Ra-one: so much promise, so much disappointment

One has reasonably high expectations when going to watch the most expensive movie of Bollywood! And one is disappointed…

The problem with Ra-one is not that the Indian’s cannot match up to the hi-tech special effects any more. The problem is that once we solve one problem, we create a new one for ourselves. There are many things that go wrong with the movie – and I mention a few of them here. (However – not all is bad. I will probably mention some of the good points later as well).

First – for the shortfalls:

Dumbness of the screenplay:

I don’t think I can explain the dumbness better than this guy:

http://www.thevigilidiot.com/2011/10/28/ra-one/

But I will try…

-          How does a South Indian guy called Krishnamurthy get a Christian funeral?

-          Why do people in England talk in Hindi – even in international conferences?

-          How does the vandalism of an entire office go unreported for an entire day – when a key employee of the company is missing?

-          Why is Kareena Kapoor always decked up in the house – as if she is just going to office (this I think is a Kareena problem that runs across all her movies)?

-          What happens of both Ra-1 and G-1 miss their one-shot with “Anti-HART gun”? Do they both become “Amar”?

And I am just scratching the surface…

The premise of the film assumes the audience to be intelligent enough to fathom that artificial intelligence can cause a video game character to come into real life (hell, if we can believe Terminator and what not – this is no big deal). However, with an audience that will play ball on the above concept, you cannot commit all these crappy mistakes

Is it a kid’s movie or an adult movie?

Ok – it is not an “A” rated movie. But who do you think you are making it for? If you want parents to go watch it for the kids –why the hell are you putting “Kondom” jokes and why is SRK fondling Kareena’s breasts? And why is Kareena inventing “Teri baap ki chuchara”.

If it is for a grown up audience – why is “Chitti” coming and giving his intro “Speed 1 Terahertz, memory 1 Zetabytes”.

Oh… it’s an adult movie for Rajni fans.

Anubhav Sinha – what were you smoking?

I think the guy has real problem. When I saw Tum Bin – I was thoroughly impressed and thought that he had so much promise. But he keeps on getting sucked in the vortex of Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai, Kuku Kohli. A brilliant idea when mixed with masala leads to mediocrity. And that has what he has turned a great idea into.

If you want to make a slick sci fi action flick, go ahead and make a slick sci fi action flick. Don’t make kuch kuch hota hai (and that too between a robot and the forever ready for office – Kareena).

If you want to show people living in Mumbai – take a house that is in Mumbai. Don’t show a villa that could only belong to real life SRK.

If you want to show clean special effects, make then relevant to the film. Don’t make the movie an advertisement for the SFX firm you employed. There are far too many, too inconsequential sequences where one thinks – why are they fighting really?

And yes – spaghetti with curd!!! Really…

 

Arjun Rampal – seriously…

Why the hell is he even there? I personally think that the animated Ra-1 or Jackie Chan would have done a better job. Wouldn’t  blast him more as he hardly had 10 min in the movie.

Now for some of the good (average) stuff:

SFX

Even though they are not relevant to the movie all the time, the effects are good. Some places – really good. Looks like the producer spent a lot of money. Although they should have had a director and an action director who knew what to do with those effects and it could have been more innovative.

Nevertheless –a good start.

SRK

I know, I know – don’t kill me for this. I think he worked a bit for the movie (which is more than he has done in the last 5 YSR /  KJo movies combined). He learnt to speak a few sentences in Tamil. His wig does not look like a wig. And he worked out. As Ra-1, you can see some muscle on the movie. And he got a super amount of Botox as Ra-1 – which makes him look incredibly plastic and young. He suited the role pretty well – except when he was making a joker of himself in front of his son or romancing with Kareena.

Overall – I would give the movie 2 stars just for the effort. I desperately want Bollywood to come out with real good sci fi flicks and SFX films. May be this can set a trend – atleast to spend the money to get the efforts. I would just hope they stick to the soul of the script instead of putting masala and item songs in every damn thing they think of.