ra one review

DIRECTOR – ANUBHAV SINHA                                      

STARRING – Shah Rukh Khan,

Kareena Kapoor,

Arjun Rampal, Armaan Varma

MUSIC – VISHAL- SHEKHAR

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Romance

Language: HindI

RELEASING DATE: 26THOCTOBER 2011

PRODUCED BY GAURI KHAN                                             

RATE – 3.5 / 5                                              

Once again, it's Shah Rukh Khan's sheer presence and energy, coupled with the narrative's don't-stop-to-think pace that makes 'Ra.One' watchable despite its flaws. This is an event movie, a spectacle, not really a film. It's 2 hours 35 minutes of special effects, action sequences and superficial romantic and emotional entanglements. What's missing from 'Ra.One' is a sure-footed director's touch. Anubhav Sinha fails to bring all the elements together, and while this superhero film has plenty sound and fury, it's sorely lacking slickness.

What’s Good: Individual sequences; stars’ performances; excellent visual effects; the superlative action, the ‘Chammak Challo’ song; eye-filling photography; extraordinary background score and comic scenes are quite appealing.

What’s Bad: The first 20 minutes and some portions in the second half which are boring; the story, which is about a video game, will not be fully understood by the computer-illiterate older generation.

Verdict: Ra.One has novelty and great visual effects to see it through at the box-office and ensure profits in spite of its very high cost.

Watch or Not?: Definitely watch Ra.One for the superlative performances and the grand visual effects and the 3D effects

Eros International and Red Chillies Entertainment’s Ra.One is the story of Shekhar Subramanium (Shah Rukh Khan), who lives in London and who is so clumsy and uncool that his young, school-going son, Pratik (master Armaan Varma), does not consider him as his hero or idol. In fact, he doesn’t even respect his father like a son should.

Shekhar works in a gaming company and he alongwith his colleagues makes a video game, Ra.One, in which the villain, Ra.One, is almost invincible. He makes the villain so powerful because his son tells him that heroes are boring and villains are cool. As luck would have it, Pratik, who plays games under the name of Lucifer, defeats Ra.One upto a level. Ra.One then loses his head and escapes from the computer in search of Lucifer. Soon, he kills Shekhar when he lies to him that his name is Lucifer. Shekhar takes on the blame in a bid to save his son’s life. But Ra.One, who has now taken the identity of Shekhar’s own colleague Akashi (Tom Wu), does not give up his search for Lucifer alias Pratik.

Meanwhile, Pratik goes to his dad’s office and between Jenny (Shahana Goswami) and Pratik, the two decide that G.One or, in other words, the Good One from the game would have to be released from the game to combat Ra.One.

Pratik and his widowed mother, Sonia (Kareena Kapoor), leave London to return to India and are given a hot chase by Ra.One. After a lot of misses, Ra.One finally confronts the mother-son duo but G.One emerges in the form of Shekhar to save them.

Now, G.One, Sonia and Pratik come to India after G.One has almost eliminated Ra.One. However, Ra.One is re-constructed one day and lands in India. What happens next? Does he find Lucifer? Does G.One protect Sonia and Pratik alias Lucifer? If so, how?

                   Shah Rukh Khan does a splendid job and is the life of the film. He is good as Shekhar and fantastic as G.One. The look of G.One is wonderful. Kareena Kapoor is also lovely. She looks gorgeous and acts with effortless ease. She is brilliant in emotional scenes. Both, Shah Rukh and Kareena’s dances are remarkable. Arjun Rampal makes an effective villain and looks very handsome and formidable. Master Armaan Varma makes a sensational debut. He looks charming and acts with such aplomb that it is difficult to believe, this is his first film. Tom Wu is menacing enough. Dalip Tahhil is stylish as ever. Shahana Goswami is as natural and realistic as can be. Satish Shah and Suresh Menon evoke laughter. Rajnikanth appears in a single scene in special appearance and makes his presence felt with mersmerising effect. Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra don’t add much in special appearances. Amitabh Bachchan’s voice over in a portion of the film heightens the impact.

          Anubhav Sinha’s direction is good. Credit goes to him for giving the Indian audience a supremely novel experience. He has excelled in the visual effects department as well as in extracting good work from the actors. Music (Vishal-Shekhar) could’ve been better. While the Chhammak Chhallo song is extraordinary, the others could’ve and should’ve been better. The Dildaara song is appealing. The other songs range from fair to good like bhare naina sounds really good. Song picturisations (Ganesh Hegde and Feroz Khan) are very eye-filling. The picturisations ofChhammak Chhallo and Criminal songs (both by Ganesh Hegde) are extraordinary. Background score by Vishal-Shekhar is wonderful. Nicola Pecorini and V. Manikandan’s camerawork is marvellous. The film looks just too beautiful. Visual effects are outstanding. Action scenes, choreographed by Parvez Khan, Spiro Razatos and Firoz Boss, are mind-boggling. Sets (Sabu Cyril and Marcus Wookey) are lovely. The conversion from 2D to 3D (by Prime Focus) is remarkable. Production values are just too grand

BY RASPREET KAUR,FYBMM,9.