Thursday, September 10, 2015

Bahubali Revisited - Movie Review

So I watched Bahubali again and everyone looked familiar so I felt I need not be as serious as I was the first time around when I report my latest experience. When things are of this scale you must treat them with due seriousness but only for the first time; the second time you are all friends so we can joke about a bit. Anyway our friends won't mind our jokes (or they won't be friends for long if they don't like our jokes ha ha!)

Let me observe this from a human resource angle. Right up, the one chap I'd get rid off from my side would be Katappa or Cutappa, whichever way he writes his name in English, the fiercely loyal slave to the throne. He is Bhishma-like and is tied to the throne and not to the right or wrong. Bad teachers! Unfortunately he has a conscience too which makes him pretty useless when it comes to using his martial skills in duress. Upon closely watching him this time, I noticed this much feared warrior is good only when there is no pressure - under pressure he is useless. In three separate instances he fails to protect the people he is supposed to protect and they make do by themselves somehow - probably knowing how bad he is under pressure. First the queen is almost killed when she is attacked during the rebellion and she smartly saves herself with a small dagger (all Cutappa does here is leap over a wall and fight some minions exposing the queen to danger). In another instance he fails to save Bhallaladeva his king from a bull even with a sword in his hand, a bull that B later kills with his bare hands. Cutappa looks pretty foolish then. In the third he completely fails to save his prince from young Bahubali who neatly beheads him (some humans were hurt!). Where Cutappa is good is when there is no pressure - for example when the arms dealer challenges him for a friendly duel etc. One must also mention that his attempt to hold back the enemy forces fails and he compromises the big war. Add the fact that he is constantly trying to help the twig picking ex-queen flee. If I were B, I'd first get rid of this chap or put him in charge of some obscure training on the outpost. He is the biggest danger to the throne really. Ironically.

Another disappointment in terms of training and human resource development was the gang of Tamanna's. This is a classic case of getting the wrong trainers and coaches who come merely with certificates and without understanding the soul of things. All show but no stuff. First up this gang makes a big show of being very loyal and highly specialised and trained queen-releasers. That's their only goal you see - queen releasing. For some reason they only go in small units of one at a time, when in fact they have a pretty large contingent of well trained people (at shouting in unison and hiding up tall trees) who stand in order and shout well rehearsed mission statements with a lot of passion. I was pretty impressed by their commitment and thought that their leader fellow (who looked like a spiritual guru) had cracked it (though I did not understand his strategy of sending them one by one like goats to slaughter - oops - banned word, might hurt some even if our metaphor is also computer generated, Let me try again, like humans to slaughter - better word, aah everyone is happy now). Now this fiery warrior woman finds her entire training is pretty low class and hollow compared to what this illiterate fellow from a small tribe knows - all she does is make faces while he completely disrobes her easily. Again it's a case of all degrees and certificates and no content like our education system. Then she gives up her mission and places it in his hands - the entire gang is okay with that - which is a huge disappointment. What? This is what you trained all your life? Where is your self-respect? Bad training, bad everything. This gang is like a start up that has been infected with the big investor bug and lost sight of why its in business at all. Next you see they will all be fat and lazy.

Other people who bother you are the fearsome B himself. Though Rana looks even more like a king in his demeanour than P, his eyes are way too kind and straightforward to be what he is shown to be, a really cruel man. All his acts of cruelty seem to be ok to me - he is in fact being very kind to all. He lets the queen live and pick twigs and has provided her with a long leash that gives her access to many distant areas of the courtyard, he lets Cutappa occupy high positions, he lets the bull off without killing it, he even pulls back the overly trusting P when he jumps off the side of the hill, he tracks the spy while P is cavorting with three babes. Not a bad chap really and well deserving of the kingly post I should think.

This is exhausting so I will stop here. From a HR perspective I also found that the kingdom of Mahishmati also had no other heroes but these three - B, B and C. My recommendations to king B. Replace C before he messes up big time, get a few more able chaps from A to Z and delegate jobs to them, assign good coaches and hope for the best. Also marry. Whatever happens we all know that the pen is mightier than the sword - so the writ of the scriptwriter will only hold. More later. This is getting as tiresome as a consulting assignment which is going nowhere.