It’s not really my game to predict if a film will be a big hit, but SS Rajamouli’s RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) looks ripe for it, with its spectacular, inclusive all-India appeal, that makes Bollywood’s Right-wing, political agenda-driven films like Kashmir Files and Uri look modest. It celebrates a fictionalised, nationalist freedom fighter story, based on two real-life Andhra Pradesh political activists, Komaram Bheem (played by Jr NT Rama Rao ‘Tarak’) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan), set in 1920s India, with an explicitly glorifying right-wing tone. Yet, it is a cleverly inclusive film that also celebrates Muslims, a pretty Christian and tribals—but ends up with muddled religious and political signals—and SS Rajamouli is a self-declared agnostic, ha ha.

The British ruling India kidnap a Gond girl in Adilabad, Telangana, for a few coins, and take her to Delhi, apparently for a mehndi applying job (don’t ask). Komaram Bheem, a Gond leader, goes to Delhi to rescue her, and embarks on a wild adventure with Alluri Sitarama Raju ‘Ram’, a police officer in British India, who is loyal to the Crown. They have a Sholay-style bromance as buddies-turn foes-turn buddies. Then somewhere it becomes a Ramayana story with Ram and Sita, but finally ends with an energetic Sholay dance. The film is a wildly entertaining ride, a masala of spectacular action, romance, politics, song and dance, the works.