RA . One

Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Shahana Goswami, Master Armaan Verma, Tom Wu, Dalip Tahil, Suresh Menon, Satish Shah, Special Appreance : Sanjay Dutt, Priyanak Chopra

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Producer: Gauri Khan

Music: Vishal Shekar

Before adequately warning children against trying any such stunts, the super-hero leapfrogs over and at right angles of a running train. Background score is ‘70s RD Burman imitation. Brown walls of the majestic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus eventually start to crack, statue of Queen Victoria alongside falls as the suburban train, running at top speed, its brakes not working, collides on to the CST railhead, juts out of the station, on to the main streets.

Round your lips; curl your tongue; whistle out; loud. Finally, the heroine drops from the sky as the super-hero holds her in her arms. This is the highlight scene of the film. It’s novel, because of the touch of Mumbai local. Disaster movies are usually Hollywood, and set abroad. You must applaud. Except, you’re not sure about the point of this moment, while you do know its purpose. They just haven’t weaved this stunning sequence into a coherent plot for you to truly care. This super-hero G.One, until now, or thereafter, didn’t exist to save the world. Neither was the super-villain, RA.One, out there to destroy it. Motives of both remain plainly fuzzy, or too tepid, trivial to match their scale.

Strangely, for a film that’s titled after the villain, he has a specific form, but no particular face or body. More on the lines of Terminator 2, he adopts a wandering human being’s body. This completely dilutes RA.One. The fellow's been a Chinese man, for a bit even Kareena Kapoor, and for some crucial, climactic portions, Arjun Rampal. G.One is singularly Shah Rukh Khan. SRK. Make no mistake. Light bulbs at the heart of armoured suits suggest these are all descendants of Iron Man. But all this happens later, after perhaps, half the film is over. For most parts, this doesn’t seem a super-hero movie at all. It’s more of a weirdly boiled, Bollywood please all: vaguely soppy romance, Salman-type sasta comedy, narcissistic SRK set piece. Die-hard fans of all three genres are likely to be disappointed.

Neither here nor there, everything appears so visibly constructed and all over the place that you can look through the wires, rather than blend in with the experience. The latter may be necessary if you’re not playing this film’s version, available on Playstation 2. Connect with video game’s characters are easily instant; the illusion is under your control. Films demand more. They’re worth your penny, only if that penny drops. Old-timer Rakesh Roshan has that knack for simplicity. With Krrish (2006), he had a sincere actor, and a one-line plot line – “Baap Ka Badla”, as I suppose is the complicated attempt here. He could see it through successfully. Shankar’s Robot similarly played it straight cloning sci-fi machines taking over the human world as Rajnikanth in the film by that name (oh, it was the other way around).

This is a movie from the director of Dus, Tathastu, Cash. Its genre's traditions are western. So is

the film's primary location: London, I guess. It’s been converted into 3D as well. I saw it in its two-dimensional glory. Poster of Michael Jackson’s Bad on the wall suggests we’re in circa 1985. Graininess of the big screen sort of confirms the suspicion. A bumbling gaming programmer, south Indian Shekhar Subramaniam (Shah Rukh, expectedly unconvincing) designs a deadly game for his son, where the villain’s stronger than the super-hero. The villain instead develops a life of its own to take on the developer’s son, who was playing against him last. Flying hero enters earth to save boy. No one in the planet is surprised, or is even aware. The boy’s father’s dead, his colleague’s no more, cars collide. Head of gaming company is busy selling that same software like nothing happened. The only thing the writers are worried about is how G.One will get through security on a frikin’ flight.

Which gets you to think about who G.One really is. This supposedly emotionless, part-time gaming super-hero, in designer suits, regular clothes, human skin does everything, short of

actually crying: smiles, hugs, quotes the Gita, shakes his pelvis to ‘You Be My Chamak Chalo’. His nonchalant hostess (Kareena Kapoor), a grieving widow, takes it quite well; it’s like any other day for her. She understands people have flocked to movie theatres for this! They must have, basically for two reasons: SRK, and the special effects. No surprises, they’re both there, in good measure. Full marks for the effort. But that you already knew. A year of relentless hustling, hype and expectations inevitably numb achievements, whatever they are, into the obvious. You wish to figure if this was worth this much fuss. Look at the film. The fuss was necessary! Producers make plans of a franchise obvious with the final scene. That, I fear may have G.One with the wind. But then you never know, right? Seriously. From the very onset, this classy sci-fi film sets the viewers’ adrenalin soaring. It also educates, entertains and eulogises our culture. And, very predictably, from the very beginning you know that the crux of the film is about how good triumphs over evil.

