Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Movie-Review: Ram-Leela : A Lust (oops! Love) Story

Two clans in  Ranjaar have been feeding their age old enmity with bullets and blood - it appears that the only relationship that the two clans can ever have is that of ruthless hatred. However, each of the clans have an outlier - Ram (Ranveer Singh) the Rajeda Romeo and Leela (Deepika Padukone) the Sensual Sanera  who believe in peace and not war, and well also in intensely passionate romance. Bhansali’s Ram-Leela is is a story of war to peace and lust to love.

Movie’s screenplay is a test of viewers’ patience – if you can survive through the extra colorful and almost horny first half, you will be rewarded with a great second half. Those of you who  do not enjoy cheeky comedy and sexual irreverence will hate the leads, especially Raveer during the first half, but there are good enough chances that you will fall in love with his intense acting during the second half of the movie.

You might ask, does Ram-Leela qualify to be an eternal love story? The answer is a clear NO – not because the lead characters are weak but because there is a character in the movie that overpowers the characters of the love birds (Mor) -  “Dhankor” brilliantly played by Supriya Paathak. You move out of the hall and all you remember is Supriya’s marvelous acting. Also worth mentioning are the performances by Richa Chaddha and Barkha Bisht – the empathetic "Bhabhis" in the movie.


Had Bhansali not diluted the movie with an overdose of physical love, Ram-Leela could have easily scored a 4/5 rating for its superb performances, detailed costumes and jewellary, elaborate sets, tasteful music and choreography. However, the shallowness brings down my rating to a 2.5. Oh wait! On a second thought I would give it a 3/5 – a 0.5 bonus for the beautiful Gujarati folk song (Mor Bane Thanghat Kare) that I can’t stop listening to over and over again.

3 comments:

  1. Nicely written review. Actually first half was such a pain that @ one moment we thought of leaving the hall but then Rs. 700 spent on the tickets forced us to stay back. It was such an over the top movie. In the first half it was all violence & lust. Your 3 star seems biased towards the costumes, jewellery & sets which I know is your weakness :p (Remember the Pakeezah movie review in which you had dedicated 1 complete slide for carpet).

    Overall, loved your review dear.

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    1. @Shikha - Oh wow! You still remember the Pakeezah review :-) But this time my review is biased not because of the sets but because of the music

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  2. Enjoyed reading the review, very well written Niti!

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