Ashdoc's movie review---Ram Leela

by ashdoc Mon Nov 25, 2013 3:21 am

Ranjar---a town in Gujarat that is India's equivalent to Pakistan's barbaric north west frontier province in the art of violence ; a place with an endless supply of bullets , a place where manufacture of desi replicas of Kalashnikov rifles vies for attention with that of long range sniper rifles with telescopic sights , a place where the population drinks to excess , a place where people are rowdy and boisterous , and a place where they dance with a gusto that can only be matched by the abandon with which they press the trigger of their guns....

Now from where did Sanjay Leela Bhansali get the idea of showing the pacific gujju dhoklo ( Ashdoc's movie review---Ram Leela Biggrin

Ashdoc's movie review---Ram Leela Biggrin

) who does not even kill animals and eats vegetarian food as a trigger happy desperado who lives and breathes bullets ?? Gandhi must be turning in his grave to see a part of his state shown as a hotbed of such violence....

Fortunately such a place exists only in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's mahafertile imagination and is not a reality.....

And in such a land are two rival clans who are after each other's blood . Now the question is---how to make the story of a cinema out of this ??
Simple---take one goodlooking person each from both clans and make them fall in love with each other , what else....

.....And to make it more spicy make the two lovers smooch and kiss with intensity and heat , and take two actors ( Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone ) for the respective roles who make the intensity and heat look believable.....
Yeah ,the two do inject some real uninhibited passion into their embraces making them the perfect choice for playing Ram and Leela/Romeo and Juliet---the two star crossed lovers....

Ram is the brother of the head of one clan while Leela is the daughter of the head of the other....
But it is set in the modern age of twitter and facebook---so is it a surprise that it begins more as physical desire for each other ??

But before the lovers can elope , a fight occurs which results in deaths of kin on both sides---a fight which increases the enemity between the two sides....

So the two clans are hardly going to forgive the elopement of Ram Leela and let them alone....
They are captured and brought back , and the director puts and interesting twist to the story as they become heads of the rival clans....

So do they stop loving each other or they continue to do so....

Can they use their newfound power to bring sanity to the troubled land and make the people of Ranjar believe in peace ??

Or are age old enemitys going to crush their lives ??

Go and watch the movie for that ?? It wont be a bad outing....

Sanjay Leela Bhansali does what he can do best---he dishes out a colourful cultural extravaganza that shows people dancing in vibrant colours , the colour red standing out the most....

And when they dance with abandon wearing colourful clothes , it's a treat for the eyes....

Acting by everyone is good , but Supriya Pathak is the one who stands head and shoulder above the others---she injects real evil and menace in her demeanor and voice as she plays godmother called Baa to perfection . Watch the utter ruthlessness as she crushes her daughter's finger with a betelnut crusher---though the camera moves away from the act to her face ( it gets splashed with blood ) at the last moment....

Ranveer looks brawny and muscled and Deepika looks sensous---though she has serious competition from Priyanka Chopra who sizzles in an item number....

Richa Chadda also plays her role with passion---passion in bed with her spouse and even better acting as the grieving widow who bats for peace and love even though she has lost own husband.....one question though---why can't she get remarried , especially because she has no children of her own ?? Indeed Deepika ( Leela ) asks her this very question and her answer is no---even in the age of twitter these people still live by outmoded customs and traditions about widows being unfit for remarriage....

Barkha Bist as the sister in law of the other clan who as also lost her husband does play her role well too---the movie scores in the acting department....
But Gulshan Devaiah as the turncoat villain who tries to kill Baa is only just about okay....

Music is more worth seeing than listening---especially for the energy with which people of Ranjar dance on the music .

What shines through is the hard work that the director , the cinematographer and the choreographer have put to film every scene . But the ending is disappointing---it is deliberately contrived to make the film a desi rendition of Romeo and Juliet and was totally unnecessary....It reduced my verdict of the film from good to only decent...

The posters of the Hindu god Ram and other religious imagery has been excessively used in the film---no wonder the film has been banned in UP where devotion to Ram is greatest.....

Inspite of these faults the film is worth a watch---for the showcasing of real Indian culture Gujarati style and for it's rich and vibrant colourful scenes...

Verdict--decent .

by Merlot Daruwala Mon Nov 25, 2013 3:35 am

ashdoc wrote:Now from where did Sanjay Leela Bhansali get the idea of showing the pacific gujju dhoklo ( ) who does not even kill animals and eats vegetarian food as a trigger happy desperado who lives and breathes bullets ?? Gandhi must be turning in his grave to see a part of his state shown as a hotbed of such violence....

Fortunately such a place exists only in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's mahafertile imagination and is not a reality.....

True. Santokben Jadeja fought her gangland wars in only the most humane fashion, subjecting opponents to Vaishnava Janato in an endless loop while forcefeeding them sandwich dhoklas and jalebi-fafda. Gandhi completely approved of her modus operandi and her rise to the top in the place of his birth.

by ashdoc Mon Nov 25, 2013 4:15 am

Merlot Daruwala wrote:
ashdoc wrote:Now from where did Sanjay Leela Bhansali get the idea of showing the pacific gujju dhoklo ( ) who does not even kill animals and eats vegetarian food as a trigger happy desperado who lives and breathes bullets ?? Gandhi must be turning in his grave to see a part of his state shown as a hotbed of such violence....

Fortunately such a place exists only in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's mahafertile imagination and is not a reality.....
True. Santokben Jadeja fought her gangland wars in only the most humane fashion, subjecting opponents to Vaishnava Janato in an endless loop while forcefeeding them sandwich dhoklas and jalebi-fafda. Gandhi completely approved of her modus operandi and her rise to the top in the place of his birth.

really dont know santokben jadeja is....

by Guest Mon Nov 25, 2013 10:18 am

1) 4 out of 5 people on Fb said it's horrible. One was only lusting over Ranveer, so doesn't count.

2) someone, who I can call a friend *shrug*, who messages me mostly after watching a new movie, told me it's too bad, and that bhansali is now finished.

3) and finally, I came across this, http://mumbaiboss.com/2013/11/18/the-vigil-idiot-goliyon-ki-rasleela-ram-leela/

Nosiree, not even watching this on netflix.

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Ashdoc's movie review---Ram Leela

Ashdoc's movie review---Ram Leela

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