Star Cast: Ram Charan, Jr NTR, Olivia Morris, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Alison Doody, Ray Stevenson, Shriya Saran
Director: SS Rajamouli
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What’s Bad: Some would watch this on their TV sets, I know not everyone can have the luxury but if you can, pick the best possible screen
Loo Break: It’s 3 hours long and I’d still ask you to watch this empty stomach to avoid breaks
Watch or Not?: Even if you haven’t seen a single film before, make this your first!
Available On: Theatrical Release
Runtime: 186 Minutes
User Rating:
Before you read what the story is all about, trust me, it’ll sound like an ordinary ‘brutal Brits VS ingenious Indians’ story, in which a White family abducts a kid Mali because why not? They have always been doing this, and what always has been done is also taking revenge on them but trust me it hasn’t been as grand as this. So, now you know the basic outline of the story, the kid that’s abducted from the poor Indian family is protected by Bheem (Jr NTR), as the film states there’s a herdsman for every group and the Brits choose the wrong one to mess with.
Bheem clashes with Ram (Ram Charan) and grows to be his BFF without knowing that he’s working for British Government. Ram is that kind of officer, who works even on the weekend just to keep his boss happy, but internally even he wants only thing ‘revenge’ because why else would an Indian earn such a high rank in the British force? Though Ram is a frustrated employee of the company, he builds a play to earn their trust and for that, he does some pretty nasty things to Bheem. Bheem wants Mali, Ram wants revenge & you’d want to take a breath to process what happened in the last 3 hours of your life.
Every commercial masala movie before this has somewhere deep down ‘aimed’ to be larger than life, but with his vision, SS Rajamouli has time and again achieved that feat and RRR is no different. This also proves to be the classic Rajamouli case in which the screenplay eclipses everything even the story (by K. V. Vijayendra Prasad), which pinches at places due to its very ambitious runtime of 186 minutes. No, it doesn’t feel like a 3-hour film, but its second half does come with speed-breakers.
Prasad ji’s story takes sweet time to construct the past & present of Bheem, Ram but it’s Rajamouli’s screenplay that adds ‘large’ in the film’s ‘larger than life’ treatment. Prasad Ji has written the most lionized entry sequences for both Jr & Ram and has pushed the bar to a level no one would be able to touch but Rajamouli. All of this coupled with K. K. Senthil Kumar’s cinematography just feels like a cosmic magical act being performed on stage. Even in the scenes which doesn’t have much drama to showcase action, Senthil just uses ultra-wide zoom-out aerial shots to bridge two scenes.
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Ram Charan nails the mix of style & substance to look believable as a charming Indian in pre-independence British force. Thanks to Rajamouli, Prasad, Ram now owns Indian cinema’s best ‘one vs many’ fight sequences. I would even dare to stretch it to call it even slightly better than Jon Snow’s ‘The Battle Of Bast*rds’ in Game Of Thrones, and you can judge me on this but watch it first.
Jr NTR is the heart of Ram’s brains in the film. He shows how to display brute force in one scene & take a complete u-turn to be equally poignant in another. For some reason, throughout the film, Jr NTR’s act reminded me of how Aamir Khan would love to do such roles.
Alia Bhatt & Ajay Devgn are just about okay in their cameos. It’s like, this could’ve been done even without them but it’s good to have them. Olivia Morris, Alison Doody & Ray Stevenson are
I’d pick RRR over Baahubali despite a weaker core story only because the amount of risks it takes is much higher, and the way its treatment arrests you for 3 hours is much polished. Rajamouli gives you so many high-octane, adrenaline-pumping sequences that by the climax, you’d agree with my statement of ‘watching the MOST INDIAN CINEMA on-screen’.
MM Kreem completes the mystical trio of Rajamouli-Prasad-Kreem to give a ‘seat shaking’ experience taking care of your ears & strings of your heart. Usually, a film of this stature forgets to sound good along with looking good but once you’ve Kreem on board, you can just sit behind and milk the cream (okay, I was very tempted to do that).
All said and done, RRR is what every ‘grand’ film before this aimed at being but couldn’t be because we’ve just one SS Rajamouli after all. This lives up to all the hype of ‘what’s next after Baahubali?’ with even bettering that for me.
Four stars!
RRR releases on 25th March, 2022.
Share with us your experience of watching RRR.
After this, if you want to read how not to spend a lot of money and create something substandard, read our Radhe Shyam movie review.
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