No Indian filmmaker goes this hard than S.S. Rajamouli. His films Eega and Bahubali rank among the best that Tollywood has to offer, yet he’s able to top these films within seconds in RRR. This electrifying three-hour epic could very well be considered a work of art. After about two hours of pulsating action sequences, one could think the movie has exhausted all possibilities of impressing us. But it has more than one trick up its sleeve and continues to blow our minds well after the halfway point has reached, even during its end credits sequence.
To sustain this much attention for three straight hours is a daunting task. But Rajamouli knows exactly when to amp up the tension and produce catharsis and when to quiet things down. That’s especially apparent during light-hearted musical numbers and friendship bonding sequences wrought with so much sexual energy that it’s easy to think that protagonists Bheem (NTR Jr.) and Raju (Ram Charan) love each other, and not just on a “friendship” level. Heck, its sexual tension is more effective in these scenes than in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. Yeah, apples and oranges, but look at how NTR Jr. and Charan stare at each other in the eyes (or how they clench arms together when they first meet, Predator-handshake style). It’s all there, and it’s compelling stuff.
Bheem and Raju accidentally meet while saving a young boy, not knowing that Raju is a police officer working for British Governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson), hunting someone trying to rescue a girl kidnapped by the governor. Raju doesn’t know that Bheem is the person he’s been looking for, as he’s devising a plan to rescue a girl named Malli (Twinkle Sharma) from the British. And yes, it will take three hours for it to happen.
But don’t worry, the movie starts with a (literal and figurative) bang, as the IMAX speakers thump M.M. Keeravani’s drum-driven score and pull you in from there. It’s as if someone came right in front of you, slapped you in the face continuously (not to make any reference to the slap gate here), and told you to wake up, sit tight and enjoy Rajamouli’s multisensory overload. And BANG! The drums quickly transform themselves into punches as Rajamouli himself continuously hits us in the chest and makes us want to feel the film instead of simply watching it.
And it becomes pretty easy to feel everything going on when every damn scene is an absolute spectacle (and thrill) to watch. The action is masterfully choreographed, with just the right amount of grit (it gets bloody) and over-the-top fight moves you can only see in a Tollywood film to make everyone go completely nuts. Take the film’s best sequence, for example, set during a party. The climax of the film’s first part (before the intermission) expertly blends cathartic gore, fireworks, water, animals, fire, and explosions to produce a scene staged like a Jackson Pollock painting.
It’s a weird comparison, but it’s the best way to describe how the movie continuously assaults your senses with the most stupid stunts possible and slow-mo frames shot (and staged) with such aching beauty it could almost move you to tears. Rajamouli acts like an abstract artist during his action scenes–he never conventionally shoots them and constantly pushes the envelope, whether by finding a new aesthetic footprint or devising new ways to choreograph one-on-one fighting. His style in RRR is vastly different (and more polished) than, say, Bahubali: The Beginning. In that movie, the action looked terrible and was cheaply choreographed. As a result, it verged on the SyFy original category instead of looking like a serious Tollywood production.
RRR truly “brings back the glory of Indian Cinema” with its lavish production design, sweeping cinematography, and a barrage of impeccable action sequences that could never get made in any American production. Even Michael Bay can’t do Rajamouli as much as he can try. Its performances seal the movie, with NTR and Charan having palpable chemistry together. Their timing is superb, always knowing when to be funny and impress audiences with the highly memorable “Naatu Naatu” musical number. When they have to get serious, boy do they go at it.
Ray Stevenson is also quite fun to watch as Buxton, playing the part of an overzealous British general with pitch-perfect ridiculousness. It’s the type of performance from an A-list actor you will not see in an American film. He’s clearly having a blast inside a different moviemaking culture and ecosystem. Rajamouli guides him with such gusto that he feels like a completely natural presence in the film with NTR Jr. and other leads.
Convincing anyone to watch RRR could prove challenging: it’s more than three hours long (with the opening titles appearing more than forty minutes after the film started). In addition, it contains a style of filmmaking that many Western audience members aren’t used to.
But even non-Tollywood fans may be drawn to RRR’s pop art style, insane action scenes designed to be experienced on the most ginormous screen possible with the biggest crowd you can find, and electric sexual tension. Bheem and Raju’s friendship isn’t explicitly homosexual, but it is undoubtedly implicit and makes the viewing experience more engrossing and enriching. Some viewers reached out to me and said that their friendship was based on “mutual admiration”, but there’s something more in the way that Bheem and Raju look at one another (and take care of them), even if they are complete polar opposites and will battle one another eventually. It’s undoubtedly sexual (or homoerotic, as critic Siddhant Adlakha pointed out), and makes the viewing experience feel more powerful as a result.
There’s no denying that Rajamouli is a force to be reckoned with in Indian cinema, but he’s also one of the best action filmmakers, irrespective of country, working today. There isn’t one like him, nor will there ever be one that will replicate his style. His self-aware appearance at the end credits sealed the deal for the audience and made the entire crowd go nuts. Everyone recognized the legend he is and the masterpiece he just created, indeed bringing back Indian cinema’s much-deserved glory.
Film: Rating: 
Director: S.S. Rajamouli
Stars: NTR, Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Ray Stevenson, and Alison Doody.
Runtime: 187 minutes
Country: India
