India’s most expensive film Ra One has finally released, with its aggressive pre-release promotion a month before its release. The special effects are excellent and are comparable to the best in Hollywood. Its concept is fine, the video game subject too is latest. Where it lacks, or what is unwanted is its scenes like the Karwa Chauth which is seen in the typical Indian TV soaps, and the protagonist, which the director thinks all the South Indians are curly haired.
Ra One is the story of a father (Shah Rukh Khan) trying hard to ‘fit-in’ in his son’s (Master Armaan Verma) badass world, a cool dude son trying hard to ‘dude-up’ his dad from ‘aiiiyyyo’ to‘yo!’ and a mother (Kareena Kapoor) lost in translation between her husband’s ‘ingeva’ and her son’s ‘in’ it!’
Shah Rukh Khan plays a Subramaniyam – South Indian game designer, who still hasn’t come up with a single successful video game, who spends most of his time in his game design lab and the only problem in his life is his estranged relationship with his son, Prateek. While Shekhar was trying every trick in the book to woo his son, get ‘dude-ified’ and ‘up his coolness quotient’ his son had given up on him.
Just when the father-son duo hit a deadlock; Shekhar strikes gold when he designs one hell of a game. Finally it all starts falling in place, as the family comes together, only to find themselves in the middle of a crash, not just a hard drive crash but a crash that would drive them to a disaster and make their lives go – kaboom!!!
… all hell breaks loose when the game that was meant to be played with… starts playing them…
This futuristic flick Ra One has 3 main characters the G.One (the good one), Lucifer (son’s name for video game) and Ra.One (the baddie).
G.ONE, the super hero is made of electricity and is programmed to protect. He is infused with powers to fly, speak different languages and control probability amongst other things. G.One’s powers are centered in his HART. (Hertz Amplifying Resonance Transmitter) What makes G.one endearing is his bond with the kid – Prateek.
Prateek (Lucifer) is a – bad ass whiz kid, and an ace video game player. He belongs to the ‘bad is cool’ set of kids and loves villains and feels that heroes are boring and predictable. Just Like any other teenage kid, Prateek doesn’t get along with his nerdy father and is embarrassed by his loud Punjabi mother, so he mostly hangs out with his friends and his video games.
Sonia Subramaniyam is a beautiful punjabi woman, full of life and zest. A feminist by nature, Sonia aims to pen down a book on male centric abuses. Amongst the family of three – Sonia often finds herself acting as an adhesive between her geeky husband Shekhar and her cool son Prateek, who are constantly fighting.
Sonia is hopeful that one day this father- son duo will finally bond.
A bit stretched film Ra One, which could have done without the initial Sanjay Dutt – Priyanka stuff and the long scene where the superhero takes eons to reach the drivers cabin of the 12 rake coach.
Cast of Ra One:
Shahrukh Khan as G.One / Shekhar Subramanium
Kareena Kapoor as Sonia Shekhar Subramanium
Arjun Rampal as Ra.One
Armaan Verma as Prateek Subramanium a.k.a. Lucifer
Shahana Goswami as Jenny Nayar
Tom Wu as Akashi
Dalip Tahil as Barron
Suresh Menon as Taxi Driver
Satish Shah as Iyer
Special appearance: Sanjay Dutt (Khalyanak) and Priyanka Chopra (Damsel in distress)
Credits & Crew of Ra One:
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Producer: Gauri Khan
Associate producer: Sanjiv Chawla
Story: Anubhav Sinha
Screenplay: Kanika Dhillon, David Benullo, Mushtaq Sheikh, Anubhav Sinha
Dialogue: Kanika Dhillon, Niranjan Iyengar
Director of Photography: Nicola Pecorini
Production Designer: Sabu Cyril, Marcus Wookey (Uk),
Film Editor: Martin Walsh, Sanjay Sharma
Lead VFX Supervisor: Jeffery Klieser, Vfx Supervisor, Haresh Hingorani
VFX Producer: Keitan Yadav
VFX Studios: Redchillies.Vfx
Associate Director: Vaibhav Misra
First Assistant Director (UK): Terry Bamber,
Second Assistant Director (UK): David Cain
First Assistant Director (India): Sagar Sirgaonkar, Jignesh Rathod
Executive Producer: Anil Sable, Rajan Vanmali, Swapna David (UK),
Prashant Shah (USA)
Line Producer: Sameer Yusuf Khan
Re-Recordist: Anoop Dev
Sound Designer: Resul Pookutty (Cas, Mpse)
Action Coordinator: Andy Gill & Spiro Razatos
Stunt Co-Ordinator (India): Parvez & Feroz
Additional Stunts: Kanal Kannan, William Ong
Music: Vishal & Shekhar
Ra One – movie review