RA.ONE MOVIE REVIEW

RA.ONE is no doubt the most anticipated movie of the season and the reason’s obviously for it being the movie of Sharukh Khan, the King of Khan’s. Added to it, it’s a huge scale science fiction and not to deny that is exceedingly publicized that it is talked over than any other burning problem of the nation, thanks to the promotion campaign run by the Sharukh himself as he has stake in the movie. Directed by Anubhav Sinha who debuted with Tum Bin and later directed Stylish “Dus”, RA.ONE has gorgeous and lucky lady Kareena Kapoor who boasts of handful of biggest grosser’s of Bollywood.

Let’s peep into this virtual world of RA.ONE!!

Plot: Shekhar (Sharukh), a very caring father always fail to get the hugs from his son Prateik (Armaan Varma) for being so timid. While Prateik loves the villains in his video games, Shekhar believes in Good to win over bad. But to win over his son’s attention, Shekhar designs a video game RA.ONE (Random Access .ONE) where it is almost impossible for the hero of the video game, G-ONE (replica of Shekhar) to win it. Prateik takes the challenge and wins the first round. Now RA.ONE who cannot bear the defeat enters the real world to win the game, killing prateik. Witness the Super battle of RA.ONE and G.ONE on big screen.

Virtual world comes to real…

Well RA.ONE before the release, promised to serve us a feast of stunning visuals. And truly holding to it, the premise set for the film and the things we see on the screen firmly stand to the word given. Go start from the titles, the reference to the virtual world is made. Of course movie do take some little time to introduce the family members and colleagues of Shekhar, who are gonna be part of this adventure. Bear the very filmy, but not too funny appearances of Priyanka Chopra and Sanjay Dutt.

But once the real game begins, there’s no seeing back. We see the ambitious RA.ONE trying to escape into the real world. And then there’s a brilliant chase and fight with stunning visuals of flying cars when RA.ONE fights with G.One. I guess that’s more than suffices the pre-interval block and make viewers happy for they get what they expect to see. Then the later part brings us Sharukh’s kind of slapstick comedy made of few silly fights (ok, bearable) and few things that draw line between Robot and a human. While there is a lengthy train sequence reminding you the Rajnikanth’s Robot, Sharukh might have felt it inevitable to bring in RajniKanth for a cameo. Well Rajni’s appearance as chitti is small and fits in considering Rajni’s health condition too. And here’s the climax that’s good enough visually while keeping us engaged throughout.

Actor’s On-screen…

Sharukh has chosen to play south Indian Shekhar Subramanian, may be to offer some difference in what we see in regular films. That served the gap between him and his kid and supported the variation he offered for G.ONE.As G-ONE, he with ease plays superhero, who has a mission of protecting his family. But the producer in him dominated the actor, for providing rich extravaganza live to the screen.

Kareena does her job well and even sizzles in “Chammak Challo” saving some money to the producer for not bringing in an additional item girl for that one.

Young Kid Armaan Varma, plays way better for a debutant and scores full marks.

As RA.ONE, the Villain in the game gets into the skin of someone in real world, Tom Wu a Chinese actor plays the role in first half and Arjun Rampal does it in second. Both are adequate. Sahana Goswamy and Satish shah suffices well for supporting roles.

Fantastic Visual effects…

Jeff Kleiser took care of the visual effects for RA.ONE in unquestionable manner. The perfection in the work is seen in cubic transformations of lead roles. The fantastic chase sequence and blowing up of cars in London, is just mind-blowing as Bollywood movie is concerned. While Train sequence though well shot, has less impact as we see similar thing in Rajni’s Enthiran. Climax and loads of visuals which we see in movie flow are all superb. Credit also goes to Red Chillies VFX team on whole. Oscar winner Rasool Pookutty does the in-sync sound mixing. Nicola Pecoroni does splendid job for cinematography.

