"Ra.One" delivers on its promise of awesome visual effects and its heart - or should I say H.A.R.T. — values. In some other aspects, it falls a little short of expectations. "Ra.One" has been the most hyped Bollywood film of the year — maybe of all time. I'm not convinced it could ever have lived up to the hype, but it comes close in probably its highest goals and falls just a little short in others.
If you've missed the "Ra.One" hype, the story revolves around a father, Shehkar Subramanium (Shahrukh Khan in role No. 1), and son Prateek (Armaan Verma). Shehkar, a video game designer, fails to impress Prateek no matter how hard he tries. So to win him over, Shehkar creates a video game called "Ra.One" where the villain Ra.One (tying into the Hindu demon king Raavan) always wins. But Ra.One escapes into the real world in an attempt to kill Prateek, and it's up to the video game's hero G.One (Shahrukh Khan in role No. 2) to save Prateek and Sonia (Kareena Kapoor), Shehkar's wife.
From the very first scene, the film tries to bring a smile to your face while still being slick and edgy: Prateek has a dream sequence his dad as a sort of superhero at the beginning of the film, there's lots of slick action and graphics played off with self-depreciating action humor. Cameos from Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra — and nods to at least a half-dozen films — certainly help. From then on, the humor gets a little less funny. There are jokes on stereotypes about South Indians, embodied in Shehkar, and Chinese, embodied in Shehkar's co-worker Akashi, who people constantly call "Jackie Chan." Very few of these are actually funny and mostly they're uncomfortable. The crotch jokes also get a little old and occasionally awkward.
Some other reviewers have called the film's first half slow, but my main issue with it is that it's cobbled together and almost nonsensical. Up until the scene where Ra.One escapes from the video game, the film tries to lay too much groundwork and do too many things. It has moments of humor and emotion, but as a whole, the first part is hard to follow and feels off, almost as if it was added on after the rest of the film as an attempt to provide a workable platform.
Once the film slips into the full-on action, it's in its element and moves along smoothly. The visual effects are all that the hype has promised. The film showcases some amazing stunts — such as G.One moving down the side of a moving train and some dramatic dives from buildings — that are as clear and well-done as any Hollywood action film.
The plot has some definite holes, one of the film's fail-to-deliver points, but the swift pace of the action sequences manages to mostly sweep them away from focus. There are also plot strands left to dangle in the wind, such as Sonia's thesis, which she's writing on the negative impact of cuss words on women. This provides for some humorous pseudo-swearing in the movie, but the actual thesis is mentioned in one scene and then abruptly disappears from thought.
In addition to action, the film of course also delivers on some hallmarks of Bollywood cinema, with lessons about family, lessons on religion's importance, and catchy and well-picturized songs. Some of these songs are pockets of fresh air in the movement of the odd first half, especially "Criminal," and "Chammak Challo" in the second contributes well to a nice twist that I won't spoil.
Moving on to the lead actors' performances, Kareena Kapoor is the stand-out star in this film. Hers was a solid performance as a struggling mother and wife. As much as Shahrukh Khan is this film's "star," his first character of Shehkar is underdeveloped and difficult to connect with or understand. He does much better as G.One, which is somewhat unsurprising as G.One is the film's actual driving force. Arjun Rampal, as the final face of Ra.One, is an electrifying and terrifying villain. One has to wish he'd be better noted given that he plays the film's title character.
Overall, "Ra.One" delivers on the action and special effects and it's a pleasure to watch for those reasons. Though it suffers from plot holes, a disjointed start and some flat attempts at humor, the film has a good basis and successfully mixes a novel concept with some Bollywood hallmarks. Four out of five stars.
What would you rate the film? I'd love to hear.
For more of my reaction to "Ra.One," check out Bollywood Queens.
"Ra.One" released Wednesday amid a swarm of hype. It delivers the action, visual effects and morality promised but suffers from some plot holes and a disjointed beginning.
