Three characters stand out in this movie. Ra One (Arjun Rampal), G One (Shahrukh Khan) and young Armaan Verma who plays Prateek Subramaniam. Kareena Kapoor for once is thrown into the background, so is SRK (Shekhar Subramanium) who gets his Tamil accent off-centre. The supporting cast would be the action team and the sound engineers led by Resul Pookutty. Jeff Kleiser, heading the visual effects team has packed in as much digital technology as can be to make this a visual treat of sorts for sci-fi freaks.
Anubhav Sinha may be credited with the direction, but if one looks closely, RA ONE has the SRK stamp. This is not to take away from Sinha, but most sequences would have been pieced together by Kleiser. I mean it's not a director's film, if you know what I mean.SRK has used good gimmicks to get the novel idea off to a flying start. Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and SRK as Lucifer engage in a deadly duel. It turns out, that Prateek (Armaan Verma), a sci-fi addict and computer games freak, is dreaming in the classroom. Prateek uses the code name Lucifer whenever he plays his games. His dad (Shekhar Subramanium) is an embarrassment of sorts for the 'Yo man' dude. Son feels that there should be a game where bad man wins. Father feels otherwise.
However, to impress his son, Senior Subramanium decides to create a game for him, which would also be a trump card for the company he works for. RA ONE is the bad robot, G One, the good one. Prateek is allowed to experiment with the game even before it's complete. As usual, he logs in as Lucifer and engages in a duel. Before you know it, RA ONE comes alive and is out to destroy Lucifer. Then begins the game of deadly robotic chase, which also sees G One being brought to life to annihilate the threat.
The first half is a visual delight. The plot moves slickly from one sequence to another gripping you in the wake of destruction that RA ONE brings along. WOW, is the first word you utter because it's flawless. Technologically, SRK has not left any stone unturned.It's only after the interval that the plot meanders a bit, loses it sting and almost falls apart like a pixealised image, before Arjun lights up the screen.
As G One, in the initial scenes, SRK is spot on but fails to maintain his robotic gait. This here, I would say is the fault of the digital team. But the RA One (Tom Wu) who mesmerizes initially is almost 'Terminator' Shwarzenegger-like in his finesse. He brings an icy-cool, steel like momentum to his body language.
Quick notes:
- Chitti (Rajnikant) making an appearance is a wasted gimmick which was not needed. G One was doing the job of keeping the baddies at bay.
- What could also not be fathomed is how both the robots take the flight out to India from the UK where the film originates. Security in today's day and age is at an all-time high!- G One coming back to life after the completion of his job is a definite disaster. With this move, you don't send the audience away with anything to talk about.
- "Condom Condom," a dialogue mouthed by young Prateek in a children's film too is questionable.
- A thumbs-up to the digital scene where the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai is show crumbling after a local train is taken over by RA ONE.
For teenagers, this should definitely be a delight.
