Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva is backed well by the concept, VFX, and production design, for which you could very well be satisfied. But the dialogues, the screenplay, the unnecessary romance, the characters, and the performances are just unbelievably bad.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 10, 2025

While the special appearances may pull in the crowd initially, it doesn’t keep them happy.

| Nov 2, 2023

Maybe Brahmastra would have benefited from a small screen release. At least the issues wouldn’t have been so visible.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Jul 20, 2023

Felt like a bunch of music videos without a compelling story drawing them together

| Dec 31, 2022

Though it is a bit muddled at parts, the grandeur of the execution is entertaining to watch.

| Nov 18, 2022

It is a wholesome entertainer with an original plot, aspiring to become a massive franchise.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 2, 2022

Director Ayan Mukerji manages to craft a big, universe-shaking epic that doesn’t feel exactly like everything else out there. I brought along a friend who’d never seen any Indian cinema before but who loves a big spectacle, and they were bowled over.

| Oct 28, 2022

I have little investment in the world it teases or its mythic weapons — if there’s a sequel, I will be hard pressed to remember what happened in the first film...

| Sep 21, 2022

This musical fantasy is a jam-packed extravaganza that offers viewers the best of Bollywood.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 20, 2022

Despite all those non-stop computer graphics, the opulence of the sets, the starry array, the film’s commitment to its subject, we never really buy into it completely.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 20, 2022

There are several soft spots in Brahmastra but lack of ambition isn’t one of them.

| Sep 19, 2022

Watch the film for its visual appeal and for the burning chemistry between Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor. A stage has now been set and let's hope Ayan Mukerji doesn't take five years more to bring out the next installment.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 16, 2022

Brahmastra Part One: Shiva gets the pyrotechnics right but fumbles in creating an emotionally involving alternate reality.

| Sep 16, 2022

Bhrahmastra: Part One – Shiva is a tantalising prospect of a great, long-overdue Indian superhero franchise. But it needs a bit more fine-tuning in its storytelling and better visual effects to truly stand on its own.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 16, 2022

Ayan Mukerji has such little respect for the audience that he feels the need to spoon-feed every last drop of exposition so loudly that by the time you’re exiting the theatre, dazed silly, you will be thinking to yourself in Sanskrit.

| Sep 14, 2022

The writing is fine as far as the world-building goes, but the dialogues sink the movie. You have to expect poor writing when you're going to watch a big-budget Hindi film. It's a given at this point. But even by that standards, 'Brahmastra' is terrible.

| Sep 14, 2022

Brahmastra is superficial in its Hindu-ness, its MCU-ness, its Potter-ness, its Bollywood-ness and its humanity.

| Sep 12, 2022

“Brahmāstra” gets back to larger-than-life storytelling, openly embracing the crazy and fantastical, and piquing our imaginations while Mukerji impresses us with his.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 12, 2022

Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva overwhelms your senses with a relentless aural and visual assault. I can appreciate the vibrant cultural aspects, but the entire experience becomes grating by the total lack of subtlety and flimsy script.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 12, 2022

Like all movies of this ilk, there’s a cyclical nature to the film’s narrative rhythms that moves endlessly between defeat and success. It's still just fill-in-the-blanks "superhero" franchising masquerading as something more singular.

| Sep 12, 2022