Bhairava Dweepam (1994)

 

The Maharaja of the Chandraprabha Dynasty fathers an illegitimate son, but deserts his lover and casts her out into a cyclone.  The young woman loses the baby while trying to cross a swollen river, and sinks into depression over her son's apparent death.

The baby does not die, however.  He is instead swept downstream, where he is found by a friendly tribe whose chieftain adopts him, naming him Vijay.

Years later, Vijay is the greatest hunter, warrior and just all around swell guy in his tribe.  When his tribe needs the waters of the tree of immortality, Vijay sets off with his adopted brother to find it.

En route, however, he spies Princess Padma of the Bhupathi Dynasty, and falls instantly in love.  His dashing ways and sword-fighting skills soon have the princess swooning for him, as well, but of course her parents would never let her marry a tribal boy, even a chief's son.

Antics ensue, and grow more and more extravagant as it becomes clear that powerful magical forces are arrayed against the Bhupathi, and only Vijay's courage, skill and astonishingly convenient luck, can save them.

A big success in its native India on release, Bhairava Dweepam reminds me a great deal of the 1981 version of Clash of the Titans, though without the benefits of Ray Harryhausen stop motion effects.  Like the earlier film, it draws deeply on a variety of mythological tales and tropes, and also like the earlier film, it feels much more like a thin justification for a series of set piece sequences than a truly coherent narrative of its own.  When you add in a scene that resonates strongly of the Harpy sequence from Jason & the Argonauts, it does make me wonder if someone involved was a Harryhausen fan.

But perhaps they were just raiding similar mythological themes?  Well ... maybe.  But there are a lot of other scenes that resemble those of earlier English language films, up to and including a scene that is pretty much a direct copy of one from Conan the Destroyer.  Just like Conan in that film, Vijay finds himself in a hall of mirrors battling a hideous green humanoid in a red cape, and just like that movie, the key to defeating it is smashing the mirrors.

Other than playing "spot where they might have swiped this from" does the film have anything to offer?  Well, it's harmless fun on the whole.  Some of the action scenes, while utterly unconvincing, are fun in their over the top enthusiasm.  I was a bit disappointed by the musical numbers, though, which felt a bit tepid.

Overall, probably only one to check out if you're a fan of these kind of kitchen sink mythology mash-ups; particularly so if you want to play the "spot the swiped bits" game.