My take on Ra.One

Synopsis

Shekhar Subrahmanyam (SRK) is a prolific game designer based in London.He designs and architects games for a company called "Barron" industries.He is intelligent but boring in nature and unimpressive in looks.His wife Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) is a Punjabi and the couple have a son called prateek (Armaan Varma) who is a computer freak and a game maniac.Prateek doesnt like his father as he thinks that his dad always designs games in which hero is always powerful than the villain.He wants his dad to design a game in which villain is more powerful than the hero and he wants villain to never die in that game.Being the lovable father he is Shekhar decides to architect a game which satisfies his sons prateek's wish.Shekhar designs the game and launches it but sooner he realizes that the villain character(Ra.One) designed by him can come to life with the radiations and signals that roam in the air.What happens to the hero character of the movie (G.One) and why are Sonia and prateek chased by Ra.One forms the rest of the story.

Analysis

Ra.One as a movie deals with a very interesting idea of how would be the life of gamers if the game characters come live on this earth.I thought Anubhav Sinha was unable to showcase this idea on the big screen as a full fledged story.The screenplay was very weak in the first half an hour of the movie where the main idea of the game is explained.Adding humourous elements to Shekhar's character and his Tamil Dialect did not help the intial take off of the movie.The movie really picks up once the Ra.One character arrives and the pre interval half an hour is a total relief to the first half.Just as the viewer gets excited at the interval block,the story again falls on a slow mode,the second half looks flat,uninteresting and some unnecessary long episodes like the train chase makes it loose interest of the viewer.The movie has a instant inspiration from the main plot of "Enthiran" and it shows clearly with the way SRK enacts the robotic scenes in the second half.Nice to see a star like Rajini Kanth acting just once scene.The movie again pulls back some interest towards the climax with some great CG work towards the end.

Actors

Shahrukh Khan plays two characters in the movie,one of Shekhar Subrahmanyam and the other is of a game hero "Ra.One".I thought the appearance of SRK in Shekhar's role was under-shadowed to elevate G.One's appearance.Shekhar is a Tamil guy from origin but I thought SRK did not fit the role properly.SRK tried do generate humor with shekhars character and it failed miserably but where as SRK excels to greater levels in G.One role and his "Roboish" costume design looks impressive.SRK does well in his performance as Robot with some excellent performance in action scenes involving all the scenes where he confronts with Ra.One. Debutant kid Armaan does wonders in this movie and he looks at ease playing the role of prateek.He is definitely someone to look forward in many more Hindi movies to come.Kareena does not require much efforts to play roles like these and she does well.Arjun Rampal is terrific and he brings in the required negative shades to Ra.One character.There are other roles played by Shahana Goswami,Tom Wu,Dilip Tahil and Satish shah and they are just Ok.

Technical Aspects

Ra.One would be definitely remembered for a long time for its visual effects and computer graphics work.Roberts kurtzman who is known for creating wonderful VFX has done a very good job for this film.The CGI work is seamlessly integrated into the movie and it works big time.Though the movie looks flat at times the editing is done well by Sanjay Sharma and Martin walsh.The music was good on screen with two of the most popular songs "Dildaara" and "Chammak challo" coming in the second half of the movie and they sound good on screen too.I thought Vishal-Shekhar should have done better in the re recording of the movie.The BGM for G.One lacks lacks the required soul.The screenplay and direction are just ok by Anubhav sinha.

On the whole Ra.One as a story when designed had that killer instinct to it but the fully blown version is less appealing and falls flat.I thought movie like this made in a duration of 90-120 mins would do wonders.Ra.one is for sure an SRK fandelight and he is marvelous in the role of G.One.The kids under 10 will also have good time in watching the movie.I would definitely recommend the movie for watching SRK and CG aspects of it.

Pilla Jamindar Review

The movie starts off with showcasing Praveen Jairam aka Pilla Jamindar(Nani) as a spoilt youngster who has a carefree attitude towards life.His grandfather who was once a Jamindar leaves a lot of wealth for him but PJ has to meet with some conditions in order to enjoy the wealth.PJ then starts a journey to a village where he has to complete an under graduate degree leaving behind all the comforts.He is also asked to live in a hostel which is owned by Rajanna (Rao Ramesh) by following the strict rules of the hostel.The rest of the story is all about how PJ turns into a responsible graduate realizing the importance of education and value for money and life.

