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Codes
Bewarse Legend
Username: Codes
Post Number: 63360
Registered: 05-2006
Posted From: 212.60.115.186
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 7:21 am: |
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Robot & 7th sense much better ani evado Ra.One review loo rasadu..
I have no budget for other people's faith in humanity.
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Pokiriraja
Mudiripoyina Bewarse
Username: Pokiriraja
Post Number: 14579
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 121.246.2.195
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 7:08 am: |
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Film: Ra.One
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal
Rating: ***
“Raavan kabhi marta nahi. Issi liye tum har saal usse jalate ho.” The bad guy gets the best line in the film. Sadly, his screen time is minimal. Ra.One comes alive every time the good (G.One, Khan) and the evil (Ra.One, Rampal) face-off. But they hardly do.
Ra.One carries the burden of being Hindi cinema’s costliest film, and stars one of our biggest superstars. The film has almost everything going for it: The SFX is up-to-mark, the concept interesting, the scale mammoth.
But blame it on Anubhav Sinha, the director with slick-but-hollow films Dus and Cash on his CV (one worked at the box office, the other bombed). RaOne is no different; it is beautiful in appearance, but empty within. Which is a pity. Anubhav could have really made a mark with this one.
The SFX, no doubt, is the best you'll have seen in a Hindi film (and that's a big plus), but the shoddy writing spoils the party. What’s the point of having all that money and technology at your disposal, when the only sequences that truly stand out consist of two well-choreographed action scenes and an item song that amount to only about 11 minutes of screen time.
The rest is made up of characters periodically grabbing each other’s private parts, inane humour (Lady warriors called Iski Lee, Uski Lee, Sabki Lee), and stereotypes that range from a bumbling south Indian man to a fat black lady, and a homosexual customs officer (who salivates at G.One’s nipples, no less). Four writers are credited with the film's screenplay; each of them is squarely responsible for messing up the effort put in by the technical crew.
The disappointing thing about Ra.One is not that it resorts to inane jokes and done-to-death cliches in a desperate bid to 'entertain', but that it had the potential to truly kick some - as G.One puts it - "fat ass." In stead, we get a film that works in half measures.
So while the cameo by 'Superstar Rajinikanth' comes at an interesting juncture, it ends as abruptly, without either of the two stars really getting a chance to dazzle together. Or the action in the climax, which is set-up interestingly, but doesn't really give you the adrenaline rush you expect.
Another half attempt comes from the lead actor: Khan is in-his-element and endearing as superhero G.One, but annoyingly OTT as video game creator Shekhar. Even though die-hard fans will freak out, SRK'S G.One lacks the chutzpah of Main Hoon Na's Major Ram, where he similarly vanquished a terrorist called 'Raghavan' at the end.
As Shekhar's wife, Kareena does little than preen at the camera in sexy outfits. Rampal scorches the scene with his screen presence. The kid Armaan, as Shekhar's son Prateik, who learns the importance of siding with the good against evil, is charming despite the awful hairstyle.
Which brings us back to the film's best dialogue: "Raavan kabhi marta nahi". So then how can the good one ever be victorious? Oh well, we have the sequel to figure that out.
http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_review-ra-one-is-a-half-baked-attem pt-that-entertains-sporadically_1603577
NANADAMURI TARAKA RAMUDIKI HANUMANTHUDHINI NENU
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Pokiriraja
Mudiripoyina Bewarse
Username: Pokiriraja
Post Number: 14578
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 121.246.2.195
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 7:05 am: |
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Director: Anubhav Sinha
Actors: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor
Rating: **
After adequately warning children against trying any such stunts, the super-hero leapfrogs over and at right angles of a running train.
related stories
I play central role in my films: Kareena
Critics' verdict: RA.One gets mixed reviews
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 his 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 gape at 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.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/mayankshekhar/Mayank-Shekhar-s-review-Ra -one/Article1-761677.aspx
NANADAMURI TARAKA RAMUDIKI HANUMANTHUDHINI NENU
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Pokiriraja
Mudiripoyina Bewarse
Username: Pokiriraja
Post Number: 14577
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 121.246.2.195
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 7:03 am: |
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Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Tom Wu
Directed by Anubhav Sinha
Rating: Not even One
Science fiction is an oxymoron. And when this genre is sprinkled with moronic humour and logic takes a beating from hell, you know you've punched your tickets for 'RA.One'. With metallic blue and red costumes right out of Falguni Pathak's wardrobe, this out-of-console experience offers laughs, dances and androids touching humans in more ways than considered socially acceptable. Insert coin to read more.
