Movie Review: R...Rajkumar

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonu Sood Directed by Prabhu Dheva Rating - * 1/2 Now where do we begin! Let’s start with a simple comparison to put things in proper perspective. Let’s assume that you like masala chaat made by your local bhelpuri walla. Now how many times in a month will you eat the same stuff? Twice, thrice or may be even four times but not more than that. The same ingredient will not really entice your taste buds for months and years to come, right? Bollywood and Prabhu Dheva in particular, need to realise the same when it comes to making masala movies. Wanted worked fabulously. So did Rowdy Rathore. But everything comes with a shelf life. When you overdo stuff, you end up creating a caricature instead of a class product. Prabhu unfortunately has gone overboard this time and tried flogging a dead horse with the same old formula in R…Rajkumar. The movie makes for a mindlessly boring watch with excruciatingly long-drawn Rohit Shetty styled action sequences and a done to death story line that will induce multiple yawns and at times agony and despair. You are forced to wonder why exactly is Prabhu feeding you such crappy matter in the name of cinema. Since Prabhu is a man of very few words, we will never have an answer to that. The plot is eerily similar to Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara with Sonakshi Sinha as a common factor in both these movies. Shahid arrives with his haversack in a non-descript village. Nothing is mentioned about his antecedents. All we know about Shahid is that he is blessed with the fighting prowess of Rajnikanth. The movie is extremely fast paced. Just five minutes into it, Shahid meets Sonakshi right in the middle of a battle zone. And just when a bullet is about to hit Sonakshi, our hero predictably dives in slow motion and deflects it using his bare hands. Wow! (applause anyone). Sonakshi is impressed but due to the pervading darkness she is unable to catch a glimpse of our hero. By then, Shahid is already smitten with Sonakshi. The scene then shifts to drug dealer Sonu Sood’s place. Shahid joins Sonu and helps him defeat his arch-rival Ashish Vidhyarthi. Ashish then tries to mend fences with Sonu by offering Sonakshi, his niece in marriage. And then Once Upon a Time In Mumbai Dobaara replays itself in front of your eyes, Dobaara. Sonu and Shahid start fighting for the same girl, Sonakshi. In between, our hero also finds time to romance Sonakshi and dance with her in beaches, roads and everywhere else. And yes, there are a few cringe-inducing comic scenes thrown in to make the hapless audience laugh. The worst one of the lot is the scene where Sonu is trying to learn English, in his endeavour to please Sonakshi. “I am your bull. You are my shit. Together we are bullshit,” Sonu repeats irritatingly. Sadly, the same holds true for the movie. What really pains us to a great measure is to see a colossal talent called Shahid Kapoor wasting his time and energy doing such mindless flicks. We thought Phata Poster… was an aberration. But when he repeats it with a movie as ludicrous as R…Rajkumar, we wonder whether Shahid has indeed lost his sense of picking good scripts. Shahid, to his credit, does try to sincerely portray the image of a local ruffian in the movie but fails. For one, only Rajnikanth can play such roles with great conviction. While Shahid continues his downward spiral, Sonakshi too fails to impress us with her demure girl- next -door image. For an actress, it’s important to keep reinventing so as to preserve your charm and mystery. Madhuri did it with Dhak Dhak. Sridevi did it with Miss Hawa Hawaii. But our ultra-conservative Miss Sinha who refuses to wear anything but salwar and saris may soon find herself out of the game called show business unless she reinvents the way she looks. Sonu plays his role well but not too well enough to deserve a pat on his back. On the contrary, it’s Ashish Vidhyarthi who impresses us partly with his brilliant comic timing and partly with his villainous act. And what exactly was a veteran like Asrani doing in this movie? The yesteryear comedian was reduced to being a sidekick and given a role that you would normally find Rajpal Yadav doing in films. The songs and dance sequences are wonderfully synchronized and remain the only saving grace. Shahid’s dance moves, like always, are a treat to watch and the man just makes you applaud whenever he shakes a leg on the big screen. The movie which was billed and promoted as an action drama surely provides you with loads of action. But Prabhu stretches it to such a long extent that one is forced to stand up and say ‘Silent ho ja, varnaa hum violent ho jaayenge.’ Verdict – Go only if you want to see Shahid dance. The rest is worth giving a serious miss.