Nani is a delight to watch in this film.He has grown as an actor from ashta chamma and that shows up very evidently on the screen.He plays a character who has to show the transformation from an irresponsible careless guy to a matured graduate and he showcased that effortlessly.Nani has the boy next door looks and he brings likability to all the characters he plays on screen.He looks good with a toned body in the movie and his dances are energetic too.The female lead Hari priya is good and Bindu Madhavi doesnt have much role to perform.All the guys who played as PJ's friends in the movie have done a good job and a special mention to Dhanraj for his performance.Its good to see Srini Avasarala in a very good character and he does well too.All the other characters are ok.

Most of the movie goes on a humorous note and dialogues by Shekhar chandra are good.The movie was shot on some good locations of local villages and they are captured well by Sai Sriram.Music is not well conceived on screen with exception of "oopiri Aadadu" song which is shot well.The production values of the movie are not that impressive and the movie doesn't looks rich on screen.Screenplay and direction by debutant Ashok G is done well in parts.

The movie starts of on a dull note but picks up once the movie shifts to the village.The first half is filled with ample comedy though the story is routine and predictable.The second half forms the main crux of the story and it looks slow and dragged.I thought the transformation of PJ becoming more responsible was told in a way that was believable and neat.Nani carries the entire movie on his shoulders and he did a good job.The plus points of the movie are Nani,comedy elements in the first half and on the downside a time testing story with dragging second half makes the movie less appealing.On the whole Pilla Jamindar is a decent movie and its a must watch if you like Nani.

Its been a while that I came to my blog and there is always a special reason why I come back to here and this time is special too.I have been waiting for this audio of this Telugu movie "Shakthi".There are mainly two reasons for this,one being it is coming from one of my personal favorite music director "Mani Sharma" who's known for this haunting music and other being yet another musical combination of "C.Ashwani Dutt" and Mani Sharma who gave us many musically hit movies like "Choodalani Undi","Ravoi Chandama","Indra" and "Balu".This movie is made on a grand production values with a whooping production cost of 54 crores and with leading stars like NTR,matching good music on top of that should take the movie to a much needed larger scale.Lets see how the audio fared.

1. Thaliya - * * *
Lyrics : Rama Jogayya sastry
Singer: Ranjith

This song starts with a very unique sarangi rythm followed by a rajasthani interlude which makes us feel that we are about to hear a different hero introduction song till it falls into a regular song.This song talks about the hero's character and there is a continuous mix of Hindi/Rajasthani and Telugu lyrics.Though the orchestration is quite routine from Mani Sharma Ranjith as usual carries the song on his shoulders with great ease.Though Mani can compose good non telugu music,I somehow feel his Hindi compositions has that south touch which makes them tough to hear.We can hear some lines in the same way in this song too.There are also some words like "Singam" which means nothing in telugu.Barring all these things,it is an interesting song to hear once.

2.Prema Desham - * * * *
Lyrics :Rama Jogayya sastry
Singers : Hema Chandra,Saindhavi

We must be wondering why people call Mani sharma "Swara Bramha" (Bramha of Tunes).Hearing songs like these might make us believe in that more and more.This song is absolute delight to the listener.Mani tries something different in the background music of the song and it has that 70's touch of music in it and the lyrics are neat and they carry that mood throughout.It has become common for us to see Hemachandra singing atleast two songs in Mani's albums and he always brings the required feel to the song.Saindhavi on the other hand is a tamilian and its very tough for her to get those Telugu words right and she sounds Pleasent and as always.The guitar piece that comes before the second stanza stands out special in the song.On a whole a very different,well written song that really grows on us as we hear.

3.Mathileka Pichiga - * *
Lyrics : Jonnavithula
Singers : Ranjith,Chinmayee,Chorus

I really got excited when I saw credits for this song as it had one of personal favorite female singers "Chinmayee" singing for Mani Sharma but it dis not held through.The song starts on a tehchno tune and it follows the break-up vocal style of recording to add that extra spice.There is a good music piece of guitar before the start of first stanza in cowboy style and it sounds great.The lyrics in the stanzas are written well but the interludes in between each stanza look so disconnected that it really act as the stopping blocks to hear the song.The Spanish lyrics also doesn't gel well with the song.The only good thing being the singers,Chinmayee and Ranjith carry the song so well despite very mediocre lyrics that we end up humming the song after few listens..

