So I recently sat down with my family to check out the recently released Hindi movie R…Rajkumar starring relative newcomer Sonakshi Sinha and eternal babyface Shahid Kapoor. Sinha debuted three years ago, but this is the first movie that I’ve seen her in (just goes to show you how out of touch I am with Bollywood, oy). As for Shahid, he was to me during my preteen years what NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys were to teenage girls in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. I’ve always kind of had a soft spot for him since, and if I’m being honest with myself, I always will. Fangirl love never really ceases, it just changes with the times.
However, in spite of my affection for this man, I had not seen anything new of his since his super tryhard EpicLoveStory movie Mausam, which released two years ago. From what I’ve heard, there wasn’t really much I was missing. Thankfully, R…Rajkumar seems to be subverting that trend, at least in terms of commercial success, which should be good news for Shahid and his career. But is it good news for me and my Bollywood-movie loving heart? Let’s see.
Now to be fair, this is not in any way a formal review. I am just a consumer of the Hindi film industry who has been inspired to share their observations on a movie they have recently seen. Don’t expect any technical knowledge and remember to take my opinions with a grain of salt because I’m just one person. I will also try and keep it as spoiler free as possible, and if there are spoilers, I will put notice.
So, this movie had a bit of an identity crisis going on. Was it a romance? Was it a straight up comedy? Was it an action movie with unrealistic fight scenes? Unfortunately, it tried to add a lot of cliche masala elements to spice up (har, har) the film, but I can’t help but think that it would have been a much better movie if it had stuck to only a couple of those elements and developed them properly instead of trying to cram in too many things. For instance, the romance between the titular characters was not very convincing initially, especially when the heroine was made to switch suddenly from I-hate-your-guts to I-will-love-you-forever-and-evers. I know there’s a fine line between love and hate sometimes, but that’s still a barrier that characters have to cross with reasonable emotional development! But that is a fairly minor gripe for me because once we got to the romantic part of the romance, I was totally sold on it. Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha had a really great low-key and natural chemistry that really made their onscreen love feel believable. Sparks weren’t flying off the screen in their scenes together, but they had the chemistry of two people who were secure and comfortable with one another, the kind of chemistry where you have been together for years and your feelings might not be an emotional rollercoaster anymore, but that doesn’t mean you love the other person any less. It was a sad waste of warm, winning chemistry on such a cheeky screwball comedy.
That being said, the comedy is definitely the strong suit of the movie with the first half taking center stage before the second half shifts tone to bring an abundance of angst and action scenes. And while there was action throughout the entire movie, it was much much easier to swallow when taking it with the doses of comedy that were peppered throughout the first half. A big credit to that I would say goes to Shahid Kapoor, who really pulls in an awesome performance as a aimless, carefree, and street-smart young man who falls head over heels for a feisty, beautiful girl. He nails the comic timing and his facial expressions are gold. The movie wasn’t afraid to make him borderline ridiculous and props to him for going all out with his character and making it his own.
And yeah, like 99.9% of all masala Bollywood movies, R…Rajkumar could have been perfectly fine if the last 40 minutes had been chopped off. I’m fairly sure they’ve heard of editing, right? But maybe they have a quota to fill and the movie HAS to be 2 hours and 3 car rides to Kentucky long otherwise it will not be suitable for Indian cinema-goers.
Now, let’s talk about the songs, and by extension, the dancing. The songs in this movie are super catchy and I really like them. There’s a strong South Indian flavor that I get from the music in this movie, which fits because Tamil dance master Prabhu Deva directed this film. And speaking of dance, the dancing in this movie was AWESOME. I love Shahid Kapoor’s dance style, he moves so fluidly and he makes everything he does look effortless. And Prabhu Deva, while his style is not always my cup of tea, is undeniably amazing at creating an ambiance with sets, backup dancers, and interesting moves. I loved what he did with Shahid Kapoor and all of the songs looked amazing. Shoutout to Sonakshi Sinha for gettin’ her groove on too. She was great. On a sidenote, I really liked the vibrancy of the colors in this movie. I saw eye-popping shades of lime green, hot pink, bright blue, and many more. There were an abundance of colors, but it never looked garish or gaudy, just beautifully vivid.
UPCOMING RANT (and spoilers) AHEAD:
I wanted to address something that really struck me upon watching this movie and actually more than anything else in the film, prompted me to write this post. There is a certain scene in this where the main female lead is beaten/whipped with a belt rather appallingly in a spiteful, malicious manner by someone who is her guardian and has cared for her since her parents died. Now, it’s not necessarily the decision to have the scene in the movie that has my blood boiling. Abuse is not a new issue, and I’m all for it being portrayed on the big screen if it’s dealt with as the major issue that it is. What I do have a problem with is situations like this when people put in scenes like the one above and treat them so casually. Nevermind that there might be other ways to ramp up the conflict for the plot. No, the movie needed to get across to its audience that her uncle is a super terrible morally questionable filth of a human and chose an equally morally questionable way of doing so. All this for no other reason than to give viewers a reason to root for the hero (like there wasn’t already plenty of reason enough, I mean it’s Shahid, come on) and to build up the obstacles against the fated couple. That’s not a good enough reason for me, not by a long shot. I cannot believe the people behind the movie had the nerve to show physical/domestic abuse so casually, especially given the recent spotlight on the whole issue of violence against women that’s happened in India.
And yeah, you could argue that I’m over-analyzing what is meant to be (for the most part) brainless screwball comedy, but that’s part of the problem for me. Because what exactly is funny about a young woman being beaten ruthlessly by a parental figure? Absolutely nothing. And the fact that the movie chose to treat it lightly and breeze by the issue of what they showed and the implications that it holds turns me cold. There is no way that I can respect or even condone behavior like that, and as a consumer and a part of the audience the movie is catering to, I have a right to demand and expect better.
-END RANT (and spoilers)-
CONCLUSIONS:
There were a lot of things about this movie that I enjoyed and appreciated, including the dancing, the vivid colors, and the return of Shahid Kapoor to my life. It wasn’t a perfect movie by any means (self-explanatory rant up there), but I don’t regret the two hours or so that I spent watching this. Overall, this movie was solidly entertaining and I enjoyed the first half wholeheartedly for the comedy and I sat through the second half to see the romance through. I do wish however, that Shahid and Sonakshi might have the chance to work together in another project that makes better use of their chemistry because this one unfortunately did not do them any favors.
On a final note, I never realized just how handsome and attractive Sonu Sood, the actor who played the villain, was until I happened upon a video of the actors promoting the film. Why does he not get lead roles again? Someone’s gotta get on that, stat.
I'm Interested in Way Too Many Things 