Sunday, November 17, 2013

True to the new title 'Goliyoon ki RaasLeela , Ram-Leela'

'Goliyoon Ki Raasleela, Ram-Leela', also previously known as 'Ram-Leela' is an intense love-hate story, that takes from the age-old 'rival leads fall in love' story, and tries to pull out an epic from giving it a 'mitti ka rang' (colour of the earth) feel by choosing the setting somewhere in barren Gujarat, and adding the colours of grandeur from the wealth of our bright and sparkly customs and architecture. 'Ram-Leela' is an exaggeration in all fronts. But that is exactly what we expect from Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Now I must admit that what you see on TV, multiplied a few dozen times on the big screen is a completely different experience. The songs and picturisation that looked okay on small screen, looked much more royal on the huge canvas. Add to it the quality of booming speakers in a good theatre. The grandness that SLB promised comes true here. Well, the first half goes through without any hitch wit lavish song sequences, a gorgeous Deepika and a decent Ranvir performance, and lot of raw sensual power games. Girls will look for the new color palettes for their new dresses and the jewellery that Deepika wears, while men will be ogling about Deepika's curves and thinking of  Ranvir's raw attitude. Film lovers will notice the scale of art work and design that has gone through, the director's need to ooze intense power packed performances and dialogs, and beautifully captured frames all through (no wonder as it is Ravi Varman).

By second half there is a serious change in mood in the plot, and the viewers will be satisfied with the visual extravaganza, that they will now start concentrating on the story. Here, SLB tries various things, and those do not necessarily reflect back positively from a confused viewer. Certain times logic would take a backseat, and the proceedings would ofter confuse the viewer. I was left to answer my friend occasionally who kept asking, 'why did he do like this?' or 'why deepika didn't say anything?' and i never had a good answer. So you just have to leave things at this is what the director wanted, so no questions please; Which, by the way is the image of a bad script. Certain twists seemed so forced into the script.



Ranveer provides ample entertainment with his actions, while Deepika should be on cloud nine by the way she looks in the movie, thanks to Ravi Varman and SLB, and the choreographers too please. She plays her part really well, being the bold woman of today with being the sexy lead who can give the film the required oomph factor. Supriya Pathak as Leela's mother, who is the Don on one side, has a very powerful presence all through. The very first scene where she is talking calmly to a police officer, suddenly bursts out at her servant when she hears something she dislikes from the officer's mouth, proves the mettle of her character. SLB has added yet two another strong female characters as the 'Bhabhi's (sister in law) of the two leads, Richa Chadda and Bharka Bisht.

The music is all over the movie. SLB and Monty have had a good run before, and though the songs, according to me, do not stand up to their previous work, it certainly does work for the film.  The beats and rythm of the songs fill the viewers imagination, which ofcourse, SLB overcame. 

The movie does have a not-so-new plot and a familiar SLB setting, but it comes packed with an intensity never seen before, and the entertainment a SLB movie can give. So do watch the movie in a theatre. Majority will be ok with it. I rate it with a 3/5.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It's the grandeur of the SLB sets and all the action packed drama that makes this worth watching... Logic, yes, had to take a backseat at times.
Nice review :)

Unknown said...

I haven't got a ticket yet, must see this one this week or next. The setting looked very vivid and elaborate to me at times too, but must see it in the big screen to judge rightly

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