The film sweeps us into a video game fantasy where anything is possible (with a 175-crore-budget, it better be). Game developer, Shekhar Subramanium (Shahrukh Khan) wants to earn his son, Prateek's (Armaan Verma) love and respect. And the only thing that gives Prateek joy is to see his joystick twiddling to spell doom for the most vicious video game super-villain ever. So daddy makes a baddie just like that and calls it RA.One (Arjun Rampal). The game also has a not-so-indestructible superhero called G.One (an emotionally challenged Shahrukh). Please read the box carefully for the 25 permutation-combinations in which RA.One and G.One can kill each other (something to do with the heart being in the body and not in the pocket or anywhere else during combat).
Anyway, it gets nasty as our virtual warriors tear out of the game, 'Terminator 2'-style. Also, thanks to some goofy programming, RA.One is hell-bent on killing Prateek. Naturally, G.One has to do the rescuing and being an android, do it without getting teary-eyed or romantic with Prateek's mum, Sonia (Kareena Kapoor). But who said robots can't ham or chant prophetic life-changing verses coded by its master? No.One!
Humour based on linguistic stereotypes may have worked in 'Zabaan Sambhalke' but now it hardly earns a chuckle. This is assuming the average audience intellect dictates that Tamilians don't always say 'Aiyoo' or pronounce 'keys' as 'kiss'. And even if they do, no amount of laughter track can make this seem funny. No.Fun!
'RA.One' does what no other Sci-Fi movie has done before: it mocks itself. So, the superhero who is manually stopping trains in one scene, is also burning his crotch or sneezing out metallic wires in another. No respect.
Shahrukh's robotic expressions will remind you of his 'My Name is Khan' role, as he confuses machines with differently-abled humans. Kareena's character covers the entire gamut of expressions but isn't memorable or mentionable enough to be regarded. Arjun Rampal has bagged his dream role: an android with mechanical expressions who allows his body to do the talking. Good job, Arjun Rampal's body!
The VFX award would go for most battle arenas, inspired from many popular games. It wouldn't go for the local train swishing out of CST station like a PowerPoint slide.
It's convenient to say that if you have no expectations from 'RA.One', you wouldn't be disappointed. But if you feel so little for the film, why go to watch it at all?
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-reviews/r-one-review-000920615.html
NANADAMURI TARAKA RAMUDIKI HANUMANTHUDHINI NENU
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Pokiriraja
Mudiripoyina Bewarse
Username: Pokiriraja
Post Number: 14576
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 121.246.2.195
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 7:01 am: |
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Ra.One
Shah Rukh Khan's superhero character takes too long to boot in this science fiction flick. G.One arrives just five minutes before the interval point by when you have already restarted your system several times, which has been hanging into nothingness. And the film's title character Ra.One, a skeletal villain, gets a face (Arjun Rampal) even later in the second half. Is it worth the wait? Only intermittently and inconsistently!
So what happens before the advent of the superhero? You are introduced to a nerdy South Indian stereotype Shekhar (Shah Rukh Khan), his wife Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) and their apathetic son Prateek (Armaan Verma). The father hopelessly imitates Michael Jackson, the mother is doing a Phd on Indian abuses and you don't blame the son to be uninterested by their goofy gimmickry.
The son wishes to see his diffident daddy as 'Papa - The Great'. So the father designs a virtual reality game and after detailed tutorials on nomenclature and direction-to-use, the video game's protagonist and antagonist come to the fore. So much that they step out of the gaming console to battle it out in the real world as G.One and Ra.One. What follows is a 'Robot- meets-Terminator' plotline with Ra.One in hot pursuit of Prateek while G.One trying to save him.
It's certainly not a 'dream' start for the film with a tacky video game prologue merely to accommodate starry cameos of Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra. Not only does director Anubhav Sinha take too long to arrive, the initial proceedings don't contribute much to the film either. Too much of screen-time is expended on vulgar jokes and tomfoolery. The actual thrill initiates only after the superhero comes into picture and the graph of the narrative soars considerably in the second half.
