Hanuman Ansh Review

Ever heard of an indian film which was made with a budget of around two crore rupees and went on to collect more than four hundred crore gross at the box office with just the Hindi version? Yes, we had one such film recently and its name is ‘Hanuman Ansh’. The film was released in just about 250 theatres on 07th August and collected only around ninety lakh rupees in the first week in India and then picked up the pace with positive word of mouth and created a sensation at the box office. After the phenomenal theatrical success of its Hindi version, the makers of the film initially teamed up with the ace director, Trivikram, to release the film in Telugu and later decided to call off the ties with Trivikram for unknown reasons and decided to give the Telugu theatrical rights of the film to the notable production house, Hombale Films. After promoting the film in Telugu with an event recently, the makers released it in theatres today in Telugu. What was that Hindi audience liked do much in the film? Does, the content of, Hanuman Ansh, justify the four hundred crore box office collection in Hindi? What is the movie all about? Is it about an individual human being, a spiritual guru or a god? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Heartbroken by his father’s second marriage after his mother passed away, Lakshminarayan Sharma(Shobhinaw Satyaa), at the age of thirteen in 1914, runs away from home and decides to attain spirituality. He believes that attaining spirituality through Lord Hanuman and the Hanuman Chalisa is the only way to get close to Lord Rama and to eventually reunite with his mother. What challenges does he face during his spiritual journey? How did Lakshminarayan Sharma transform into Neem Karoli Baba? Did the Baba attain spirituality and eventually reunite with his mother? How did he transform the lives of the people around him and his followers? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Shobhinaw Satyaa in the role of Lakshminarayan Sharma Aka Neem Karoli Baba is first-rate in his performance. His body language and his facial expressions resemble those of the real Neem Karoli Baba. Through his innocent smile and subtle expressions, he instantly makes us start to like the character he played. In the role of a staunch follower of the Baba, Bhagvandas Patel, delivered a good performance. He got a lengthy role and he made complete use of it with his performance. Chandan K Anand in the role of Dr Ram Nandan Bhosale, did a good job with his performance. The film had at least ten to fifteen important characters and most of the actors who played those roles, did well with their performances.

Technicalities:

Sadhu Sushil Tiwari came up with good songs that fit well with the script and his background score also worked to elevate many sequences. The musical chants of Lord Rama, Lord Shiva and Lord Hanuman worked out very well in the film and are certain to stay in your mind even after you leave the theatre. Editing by Shankh Rajadhyaksha was neat. Telugu dubbing and the dialogues in Telugu were also neat. Cinematography by Vishal Bawa was standard and within the available resources. The film was made on a very limited budget of around two crore rupees and the budget constraints were to be seen throughout.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠First Half
2.⁠ ⁠Shobhinaw Satyaa’s Performance
3.⁠ ⁠Thought-Provoking Dialogues
4.⁠ ⁠Underlying Message About Spirituality

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Excessive Glorification of Baba
2.⁠ ⁠Far Away from Reality ‘Magics’

Analysis:

Hanuman Ansh is the first part of the trilogy of movies, based on the book, Divine Detour: That Changed My Life. The book’s author, Vishal Chaturvedi, is the director and producer of the film. He wrote the book based on the life and times of Neem Karoli Baba(birth name – Lakshman Narayan Sharma). Going by the title of the book, we can clearly understand that Vishal Chaturvedi is an ardent follower of Neem Karoli Baba and we can see his admiration towards the baba in almost every sequence in the film. Liking or disliking, Hanuman Ansh, is directly proportional to your personal belief system and opinion about the babas(Spiritual Gurus). If you believe that, Spiritual Gurus, are god’s messengers and that they possess magical powers, there are very high chances that you will like the entire movie. And, if you think Spiritual Gurus aren’t god’s messengers and they play with innocent people’s faith in god, you may not like the film, especially the second half. Yes, the film made about four hundred crores gross just from the Hindi version but a majority of that credit should be given to the huge number of Neem Karoli Baba’s followers across the north, east and western parts of India. As a film, it is fairly engaging and that is it.

The entire first half of the film concentrates on the spiritual journey of Lakshman Narayan Sharma from his childhood until his 30s. As long as the film revolves around the spiritual journey, it gives a very satisfying feeling. The good part of the film is the ‘purpose’ of Lakshman Narayan Sharma to start his spiritual journey. His purpose is to meet Lord Rama through Lord Hanuman because he believes his beloved mother, who passed away, is with Lord Rama. He thinks the only way to reunite with his mother is to attain spirituality and eventually get to union with lord Rama. Along with the ‘purpose’, the first half of the film has many thought-provoking and heartwarming sequences. Especially, the sequence where Lakshman Narayan distributes the food that was served to him to the socially backward kids, the sequence at the start where an atheist gives up on his beliefs and eats food served by a spiritual guru, and the sequence between Lakshman Narayan and a maharshi at a Vaishnava temple in Rajkot, make you feel very emotional. Up until the end of the first half, we get to feel the divine energy. It felt like lord Hanuman was indeed driving Lakshman Narayan and his actions, from behind, throughout the first half. Another good part of the film is the thought-provoking, philosophical and devotion-driven dialogues. Particularly, the dialogues written to explain why lord Rama is called ‘Maryada Purushottam’, were very good.

Now read this – During his transformation from Lakshman Narayan Sharma to Neem Karoli Baba, he transformed completely into Neem Karoli Baba; he turns stones into sweets, he magically gets first-class train tickets, he predicts when exactly a person can become a father, he stops a train and lets it run, he predicts when exactly a lawyer will win a court case, he breaks into a jail room, locks it and then unlocks it without the keys, etc. The baba does all these things by using his willpower & supernatural magical power. Yes, the director gave the justification saying that it is Lord Hanuman who is helping the baba to do all these magical things but most of these sequences were shown in the film to talk about the greatness of the baba instead of focusing on the divinity factor. It is where you may get disconnected from the film if you aren’t an ardent follower of spiritual gurus and their magical powers. The entire second half is filled with many such ‘magical’ sequences one after the other and after a point, it got tedious to follow the proceedings on screen. A bit more focus on generating drama by using the divinity factor would have made the film more watchable.

Hanuman Ansh has plenty of heartwarming moments and engaging sequences in the first half but in the second half, the focus shifted to glorify and talk about the greatness of the baba and the ‘God & Divinity’ element took a back seat. Overall, it’s a decent watch for the good first half and a very good performance by the lead actor. You may also like the second half, if you believe in spiritual gurus conditionally. If you personally believe in spiritual gurus, Hanuman Ansh, is definitely for you to watch. If you aren’t a believer in them, you may still watch it for the first half but the chances of you liking the second half are very minimal.

Bottom Line – Spiritual Devotion

Rating – 2.75/5

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