“Ra.One” dwells into the virtual world of today’s youngsters who are hooked on to technology and video games. Prateik (Armaan Verma) is one of them. For him the villain is the hero simply because he does not play by the rules. It’s winning, by hook or by crook, that matters to him. Shekhar Subramanium (Shah Rukh Khan), the clumsy, nerdy game developer father of Prateik, lovingly tries convincing his son with, “Allow me to quote….” and quotes Mahatma Gandhi and such like. The youngster is unimpressed, thereby revealing the generation and cultural gap between the two of them.

Disheartened by the strain in the father-son relationship, Shekhar develops the invincible Random Access One (Ra.One), who can take any form, to please his son. Still not fully convinced with his own creation, as a standby he also develops Good One (G- One), who could exterminate Ra.One if need be. Excited with his father’s creation, Prateik plays Ra.One with a screen name, Lucifer. He manages to cross level two of the video game, thereby antagonising “Ra.One”. Unknown to Shekhar and his team, Ra.One steps out of the game into their real world to eliminate Lucifer, thereby threatening Prateik’s life. This concept of the characters sliding from the virtual world into the real world seems to have been inspired from the Hollywood film, “The Purple Rose of Cairo”. “Ra.One” is an outright Shah Rukh Khan film.

The way Shah Rukh gracefully slips into the roles of Shekhar, Ra.One and G-One, leaving no room for confusion, is remarkable. He is the superhero of the film. That’s because the script was skillfully and convincingly put together by Anubhav Sinha, Kanika Dhillon, Mushtaq Sheikh and David Benullo. The dialogues by Kanika and Niranjan Iyengar are good in parts. The little gimmicks by Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and Rajnikant add to the lighter moments of the film but take the story nowhere. Shahana Goswami as the employee at the electronic company and Arjun Rampal as Ra.One look fine for the roles they play but have very little to deliver. Armaan as Pratiek is impressive.

The outfits of Ra.One and G-One designed by Robert Kurtzman and the bright production design are worth a mention. Vishal-Shekhar’s music and the background score along with the awesome stunts and thrilling chases are electrifying. The film would not have been what it is if it was not for Resul Pookutty’s sound design, Sanjay Sharma’s editing and for the visual and special effects team. With all the minor blemishes, this movie is still worth seeing at least once. This high energetic film is loaded with antics, animation and action. With many thrilling sequences mounted with grandeur, it gives you the feel of a live video game. It is probably one of the classiest movies seen in the Hindi film industry and a feather in Anubhav’s hat. Here's a movie the Hindi film industry can be proud of. "Ra.One" can be touted as the first Hindi film that blends the elegance of Hollywood with Indian sensibilities.

From the very onset, this classy sci-fi film sets the viewers' adrenalin soaring. It also educates, entertains and eulogises our culture. And, very predictably, from the very beginning you know that the crux of the film is about how good triumphs over evil. "Ra.One" dwells into the virtual world of today's youngsters who are hooked on to technology and video games. Prateik (Armaan Verma) is one of them. For him the villain is the hero simply because he does not play by the rules. It's winning, by hook or by crook, that matters to him. Shekhar Subramanium (Shah Rukh Khan), the clumsy, nerdy game developer father of Prateik, lovingly tries convincing his son with, "Allow me to quote...." and quotes Mahatma Gandhi and such like. The youngster is unimpressed, thereby revealing the generation and cultural gap between the two of them.

Disheartened by the strain in the father-son relationship, Shekhar develops the invincible Random Access One (Ra.One), who can take any form, to please his son. Still not fully convinced with his own creation, as a standby he also develops Good One (G- One), who could exterminate Ra.One if need be. Excited with his father's creation, Prateik plays Ra.One with a screen name, Lucifer. He manages to cross level two of the video game, thereby antagonising "Ra.One". Unknown to Shekhar and his team, Ra.One steps out of the game into their real world to eliminate Lucifer, thereby threatening Prateik's life. This concept of the characters sliding from the virtual world into the real world seems to have been inspired from the Hollywood film, "The Purple Rose of Cairo".