Though the sci-fi concept seems too far-fetched, the director is able to pull it off with visual dazzlery and fast-paced storytelling that the genre demands. The action sequences are thrillingly and credibly choreographed and esp. outstanding is a freeway chase which leads to car-catapulting sequence in a junkyard at the interval point. The local train sequence in the pre-climax evidently brings back memories of Rajinikanth's Robot. However, the climactic mortal combat in a simulation setup isn't as much awe-inspiring and reminds of the climax of Ajay Devgn's Toonpur Ka Superhero.
Another factor that works against the film is that its title character Ra.One is not half as menacing as it claims to be. Not only is Arjun Rampal inducted pretty late in the plot, being an 'outcome' of virtual reality he is too shallow and ineffective as the main villain. And while G.One is delightful, it could have been a lot more endearing. While it's mechanized avatar and emotionless conduct is again reminiscent of Rajinikanth's Robot, the South sci-fi packed in much more punch thanks to an eventful screenplay as compared to the Bollywood counterpart which relies too much on SRK's stardom than the script. No doubt then that Rajinikanth's one-scene cameo as 'Chitti' garners more applause than Shah Rukh wins in the whole film.
The film has a very crude sense of humour and surprisingly the dialogues are more vulgar than witty for a film largely targeted at the family audience. With the theory that anything sells in the name of Shah Rukh, you are served with butt-spanking, crotch-grabbing, cleavage-popping, nose-picking, condom innuendoes, gayish and garish gags. While any other actor doing that would have been tagged as 'cheap', girls going gaga over SRK would still like to call it 'charming' over here. Kareena Kapoor takes her Golmaal gibberish-abusive legacy ahead. Moreover a SRK film seems incomplete without a karva chauth scene or a K2H2 track playing in the backdrop.
Surprisingly, the ever-dependable Vishal-Shekhar's musical score never rises above the Akon number Chammak Challo. V Manikanandan's cinematography is effective. The editing could have been better and the film could have been much crisper in length. Since the film was not actually shot using the 3D technology and is merely converted into the format, the effects aren't really great and one wouldn't miss much in the 2D format.
Shah Rukh Khan credibly pulls off the G.One part though irritates occasionally as the nerdy South Indian. Despite being a superhero film, Kareena Kapoor is never sidelined and does decent in her part. Child actor Armaan Verma is less cute and more of attitude. He carries an annoyed expression for a major part. It's a cakewalk for Arjun Rampal to remain expressionless (in his mechanical avatar) throughout the film. The base effect added to his voice makes his dialogue delivery less perceptible. Amitabh Bachchan's voiceover in the game's introduction doesn't register. The film offers an apt tribute to Rajinikanth though. Shahana Goswami gets no scope. Dalip Tahil makes a caricature of himself.
On the Indian superhero scale, G.One is certainly way ahead of its Krrish counterparts but still miles behind Robot. Nevertheless Ra.One qualifies for a 'one' time watch.
Verdict: Above Average
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/RaOne -Movie-Review/articleshow/10498362.cms
NANADAMURI TARAKA RAMUDIKI HANUMANTHUDHINI NENU
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Prasanth
Bewarse Legend
Username: Prasanth
Post Number: 62315
Registered: 03-2004
Posted From: 117.197.211.22
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 7:01 am: |
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rediff ante aravollu untaaru...and vaalla review elaa nammutaavu....??
separate seemandhra as telugu naaDu
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Pokiriraja
Mudiripoyina Bewarse
Username: Pokiriraja
Post Number: 14575
Registered: 02-2005
Posted From: 121.246.2.195
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 6:59 am: |
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Shah Rukh Khan's [ Images ] latest film offers no emotional connect with the audience even as its story flops in the telling says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
On paper the idea must have seemed unbeatable. A gamer creates a kickass game to thrill his son, the evil one breaks out of the game and pursues the son, the father steps in to save the son, and the day.
There are many planes on which the idea must have been appealed to Shah Rukh Khan, the dethroned King Khan [ Images ] of Bollywood (Shocked? But it's true: Aamir Khan [ Images ] has taken over the classes and the collections, while Salman Khan [ Images ] has walked away with the masses).
At the height of Amar Singh's [ Images ] lackies gheraoing his mansion Mannat in Mumbai [ Images ] with the family inside, SRK [ Images ] had said he will do anything to protect his children. I presume when Anubhav Sinha approached him with the script, the part about G.One protecting his son must have leapt out at the actor.
