Ra.One had started getting pretty mixed reviews from the Internet blogosphere when we caught up with him and G.One at the Inox last night. Die-hard SRK fans that we are, nothing would keep us from enjoying the superhero magnum opus! Turns out, we did have a smashing time… but in all truth, it could have been better. The movie thrilled us with the action, stunned us with the graphics and SFX, made us groove to the Akon numbers, but it failed miserably in doing something the King has never failed to do to viewers.. make them cry. Neither in sadness, nor in joy. And for me, that is where Ra.One loses out on being SRK’s magnum opus.
Shekhar Subramaniam is a game designer with one of the most advanced gaming companies in the UK, with silly curly hair and a lot of inspiration from Mr. Bean, all the way down to nudging other cars from their parking slots. He speaks with a South Indian accent, eats noodles mixed with curds with his hands, and basically does his best to make us laugh with his idiot act. And succeeds to some extent, especially when he tries to be a Michael Jackson with his “bad” dance moves. Trying desperately to impress his son Prateek (who spends all his time gaming and trying to look like his daughter, and succeeds at both!), and with his invaluable inputs on what makes a good game, Shekhar creates a game which has an indestructible villain Ra.One (Random Access Version One – until someone realizes, hey, that’s a cool name for a villain!), and his counterpart G.One, the good one, with just a 0.01% chance of winning. Stuffed with Artificial Intelligence and the most advanced technologies fathomable to this generation, Ra.One is guaranteed to be almost unbeatable, learning on its own, and able to come up with new stunts and moves every time you play!
Trouble begins when Ra.One gets a mind of its own, breathes life into its prototype, traverses the thin line between real and virtual, and goes out searching for the last online avatar to have played the game with him – Lucifer, intending to kill him and finish the suspended game. Needless to say, Lucifer is the on-screen persona used by Prateek, whose life is now in danger from the out of control Ra.One. When both the game designers, including Shekhar, are eliminated by Ra.One, it’s left to G.One to be the savior. But is he strong enough to stop Ra.One?
SRK is funny in both his Avatars, pulls off some really good action (although most of it is SFX) and has some beautiful dance steps to go with Akon’s Chammak Challo and Criminal numbers. Where he misses out this time is in bringing out the tears, and for the King of Hearts, that is a big setback. As I said earlier, the movie is devoid of emotions. You don’t really feel the terror of Ra.One, you don’t really celebrate the success of G.One. You don’t feel sad when Shekhar is killed, his death almost like another small setback in a video game you know you can always restart. In being a virtual game character, SRK loses his passion, his vein-straining dialogues, his skyward gaze with outstretched arms, his romanticism – essentially everything that makes his what he is best at. Funnily, in being virtual, he is more life-like and less of the larger than life SRK we all love!
Another negative – too many references to condoms, breasts, bums, and the pelvis – given that SRK movies pull in fans of all ages, this is definitely something that could have been toned down. Most of it is in good humour, but parents might want to keep some explanations ready.
Kareena looks sizzling hot, her scissor-cut gowns little longer than her belt, leaving nothing to imagination, although she has very little to do than act confused. Arjun Rampal is just one of the human forms taken by Ra.One and doesn’t make an appearance until well after half time. Looks great, but with most of him covered in a hooded robe most of the time, girls will not have enough of him. Priyanka and Sanjay Dutt make a forgettable cameo appearance in a video-game dream sequence at the beginning, inspired by Crouching Tiger Flying Dragon. Amitabh’s voice over is lost amidst the electronic bass makeover given to Ra.One. Chitti Robot also makes a brief appearance when G.One and his damsel and child in distress land in India, an interesting (and ridiculous at the same time) tribute to Yenna Rascala.
The Akon numbers are great, the dances accompanying them are stunning in their simplicity. Dildara has some beautiful music and will keep growing on you with every hearing, the fusion of Hindi and English simply breathtaking. Some of the other numbers aren’t too inspiring on the music CD, but fit in beautifully in the storyline, and will definitely come to you from a different perspective when you hear the music after the movie.
The story is decently paced, the build-up to Ra.One’s birth a tad slow and mired in too many technical details, but picks up pretty well from there on, till the end game, which is tiring and exhausting, and fails to excite, and, coming as it does at the end, will leave audiences with a not-so-exciting lingering taste of spoilt tiramisu after a great meal. The car chase sequence is Bourne-like stunning, the train sequence has a lot of Chittinspiration, with a “Speed”y ending! There are shades of Hulk, Spiderman, Superman, Matrix – and they all work pretty well, actually!
What Ra.One excels at, and leaves other Bollywood movies far, far behind is in the SFX and graphics. Pure, unadulterated excellence. Whether it is the pixelated build-up of Ra.One and G.One, or the horrifyingly realistic destruction of CST, the effect is top-notch and what makes the movie such a visual treat.
At the end of the 3 hours, audiences will come out thrilled at the action, stunned by the visuals, and grooved by the numbers, but with not a tear shed. For me, that is the victory and loss of SRK in Ra.One. He was good as a robot, but he wasn’t our SRK.
