We has been waiting for the journey to a predestined goal, but Rajamouli disappoints. For the last 22 months, we always knew that the antagonist was going to die a bad death in the hands of his blood-thirsty nephew. Second half is how righteousness of both Sivagami and Baahubali lets Bhallaladeva unfurl a vortex of tragedies until his nephew (Mahendra Baahubali) returns to avenge for the deaths. A tale of mistaken identities leads Baahubali's near-real mother Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) to have a fit of rage and, instead, she anoints her other son Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubati) as the king. Things pick up a little when Devasena realises the real person behind the unassuming guy in their midst and goes to his kingdom with him.
The first 60 minutes of the movie are slow and the comedy track involving Subba Raju as the simple-minded cousin of Devasena barely evokes any laughs. As suggested at the end of the first part, Baahubali 2 hits the ground running with the back story of Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) and how before his coronation as king of the ancient city of Mahishmati he meets the love of his life Devasena (Anushka) under the garb of a simpleton. He did make a wild and weird movie, but it ends up being a distended mess. After a decent first part, director S S Rajamouli seems to have got a carte blanche from his producers to let his imagination go unfettered in the second part. The worst in this case is basically 150 minutes and the best is around 20 minutes. Watching Baahubali 2 is like being in a purportedly romantic relationship with a psychotic person who keeps saying “if you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best”.