I am not someone who has seen every superhero movie out there but I do know how these films work in general. Black Panther ventures into a zone that places it poles apart from the superhero films that we have grown up on. But it does not forget the very basic purpose of these movies and that is to entertain. Ryan Coogler serves us something that it makes it extremely hard to slot this merely as an aspiring blockbuster. Black Panther in fact does so many things that a good movie ought to do. Entertain, engage emotionally and leave us with a few thoughts to ponder upon.

Wakanda, the fictional country that is the native of the hero and hides itself from the rest of the world is the ideal place that thrives in humanity. It has reached technological advancements that no other country has but also firmly sticks to its roots. It firmly believes that all these advancements should be to preserve humanity and not to act like a boss to the less privileged. All this might make you assume that this is a message movie. But it hardly operates in that mode. Ryan Coogler has cracked that exact mix that is hard to achieve.The light hearted treatment goes hand in hand with the emotional beats.This isn't a movie about the Black Panther alone. Every character has a well defined arc. The hero himself isn't projected as the all powerful saviour of mankind. The women in Wakanda are as strong as if not stronger than their men.

The best aspect of the film is the way it has sketched its antagonist. The clash between the hero and the villain is both personal and ideological. You listen to either of them speak and you understand that they stand for few things that they firmly believe in. The battle between the oppressor and the oppressed has always been there. Fight for the oppressed but do not become an oppressor in doing so is the all important crux of Black Panther. One of the scenes in the film has a character trying to make his stand that the world is moving towards something else and we will be left behind if we do not run the race. The post credit scene has one of the world leaders asking the hero what does Wakanda have to offer apart from farmers. So this is where we currently are – running a blind race just because everyone is doing so and something as essential as farming is looked at with no real value.

The VFX and action sequences are terrific and also in tune with the mood of the film. They never look out of place by attempting to be too larger than life. The acting is consistently superb and so is the undercurrent humour that defines the film. There are a lot of issues and problems to solve but not at the cost of our smiles.

Bottomline:

Black Panther raises the bar for the superhero template or rather removes certain constraints. It has everything that you want in your blockbuster but also has something all the more important and that is the emotional quotient.

Rating: 3.5/5