UNDERUTILZED FORMAT

If you ask Hollywood about utilizing the format, their answer to any thing is a question – what will make us more money? Just like they did with the Hobbit movies, they would rather everything be a trilogy or more if they know they can mint money in it.

But the duology is a highly under-utilized format even from a commercial angle. In this attention starved world, a set of two movies lasting let’s say 4-5 hours are much a better format than a trilogy which lasts 7-9 hours, thus making it more binge worthy. As was the case with Infinity War or It, the cliff-hanger ending offers instant in-built hype for the second one. Also, the movies can be released within a shorter time span if planned accordingly, thus avoid any risks of delays etc.

 

 

 

INDIAN IMPACT

However, surprisingly the Indian film industry (we are NOT calling it Bollywood anymore) has been ahead of Hollywood in this manner. Not only do we have many duologies released and planned to be released, they have actually been planned sequels for the sake of storytelling and not an afterthought for a quick cash grab.

 

So, on this extended weekend, if you have a afternoon to spare check out these Indian Duology of films –

 

 

5) NTR : Kathanayakudu and Mahanaykudu 

A Telugu movie based on legendary movie star turned politician N T Rama Rao, starring his son Bal Murali Krishna in the title role. This duology was released in 2019 a few months apart. As they say truth is stranger than fiction and NTR’s life story is a testament to it. The first part concentrates on his rise to stardom when the entire south film industry including Telugu and Tamil were situated in Madras. The movie follows NTR’s journey in becoming its first super star and giving it the respect, it deserves.

The sequel follows his rise as a politician. Although obviously written through the eyes of hero-worship and conveniently glossing over his later affair with a much younger woman etc. the politics alone is worth a watch. Rana Dagubatti stars as Chandrababu Naidu and delivers a subtle villainish performance. Though not the best, it is certainly worth a watch.

 

 

4) Raktha Charitra 1 and 2 

This was the probably the first Indian movie to be released in two parts and also the most underrated. Vivek Oberoi’s last good performance and one of Ram Gopal Verma’s last sane movies, Raktha Charitra as the title suggests is of course an epic tale of blood, violence and politics. Based on the unbelievable true story of Naxalite Rebel turned Politician Paritala Ravi and the Andhra Pradesh politics of the 80’s.

Packed with a multi star cast of Vivek Oberoi, Radhika Apte, Shatrughan Sinha, Suriya, Sudeep and many others, everyone delivers subtle yet explosive performances in keeping with RGV’s directing style. The pick of the lot is Abhimanyu Singh (who would later star in many movies like Ram Leela, Gabbar Singh (telugu), Sooryavanshi etc.) Abhimanyu Singh plays the dangerous and downright horrifying villain Bukka Reddy based on real life Obul Reddy.

There’s TV bombs, land mines, revenge killings for two generations…which all might appear fictional…but 99% of the movie is actually true. If you can bear through some violence, this is definitely an epic worth looking into. Its available for free on Youtube or on Amazon Prime. Prime has a slightly censored version for the faint hearted.

 

 

3) Gangs of Wasseypur 1 and 2

Rakta Charitra might have been the first, but this cult classic was the one that introduced Indian audiences to the duology format. Originally released as a single almost 5-hour movie in film festivals, the movie was split into two parts for commercial release and it makes the story better. The multi-generational story inspired from Godfather and Mahabharat takes its time to set up its range of eccentric characters and dialogues as the story grows along slowly but without ever losing its grip.

Having the now well-known names like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi, Richa Chadda, Pankaj Tripathi paired with experienced acting powerhouses like Manoj Bajpayee, Reema, Sen, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Piyush Pandey and others. This is the movie where Anurag Kashyap found that golden middle between his brand of experimental cinema and commercial success. The duology is single-handedly responsible for making Hindi film industry take an interest in telling rural stories. The movie is obviously known for its dark humor and meme worthy dialogue even after so many years.

The first part with its cliff hanger ending perfectly sets up the sequel which ups the ante in the best possible way.

 

2) Bahubali 1 and 2

This was the Infinity War of India…not just in terms of its commercial success but the Katappa ending to the first one had the entire nation theorizing and memeing for 2 years straight. There’s nothing much to be said about Bahubali. I mean either you have watched it or you don’t watch movies at all. The movie has some rough CGI, but it still holds up even after 5 years. The war scene from part 1 and the coronation ceremony from part 2 remain some of the most epic moments ever put to screen in Indian cinema.

More so than the spectacle, it’s the immortal characters like Sivagami, Bhallaldeva and of course Amarendra/Mahendra Bahubali that always make a story memorable. Rajamouli’s father K Vijayandra Prasad takes inspiration from ancient Hindu epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata and it is visible in the nuanced characterization in what could otherwise have just been a mere spectacle of a movie. Rajamouli’s Snyder-esque skill of visual storytelling makes the movie anytime watch and universally appealing. A reveal that a soldier who was helping in battle is actually Bahubali himself, could merely have been a dialogue. But Rajamouli even makes that into an epic visual scene. The background score by M M Keeravani is a mighty pillar holding this art work aloft.

Watching the first one for the epic cliffhanger and then watching the even more epic conclusion is surely a great way to spend an afternoon.

 

1)       1) KGF CHAPTER 1 AND 2

Bahubali is definitely a better made duology in terms of screenplay, characterization, editing etc. This is not even a countdown of the best Indian duologies but…call it recency bias… but holy fucking shit is the KGF duology is epic! Without even needing to be! If Bahubali is inspired from our ancient epics, then KGF is definitely inspired from the Salim-Javed created genre of the angry young man from the 70’s but taken to the max…with Snyder-esque visuals (yes, no wonder we Indians are Snyder fans) and with epic Back ground score. On paper a rehash of Amitabh Bacchan inspired character from the 70’s point out to the fact that it shouldn’t work at all. In theory, it should be another run of the mill common masala movie which feels shallow but looks good.

KGF however doesn’t just look good..it looks great! Just like Mad Max Fury Road or 300 what could’ve been just a visual epic is in fact an adrenaline packed journey about love, promises, ambition and POWER. The second movie oozes power and loud extravagant ambition in every frame and this is maximalist cinema at its absolute best. The character of Rocky is the new age Vijay but again on steroids. People literally open doors but in slo-mo and set to Ravi Basrur’s rocking background music.

The movie singlehandedly put Kannada movie industry on the map despite existing for so many years. Although they have teased a chapter 3…it’s not at all needed after such an epic conclusion.

 

From the looks of it, this format seems to have worked. Pushpa : The Rise is definitely going to be another duology with Pushpa : The Rule releasing late in 2022.

So there you have it, the perfect way to spend a 5-6 hours on a weekend. A trilogy is so outdated...give us more epic two parters please!