Directed By - Anubhav Sinha
Starring - Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma,Shahaana Goswami, Tom Wu
Alfred Hitchcock once said- " The film should be named after the villain because without him what can the hero do? he is the real star ". The makers of 'Ra.One' follow the words of the legendary director but dont quite work on it. The villain is never quite given the larger than life persona of being the titular character, instead the film is about SRK and SRK only.
Ra.One is about Shekhar Subramaniam (SRK) a video game development techie who works for a company which has recently made a breakthrough in the field of Artificial Intelligence. His son Prateik (played by newcomer armaan) is a gaming genius with an inclination to the villains of the games. In a bid to get closer to his son Shekhar starts work on a new game where the villain will be designed to be more powerful than the hero. He names the villain Ra.One in a not so subtle reference to the famous demon. Prateik loves the game and proves to be the only one who can overpower the villain but abruptly leaves the game in the middle enraging Ra.one (Rampal) who is determined to kill Lucifer (prateik's login name). Due to the newly developed AI technology Ra.one breaks into the real world determined to find and kill Lucifer. In the process he kills Shekhar and his colleagues. Prateik realizes his mistake and with help of his father's co worker Jenny (Shaahana Goswami) he brings the good guy G.One into the real world whose facial structure is based on Shekhar and so starts the good vs evil fight.
The film has innumerable references to various hollywood flicks especially The terminator and closer home to 'Endhiran' but the biggest problem lies in the fact that while Terminator 1 was about the relationship between its leads and the second part is about the sheer action packed thrill, Ra.One tries to pack in both in which it sorely fails. While in films like these storyline is not really given importance, Ra.one has one which is too threadbare to overlook. The most surprising aspect of the film is that Ra.One is never given the importance you expect him to have. The smart thing that the director has done is introduce Arjun Rampal only in the second half and gives him scenes where he can just flex his muscles and not emote at all.The direction too is very amateurish ( Sinha had earlier directed the disastrous Cash and tathastu) and the moments just dont stay with you. The story shifts focus haphazardly and characters are introduced and dropped at random. The film completely wastes actors like Shahaana Goswami and Satish Shah and the rajnikanth special appearance too is very pointless.
But to be fair, The film does have its goods. For one, it has graphics and VFX never before seen in this part of the world. The action setpieces are superbly filmed and each has an unique breathtaking quality. A particular favourite is G.One's entry and the train sequence which is brilliantly filmed. The climax too is slick and stylish but ends too easily.
Of the cast, Kareena Kapoor does well as Soniya, the late techie's wife and brings in just the amount of oopmh factor required. Armaan Verma as the typical teenager Prateik does wonders, for anyone it is a dream role and verma does justice to it. Arjun rampal has hardly 20 minute screen time and does not have to act really but somehow manages to bring the menacing quality to the character, he should have been used more. But the film is single handedly pulled by Shahrukh Khan. His sheer presence lights up the screen. While he is at best average as Shekhar he brings a raw charm to G.One. When you hear the multiplex crowd cheering whenever he enters you understand that the man reigning over the industry for the past two decades has put in all his energy and passion into this project.
Someone told me the concept was developed by Khan himself, for that kudos to him because conceptually Ra.One is a unique film, treatment wise not so much.While at 150 odd minutes the film is a tad too long yet it keeps one entertained, it is an absolute grosser in the true sense. The graphics and Special FX is amazing and the team deserves a round of applause for that too.
In all, the films works due to its innovative concept and bloody amazing technology.Despite its flaws it is an wholly entertaining film just not as good as one expected it to be.
Rating- 6.6/10
