Why I actually liked Ra.ONE

Since the very release, Ra.ONE was getting extremely poor reviews among my friends. Multiple jokes were floating around in Facebook on SRK, Ra.ONE and the over enthusiastic promotions of the movie. I remember a classy one in which SRK is ready to do the dishes of a family if they agrees to watch Ra.ONE.

Yet I happened to be inside a multiplex to catch a noon show of Ra.ONE. I was not really expecting much out of the movie given the reviews I read. I went to the theater mainly because there were no alternatives. Watching Ra.ONE still seemed better than Himesh Reshammiya's latest Damadamm! or Hema Malini's Tell Me O Kkhuda (even with God being reinforced with a double K).

We opted for the 3D version of the film. The movie started with a good title sequence that made it clear that the 3D qualiy was not bad. Although as the movie progressed, most of the scenes in the movie looked 2D to me. :-/

Then the movie started. The opening scene was hilarious. First I thought this is the same SRK stupidity. But then I had a second thought and realized that scenes like this will set this film apart from a regular Hollywood style action film. I mean, if you want to watch a serious action movie go watch an English movie. This movie is an action film dipped in typical bollywood achaar. Like every other bollywood movie, it has songs, dance and melodrama. This makes the movie so Indian; so bollywood.

This movie is supposed to be a science fiction. The fiction part is typical bollywood melodrama. But I have no problems with it as I liked the way the movie did not try to follow Hollywood action movies. But about the science part, I have only one adjective: STUPID (with bold, capital and underline). The whole idea of blending of digital and real world seemed bogus. You do expect the sci-fi flicks a little bit less stupid. Like what logic can you give when a software bot uses mobile phone signals to bring a plastic statue to life? And then the plastic statues become the villain and the hero of the movie. What does the director think about his audience? Grass eating creatures?

Let me tell you the plot of the movie in brief here. The movie starts with Prateek, a video game addicted teenager who is inside a hilarious video game dream. Prateek's father is Shekhar who is himself a video game developer. Shekhar looks like kind of stupid yet noble fellow. (Like all movies, stupids are always noble). He is portrayed as a typical South Indian who eats noodles with white coconut chutney. Well, this is different. I was really bored seeing the same Punjabi and Bengali stereotypes in bollywood films. This film brings the South Indian. For a change.

Shekhar's recent project is on a new video game called Ra.ONE (pronounced as Raavan), named after the name of it's villain. The hero is G.ONE which is NOT pronouced as g-o-n-e gone. Did the film makers never think about what 'gone' means in English? I don't know. Whatever, G.ONE is pronounced as jeevan meaning life. 

On the day of the game launch, the highly advanced AI of Ra.ONE starts to think on it's own and becomes conscious. When Prateek engages in a game against him, he vows to take revenge and then I don't know how, Ra.ONE comes out of the computer to a statue. Then it engages in a killing spree and even kills Shekhar. It then looks out for Prateek who plays under the screen name of Lucifer. And about time, Jenny, an employee at Shekhar's company, brings the G.ONE statue to life. Then a series of fights. Typical bollywood style belly scratching comedy, some melodramatic glycerin extracts and the final fight. That's all in it.

Then why did I like this film? Mainly because it resisted the urge to be like a Hollywood style action film and became a bollywood one. Jist don't categorize it as a science fiction or an action movie. Expect something in the line of Main Hoon Naa or Om Shanti Om and you will not be disappointed.