This movie seems unfocused, confusing, childish, over the top. The spectator’s attention is constantly divided. Funny(half) parents-one slurps noodles with curd, the other wants to rewrite cusswords from a feminist angle, side kicks, computer games, relating with the father who dies early and we are supposed to empathize with him and his’wise’ sayings all through the movie, the predictable stunts and fights-mostly between two virtual beings. In fact, after the death of the father, the movie becomes more of a special effects extravaganza. And the audience find it difficult to relate to someone who looks human and like its dead creator but is a robot, leaving their somewhat grown attachment with the human hero behind. Now, that is the reaction of an adult.
Kids, even teenagers, are likely to like this movie because it is fast, moves from one thing to another without boring much, without going much into out-of-date philosophies, gives the chance to imagine oneself as the boy trying to avenge his father’s death, great game stuff of the kind kids, especially boys love, the kind that gives a sense of power and achievement. The villain, Ra-one(a pun) is scary for small kids and so they enjoy Jivan, the good one fighting him.
Is this movie a desperate attempt of a star to clutch at the straws of technology, caricatured South Indian and Punjabi Pop to make him emerge at the top? Did he see’Mr India’, ’Koi Mil Gaya’ and’ Robo’t as a sure-hit formula which will be an answer to’3 Idiots’ and’Dabaang’, to all who wish to dethrone him(if he’s not that already)? Who knows, the gamble has paid off! Like an optimist, he leaves the scope for a sequel with the final scene of the movie.
Ra One shows influence of and borrows scenes and ideas from many movies -’Terminator’(the chase scene, the telephone scene, the transformation from dust to robot etc), ’Om Shanti Om’(drunk Shekhar talking to his creation), Matrix(several Ra Ones coming out of one, stunts), ’Star Wars’( Darth Vader like mask of Ra One), ’Mummy’, ’Koi Mil Gaya’ . .
I find that the technology in this movie can still not match Hollywood’s. I find the Punjab Pop crass and meaningless. Rajnikanth’s appearance will appeal to the South but SRK playing the south Indian fellow was not funny, just tolerable. Kareena has been given some screen time but maybe some lesser star should have been taken and the movie been given more emphasis in its other things.