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.