Thursday, October 27, 2011

Ra One review: "Well executed interesting concept!!!"

After months of hype, anticipation & exhaustive publicity, "Ra One" has finally hit the screens on the day of festival of lights. With Salman ruling the roost since the past two years, it's high time that SRK regained his throne as the Baadshah of Bollywood. As opposed to all his previous ventures which inevitably portrays him as the quintessential lover with his hands spread out & skewed posture, this time around he has touched upon the topic of superheroes. With "Enthiran" having set a bench-mark, it's now about raising the bar & SRK has busted about 150 Cr to ensure that's it on par with Hollywood. But the question now is whether it will be a profitable venture???


In the present day, video-games are a rage among the youngsters be it "Final Fantasy", "Resident Evil" etc., & this is the very concept that is being dealt here. Shekhar Subramanium (SRK) is the master brain of Barron Industries who are one of the world leaders in video gaming. However, Shekhar always fails to impart much of an impact on his son Pratheek (Armaan Verma). It is in this process of being his son's hero, that Shekhar comes up with his latest invention "Ra One", boasting of a villain even powerful than the hero. Just as things starts to fall into place, all hell breaks lose when Ra One enters into the real world with the aim of killing Lucifer (Pratheek's gamer name). In order to protect Pratheek, the most logical solution seemed getting the hero of the game, G One into the real world. So will Pratheek's desire for a powerful villain spell his own doom???


There is no denying the fact, that we Indians do cosy up to the sci-fi flicks churned out by Hollywood while imparting a step motherly attitude to our own efforts in the same genre. This is usually due to the lack of perfection & at times purely due to a pre-conceived notion that it feels illogical when we attempt it. Without doubt, SRK & Anubhav Sinha has taken a huge risk in making this dream a reality. Anubhav was ably supported in the scripting by Kanika Dhillon, Mushtaq Sheikh & David Benullo; and frankly speaking the concept was truly interesting.

Unlike Hollywood, where money isnt much of an issue recreating such a venture onto celluloid in India would require a strong financial backing & SRK along with Eros has more than ensured that. The VFX team under the watchful eyes of Jeff Kleiser ("Stargate" fame) was a revelation & has come up with the best effects ever seen in India. The same goes for the stunts by Andy Gill & Spiro Razatos, with stunning visuals by V Manikandan & Nicola Picorini. The music by Vishal-Shekhar was fantastic to say the least with "Chammak Chalo" & "Criminal" rendered by Akon setting the charts on fire. 

SRK, Akon, Kareena & Anubhav Sinha
SRK as G-One was pretty good, but hasnt done anything that would make us look at him with awe unlike Rajni who blew our minds away with "Enthiran". It might be due to this very fact, that SRK has roped in Rajni for a guest appearance in his Chitti avatar, which had the audiences in a frenzy. Arjun Rampal as Ra One appears only in the 2nd half & he definitely looked menacing while Kareena as Sonia has imparted a decent act . However it was Armaan, who has delivered the best performance in the movie as he seemed confident & doesnt seem overrawed by the presence of such huge stars.

Verdict: Over all the movie was impressive with an interesting concept which was brilliantly executed. However, unlike "Enthiran", we definitely feel that there was scope for more death defying stunts as it seems too few & far apart for a movie of this scale. The movie will have a killer opening & without sounding boastful I believe that it's on its way to being one of the biggest hits ever. In short, I believe that you guys should definitely give it a try for its technical perfection!!!

Regards...Ben

Rating: 2.5/5


8 comments:

  1. Thanks for this... will check it out this weekend :)

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  2. Ben, the movie was pathetic, reminding of many superhero movies put up together like a 'scary movie' saga.. I would rather watch it once it's there on cds rather spending big bucks on dis one! good i spent jus 70, as other theaters here mke abt 300 per person. and i saw it in Big Cinemas, effects were good but not enjoyable! first few scenes SRK speaking tamil indeed raised some giggles but nothing more i wud say positive! Better to watch Chammakchallo in youtube and do something useful d rest of the day! :)

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  3. Sharukh kaun kehta hai ki tu king hai bollywood ka.teri ye film mein lambe waqt se intazaar kar raha tha lekin wo intazaar bekaar nikla iss film se accha to dus baar Abhishek bachchan ki drona dekh leta RA.ONE se accha to ravan tha.Sharukh tera zamana gayya ab naye actors ka waqt hai

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  4. Hey Asif,I totally respect your views but from my point of view I really liked the concept & the technical perfection. However, except for the two main stunts there was hardly anything else; that's the flaw I felt in this movie after all he busted so much of money. That's why I still feel Enthiran is the best sci fi Indian movie as it offered much more in terms of stunts & sequences!!!

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  5. hey dude, the movie is pathetic...7aam Arivu is much much better than this and you are simply degrading it...now i came to knew about the quality of your reviews...you are biased towards bollywood movies..thats the truth..

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  6. Yeah Ben, Thalaivar and Enthiran rocked big time! :)

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  7. Ben, I was really surprised to see that you have not mentioned regarding some:
    1.the base story is been inspired from Terminator 2
    2.scene from Speed 2 coming directly with support role of Lord Ganesha.
    3.The amount of ******words unnecessarily put into to film which is supposed to be for kids

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  8. Actually I do agree to the fact that the amount of cuss words & vulgar gestures is a major downside to the film..."Ra One" has derived it's inspirations from many but the major one is undoubtedly "Tron" which I havent seen, that's why I didnt mention about it!!!

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