~~~Treates for Eyes, Eyes Only!~~~. Review on Ra One

The virtual world and real world is getting closer and closer every day. Few mere Zeros and ones brings this review to you. You can watch a person from the other side of the earth virtually through air. Technology has reached a milestone by creating virtual screens on air and projecting pictures on it. The day where we can feel the pictures is not far away. Virtual interactive games are already in the market for long. Scientists may have to try hard to explain the principles of it but people believe in reality and they don't want its principles. Yes, the virtual world is coming. Virtual nations too! Facebook Nation and Google nation are already colonised the world and now attending G8 conference. The divide between virtual and real is getting narrower and narrower...which is good or bad is another question.

Welcome to the world of new generation interactive computer games. Prateek (Armaan Verma) is a viz kid who loves to play computer games. He is somehow fed up of the routine games and films where the hero always wins and now dreams of he become a superhero and saves Priyanka Chopra been saved from Sanjay Dutt of Kalnayak etc. He is also give up with his cowardly attitude of his father Subrahmaniyam (Shahrukh Khan) who works in a computer game making company. The company's new games are all flop and they now want a new idea. Prateek suggests to his father that 'he should make a villain who never fails'. The idea got clicked and Subrahmaniyam now made a powerful game with extra features and powers to the villain, Ra One, (Ravan). A hero is also been created, G One (Jeevan). The game is now launched and the test plays are on. Least they know that Ra One is now ready to enter the real world, from the virtual.

The film has one principle correct from the very beginning; i.e. a strong villain is the back bone of the success of a story. I cannot agree more. That is right. In this movie, the villain is more powerful than the hero himself. Another plus of the film is that the child artist, Armaan Verma excels in the role and we can nearly say that he is the hero of the film; nearly! Lot of graphics and 3 D animations supports the super hero (who is not Ra One but G One) and his adventures which make the film special to the bollywood. Shahrukh Khan makes a flying start to this super hero image and kids are going to be after him in the coming days.

Now, come to the flip side, having learned that villain is an important factor in a story, it is also important that the villain should get stronger and stronger as the film progresses, Like in a computer game (where the game gets harder and harder by the upper levels. Harder the game, greater the reward!) In Ra One, the villain image was created in such a great fashion that one may gets chills in bones, with sound affects and 3D. The fights were super cool in the first half till the termination of the first villain, say Ra One. Then, by the introduction of Ra two, the affect was diluted a bit. The game restarts only half an hour before ending the film and a good amount of time is been wasted in between. Then, scenes like they destroy the Station in Mumbai were just awesome. Was expecting a greater finale after this, but it all ended up in an easy manner! Wish, the climax was pictured with the same intensity as they shown in the first half.

Another drawback which somehow let down the movie is a half minded love track. To begin with, you should not start a love story with the hero calling the heroine as mother, the moment the heroine start getting some consideration for the hero. The love angle never reaches to intense levels and no wonder the heroine don't feel even a drop of emotion for the hero's virtual death. Understandably, the heroine is away in the climax scene but that made sure that the time invested on the love track was completely wasted. A few scenes with intensity would have worked wonders in such situations.

Well, you allow some deduction for such 'every week's fate - cinematic liberty', the film is different and a good watch.

Shahrukh Khan is back with a bang in a role which has potential to take him further in acceptance chart. Kids are the targeted group and they are going to celebrate it with SRK in the coming years. The screenplay lets down the super star a bit, but never mind, his screen presence and star value saves the show. His fight scenes are the best and in this film it is well supported by graphics as well. Kareena Kapoor did the role assigned to her well. i.e. to remain astonished and roam around. The underdog of the movie definitely is Armaan Verma who steals the show by and large. Look forward to more of Armaan. We love you kiddo!! Arjun Rampalis nearly wasted in the movie. Despite the shaven head avatar, Arjun's presence didn't add much value, especially after the creation of a good villain in the first half (who did a good job).

3D animation of the images in the movie was quite good. Not excellent, but very good. Unless it is the fault of the theater where I watch, Sounds seems not supported the 3D images.

Music of the film is only average to good, nothing special. Choregoraphy was casual, less imaginative and situations were little forced. I don't know the kind of dance is the suitable for the situations in which it appears.

The film could have been trimmed by 15 minutes easily. Editing is good at times, especially in those fight scenes in the first half. Then, there are glitches like, each time Kareena Kapoor astonishes 'is this possible' that only comes after a good time of pause from the incident.

Cinematography is very good in general. With highly rich colours and super speed, it is not an easy film to shot and V Manikandan with Nicola Pecorini did a good job. The train scenes however didn't reach the level of perfection which otherwise the movie held.

One more point. The film's targeted audience is kids with family. There are three scenes, which are unwarrented in the film which I suggest to cut off without thinking two times. The feminism dialogue by Kareena in the beginning with hand gestures - the first, G One's mammary experience with the love interest straight on camera, the second, Condom Condom instead of Koncham Koncham dialgoue, that too twice or so the third. It is bitter fun and not advisable for a kiddo movie.

Overall, Ra One is a good watch movie for it is special. It does not reach to the heights of excellence and it has its own flaws but enjoyable if we keep our expectations checked. If you get an opportunity to watch it on 3D don't miss it, as it is the first bollywood superstar movie in 3D. The movie is little weak in connecting to heart but it definitely connects to our eyes, so go for it. Keep the expectation bar low to enjoy the movie better.

My rating: 3.25 stars