By Niklas Müller
(PHOTO CREDIT: PEN STUDIOS)
GRADE:B
First of all I do have to confess that I'm not watching that many Indian films in a regular year. But basically every Cinephile must have heard of 2022's cultural phenomenon that is RRR. It is even being advertised as India's biggest blockbuster ever. Now that is a film, a serious Cinephile/Critic should not be able to resist. The fact that I've already heard how great this supposedly is, obviously lifted my expectation. Those expectations were definitely fulfilled and even, to some degree, exceeded.
Two things this film does right are: 1. It doesn't try to build up some big new franchise a la Marvel (for which I was incredibly grateful) and 2. It doesn't take itself too seriously. Talking about the latter point, no one can tell me that everything here is supposed to be dead serious. It is way too over the top for that, which in the case of this film, was a magnificent thing and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
At its core, RRR is a story about friendship, brotherhood, love and overthrowing ones suppressors. Ram (Ram Charan) is a British Police Officer is New Delhi, who is secretly working towards a greater goal. Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) is a Gond Tribal leader, who must rescue a little girl that was taken by the brits (the big bads of this film). Naturally those two guys are also superhuman or in other words they are superheroes in a pre-independant India. The story is basically quite simple, but they ended up getting a packed 3 hour epic, and that one can't help but appreciate.
I really have to say that this might very well be one of the craziest films I've ever seen. Everything happens, and there were frankly a few times where I couldn't help but laugh at some of the sheer absurdity, displayed in front of me. Even though I'm generally not the biggest CGI-fest fan, I do have to say that unlike with certain Marvel films, at least RRR has a Filmmaking-vision. The fight scenes are easily the highlight of the film, they are brilliantly choreographed and shot. Those scenes must've taken forever to shoot (a fact that is clearly visible, if one only looks at the scope of it). And even though there are so many fight scenes, each one feels unique.
Yet still, I cannot just praise the film for its ideas and execution and originality, when the Screenplay is easily the weakest aspect in an otherwise strong film. There are some script inconsistencies and even some botched writing in general.
But then again the writing is only a mild damper in one heck of an experience. I already wrote something above, about the film's artistic vision, because I feel like there was a lot of thought put I each and every shot/frame. It is also quite beautiful to look at, aside from some obvious CGI or VFX.
Rajamouli's Filmmaking is a definite standout as well. Just look how he introduces our two main Protagonists, one can already tell that a lot of thought was put into these scenes.
After the crazy experience I had watching RRR, I definitely have to watch some more Indian films in the future.
DIRECTOR: S.S. Rajamouli
WRITER: S.S. Rajamouli
CAST: N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Olivia Morris
RELEASE: March 2022
RUNTIME: 182 minutes
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