Story Outline for Brahmastra Part 1 : Shiva
This is the summary outline of of the theatrical movie release. Needless to say, it’s full of spoilers. Be warned.
All images in this post are the copyright of Dharma Productions.
I wanted an outline of Part 1 so I could refer to events from Part 1 in later posts. Plus, if you haven’t seen the movie or have seen it some time ago, this is a handy reference to the plot!
I have tried to retrofit the plot points from the movie onto the storytelling structure defined by K.M.Weiland. She’s the award-winning and internationally published author of acclaimed writing guides, such as Structuring Your Novel and Creating Character Arcs. Wherever the plot of the movie does not clearly map to the structure, I have described the movie plot without the accompanying structure beat. Secondly, this outline does not describe everything that happens in the movie, only the main plot points that move the story forward and reveal key parts of the story.
PROLOGUE : Opening voiceover explains that the Astras are divine weapons, born of intense meditation a thousand years ago. The final Astra born was the BRAHMASTRA, the most powerful of them all. The sages who acquired the Astras formed the Brahmansh, a secret society that has persisted and passed down knowledge of the Astras through generations.
ACT 1
HOOK : The antagonist of Part 1, JUNOON, attacks a scientist, MOHAN at his house in Delhi and captures him, extracting the first piece (of three) of the Brahmastra, as well as information of where to find the second piece.
SETUP : The protagonist, SHIVA is introduced. We get his backstory as an orphan living in Mumbai and working as a DJ. He’s a well-adjusted individual with his own philosophy on life, and has been raising other orphan children so they don’t have to grow up the way he did. Shiva meets his love interest, ISHA and they start to develop a relationship.
INCITING EVENT : This is the Call to Adventure, the moment when the hero’s normal world is first significantly rocked by the conflict.
Shiva sees unexplained visions of Mohan’s capture and interrogation and realizes that the person who holds the second piece of the Brahmastra is in danger. This is ANISH, known as the Artist, who lives in Varanasi.
BUILDUP : This is when the hero/the audience receives some information about the main conflict, and the story gets ready to move into the second act.
Shiva tells Isha about his visions, about there being mystical energies in the world, and about Anish being in danger from killers looking for the piece of the Brahmastra that Anish carries.
KEY EVENT : This is the moment when the hero decides to engage with the main conflict.
Shiva decides to travel to Varanasi and try to save Anish. Isha decides to go with him.
FIRST PLOT POINT : The point of no return for the hero. There is no going back to the normal world after this.
Shiva and Isha find Anish and try to warn him, but Junoon attacks and wounds Anish. Shiva, Isha and Anish manage to escape.
ACT 2 — FIRST HALF
REACTION : Shiva questions Anish about the killers and what they are after. Shiva has another vision about the Brahmastra. Anish hands his piece of the Brahmastra over to Shiva & Isha and asks them to take it to the Ashram to GURUJI.
FIRST PINCH POINT : The antagonist’s presence and power are displayed.
Junoon catches up to the escaping three. Anish stays behind to fight her. Shiva and Isha escape but are relentlessly pursued by one of Junoon’s men.
MIDPOINT : The turning point of the story, and a change in direction for the main characters, from reacting to events to taking action to try and control events.
Shiva and Isha reach the ashram, having thrown their pursuer off a cliff. However, the pursuer attacks again and Isha is in danger of being killed. In a desperate bid to save her, Shiva channels flames from a nearby campfire and directs them at the attacker, killing him. Guruji sees this and comes out to meet them.
ACT 2 — SECOND HALF
As the second half begins, there’s a lull in the action, and we get a bit of Shiva’s backstory and some information about the secret society of Astra wielders called the BRAHMANSH.
We get the story of how Shiva’s mom died. She burned to death in an accidental fire when Shiva was one, and he was unscathed. He believes his “power” was somehow responsible for the fire that killed her.
Shiva & Isha meet the younger members of the Brahmansh who are all training to use their Astras, and Guruji explains who they are and what they do.
Guruji tells Shiva he is himself an astra and has fire powers.
ACTION: The protagonist takes action (aggression, decision, inner revelation, etc). Some problems will be solved, but major ones will remain.
Guruji blackmails Shiva to make him stay at the ashram and train his powers, promising to tell him about his parents if he does.
Shiva tries to activate his powers, but cannot since he’s traumatized by his mother’s death by fire and thinks fire is destructive. Guruji tells him to choose between his love and his fear, and Shiva is able to activate his fire powers
Shiva trains with his fire powers and explores their potential. He realizes he cannot ignite his fire powers spontaneously, he still needs a spark.
SECOND PINCH POINT : The antagonist’s presence and power are reaffirmed.
Junoon prays to a stone statue and gets renewed powers and some energy pendants. She uses the pendants, which control the wearer’s mind, to build an army of possessed minions.
Shiva and Guruji are alerted of Junoon’s presence when they catch one of her minions. Guruji tells Shiva about DEV and AMRITA, Shiva’s parents.
Dev was a former Brahmansh member. A gifted warrior who had mastered several Astras, he went rogue and tried to seize the Brahmastra 30 years ago. He killed many of the Brahmansh and was finally defeated and trapped in stone by Amrita, another powerful Brahmansh warrior who was Dev’s lover/wife. She was pregnant with Shiva when this fight happened and was believed to have died along with Shiva 30 years ago.
Shiva initially rejects this information.
Dev is the entity in the stone statue now controlling Junoon’s actions. His goal is to unite the three pieces and activate the Brahmastra, which will release him from the statue he’s trapped inside.
ACT 3 — THE CLIMAX
THIRD PLOT POINT : We are set upon our inexorable course towards the Climax.
Shiva and Guruji find Junoon and her minion army. Junoon reads Shiva’s mind and finds the location of the Ashram, where the missing pieces of the Brahmastra are kept.
RECOVERY : The protagonist reels as he questions his choices, his commitment to his goal, and his own worth and ability.
Guruji uses Shiva’s blood to reveal the third piece of the Brahmastra, proving conclusively that he is Dev and Amrita’s son. Shiva finally accepts his parentage and commits himself to the Brahmansh’s cause to protect the Brahmastra.
CLIMAX BEGINS : This turning point forces the protagonist and the antagonist to finally face each other.
Junoon attacks and quickly overwhelms the ashram, capturing everyone.
CONFRONTATION : Shiva and Isha escape and release the other Brahmansh members. The fight begins, and during the fight, TENZING, the youngest member of the Brahmansh is killed. Junoon is able to unite the three pieces of the Brahmastra and is summarily dispatched by the release of energy.
CLIMACTIC MOMENT : The Brahmastra now gathers energy from around the world/space and starts charging up. The ground around the Brahmastra starts splintering and cracking and Isha is stranded. Shiva runs to join her and then protects her from the force of the Brahmastra using his body. Isha touches him, and his renewed strength from her love calms the Brahmastra. The world is saved.
RESOLUTION : Guruji proclaims Shiva to be a new kind of warrior, one who is able to conjure flame up on his own and calm down a weapon such as the Brahmastra.
MID-CREDITS SCENE : We go back to the point where Junoon put the pieces of the Brahmastra together. That action also released the Brahma-Dev from his stone statue prison, and we see him return to human form. This sets up the events of Brahmastra Part 2, which will focus on Dev.
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.
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