Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva (2022) Review: Dharmaverse Fire, Franchise Fog

Is Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva worth watching?

Only if you want the franchise launch, not a complete story. It earns a 58% Celluloid Score from editorial rating (63), Metascore (54), Letterboxd (3.2/5), and IMDb (6.3/10). The 67% audience snapshot is display-only and is not in the composite. Hindi titles get our reliability pass: Letterboxd and Metascore are weighted above IMDb so fan campaigns cannot inflate the composite.

The Hindi original runs 168 minutes. On Celluloid it is filed with Hindi fantasy because “Brahmastra review” and “is Brahmastra worth watching” remain live queries years after the promised trilogy stalled.

Fire as personality

Shiva discovers a connection to a secret society of astra-wielders; Isha is the love interest and the audience’s explainer. Pritam’s songs and the fire VFX are the film’s actual protagonists. Amitabh Bachchan lends gravitas; Shah Rukh Khan’s cameo is fan service that briefly makes the movie more fun than its lore dumps.

Origin-story tax

Editorial 63, Metascore 54, Letterboxd 3.2: the 58% composite (Bollywood pass) is a franchise pilot that did not earn a second season on craft. Compare with Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Beginning, which also asked for a sequel but built a world you could draw on a napkin.

Verdict

Watch for the set pieces and the cameo. Do not wait for lore to pay off. Details.