Everyone knows, thanks his media saturation skills, that SRK is an owl who stays awake at night. So does the film's G.One. Notch another one for Anubhav Sinha.
Again, thanks his media saturation skills everyone knows that SRK is a gamer, a geek in Bollywood clothes. So is the (thankfully) short-lived caricature of a hero Shekhar Subramaniam or whatever. Notch yet another one for the director.
In his 40s SRK seems to have entered a maturer, mellower phase in his life. I don't know him, have never met him, my only interaction with him being the once I spoke to him on the phone for an interview for Rediff.com. Thus I base my claim on his last few films Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Billu, My Name Is Khan and now Ra.One, where the focus is on the goodness of the self. Like other stars SRK too wants to leave a legacy, but this time for his children, one where the goodness of heart triumphs. It is what his parents left for him and, I suspect, beyond all the wealth he will leave behind this is the legacy he wants his children to treasure the most.
This is a message from our legends as well, so (again I presume) when Anubhav Sinha made his pitch SRK must have felt, what better time to release the film than Diwali [ Images ], which in the Hindi-speaking parts of the country is celebrated with Raavan's downfall and elsewhere in India [ Images ] with other legends of good winning over evil.
With the basics in place, the challenge would have been to translate the grand vision on to celluloid, after which SRK's money and marketing skills would take over.
Other givens in place like script etc, three elements need to be in sync for a successful film. The director's vision, the lead actor's vision, and the producer's vision. The last is commercial, return on investment, while the first two are creative, and it is essential that the director's vision mesh with the actor's, or at least subsume it.
Ra.One's fault number one, as I see it, was that the director and the lead actor had different visions. The director's vision was to tell his story, and SRK's was to get his 'message' across. Somewhere somehow they did not sync with each other. So at the end of the film, SRK's message comes across, but the story flops in the telling.
Ra.One's fault number two was that there was no emotional connect with the audience. A superhero is out to save the world, the established order which has you and me, members of the audience, in it and we need to feel the urgency of being saved. The unsuperhero G.One's goal, on the other hand, is merely to save his family from an equally inept villain. Who cares!
Ra.One's fault number three was the poor FX. If this tackiness is the level of FX India's biggest movie budget can buy, then I suggest Bollywood return to more modest but effective story-telling. The last Hindi superhero film, Krrish [ Images ], must have been made on a fraction of Ra.One's budget but boasted better FX and worked just fine and not merely because Hrithink Roshan is a better looking actor.
Ra.One's fault number four was that the hero is very un-hero. Oh, G.One has the usual charm that SRK brings to his characters, plus the dimples, but you need to fight out there, not flee all the time. A superhero with no real super skills apart from whirling like a ceiling fan etc? And to think that SRK turned down Shankar's Robot to make this film!
Plus, if I may make a suggestion, can SRK please bring back his original dance director Farah Khan [ Images ]? I don't know what went wrong between them, but she 'knew' SRK and the dance steps reflected that. Here G.One does the hip steps that seem so alien to the SRK we know and love on screen.
Ra.One's fault number five was that it insults audience intelligence too much. All films do, but within limits. Here there seems to be no end to it. Just one instance: Kareena [ Images ] returns to India (why, we don't know since her husband is a British citizen) to her old house where her neighbours know them well, but no one seems to know that her husband is dead or notice that the man with her is not the same guy. Makes me pray as a film-goer that the promise of the last scene, where G.One is shown to return (this time as the evil one, something tells me), doesn't happen.
So what is my takeaway from this most expensive abomination to hit our screens? That even SRK can fail; that while sex continues to sell, SRK doesn't.
Finally, my reaction as a Tamilian to the first Tamil character essayed by SRK: funny and irreverent so typical of the man, but there's a inbuilt danger in caricatures. Which is that the caricature stays on in the mind, not the character. Which happens with Ra.One, which is also its biggest fault.
And as PS, let me rub it in as a Tamilian. Rivals may diss Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] to score points during their book release, but at the end of the day his batting record is there for everyone to see. Similarly, you can caricature Tamils no end, but at the end of the day Rajnikanth's [ Images ] Endhiran collections are there for all to see. Paithikkara!
Rediff Rating:
1.5/5
NANADAMURI TARAKA RAMUDIKI HANUMANTHUDHINI NENU
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