What is the Theme at the heart of the Brahmastra Trilogy?
Part 1 could have a simple good v/s evil theme with a black-and-white antagonist like Junoon since Part 1 was about world building and introducing the characters. Parts 2 and 3 need to have a central thematic principle that drives the conflict in order to keep audiences engaged.
What is a thematic principle and why does a story need one?
The thematic principle of a story is what the story is about, what the story “believes in”. We can call it the theme for short (not to be mistaken for a musical theme).
Every story is about something — “Good v/s Evil”, “Freedom v/ Tyranny”, “Love conquers all”, “To love and lose is better than to not have loved at all”, etc. The theme of a story is the point that the story is trying to make — through the events in its plot, the decisions its characters make, and through the final state the story ends in.
An epic fantasy is usually about finding and restoring balance. At the beginning of the story, there’s an imbalance in the world of the story. A hero emerges, and he or she defeats the forces creating an imbalance in the world and brings it back into balance. Along the way, he (to keep it simple, let’s assume the hero is male) completes his own arc, growing from a naive, immature boy to a skilled, experienced leader who will bring the world into balance and lead it going forward.
What is the Brahmastra Trilogy about?
The Astraverse is about the Astras, but the weapons themselves have no attachments and no morality. The Astras simply represent immense power. Like superpowers, they can be used for good or evil. The story is about the people who wield the Astras — that is where the imbalance in the story world comes from. There are many ways to explore this imbalance:
A classic “Good v/s Evil” theme could show a struggle between an antagonist who is trying to take the Astras away from the Brahmansh and use them for nefarious purposes, and the hero who steps up and selflessly protects the power and innocents by defeating “evil”. Junoon in Part 1 is an example of this.
A more complex theme could show how power corrupts even those who start out with noble intentions. The trilogy could explore this through the character of Dev — he starts out with the intention of using the Astras to do good, but over time, his need for control and his need for validation clouds his morality. His ego won’t let him accept any limits on his power and he puts his need over the greater good, leading to a complete perversion of his original good intentions. Check out My Story Outline for Brahmastra Part 2 : Dev for an example of this arc.
Internal power struggles and corruption within the Brahmansh. When power of this magnitude is there for the taking, there are bound to be those who are seduced by it and are corrupt enough to cause rifts within the Brahmansh. When we first meet the Brahmansh after Shiva’s arrival at the ashram, it is a decimated shell of its former glorious self, having lost its purpose and its strength. The hero comes along, finds a new vision through the course of the story and rebuilds the Brahmansh with a new purpose!
Let’s look at what we know of the Brahmansh…
In the voiceover that opens Brahmastra Part 1, we are told that the Astras, including the Brahmastra, emerged when the sages’ meditation in the Himalayas created a Brahma Shakti, which led to the Astras’ being “born”.
The sages accept these weapons and vow to protect them, creating a secret society called the Brahmansh to do so. The stated purpose of the Brahmansh is to do good for the world with the power of these Astras.
The Brahmansh have carried on through centuries, passing on the knowledge of the Astras to the next generation all the way to the modern world, where the story is set.
In Part 1, when Shiva reaches the ashram and we meet the present-day Brahmansh, what do we see?
A society that has hidden itself from the world in a remote ashram. No one in Shiva’s present day world has seen or heard of the Astras or the Bramhansh. No one believes they exist. The Brahmansh have their members infused throughout society, but they have not been using the Astras for anything. Why is that?
- We are told the Brahmansh vowed to protect the Astras. From whom? The only threat to the Astras and the Brahmastra came from within — from Dev, a former Brahmansh member and from Junoon, who served him. We never see any sign of external threats to the Astras, because no one knows of their existence.
- We are told the purpose of the Brahmansh is to do good for the world with the Astras. But throughout the movie, we never see the Brahmansh use the Astras to help anyone.
- Most of the existing members of the Brahmansh are from an older generation. There are only 4 or 5 young people who are learning to use their Astras. Why are 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?
Clearly the Brahmansh have completely deviated from their original purpose.
How can we use this information to set up the opposing sides of the thematic argument?
The Brahmansh on one side, Dev on the other.
Over the centuries, maybe the attitude of the Brahmansh changed — from using the Astras to benefit humanity to protecting the Astras from humanity, lest they be taken away from the Brahmansh and their power used for mass destruction. After seeing world wars, and the mass destruction committed in those wars, maybe the Brahmansh came to believe that the world had spun out of control and was now beyond their power to fix. Moreover, they thought that revealing the presence of the Astras would cause powerful entities to come after them. If the Brahmastra fell into the wrong hands, it would mean the end of the world and all humanity. Their fear made them withdraw, taking the knowledge and the benefits of the Astras with them.
Then along came Dev. He wanted to return the Brahmansh to their original purpose — to use the Astras to do good. He fought with the Brahmansh to be able to use his Astras to help people. But in Dev, we see the other extreme of the effect of absolute power. Dev believed that he was special, given powers that elevated him above humanity. He wanted to bring the world into balance, but the world is too chaotic and divided for one man to change by himself. Dev’s ego and his need to validate his belief in his own power finally drove him to the point where he wanted to use the full power of the Brahmastra to control the world and force people to fall in line, and to make himself the ultimate authority.
Check out My Story Outline for Brahmastra Part 2 : Dev to see how this thematic argument could work.
How will Shiva find balance between these two opposing viewpoints? Between the need to safeguard power from unworthy hands, and the need to use that power to help those in need?
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.
All images in this post are the copyright of Dharma Productions.