4.Maha Rudra Shakti - * * *
Lyrics - Jonnavithula
Singers - Ranjith, Muralidhar, Rita, Vardhini, Saindhavi, Hanumantha Rao, Hemachandra, Malavika

Commercial Music is something that is very much needed to score music for larger than life movies like "Shakthi" and Mani Sharma is a master of that art.This song is a clear cut example of this.The way it is composed and formed with so many singers and with such fine lyrics is outstanding.The song talks about the strength of "Rudra" who is an incarnation of Lord Shiva and he is also supposed to be the head of the universe.The lyrics are divine and Mani succeeds in bringing that divine feel in vocals too with clubbing so many singers together and we hear only one single voice but not so many singers.Since this song is more like a background number,one cannot hear it many number of times which makes it little boring.An average song which can sound much better on the big screen.

5.Surro Surro - * * *
Lyrics -Jonnavithula
Singers - Javed Ali,Suchitra and Hemachandra

This is the only song in the whole album which cought my ears when I heard the album for the first time.Its a different composition with even lyrics being written in srikakulam dialect.And out and out mass number and Suchitra who is known for this kind of songs fits perfect with her unique voice.There is a major portion of the song sung by the chorus and they do well with those fuzzy lyrics.Javed Ali on the other hand is a trained Hindustani singer and he is the student of famous ghazal singer Ghulam Ali.,coming from that background its very tough for him to spell those Telugu words but he does a great job in bringing the required accent.The orchestration is simple and lyrics suit to the mood of the song.Mani again uses Sarangi to a great extent with even Veena used in between the interludes.I noticed that Hemachandra's voice was mixed well in the song to spell some words in between and it sounds little awkward.On a whole a very catchy mass number with ample scope for us to watch NTR's dances.

6.Yamaga Unde - * * *

Lyrics - Rama Jogayya sastry

Singers - Karunya,Malavika

The first impression I got when I heard this song was "I heard this song somewhere".Then I remembered that the song resembles a lot for the "Choodaduantunna" from "Pokiri".But it was nice to hear to Karunya in this song.Thanks for Mani Sharma and for his chances,Karunya is turning out to be a good commercial "Playback" singer.Though the tune is pretty old and off beat,Karunya sings it with ease and he brings the right attitude when he sings the lines"Nachave Maayabazaaru Kaasko naa dumdumaaru" (absolutely no meaing but sounds great).I guess thats the advatange of getting the song sung by a person who knows telugu.Again Chorus plays a major role in the song and they are OK.Its a cakewalk for Malavika to sing songs like these and she sounds effortless.Lyrics again by Rama jogayya sastri doesnt carry any value and they are OK.A decent listen.

7- Mahishasura Mardhini - * * * *

Lyrics - Sri Adi Shankaracharya

Singers - Srivardhini ,Sharath (Alaap)

There has been various occasions we heard devotional songs on the music of Mani Sharma.Be it his passion to make good music or the way he arranges them,they sound fresh and likeable each time.We heard several examples like "Ooregi Ravayya" in Sri Anjeneyam,"Nammina Na Madi" from "Sri Raghavendra" and the very recent "Sada Siva" from Khaleja.Mahishasura Mardini Stotram is a very popular devotional song of Goddess Durga written by Guru Adi Sankaracharya (Sri Sri Sri Shankara Bhagavatpadacharya).This devotional verse is addressed to Goddess Mahisasura Mardini, the Goddess who killed Demon Mahishasura.There were so many versions of this song,popular ones being the MS Subhalakshmi and the bombay sister's,but this is no exception. Beautifully composed and effortlessly sung by "Srivardhini" who is a trained Tamil classical singer.Mani adds his signature touch of guitar in the interlude which brings the necessary contemporary touch.What steals the entire song is the last one minute where Mani brings various violins (bass, rhythm and melody) into a luring musical piece which is amazing.On a whole an impressive finish to a very average album.

Shakthi's music on a whole a very mediocre but having said that it is very commercial.It has some great foot tapping numbers which Iam sure NTR would utilize to his strength which is dance.The songs are composed and arranged in a such a way that there are so many musical bits in guitar,violen,veena which will be used to showcase some great dance steps from NTR.Iam for sure that these songs will look great on the big screen and they will get more popular once the movie releases.My picks are "Prema Desham","Mahishasura Mardhini","Surro Surro" and finally "Mathileka pichiga".Though Iam not completely satisfied with Mani Sharma,Iam sure he will come back strong in his next "Teen Maar".I will come back again with "Teen Maar" audio review of "Teen Maar".

Adios !!

Sudheer