There’s a reason why even the strongest men in the Red Sea villages refuse to engage in smuggling and piracy.
You see, the four Indian villages that comprise the region have a storied past. They’re a civilization that put its trust primarily in weapons, and its descendants come from a long line of elite pirate warriors. These warriors were so effective at raiding passing British ships that the local waters were often stained red with blood—the source of the Red Sea villages’ name.
But when India gained independence, these warriors no longer had a reason to fight. Instead, they’ve been reduced to smuggling contraband from passing cargo ships to make a living.
They’re led by Devara, the strongest of them all, who’s simply happy that the smuggling operation allows him to provide for the needy people in the Red Sea villages. But that was before Devara realized what it was they were smuggling illegal weapons into the hands of wicked men.
So Devara has now demanded that the rest of the warriors give up their ways and become fishermen. But his command doesn’t sit well with the rest of the warriors, who increasingly grow frustrated with him.
And in a civilization where weapons are everything, that’s a recipe for another Red Sea event.
Devara learns that the contraband he and his compatriots have been smuggling consists of illegal arms that have landed in the hands of bad people—the kind who attack and kill innocent civilians. Because of this, Devara declares that no one is allowed to smuggle any contraband via the Red Sea route so long as he lives. And even though the rest of the warriors want to keep smuggling, Devara stands alone against them, unwilling to allow them to continue supplying armament to evil people.
The film often emphasizes the theme of courage: namely, courage in the face of evil. We also hear how courage cannot be used to assist in doing evil; it is only those who do good who are truly courageous.
We’re told multiple times that Devara and the people in the Red Sea villages don’t follow any caste system or religion. Instead, they “worship the weapons they wield,” we hear. Someone else says, “Weapon is their god.”
Likewise, the four villages which make up the Red Sea villages compete for the honor of holding a giant trophy made of weapons in their village each year—a trophy many of them believe brings supernatural blessing. In contrast, one woman, says that there is a “bane and bewitchment” on one particular village because it hasn’t won the trophy in many years due to a lack of armament. And when they finally do get the weapons and win back the trophy, they place it near an injured man’s house in the hope that it’ll help him heal faster.
Devara tells his enemies that they wouldn’t fear God or the devil if they were visible. So, he says, he will have to become invisible like God or the devil to make them afraid of him. And, years in the future, we see his name has taken on a reverence: Someone describes Devara as having become a god. When a man begins to tell Devara’s tale, he tells his listener to “listen to a god’s story.”
Devara has a prophetic dream. Someone jokes that a man is “dancing away to glory.”
Thangam, the female love interest for Devara’s son, Vara, longs to be married. However, she refuses any man who doesn’t cause her to “erupt and overflow from the inside.” Still, she intentionally uses her flirtatious looks to prevent men from committing to other women so that she can keep her options open. She sings a song about enticing Vara while wearing a bandeau-like top as the two of them dance together and perform a few intimate moves. Other women discuss their marriage prospects.
Men are seen shirtless, and a woman wears an outfit which reveals cleavage. Thangam bathes, though nothing is seen.
Devara: Part 1 follows in its fellow Indian movie RRR’s footsteps in terms of bloodshed. Over the course of nearly three hours, we see dozens of people (primarily men, but a few women, too) die in a variety of blood-filled ways. People are shot, slashed, burned and beaten, and each hit comes with a flying trail of blood. One man is decapitated. A few other combatants lose their arms. Someone gets stabbed through the eye, and others are impaled on large swords. We see a few dozen corpses of people tied to chains at the bottom of a sea. Cars explode with people inside, killing them.
A young girl tells her mother about a group of men who threaten to repeatedly rape her and her mom. A man bashes a woman’s head against a rock until she dies. Another man kicks his mother. Men, women and college students are killed by a surprise attack; we see them all gunned down as they try to escape an ambush.
Devara marks a lot of men throughout the film as smugglers by slicing a giant ‘X’ on their backs. Investigators torture a man for information, smashing wooden mallets into his body and threatening to pull out his tongue (which they begin doing before he relents). A man’s leg gets snapped. Someone’s face is pushed against a hot torch. People slice up members of the Indian Coast Guard, and though the wounds on their bodies are brutal and bloody, it seems all of them are left barely alive.
The Red Sea villages send their top warriors to compete against each other for the honor of bringing home a trophy made of ancestral weapons. This contest consists of the men fighting each other until one can no longer stand. The men also throw each other at stone pillars, bloodying each other until someone relents. We’re told that one overzealous participant killed his opponents, and we see another unfortunate contestant permanently confined to bed due to his injuries. An effigy made of dead bodies is also visible.
A woman tries to drown herself. A man commits suicide by driving a blade into his body. Someone drags a dead shark onto a beach. An effigy made of dead bodies is also visible.
“D–n” is heard four times. “H—” is used once.
Men smoke and drink. At a wedding, a man drinks until he’s intoxicated.
Some people are drugged with sedatives.
Men sing a song that glorifies overzealous battle and their bodies.
When the smash Indian hit RRR first burst onto the American movie scene back in 2022, it surprised us with some of the coolest action sequences we’d ever witnessed. Devara: Part 1, which stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr. (the main actor from RRR), follows in its predecessor’s action-packed footsteps.
Like that movie, multiple fight scenes in this film can get quite bloody. Dozens of men die in battle, and many others survive with painful scars carved onto their backs. And as bloody as the first half of the film is, the second half grows much darker when men threaten to rape women—and one woman is brutally slain by a man, too.
On another note, I don’t think anyone can claim that the nearly three-hour runtime isn’t needed. Story dialogue (spoken in Tegulu and subtitled in English) chugs on with scarcely a moment to rest (and when it does rest, that’s usually because someone’s getting killed). And—perhaps except for the film’s somewhat disjointed first 10 minutes—all of it is necessary to the plot.
If RRR, Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva and Devara: Part 1 have taught us anything, it’s that Indian moviemakers sure know how to make engaging action flicks. In some ways, these films contain some of the best action sequences I’ve seen in a long time. But don’t take that as an excuse for how dark and violent Devara’s scenes can be.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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