Both my and Jigneshbhai’s wives are big SRK fans and despite the not-so-rave reviews, watching Ra.One was always a given for us. So we did contribute to its collections today when Swami and I decided that we will meet Jigneshbhai with our better halves for coffee and follow it up with the movie. But honestly as we left the cinema hall after it finished, I said to myself – the special effects and action were quite awesome, by Indian movie standards. They would have been received even better, only if Robot would not have released earlier. But where’s the movie in all of this? I mean – it’s an SRK movie – a Sci-Fi one alright – but no story, no emotional strings pulled anywhere, no dreams to engage the audience, no nice, feel-good dialogues to take away? What’s happening here? Perhaps this is what happens when Raj and Rahul grow up. If that is the case, I must say it is a pretty expensive mid-life crisis.
I was almost secretly hoping for the sake of true blue SRK fans that the dead Shekhar magically gets into G.One (the good robot) somehow and says some Rahul-esque dialogue (or was it Aman?) like “mein tumhe zindagi bhar pyar karunga, marte dam tak pyar karunga aur uske baad bhi”. And when near the end, G.One said the Rahul-esque lines to the boy “hamesha apne dil ki suno, acchai ki hamesha jeet hoti hai”, I thought – well looks like this movie is now happening. Nope, it did not – none of this happened. I almost felt like maybe “picture abhi baaki hai mere dost” – how can it end without some nice, emotional, drama-filled ‘Happys Endings’?
So despite having some moments and some good action driven by special effects, Ra.One was a disappointment specially for old SRK fans. Those true-blue fans who grew up with Raj and Rahul got a clumsy, almost crass Shekhar Subramanian (even a normal working-class Raj or Rahul – not the Malhotra or Raichand types – would have been better) and a G.One who almost looked closer to the autistic Rizwan Khan (instead of a robot) rather than any of the Rahul’s and Raj’s of yore. The pity is everything else on the technical, action and effects side was fine, but in areas which are SRK’s forte, that of the family, drama and larger-than-life settings, nothing really turned up. And so, while Ra.One may have made money and all that, the wife said this aspect of neglecting ‘the SRK forte’ was ‘unpardonable’. I tried to console her, “senorita, bade bade filmon mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain!” She was not convinced.