Awesome work off-the screen…

“Anubhav” Sinha as name suggests might have gained much experience watching other Sci-Fi films, but still makes a difference with RA.ONE. And while making an Indian science fiction, there are some things like sentiment and Romance that do hinder the proceedings, but it’s up to audience to answer themselves, if those things are unavoidable considering the whole thing as fiction. Vishal Shekhar increases the reach of movie by providing some cool tunes in form of “Dildaara..” and rocking “Chammak challo”

Time for negative points…

It would have been absolute joy to watch a movie that has perfect storyline combined with the Visual effects like Avatar. But RA.ONE lacks behind there. Nevertheless our Shekhar aka G-ONE tries to build in few emotions of family, playing a caring father telling idealistic proverbs now and then and giving a message towards the end. When termed as Children’s movie, is there a need to include words like “Kondom Kondom” for Konjum Konjum. This is high time, censor needs to wake up.

Finally…

RA.ONE stands number one for Visual effects, so far on Indian cinema. If that is what you expect from the film, RA.ONE delivers it without hesitance. While the movies with no proper story but just go to become block-buster with the star value, RA-ONE can also attain and surpass them, but whether it surpasses the 175 Crore put on it!! Time should tell it.

Rating

3 STARS. RA.ONE is one happy watch for the difference it offers, and you might be unhappy if you focus on flaws!!.

7th Sense Movie Review

Solid combo of Suriya- AR Murgadoss- Harris Jairaj who delivered “Ghajini” is back with 7aum Arivu and the dubbed version in Telugu is called 7^th Sense. Sruthi Hassan pairs with Suriya. So going by the combination involved and the trailers, the movie released with decent expectations and thanks to the Deepavali festival that’s around!!

Story:  

Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk of Indian origin who lived in 5^th century travelled to china then. He treated diseased with medicines he invented and he possessed variety of skills like hypnotism and other warfare techniques.

In Present day, Subha (Sruthi Hassan), a young genetic scientist tries to bring back the power and wisdom of Bodhidharma by infusing his DNA into his successor Aravind (Suriya).  Will she succeed in accomplishing her task? What are various hindrances the couple needs to face comprises the flick.

Actors:

Surya plays two roles of Bodhidharma and Aravind. He is damn handsome as young prince Bodhidharma. His get up as old Bodhidharma looked natural and elegant. He’s seen with complete bald head depicting the actual pictures of Bodhidharma. While as Aravind, he looked cool and he showcased his six-pack physique in needed scenes. Suriya tries to please his mass fans and variety seekers with his two different characters and this brilliant and dedicating actor delivers that with ease.

Sruthi Hassan gets the substantial role and scores very good marks both for her looks and her acting skills that flow in her blood. While she looks stunningly cute in songs, she had a lot of dialogue to explain the essence of the happenings. So she is promising and more to look for in days to come.

Johnny Tri Nguyen, a Vietnamese American film and television actor is seen as powerful villain who hails from china. With his serious looks with the power of hypnotism, he adds spice to proceedings.

Sruthi friends and Suriya’s dwarf companion did decent job.

Gist of two halves…

Movie flows in regular straight pattern starting from Bodhidharma.First half is decently distributed among the Subha-Aravind’s romance track giving place to few songs and then Subha’s research and the Villain’s entry. So the flow is smooth and adequate though nothing great as expected.

Interval and very few minutes from then, things become very clear and there’s nothing left out that could go against audience guess. And the fact that is indigestible is that there’s nothing new that’s delivered by the genious director Murugudoss.

Murugudoss  disappoints….

  Movie depends on simple thread of bringing back some powers to life to fight back the evil.  And that is told in even simpler fashion but stretching it for 3 lengthy hours . While the villainy shown by the hypnotism trick seemed different, excessive use of it and its repetition becomes funny and loses its impact  when truly tried to attack Suriya-Sruthi in badly made graphical fight sequence. While that fight sequence is lengthier one, the climax which is supposed to be even bigger falls flat with just one on one fight ( while such a huge powers attained with such a filmy effort serves such an ordinary fight..Disappointed!!). And sub plot of a wide-spreading disease (like in recent film Contagion) is very poorly written. Shanker would have dealt that episode much better. The movie which already lacks heart leaves lot of space for improvement.

Goodies….

Harris Jayaraj’s back ground score is flawless and all the songs are very good on screen. All the songs are nicely pictured and are pleasant when seen on screen thanks to gorgeous Sruthi and her dazzling chemistry with Suriya. Ravi.K.Chandren's cinematography is adequate.