"Ra.One" is an outright Shah Rukh Khan film. The way Shah Rukh gracefully slips into the roles of Shekhar, Ra.One and G-One, leaving no room for confusion, is remarkable. He is the superhero of the film. That's because the script was skillfully and convincingly put together by Anubhav Sinha, Kanika Dhillon, Mushtaq Sheikh and David Benullo. The dialogues by Kanika and Niranjan Iyengar are good in parts. The little gimmicks by Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra and Rajnikant add to the lighter moments of the film but take the story nowhere. Shahana Goswami as the employee at the electronic company and Arjun Rampal as Ra.One look fine for the roles they play but have very little to deliver. Armaan as Pratiek is impressive. The outfits of Ra.One and G-One designed by Robert Kurtzman and the bright production design are worth a mention.

Vishal-Shekhar's music and the background score along with the awesome stunts and thrilling chases are electrifying. The film would not have been what it is if it was not for Resul Pookutty's sound design, Sanjay Sharma's editing and for the visual and special effects team. With all the minor blemishes, this movie is still worth seeing at least once. This high energetic film is loaded with antics, animation and action. With many thrilling sequences mounted with grandeur, it gives you the feel of a live video game. It is probably one of the classiest movies seen in the Hindi film industry and a feather in Anubhav's hat. 'Ra. One' has finally released and one thing is obvious - It is indeed a brave and fruitful effort for sure since nothing like this has ever come out of Bollywood. From the sheer experience perspective of seeing something as big as this being unveiled, 'Ra. One' turns out to be a major win for the makers as well as the industry.

It is established in the very opening sequence of the film that with the way technology has advanced, there is a thin line between real and virtual world. This pretty much happens in the real life of a game developer as well (Shahrukh Khan) who creates the biggest ever virtual villain (Ra. One) who ends up entering the real world as well. However the villain's endeavour here is not to destroy the whole world; it is basically a game of one upmanship (pun intended) where all he wishes for is to get even with the developer's son (Armaan Verma) who had once challenged him on the game. With a plot like this, it is pretty much announced that the superhero 'G. One' has one basic task cut out - Save the young boy and get 'Ra. One' way from him forever. Now this basic virtue of the plot has it's strengths as well as weaknesses. Strength, because most in the heartland of India would relate to a father-like figure standing up for a boy instead of someone who is trying to stop a global warfare. Weakness, because those exposed to the superhero flicks from the West can well be expected to become impatient whenever the focus moves from action and thrills to family affairs.

This is what happens in 'Ra. One' as well where initial 15-20 minutes are dedicated to typical moments around a nerdy father, his supportive wife (Kareena Kapoor) and an evasive son. However it's the points after the interval where 'G. One' accompanies Kareena and Armaan to their ancestral house where the film slackens a bit. Attempt to create emotional moments between Shahrukh and Kareena don't quite bring a lump in your throat while humour too passes muster as one keenly awaits 'Ra. One' to return on track. Thankfully it's the thrills and action which ensure that 'Ra. One' stays on to be a largely engaging affair. Creation of 'Ra. One' in the lab, the sequence where it accumulates it's powers, the one where it takes on Chinese game developer (Tom Wu) or the point where he comes face to face with Shahrukh for the first time - one can well experience the kind of grandeur that is about to explode. However the best is reserved for the sequence just before the interval point where 'Ra. One' runs after Kareena and Armaan on busy London roads. This action sequence could give any Hollywood action film a run for its money. The train sequence is simply fantabulous and though there would be obvious comparisons with a similar sequence in Rajnikanth's 'Robot', this one not just stands on it's own but also manages to surpass it.

On the other hand the sequence just after the interval point (outside the Mumbai airport) is good, though not extraordinary. Even much talked about Rajnikanth sequence doesn't quite build on well after a good promise. The fight in the climax between Shahrukh and Arjun is fine though not exceptional. A film belonging to this genre can't be expected to have too many songs but still 'Chammak Challo' (though arriving all of a sudden) brings the right energy in the film and so does 'Criminal'. However the background score (also by Vishal-Shekhar) is terrific and boasts of international standards with a good 'desi' touch coming in during the train sequence with 'Raftaarein' playing in the background.

