Ra-One is one of the most expensive as well as the most expansive movie ever made in Bollywood and every second of its runtime oozes out with the visual magic that its creator or more aptly its visionary Shahrukh Khan had envisaged . Those who are still apprehensive about the movie being replete with scientific gobbledygook and VFX tricks then let me assure the film has much more in store for you , complete with trials and tribulations that any average man can identify with in this cruel world where every motive is guided by materialistic pleasures and bullion aspirations until the simple pleasures of life gets diluted by the ever encompassing greed of imperialistic dreams .
Ra-One revolves around Rahul Verma (played brilliantly by Shahrukh Khan) who works in a contraband drug store selling ‘Penis enlargement’ pills . Subjected to acute penury and the constant guilt of letting his beautiful wife Anjali (Kareena Kapoor) work as a masseuse for the super rich but facially paralysed Dr. Dang (played naturally by Arjun Rampal) , neither the wage nor the pills work for this average guy . So out of sheer desperation of not being able to provide for his wife’s financial and conjugal needs he decides to ragpick at nights . And it is during these nocturnal endeavours that he comes across a dying mad scientist Dr.Vijay (Amitabh Bacchan) who gifts Rahul a stash of weed and a big robot which has been a dream project of the scientist . Now Rahul as poor as he may be , takes the robot in with his family much to the consternation of Anjali who ultimately decides to dump Rahul and move in with Dr. Dang . Now with the love of his life in someone else’s arm Rahul takes refuge in the stash of weed and local hooch , and during one of this drunken fits Rahul unknowingly thrusts some Penis enlargement pills in the robot’s mouth and Voila !!! the Robot comes to life . (also punctuated by the intermission).The second half of the movie gets more intriguing as the story leaps 20 years forward : Rahul and the robot are married and have a sweet girl cum autobot named Chammak Challo (Shahrukh Khan,effortless acting again) . Also by a simple twist of fate studying in the same college as Chammak Challo is G-One (Shahrukh Khan) - son of Dr.Dang and Anjali . Both are freshers in a college ,headed by the hermaphrodic dean Dr. Raj Malhotra (wonderful cameo by Karan Johar) , and are constantly picked by their seniors because of their unusual names . And it is during these moments of depravation and peer inflicted depreciation that both these hapless misnomic souls fall in love .None of the families take the relationship well : Rahul for not approving to quasi incestuous tie up and Dr. Dang for not approving to autobots . What happens next is stuff what film legends are made of and I won’t spoil it for those who have’nt seen the movie .(Cant help it but the cliamax scene where the main protagonists of both the generation break into an orgasmic ‘mehendi’ dance is sheer cinematic brilliance and an obvious tribute to the auteur director Karan Johar’s vision of film making)
The performances in Ra- One usually hover around the superlative mark . Arjun Rampal is the apt choice for the role of a facially paralysed evil doctor while Kareena Kapoor looks the part . Adding to that there is a wonderful cameo by Rajnikant who plays a doctor who helps Rahul Verma give birth to Chammak Challo in a speeding rickshaw (an obvious reference to another SRK classic Main Hoon Na ) . But keeping everyone at bay has to be the one and only Shahrukh Khan who effortlessly fits into the myriad roles of a father , a dotting mother , an angst ridden youth , a veterinary doctor , a PMS aunty and a bison all in one movie . Watch for the scene where Shahrukh during one of his drunken fits almost has sex with a car mistaking him a for the cow from DDLJ : the angst on his face to the helplessness when the car automatically starts and speeds away is what acting students would be viewing for years to come .
Well for many of you who are hungry for some quality cinema and would probably give this gem a miss thinking that the whole of 150 crores in making this movie is eaten up in mindless visual effects of crashing trains and flying cars , you could’nt be more wrong . For a fact much of the VFX budget is spent on making a 70 year old Shahrukh look like a 20 something dude , hot chick , robot and a bison. But it was worth every penny to have Shahrukh on board for this film as none could have done justice to these roles other than him . And for those who don’t like good cinema and would never even think of watching Ra- One , thanks to the innumerable brand tie ups you would be getting incentives while watching the movie : for making through the first 15 mins – a pack of Parle -G will be gifted to you in the multiplex itself , completing the first half – a Godrej fridge and for making through the whole movie – a pack of condoms (surely you wont be able to sleep for many nights to come .. hence) . So don’t hold yourself back , forget food inflation , dish out 360 bucks and watch cinema weave its magic through the able hands of the Ra- One team .
