Plot Holes and Strange Character Decisions in Brahmastra Part 1 : Shiva
If you need a refresher, here’s the story outline for Part 1. While analyzing the movie, I came up with a bunch of plot points that did not make sense. None of the points I make below have anything to do with the magical, “Astra” aspect of the movie. For instance, I don’t care why Shiva’s clothes are not burned off when he activates his fire power. Maybe there’s an in-universe explanation. This is also not about the “physics” of the Astras. It’s a superhero fantasy movie, OK?
However, within the movie universe, characters have to abide by common sense rules, and behave like normal humans would. So, when a supposedly rational character makes a decision that defies normal human behavior, it breaks immersion. When the movie’s logic says one thing, and the plot does something else, that’s a plot hole.
Read on. You’ll see.
Oh, and these points are listed in the order they happen in the movie.
All images in this post are the copyright of Dharma Productions.
Also, this post is full of spoilers for the movie. You have been warned.
When Junoon is probing Mohan’s mind to get the locations of the other two pieces of the Brahmastra, he first thinks of Anish, who has the second piece. He then starts to think of Guruji, but stops himself in time and even kills himself to prevent Junoon from getting that information. But Guruji does not have the third piece of the Brahmastra, it’s considered lost and Guruji doesn’t yet know that Amrita has it. Why would Mohan think of Guruji?
Mohan falls off a building tied to a chair, yet his death is ruled a suicide. Why?
When Shiva finds Anish, he warns Anish that his life is in danger. Anish is completely surprised at this. How does Anish not know that fellow Brahmansh member Mohan is dead and was probably killed by people looking for his piece of the Brahmastra? Mohan’s death was all over the news and on TV. They clearly know of each other, so Anish would have known that Mohan has a piece of the Brahmastra.
The weird character decision where Anish completely trusts two strangers he’s just met with the Brahmastra has been mentioned by others, but it’s definitely a big one.
After Anish smashes the truck with his Nandi Astra punch, Junoon and Zor are both momentarily knocked out. Instead of taking them out of the truck and disarming them, Anish proceeds to try and push the whole truck over the cliff, giving them plenty of time to recover and shoot him multiple times. Anish knew the two were armed since they had shot him in Varanasi. Why would a combat trained operative like Anish make a rookie mistake like not disarming his opponent when they are knocked out, despite knowing that his life, his Astra and a piece of the Brahmastra are at stake?
<Potentially nitpicking> When Shiva and Isha reach the Ashram, they jump out of their car, which goes over the cliff with Raftaar on it. The two then stroll over to the gate of the Ashram, which is a few meters away from the cliff. Who designs an estate compound with the main gate facing a cliff a few meters away?
When we get to the Ashram, Guruji informs Shiva that there are younger members who are training to use the Astras. When he talks about Dev, Guruji mentions how he was brilliant enough to master several Astras. This implies that there is some training, practice and time involved in “mastering” an Astra. Yet, after killing Mohan and Anish, Junoon’s two goons are able to immediately use their Astras, despite not even knowing about the Astras before, or having any kind of special “magical” abilities of their own. Did Dev transfer the knowledge of how to use the Astras directly into their brains, Matrix-style?
When Shiva first reaches the ashram, he passes out after killing Raftaar. Isha tries to wake him up but Guruji tells her to let him be, saying a powerful force was waking up inside Shiva. If Shiva is a miracle and no other human manifestation of an Astra has ever existed before, then how does Guru jump to the conclusion that Shiva is himself an Astra?
- Have other Astra wielders in the past given birth to babies who manifested Astras through their bodies?
- If not, and if this has happened for the first time in a thousand years of the Astras’ existence, then how does Guruji accept this miracle with no investigation whatsoever?
- How does Guruji know what is going on with Shiva’s body when he is unconscious, when this has never happened before?
After Shiva arrives, the senior members of the Brahmansh pack up their things and their Astras and depart the ashram. Given that their members are getting killed out there and there is imminent danger with someone actively hunting the Brahmastra, why would the members leave the ashram and disperse, making them easy targets for attackers?
More importantly, they leave Anish’s piece of the Brahmastra at the ashram, protected only by Guruji and the trainee kids. We see later that Guruji and the kids are easily overwhelmed and captured in Junoon’s initial attack. The other members did not know that Shiva was an Astra and would be able to defeat Junoon. They just took off, leaving one old man and a few kids to protect something as vital as a world-ending weapon.
Which raises the question — we see that most of the existing members of the Brahmansh are from the earlier generation. There are only 4–5 young trainees from the next generation who are learning to use their Astras. Why is the Brahmansh not preparing a full set of trained Astra wielders to take over once the older generation is ready to move on? Is this the effect of Dev’s actions? Did the Brahmansh stop recruiting because Dev went rogue and now they are too scared to bring in new people like they used to? Are they breaking a centuries long tradition?
After Isha is attacked at Shiva’s building, there’s an explosion on the roof and she wakes up in a pile of rubble on the ground. Clearly, there’s been structural damage. Shiva wakes up agitated that Isha’s been hurt. However, at no point does he wonder if the orphan children he was raising in that same building are OK. Why won’t anyone think of the children??
After Shiva realizes that Junoon now knows the location of the Ashram, they all rush back to evacuate. Shiva finds Isha has returned and completely forgets the urgency of evacuating before hostile forces arrive. Instead, he decides to waste precious minutes to put on a light show for Isha.
Even more bafflingly, Dimple’s character (don’t know her character’s name) decides to fly off in her chopper alone, leaving the kids and two pieces of the Brahmastra on the ground. Knowing there are incoming ground forces, she should have taken the kids and the pieces with her. At least take poor Tenzing, who’s a literal child. For a movie aimed at a young audience, this movie really hates kids.
Junoon attacks the ashram with her army, takes them by surprise (even though they had ample warning an army was on its way) and promptly captures everyone in under a minute. How are there no perimeter defenses, no traps, no early warning systems for the stronghold of some of the most powerful weapons in the world?
Junoon is no stranger to dimwitted character decisions herself. During this attack, she knocks out Shiva and binds Guru and the other young members with ropes. Yet, she leaves Shiva and Isha completely unbound, with no one watching over them as they move freely around, converse and make plans in their hut. Meanwhile, instead of interrogating Guruji, the clear leader of the ashram who is mostly likely to have the information she needs, she decides to interrogate Rani, who has a healing Astra and is completely insignificant to the plot. Why?
When Shiva is protecting Isha from the force of the Brahmastra, Isha puts her hands on his chest, and her love gives him enough strength to push his fire back into the Brahmastra, calming it down (At least, that’s the way I understood it). The Brahmastra then shuts down, and comes back as a full disc. Everyone is safe. EXCEPT… None of this was mentioned, or foreshadowed in any way. This was not setup as a potential way to calm the Brahmastra, so there’s nothing the audience is rooting for Shiva to do to get out of the situation he’s in. It’s just dumb luck (and plot armor) that Isha touches him, his fire touches the Brahmastra and it calms down.
This is less of a plot hole and more of this movie’s complete disregard for the children’s in it… After the Brahmastra is calmed down in the climax and the ordeal is over, absolutely no one remembers or mentions Tenzing. No one asks where he is or mourns his death. He’s instantly forgotten, just like Shiva’s orphans.
This post is part of a series I am writing about Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra trilogy and the “Astraverse”. You can see the rest of the posts in the series in this publication — Writing the Astraverse.
Please follow me or the publication to get notified when new posts are published.
