Sunday 8 December 2013

R....Rajkumar : Movie review



When Prabhu Dheva ventured into directing exaggerated action sagas, one wondered on the dancing demigod's diverse choice of genre. But in his last three bollywood directorial offerings, Prabhu Dheva followed a set trend which was quite similar to evergreen mindless masala genre that is synonymous with names like Manmohan Desai, Subhash Ghai. In fact, Prabhu Dheva tends to direct a film pretty much like he choreographs a song i.e. in a perky way. He packs both i.e. direction as well as choreography, from end to end, with a frenzied hurry of brisk hand and feet movements and a surfeit of high - decibel musical clatter. The astoundingly lithe dance steps that he conjures up tend to flummox the eyes ; the attendant sounds unleash a non-stop assault on the eardrums. The two together ( and singly as well ), have clearly outlived their utility to a certain extent for a certain section of movie watchers. A violent action film that has been designed to bring Shahid Kapoor into the tough guy league, R....Rajkumar is weighed down by just the kind of music and machismo formula that worked for Wanted and Rowdy RathoreR....Rajkumar pushes every Prabhu Dheva trademark element to the maximum of its hilt but alias, the screenplay falters somewhere down the line and its only some performances especially of  Sonu Sood & Mukul Dev which save the movie.

SCRIPT & SCREENPLAY                                    :                     The weakest point due to which this movie falters the most is its storyline as well as screenplay (( As if the earlier flicks of Prabhu had the best of storyline )). The amazing part is that not one or two..but four people have been credited for their writing efforts for this movie which ( storyline ) you find non-existent while watching the movie. Prabhu Dheva has written the story where as he along with Sunil Aggarwal, Shiraz Ahmed, Ravi.S.Sundaram have been credited for screenplay writing. And, the screenplay, whatever little there is of it, is mangled heap of nonsense with logic and good taste given a wide berth all the through. The film also takes limp shots at raising some laughs by way of the rustic villain's attempts to learn Queen's English and pick up modern ways. Romeo Rajkumar ( Yes, the big secret to "R" was that our hero is a big Romeo who believes either in pyaar pyaar pyaar or maar maar maar.) Now, our male protagonist lands himself in a lawless village governed by two warring parties Parmar ( Ashish Vidyarathi ) and Shivraj ( Sonu Sood ) who are at loggerheads with each other over monoplizing the business of drugs and Rajkumar starts working with Shivraj. While Rajkumar is rugged, passionate and rebellious, he is blessed with a well chiseled body and devilish charm. Rajkumar's life and ambition go haywire when he comes across beautiful Chanda ( Sonakshi Sinha ) and falls heads over heels over her. He leaves no stone unturned to woo Chanda, an educated smart girl who lives her life on her own terms and is quite bindaas. While Rajkumar is raw yet hot, Chanda is gorgeous, strong headed. But in order to make his love flourish, he needs to fight his own employer,Shivraj along with other drug dealers and mafias and gives an open challenge to Shivraj. So, you think its time for claps....hold on guys....this is a Prabhu Dheva movie, hence you will get ample opportunities to clap scene after scene.

STARCAST                                                     :                 Coming to the performances, the whole movie revolves around the male protagonist i.e. Shahid Kapoor who could have really benefited from this role. But,  It's quite a pity to see Shahid Kapoor putting all his efforts into a banal character which doesn't work out as per his persona.. His hardwork can be seen with the tremendous dancing that he does in all the numbers and also manages to put up a commendable performance. Blame is on the script for not doing justice to the actor. Shahid looks like a complete misfit, what with his body type, bashing up countless people to pulp. This genre is just not meant for him. Sonakshi Sinha yet again takes her prop position in the film and fails to please as her character in this flick has not been sketched to perfection. The rest of the ensemble cast including the likes of  Aashish Vidyarthi, Asrani and Srihari, ham to the fullest, guess on the filmmaker's direction. Two actors who stand out and impress with their performances are namely Mukul Dev & Sonu Sood. Sonu Sood gets ample scope to showcase his diverse acting range as his character encompasses both comic as well as villainous traits. Mukul Dev on the other hand makes the most of his character-sketch and actually is credited not only with some of the laugable gags but also with an emotional outburst towards the penultimate part of the movie.

TECHNICAL FINESSE                                    :                  Another highlight of Prabhu Dheva movies has been their peppy music which Prabhu uses brilliantly to choreograph in his immaculate style. And music of R....Rajkumar also falls in the same league and the man who has composed it is Pritam Chakraborty. The background music has been given by Sandeep Chowta which is in tandem with the screenplay and works well. The cinematography has been handled by Mohan Krishna who has captured some brilliant visuals. The movie has been edited by Ballu Saluja who has done a good job and kept the length of the movie to 134 minutes. As a director, Prabhu Dheva has tried his level best to provide some impetus to a banal script and screenplay but this time he has been been able to achieve success to a certain extent only. The movie works in the first half but fizzles out in the later half. R....Rajkumar is incontrovertible proof that Prabhu Dheva has been hit by the law of dimnishing returns and has to think out of the box lest he falls prey to the repetitive genre and looses his credibility.

WOW MOMENTS                                                :     The verbal duel that ensues between Shahid & Mukul Dev in the beginning as to who is the chief confidant or the best man of drug lord (Sonu Sood) is quite witty. The way Shahid looses himself whenever Sonakshi crosses his way looks very very cute and has been shot well.

CONCLUSION                                                      :     R....Rajkumar is a typical Prabhu Dheva Ishtyle movie, fully loaded with over the top action sequences accompanied by loud dialogues and punches. To make R...Rajkumar a typical potboiler, Prabhu has put in mesmerizing dances, power packed stunts but forgot to concentrate on the screenplay. Hence, it might appeal only to a certain section of cine watchers.
ROHIT SHARMA.
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