Ra·One : A Review

All right, so I went to watch Ra·One yesterday, I had been looking forward to watching this film for a long time now.


Introduction

In case you have no clue what Ra·One is, let me give you a heads up. It is a science fiction superhero film starring Shahrukh Khan (SRK), released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and German.


In the first scene, a new technological innovation is described which serves as the base of the film. Then you are introduced to Shekhar Subramaniam (SRK). He is a brilliant Game Developer who acts more like Mr. Bean. The character being a South Indian, his references to the Madrasi Cliché, won't seem to get well received in the South. Shekhar lives in London, with his wife and son, who is embarrassed of sorts because of his dad trying to be cool, but messes things up.


Characters


So Shekhar develops a game with the ultimate super villain - Ra-One. It stands for 'Random Access - Version 1.0'. Now can some one tell me how that makes any sense? RaOne is the ultimate super villain that Shekar comes up to please his son who thinks villains are cool and heroes are boring. The hero in the game is G-One which means life and he is modeled after SRK, albeit a cooler looking version. Reminds you of 'Rab ne bana di Jodi'. 

Not intending to give out any spoilers in case you haven't seen the film, I will say what I thought of the game film.


I have already given my verdict on the characters played by SRK. They are the usual play of duality that you see as in Fight Club or The Mask. G-One acts more like a human, which I like compared to other films with robots where you can hear metallic sounds when the walk and move in a constrained way.


Kareena as Sonia, wife of Shekhar does exactly what she has been asked to do, although you do wonder if she is limited by her character in the script. Armaan Verma as Pratheek, Shekhar's son also does well, his role being similar to the young John Connor from Terminator 2.


But Arjun Rampal as Ra-One beats everyone else by a mile. He comes in, does his job, no nonsense, no compromise. A great villainous performance.


Special Effects


Firstly it has the best Visual Effects and CGI I have seen in an Indian film, Yes Enthiran was good, but in my opinion, Ra-One has done a little better in this department. The detail in which the effects have come out is pretty good. The fight scenes have come out really well and the action scenes are on par with International movies. 


That said the 3D didn't add anything special, it's just another thing of producers jumping on the 3D bandwagon, plus the film was shot in 2D and converted to 3D. Apart from the title scenes and a few others it seemed as the 3D was non existent.



Final Word


The first half didn't seem like a lag, but the second half I wondered was too long. I am not sure how well received Shekhar's character will be, may be its a trick to make you like G-One more. And the plot of the movie is such that I don't think it will cater to the wide audience, but to younger viewers. My grand parents and all question me for spending time on my computer playing games.


But anyways, see the film for the Visual Effects, editing and the Sound effects. So I would suggest that you watch it for the Special Effects and not for the story. You can try it once. It's kind of fun to go with your friends, young nephews, nieces or children.


A 3.5 out of 5.