King Khan’s super hero movie Ra.One has drawn ho-hum reviews from Indian critics.

Here are excerpts from a bunch of Indian critics:

NDTV

But, on the whole, RA.One is far too derivative to take anybody except the most gullible of moviegoers…

But, sorry, this isn’t ‘the next level’ of Hindi cinema, let alone superhero flicks. At least, let us all hope it isn’t. Comic-strip terminators do have their uses. However, when the idea is to whip up a bubbling brew that, in the time-honoured tradition of a Mumbai mass entertainer, seeks to embrace a bit of everything, the wannabe desi Superman can only fall between two very, very tall stools. But not everybody will hear the thud, though.

RA.One is like a colourful Popsicle that looks tantalising, tickles the palate while it lasts, but leaves no particular after-taste. Sound and fury? Loads of it. Significance? Not much.

Rediff

Even as Shah Rukh Khan flies over buildings, jumps over cars and even stops an out-of-control train with his bare hands, his valiant efforts to wow his audiences somewhat fail thanks to a weak storyline, some rather juvenile acting and a poor screenplay.

To make matters more unbearable, the dialogues go from bad to worse and Vishal-Shekhar’s music — barring a couple of numbers — has little to offer in a film that could have possibly ushered in an era of science fiction cinema in mainstream Bollywood.

Reuters India

Unfortunately, movie-making involves a lot more than just good product placements and marketing. It needs heart, and in spite of the sci-fi theme and hi-tech technology, “Ra.One” doesn’t have heart.

The weak link in this movie is the direction by Anubhav Sinha, your attention will waver a lot — the pace isn’t fast enough for a super-hero action flick and there are some inane dialogues that will make you laugh. Sinha tries to pack in every single element into the film, with the end result being it looks haphazard.

…Also, for a villain supposed to be evil and unbeatable, Ra One is surprisingly colourless and dull, preventing you from investing any sort of emotion for him — he just leaves you cold and Arjun Rampal’s expressionless acting is partly to blame.

IBN Live

…ambitious but flawed superhero film – every time we’re drawn into the simplistic but intriguing story of how Ra.One can only be vanquished by the game’s superhero G.One (also played by Shah Rukh), director Anubhav Sinha feels the desperate need to inject a dance number or a comical sequence or a melodramatic interlude into the narrative. It’s distracting from the superhero theme and more importantly, it makes the film clunky.

What’s missing from ‘Ra.One’ is a sure-footed director’s touch. Anubhav Sinha fails to bring all the elements together, and while this superhero film has plenty sound and fury, it’s sorely lacking slickness.

Economic Times

Shah Rukh Khan’s superhero character takes too long to boot in this science fiction flick. G.One arrives just five minutes before the interval point by when you have already restarted your system several times, which has been hanging into nothingness. And the film’s title character Ra.One, a skeletal villain, gets a face (Arjun Rampal) even later in the second half. Is it worth the wait? Only intermittently and inconsistently!

It’s certainly not a ‘dream’ start for the film with a tacky video game prologue merely to accommodate starry cameos of Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra. Not only does director Anubhav Sinha take too long to arrive, the initial proceedings don’t contribute much to the film either. Too much of screen-time is expended on vulgar jokes and tomfoolery.

Related Posts:
Ra.One Review – A Failure of Imagination

  Anubhav Sinha, Kareena Kapoor, Ra.One, Shah Rukh Khan