Finally….

First of all, the title itself has no sense. And overall 7^th Sense is almost a regular movie but differently packaged.  If only for Suriya and Sruthi, this serves fine as a regular time-pass flick. But if you are seeking a different kind in lines of Ghajini, this is not the one.It just serves little difference.

Rating…

2.75/5

OOSARAVELLI MOVIE REVIEW

“DUSSERA” …A Big Festival being around…It’s time for celebrations…family gatherings and finally for movies. While “Dookudu” released few days back is ruling the roost, It’s NTR’s turn to hit the box-office with new film “Oosaravelli”. Surendar Reddy of “Athanokkade”, “Kikk” directs the flick. He earlier directed NTR for “Ashok”. Tammana plays the female lead opposite Young Tiger.

Let’s check in brief what’s it all about…

Plot(Not much spoiler): Tony(NTR) a easy going guy who does petty settlements for money, comes to Hyderabad from Mumbai. He falls for Niharika (Tamanna). NTR in his acts, behave bit differently based on situations starts killing the baddies one after other with hidden motto. What’s the story behind his killing the goons? What’s the connection of the heroine with the main plot? etc are revealed as the movie proceeds!

Actors:

Whatever firstly let’s appreciate NTR, for choosing a title “Oosarvelli” rather than some general mass title to suit his image. He tries hard to come out of Angry Lad image and tries to be a lover boy for a while and act comically like RaviTeja for a while. So while he is not himself, he is just adequate for the role. Ease in dance is of course cake walk for NTR, though there’s no much scope here. But definitely his fans will miss the punch that they get through his powerful dialogues and emotions. Wish he switches back to that for his mass followers.

Tammana has got real meaty role here. She balances the glamour quotient and emotions perfectly. It’s a rare thing that Heroine has that much of screen space these days as almost 10 minutes in the later half entirely runs on her. Her acting ability comes in handy here. She is one thing to look out for in this flick. She is superb in “Niharika” song.

Payal Ghosh who is seen in “Prayanam” plays Tammanna’s friend. She shares most of her friend’s screen time. She supports the proceedings from the beginning and gains more importance towards the end.

O God, It’s too tiresome and irritating to see Prakash Raj is same old Don Ajjubhai( even his name is disgustingly boring) role  with such an idiotic same old costumes. While there is no brahmanandam here, Jaya Prakash and Raghubabu etc try to add some comedy. MS Narayana also supports them. Very few other actors like Tanikella, Shiyaji shinde and Kikk Shyam  are adequate.

So What’s the gist!!

Director Surendar Reddy tries to tell the regular revenge drama in rather twisted manner. He borrows theme of “Aarya” for first half. First half is filled with some triangular love story between NTR and Tammana and her would be( a guy plays similar role like Sivabalaji in Aarya). And there’s a side track of Jaya Prakash, don wannabe to support this love track.  For sure the comedy track, spills some laughs here and there, and the quick songs help first half to move smoothly.  

Interval Bang and initial second half reveal the actual motto of the flick. While this part is dealt fine, the actual plot or reason is definitely not that worthy or exciting to hold the flick strongly. After relevation, there’s nothing much left over for last half hour but to rush up and say a good bye.

 What are good….

The Director shows few sparks here and there…To name few, The boy meets girl scene pictured in Kashmir and the song that follows is good. The Story that follows immediately after interval is gripping and possesses some seriousness. Using RGV’s titles for villain gang, whole JP’s comedy track is adequate. “Niharika” , “Brathakaali”, “Daandiyaa” are nicely shot. “Friend ante caring” has nice situation. Tamanna looks very good throughout. Devisri Prasad composes music while Rassol Ellore handles cinematography. Two action episodes are well handled with a song background and others suffices. 

What’s All Missing…

Though the entire plot seems little twisty, It finally ends the same and depends on the same old revenge saga. Movie as such lacks hilarious comedy which is USP these days to cover up its cliches.

Finally…

Though not surprisingly fresh, Movie offers regular masala for movie goers this festival. First half, NTR’s fan base and Tamanna’s role will surely make up for a watch if in case you don’t have an option. Festival time, Huge release will help this movie for a weekend.

Rating

2.75/5