10-29-2011, 01:45 PM
From India, one of the planet's oldest civilizations, comes a motion picture that distills the essence of Ra and the Law of One, called "Ra.One" -- not! Instead, it's a big and amazing science fiction-ish story filled with brilliant colors, beautiful women and men, wild stunts and lots of sexy dancing and lip-synching. From my POV, that's just as good.
From Variety:
"'Ra.One' is a frenetic, tuneful, full-throttle action-comedy that has reportedly crushed Indian presales records. Still, this videogame-themed outing seems unlikely to become a crossover hit: While South Asian auds will likely flock to a film that does what Bollywood does with a major techno bump, the aesthetics of overkill will make the result inaccessible to Westernized Americans, the campiness, as usual, muddying the translation.
"With: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami; Hindi, Tamil, English dialogue.
"Kapoor has little do besides smile insipidly or look aghast, and most of her scenes are shot like very ambitious hair-care commercials. She and Khan both acquit themselves admirably, however, during the musical numbers, of which there are several. Along with Khan's presence, it's the effects that sell 'Ra.One,' and they arrive more or less nonstop. Indeed, where the film goes awry is in belaboring all the stylistic flourishes -- the extremely slo-mo, 'Matrix'-style battle stuff, the defiance of physics a la 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' -- as if it were all new, which it may be to Bollywood. Rather than incorporate the technology into the story, Sinha's CG acrobatics become the equivalent of a wide receiver doing back-flips in the end zone -- amusing, but beside the point."
I read the above review a few days ago and now I am watching a TV program called "India Waves," which covers films and popular culture for young expat Indians. It showed lots of excerpts of the film and, despite the shortcomings sited by Variety, I want to see "Ra.One" now. Go figure.
From Variety:
"'Ra.One' is a frenetic, tuneful, full-throttle action-comedy that has reportedly crushed Indian presales records. Still, this videogame-themed outing seems unlikely to become a crossover hit: While South Asian auds will likely flock to a film that does what Bollywood does with a major techno bump, the aesthetics of overkill will make the result inaccessible to Westernized Americans, the campiness, as usual, muddying the translation.
"With: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami; Hindi, Tamil, English dialogue.
"Kapoor has little do besides smile insipidly or look aghast, and most of her scenes are shot like very ambitious hair-care commercials. She and Khan both acquit themselves admirably, however, during the musical numbers, of which there are several. Along with Khan's presence, it's the effects that sell 'Ra.One,' and they arrive more or less nonstop. Indeed, where the film goes awry is in belaboring all the stylistic flourishes -- the extremely slo-mo, 'Matrix'-style battle stuff, the defiance of physics a la 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' -- as if it were all new, which it may be to Bollywood. Rather than incorporate the technology into the story, Sinha's CG acrobatics become the equivalent of a wide receiver doing back-flips in the end zone -- amusing, but beside the point."
I read the above review a few days ago and now I am watching a TV program called "India Waves," which covers films and popular culture for young expat Indians. It showed lots of excerpts of the film and, despite the shortcomings sited by Variety, I want to see "Ra.One" now. Go figure.