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Ra.One : disappointingly good

Film Review: Ra.One

Director: Anubhav Sinha
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal
Rating: ?????

One day, aliens will land on Earth to give us the answers to the secrets of the universe. But, because of films like Ra.One, they will deem us unworthy and return to their planet. And we will still live in a world where uninspired cinema burns wallets.

Ra.One is the marriage of Bollywood's least attractive couple—star power and unoriginality. This is a shameless rip-off of every single iconic science fiction film; all it's missing are the likable characters, good performances, and the action. A majority of the film centres around cheesy videogame-babble; a lame attempt at romance between leading stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor; and a bizarre climax that reeks of desperation. After two hours and 40 minutes of this, even atheists would want to storm Buddhist monasteries in the hope of finding an oasis of serenity.

Despite its huge budget, Ra.One neither excites nor even entertains. It exists to move merchandise. Khan is no stranger to cornball excess, but Ra.One is his chef d'oeuvre. It is alarming to be underwhelmed by a movie where Shah Rukh Khan deploys two guises and elaborate futuristic sets to no particularly memorable effect. Rarely has so much money delivered so little entertainment.

So what's wrong? For one, the big CGI action sequences pack the entertainment value of ditch water. The noise is so headache-inducing that we welcome even the silly dialogue that forms most of the movie. The comedic attempts have the capacity to put viewers into a catatonic state; the jokes range from crass to shrill to vulgar. Khan tries to pull his car keys out of a woman's cleavage. A male security guard makes Khan take off his shirt, and licks his lips seductively at the sight of the hero's pierced nipples. Khan also fights with three scantily clad Chinese women named Iski Lee, Uski Lee and Sabki Lee. Even by the degraded standards of dim-witted blockbusters, this is sorry stuff.

The plot veers from boring to idiotic and slapdash. Khan plays Shekhar Subramaniam, a video game developer who invents a game with a villain so powerful that he comes to life and murders his creator. Enter the other Khan, G.One, who had been assigned by Subramaniam to protect his wife (Kapoor) and son, and kill the villainous Ra.One (Arjun Rampal). There is not an ounce of originality from this point on. Ra.One shifts shapes and regenerates like T-1000 fromTerminator 2; and he has an electromagnetic heart like Iron Man. G.One saves a train just the way Spider Man does; and he fights with Ra.One in Mortal Kombat-esque levels. It's not new. It's not interesting.

What really hurts is that none of the characters matter. They seem to have been bought out of a cinematic thrift store. Kapoor looks gorgeous, but her character is aggressively dumb and blissfully unaware of it. The talented Shahana Goswami, woefully miscast as Subramaniam's colleague, delivers her lines as if her mouth and her brain live in different states. While Khan as a South Indian makes you cringe, he is a lot more likable as the hero G.One. But he is still required to chew on the driest of dialogue, and to strike poses in a suit that makes him look callow rather than heroic. Rampal, on the other hand, looks more like a contestant at a costume party instead of a frightening villain.

So little of real consequence is at stake that you'll have plenty of time to notice not one but two dozen plot contrivances. In one scene, Subramaniam uses his fingers to eat spaghetti with curd, just to highlight our hero's South Indian heritage. Where are laugh tracks when you need them? Of course, one cannot expect much logic in a film where a video game comes to life, it's just that the thrills in Ra.One are almost apocalyptic in their stupidity. The big action scene on the Mumbai local train is a total and complete misfire of intention and execution; and there is little to recommend here beyond the Rajinikanth cameo, unless you like your Khan-endorsing, flag-waving fanboy jingoism taken to the extreme.

It's hard to completely hate this movie, hokey as it is, because you still want to root for the good guy in the end. But you can't help but wonder why Khan didn't save himself a lot of time and money and just make a video game instead of a movie. Ra.One is a scandalous waste of cinematic resources. It is a movie that seems proud to be imbecilic, loud and inconsequential.

Movie Review: Ra.One – One-Watch Film

Indicine Movie Review

http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/ra-one-movie-review/

Starcast: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Shahana Goswami, Armaan Verma, Satish Shah, Dalip Tahil.
Special Appearances: Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, Rajnikanth
Director: Anubhav Sinha

Ra One Review

Ra One has been a huge part of our lives over the last few months, the build-up to Shahrukh Khan's most ambitious movie ever has been huge. All of it finally comes to an end today with it's theatrical release.

With the way it was marketed, the expectations from Ra One was unbelievably high. Quite frankly, that's not always such a good thing. With sky-high expectations, the risk of disappointing the audience is quite high too.

Unfortunately, Ra One disappoints. We genuinely wanted to like the film, but apart from the 30 odd minutes in the second half, there is nothing that touches you and absolutely nothing that creates the kind of adrenaline-rush that good superhero films should.

