Sunday, October 30, 2011

Headlines - Pa.One Mauke pe Aaya 'RA.ONE'

So what it was finally released on a Pa.one day (Diwali), the destiny is stated sometimes. Destiny was stated for this movie also. It will work (even the real Raavan can guess that). But will it be appreciated and genuinely generate ‘Likes’ on facebook? Let’s assess this through a video game –

The Game –
SRK, our game developer develops a game in which villain is more powerful than the good hero. Why? To impress his kid who thinks his dad (SRK, curly baalo wala) is a dodo. The game characters are named quite smartly as Ra.one and G.one. Recall your childhood days where games used to have stages. Here, the virtual stage looks interesting but the next stage is played in reality, where Ra.One comes out of the game to kill our game developer. Now, G.One has to kill Ra.one.
SRK has the controls, he shall win.

Characters –
Ra.One (played by Ra.Jun RA.mpal! Arjun Rampal pronounced normally). He looks villainous and is a suitable cast for Ra.One.
G.One (played by Sa.Ra.ukh Khan). Firstly, why has he taken over my idiot box. It seems the code of the game has been miraculously shared among all the broadcasters in India. Man! Every second ad ends with a man depressing dressed in glittering blue-black suit and looking over the city (Batman stolen concept). It’s a norm that 80% of the ad space before any SRK movie will feature him. “Excess of co-marketing”, incase anybody is researching on this topic, you have a fabulous opportunity (courtesy: SRK). Phew! Don 2 is coming; I should start playing video games and not even look at my idiot box.
Coming back to movie, SRK puts in genuine effort and tries his best BUT cannot produce the quality of acting which could have justified his effort and hard-work. He is ok as G.One (much much better than his irritating South Indian avatar as the game developer). Even as G.One he does not look like a SuperHero (look at SRK's physique for answers). All major superhero have a face accessory/mask (guess! It was a missing here)
Sonia (played by Ka.Reena Ka.poor) looks gorgeous here (watch her in red colour sari).
Prateek (played by Armaan Verma) – he should acted after a hair-cut else acting was satisfactory.
Other non-routine side-kicks were Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, Rajini.


Music of the movie is awesome and is something different to hear. Chamak Chalo is addictive (Hindi song sung by an international pop singer). Akon, bhai you rock (dil se re).

Lines about the story -
Why do need presence of stars of likes of Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, Rajini. This tells us about the confidence in script. The biggest flaw of Ra.One is its script. It LACKS creativity, given the fact budget was huge, some sequences are played out so safe. With Rs. 150 Cr to dispose, script could have incorporated some never heard of action-sequences. Even the styling of G.One suit looks heavily inspired from Ironman.
Ra.One has technology but not class, which a movie like Swades had.

What works – hype (yes! SRK you are successful in it), technology in Bollywood movies, Music
What not – Script, Expectations

SPEAKing PICtures verdict – (quote borrowed from a friend) “Kuch bhi ho, dekh to aaye kya movie hai”.

Rating?
Ya! I usually give rating quite early in my reviews. Here, factors to analyse are many. SRK has put a lot of hard work, if not quality. The quantity will work for him again. He has released 5000 prints of Ra.One (70-80 in Russia), thus opening new avenues for Hindi movies. Only a few in Bollywood can do it, SRK has leveraged it to quite a level with immense hype.
Ra.One Ra.ting – 3/5 (generously rated)

ps:log Raavan ko is liye baar baar maarte hain kyunki vo kabhi marta nahin hai” (you curse SRK as an irritating fellow because you know he will redo it – this is emotional translation)

pps: I still cannot believe the amount of co-marketing SRK has done for this movie. When I went to Google’s office in Gurgaon, I first saw SRK standee emerging out of YouTube and then Google’s logo. His modus operandi is superbly working (this will be covered sometime later)