Shahrukh does well in playing his role well though there isn't scope to get any histrionics in place. While he is fine as 'G. One', he is endearing as the nerd. Kareena does what is expected from her though she does look like a million bucks in both of her dance numbers. Armaan is efficient and thankfully doesn't go overboard. Arjun appears only towards the later part of the film's second half and one does miss his presence for a long time. Let's admit it today everyone and his grandmother as well as the driver is aware of the fact that Anubhav Sinha directed 'Ra. One' is the biggest movie ever to come out of India. In that aspect results can be pretty much seen on screen with all the crores spent on the making being quite visible. It is indeed the hugest ever film that one could have ever imagined to be emerging from Bollywood in the current times and that by itself is a good enough reason to check out what the film is all about.If there's one thing people have been looking forward to on Diwali more than the festival itself its Shah Rukh Khan's Ra.One. And after months of exhaustive publicity campaign the film finally sees the light of the day. There have been ample speculations and predictions around this film whether it will be good or bad. We give you an insight into what this film is all about.

Shekhar Subramaniam (Shah Rukh Khan) is a techie geek. A dimwit otherwise, Shekhar is more of a shame to his son Prateek (Armaan Verma). In a bid to impress his son, Shekhar creates a game in which the villain is more powerful than the hero as desired by Prateek. Hence originates Ra.One (Tom Wu, Arjun Rampal). Courtesy some confusing analogy about artificial intelligence, Ra.One starts programming its own self and transports from virtual world to real world to kill Lucifer (game name of Prateek) who challenged him in the game. Now that Ra.One is out in real world, how can G.One stay behind? Thus starts the battle between Ra.One and G.One coupled with some emotional drama between G.One, Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) i.e. Shekhar's wife and Prateek.

The initial 40 minutes of the film are a complete drag replete with cheap jokes that make you squirm in your seats. Sample this -

Kalnayak (Sanjay Dutt) has Desi Girl (Priyanka Chopra) kidnapped while Shah Rukh Khan as the superhero Lucifer comes to save Desi Girl. Amidst cheesy spoofs on many a films including a background score of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and also jokes like Bruce Lee's three apparent sisters Iski Lee, Uski Lee and Sabki Lee, Lucifer saves the day. A black fat woman who's the teacher of Prateek happens to be having her sex tape where she is spanking herself that gets leaked in the class.

While being frisked at the airport security, a heavily pierced SRK shows off his pierced nipples. The frisking machine even throws an alert towards SRK's crotch. Now the least I say the better. Needless to say director Anubhav Sinha surely may have undergone a lot of research work to get the content of this film right. We anyway see glimpses of Matrix, Bicentennial Man, I Robot, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Toonpur Ka Superhero among others. The real deal starts with Ra.One becoming a part of the real world. However, by then your patience is tested quite enough. The entire first half and a major portion of second half doesn't even have a glimpse of Arjun Rampal. The first half has Ra.One played by Tom Wu. So much for keeping Arjun's look under wraps for a very long time during film promotions.

Shah Rukh Khan's enactment of a South Indian dimwit is annoying. Wonder what the idea behind sketching such a character was; make him appear endearing or annoying? Second half picks up pretty well as it has enough action, stunts and flying cars to keep you glued to the screen. Though the Bicentennial Man type emotional drama between Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor is much of a hindrance to the action scenes. The end does become much a cliché but then blame it on the Bollywood style film making. One cannot blame the film maker when all that works in the end in Hindi films is happy ending.

Coming to the VFX work, there are some scenes especially about the car flying in the air are brilliantly executed, even the final combat between G.One and Ra.One is one of the rare effects seen in Hindi Cinema but there's inconsistency even at that. There are some shots which are extremely tacky and easily identifiable. Specially the shoddy graphics work done on Rajinikanth in his cameo scene. The film structure is more like the kinds we saw in the 90s with songs popping without context. The music is good and has already grown on people courtesy excessive promotion on TV, Radio etc. Armaan Verma deserves a special mention. The kid is very confident for a first film appearance. A great find. Arjun Rampal keeps gritting his teeth in a bid to act tough and has a very small role. Kareena Kapoor looks very pretty and pulls her part well. Shah Rukh as a producer excels in marketing his film well. He makes his film bigger than him as well. However, as a film he fails in delivering a flawless film. Even as an actor he is average at best. Over all, Ra.One is visually appealing but not for the ones looking for sense in this piece of cinema.