Director SS Rajamouli sometimes talks about how audiences throw enough confetti to obscure the screen during the opening weekend of his film in India.
Perhaps moviegoer behavior isn’t pristine, but the celebration is fitting.Countless shots from Rajamouli’s latest international sensation RRR— demonstrating explosive showmanship meant to elicit pure elation from the audience. I mean, confetti-worthy.
RRRis an action epic set in the Indian independence movement that won near-universal acclaim last year and made a rare breakthrough in American film culture. Choose your criteria for success: The third-highest-grossing Indian film of all time, with 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Rajamouli won Best Director at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.
now, RRR (short for “Rise, Roar, Rebel”) hits theaters February 9 at Cinema 21 and February 8, 12 and 13 at the Hollywood Theater. He’s been available on Netflix for the better part of a year, but there’s no question that the theater is ideal for this three-hour spectacle of his. all at once RRR Muscular, musical, wildly violent, lovable and evocative, like the spirits of John Woo, James Cameron and Stanley Donen living together in one movie.
Rajamouli’s script, set in the 1920s, imagines a fictional collaboration between real-life freedom fighters Alli Sitarama Raju and Komaram Beam, who seek to overthrow British colonial rulers. Raju (Ram Charan) is a police officer aiming for the rank of special officer. Bheem (NT Rama Rao Jr.) is a Gond protector who is trying to rescue a kidnapped girl from the governor’s palace. The two engage in a montage of clashes of justice, false identities, and a very hilarious buddy him.
measurement RRRtakes some context so as not to misrepresent its arrival as completely novel: Charan and Rama Rao Jr. are Indian megastars. Thanks to his two films before him, baahubali Epic – Rajamouli is considered to have started the pan-Indian cinema movement, bringing Telugu-speaking Tollywood cinema to the fore not only of Hindi cinema in Bollywood, but of the deeper national film culture. (Rajamouli’s Baahubali 2: Conclusion is the highest-grossing Indian film in US box office history. RRR2nd place at $14.5.)
artistic, but RRR Represents the new high water mark for Rajamouli. It excels thanks to a record-breaking budget (his $72 million equivalent, the highest in Indian cinema history) and the performances of Charan and Rama Rao Jr.
For one minute, the actors contort their physiques into Mr. Universe poses that make Schwarzenegger blush. Then they’re smiling a thousand watts amidst the blistering footwork of the dance-off scene that goes viral in the stratosphere and gives the film a beautifully timed nimbleness.
Ram and Bheem have true superhero powers, but never give up the tactile creativity of two figures bound to the same rope jumping off a bridge. Rajamouli’s priority is not the blistering pacing and realism of action scenes, but rather the creation of lasting imagery. In fact, the film is so gorgeously shot that even his CGI, which at times looks gummy, fits in with the grandeur of the painting.
There’s an innocence to Ram and Beam’s bromance, and a scene of motorcycle and piggyback antics that recalls the 1975 classic. ShoreyTheir earnest affection may make some American audiences, trained in sarcasm, laugh momentarily at the movies, then immediately, and crave such unconscious cheers at Hollywood blockbusters. .
The first 90 minutes contain the 5 best set pieces of 2022, RRRThe post-break half of Bheem temporarily loses himself in a false identity conflict between its heroes and Ram’s backstory. rice field. At that point, script complaints tend to fade.
all things considered RRR A lone Oscar nomination for Best Original Song (“Naatu Naatu”) may feel like a trifle, as India didn’t even submit the film as a national entry to the Academy. ). Still, Rajamouli’s insane masterpiece, in a city more than 7,000 miles from where it was produced, is playing his engagement bonus eight months after its release on Netflix. it already won.
Watch it: RRRrated PG-13, performed at Cinema 21 and Hollywood Theaters.