Lord Vishnu’s various avatars have their own importance and they are worshipped in large numbers. But they also are cinematic enough for a movie on each one of them. In fact, I have always found it surprising as to why we have never had a series of films or web shows on each avatar of his.

Filmmaker Ashwin Kumar’s animation film Mahavatar Narsimha has finally filled the void. The movie is based on Lord Vishnu’s Narasimha Avatar. The story starts off when sage Kashyap and his wife get physical during an inauspicious time. Hence, the twins born out of their union turn out to be Asura brothers Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashyap.

As per their nature, the twins create havoc in the three worlds. Once, Hiranyaksha captures the earth and submerges it into the ocean. Hence, Lord Vishnu takes the Varah Avatar, frees the earth and kills Hiranyaksha. Hiranyakashyap, who already is against Vishnu, starts hating the latter even more and vows to avenge his brother’s death.

Hiranyakashyap performs extreme penance to please Lord Brahma. The latter finally appears in front of him and offers him a boon. Hiranyakashyap cunningly asks for a boon that almost makes him invincible. After gaining the boon, he proclaims himself as the only God and severely punishes those who worship Vishnu. He is unaware that his own five-year-old son Prahlad is an ardent Vishnu devotee. How Vishnu takes the Narsimha Avatar to eliminate Hiranyakashyap forms the rest of the story.

As far as storytelling is concerned, Mahavatar Narsimha gives a good amount of footage to the background of the Narsimha Avatar. The story is finely fleshed out while making sure that even those who don’t possess enough knowledge about Narsimha Avatar get to know about it and its backstory in detail.

Prahlad’s devotion for Vishnu and Hiranyakashyap’s attempts to kill him gives rise to not only emotional moments but also entertainment. And once Lord Narsimha enters the scene, the film reaches new levels. It gives rise to plenty of seeti bajao moments and culminates in an overwhelming manner. The dialogues also have a major share here. The ones given to Prahlad do full justice to his innocence and devotion for Vishnu.

Kumar’s vison is grand and he has made sure that the film gets the larger-than-life treatment. The animation quality is different from what we usually see in Hollywood movies. But it suits the nature of the story here with some scenes featuring Prahlad, Vishnu and Narsimha Avatar stand out.

The long list of voiceover artistes – Aditya Raj Sharma, Haripriya Matta, Sanket Jaiswal, Priyanka Bhandari, Vasundhra Bose, Harjeet Walia, Sanchit Wartak, Saanwari Yagnik, Dinesh Varma, Uplaksh Kochhar, Akshay Joshi, Dinesh Varma and others – do a fine job in bringing the various characters alive.

Coming to the negatives, the film could have been shorter by around 10 minutes. The scenes featuring violence, gore, destruction and sexual desire could have been toned down as it is mainly aimed at children.

Overall: Mahavatar Narsimha is an uplifting mixture of devotion and entertainment. If you happen to be a devotee of Lord Vishnu, you are in for a treat. But atheists and those who don’t possess deep interest in Hindu mythology might not get a kick out of this.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Director: Ashwin Kumar

Producers: Kleem Productions

Writers: Jayapurna Das and Ashwin Kumar

Cast (voiceover artistes): Aditya Raj Sharma, Haripriya Matta, Sanket Jaiswal, Priyanka Bhandari, Vasundhra Bose, Harjeet Walia, Sanchit Wartak, Saanwari Yagnik, Dinesh Varma, Uplaksh Kochhar, Akshay Joshi, Dinesh Varma

Also read: Sitaare Zameen Par review: Yet another entertaining and moving saga by Aamir Khan