What works for Ra One

The best thing about Ra One is Kareena Kapoor. The actress looks stunning, oozing sensuality in two fantastic songs – Criminal and Chammak Challo. When it comes to on-screen histrionics, not many actresses in the industry come close to Kareena and she proves that yet again in Ra One. It has to be one of her most likable performances since Jab We Met.

Tremendous amount of work has gone into making Ra One the most technologically advanced film in India and it's evident in every scene. Both the visual and sound effects are outstanding. Not close to Hollywood standards, but for the budget that the film has been made on, it's brilliant!

Why Ra One disappoints

In short, Ra One lacks soul. There are three important tracks in the movie; One, the love story between Kareena and G.One. Two, the relationship between Shekhar (later G.One) and his son. And finally, the good vs bad rivalry between G.One and R.One. None of them work, you simply do not feel for any of the characters. (*Spoiler alert – Do not read if you haven't watched the film* There were people in the theater laughing when Shekhar Subramanium dies, which is just one example of the movie not connecting with the audience)

The first half is mediocre, the second half starts off well but scenes leading to the climax are bad. Ra One also reminds you of the Hollywood classic, Terminator 2.

The special appearances by Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and Rajnikanth add to the star value, but both sequences fail to make any impact.

Performances

Shahrukh Khan is good as G.One, but as Shekhar Subramanium he tends to overact. Kareena was brilliant. Arjun Rampal was good, but has a shorter than expected role. Armaan Verma who plays SRK's son, does a decent job. All the other actors including Shahana Goswami, Satish Shah and Dalip Tahil are wasted.

To sum things up

Considering the years of hard work and money that has gone into the making, it hurts to say this – Ra One had immense potential to be a very good film, but it isn't. Not even close. The biggest flaw is the script and the direction.

Rating:

Ra.One – Review

Mumbai, Oct 26 (TruthDive): Shahrukh Khan's highly anticipated movie Ra.One, is finally released to huge openings on Diwali. Huge hype, expectations surrounded the movie and yes, it lives up to it. It is a true Diwali treat.

CAST AND CREW

Banner : Red Chillies Entertainment
Cast : Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Armaan Verma, Arjun Rampal, Shahana Goswami
Director : Anubhav Sinha
Producer : Gauri Khan

STORY

Shekhar Subramaniam (Shah Rukh Khan) is a graphics specialist working for Barron Industries that makes video games and a man who loves his wife Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) and son Prateek (Armaan Verma). Prateek often questions his dad's sensibilities and says that he admires villains as he finds heroic games are no good. For that matter, to make his son happy, Shekhar comes up with a new game Ra.One that shows the villain stronger than the hero.

Shekhar installs Artificial Intelligence in the villain so that it makes him think on his own. He develops the invincible Random Access One (Ra.One), who can take any form, to please his son. Still not fully convinced with his own creation, as a standby he also develops Good One (G- One), who could exterminate Ra.One if need be.

Excited with his father's creation, Prateek plays Ra.One with a screen name, Lucifer. He manages to cross level two of the video game, thereby antagonising "Ra.One". Unknown to Shekhar and his team, Ra.One steps out of the game into the real world to eliminate Lucifer, thereby threatening Prateek's life.

As Ra.One comes out of the game and creates ruinous damage, Shekhar brings on G.One in the physical world to destroy Ra.One.

PERFORMANCE

Shah Rukh Khan is one of India's greatest stars. The King is back again and reinvents himself yet again and it is clearly evident that his dream has now become a reality for him. He is fantastic as both Shekhar who lacks the mettle with some stupidity, god-fearing south Indian and even G.One.

Kareena Kapoor looks stunning and makes you fall in love with her all over again. Arjun Rampal is outstanding. Debutant Armaan as Prateek is impressive. He actually steals the show and the movie belongs to him.

Music by Vishal Shekhar is splendid. But songs appear out of nowhere and for no reason as such. The high point is surely the AKON number-'Chammak Challo'.

Shahana Goswami as the employee at the electronic company looks fine for the role she plays but has very little to deliver.

The little gimmicks by Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and Rajnikanth add to the lighter moments of the film but take the story nowhere.

This high energetic film is loaded with antics, animation and action. With many thrilling sequences mounted with grandeur, it gives you the feel of a live video game. It is probably one of the classiest movies ever seen in the Hindi film industry and a feather in Anubhav's hat, the director.

COMMENT

Watch it for the special effects and for 'Chammak Challo'. In all, a fun movie to catch and will definitely run full house during the Diwali weekend – making it a very happy Diwali for King Khan.