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The Telugu language Indian action epic “RRR” (short for “Rise Roar Revolt”) has returned to US theaters for an exceptional one-night-only engagement on June 1st following its initial theatrical release. Some hindsight has made it easy to guess why writer/director S.S. Rajamouli has only now broken through to Western audiences with “RRR” despite his consistent box office success. Rajamouli’s latest is an anti-colonial fable and buddy drama about the imaginary combo of two real-life freedom fighters, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju ( Ram Charan ). “RRR” is also a fine showcase for Rajamouli’s characteristic focus on maximalist action choreography, overwhelming stuntwork and pyrotechnics, and sophisticated computer graphics.  

By the time he made “RRR,” Rajamouli had already developed his brand of Nationalistic self-mythologizing with some help from recurring collaborators like regular story writer (and biological father) Vijayendra Prasad and both co-leads, who previously starred in Rajamouli’s “Yamadonga” and “Magadheera,” respectively.

Set in and around Delhi in 1920, “RRR” pointedly lacks historical context so that Rajamouli and his team can transform a straight-forward rescue mission into a rallying cry for reunification and also cathartic violence. Bheem, the avenging “shepherd” of the Adivasian Gond tribe, visits Delhi to track down Malli ( Twinkle Sharma ), an innocent pre-teen who’s kidnapped from her Gondian mother by the cartoonishly evil British Governor Scott ( Ray Stevenson ) and his sadistic wife Cathy ( Alison Doody ).

Raju, a peerless Colonial police officer, befriends Bheem without realizing that they’re at cross purposes: Bheem wants to break into Scott’s fortress-like quarters to rescue Maali while Raju wants to catch the unknown “tribal” that Scott’s lackey Edward ( Edward Sonnenblick ) fears might be lurking about. Raju and Bheem immediately bond after they save an unrelated child from being crushed by a runaway train, as clear a sign as any of Rajamouli’s love for Cecil B. DeMille-style melodrama. (“Ben Hur” is an acknowledged influence for Rajamouli, as are the action/period dramas of fellow DeMille-ian Mel Gibson ).

It’s also fitting that “RRR” is Rajamouli’s big breakthrough since it's inevitably about Bheem as an inspiring symbol of quasi-traditional, boundary-trampling patriotism. Rajamouli has gotten quite good at incorporating potentially alienating elements, like his cheap-seats love of grisly violence and brash sloganeering, into his propulsive, inventive, and visually assured fight scenes and dance numbers.

Rajamouli has also already perfected the way he works with and uses his actors as part of his shock-and-awe style of melodrama. Rama Rao is ideally cast as the naively sweet-natured Bheem, whose messianic qualities are also effectively high-lit in a handful of rousing set pieces, like when a bare-chested Bheem wrestles a tiger into submission. Rama Rao’s performance isn’t the main thing, but it is the emblematic inspiration that, along with a “Passion of the Christ”-worthy scourging, understandably leads an assembly of Indian nationals to attack Scott and his bloodthirsty hambone wife in a later scene.

Likewise, Charan’s steely-eyed performance in “RRR” is limited, but strong enough to be credibly superhuman. Rajamouli knows exactly how to capture his best sides, as in an astounding opening action scene where Raju descends into a rioting mob just to subdue and apprehend one particular dissident. Rao and Charan’s bro-mantic chemistry and syncopated physicality have already made a viral success of the movie’s splashy “Naatu Naatu” musical number, but that scene’s infectiously joyful presentation is supra-human by design.

The spirit of the individual matters more than any single person in Rajamouli’s movies and “RRR” is a perfect expression of that notion. It’s also a decent reflection of Rajamouli’s fame, which Film Companion South ’s Sagar Tetali keenly suggests is “the triumph of directorial ambition over the actor-star—the triumph of a brand of storytelling over the South Indian star image.”

With “RRR,” Rajamouli repeats his preference for one nation under populist ubermenschen. Both Bheem and Raju are extraordinary men because they are, at heart, aspirational expressions of the people’s will. Their lives, their loved ones, and their relationships are all of secondary importance—check out Bollywood star Ajay Devgn ’s explosive cameo!—so it makes sense that the cast’s images and performances are also blown up to James Cameron-sized proportions.

Like Cameron, Rajamouli has earned a reputation for pushing the limits of industrialized pop cinema. In that sense, “RRR” feels simultaneously personal and gargantuan in scope. Film Comment ’s R. Emmet Sweeney is right to caution viewers regarding the towering streak of “Hindu-centric” Nationalism and characterizations at the heart of Rajamouli’s “Pan-Indian address.” Sweeney is also right to hail Rajamouli’s dazzling “technical innovation.” It’s not every day that a new Indian movie—which are typically not advertised to Western viewers beyond indigenous language speakers, and therefore largely ignored by Western outlets—is presented as an event to American theatergoers. Attend or miss out.

Available in theaters tonight, June 1st, and also streaming on Netflix.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Film Credits

RRR movie poster

187 minutes

N.T. Rama Rao Jr. as Komaram Bheem

Ram Charan as Alluri Sitarama Raju

Alia Bhatt as Sita

Ajay Devgn as Venkata Rama Raju

Ray Stevenson as Scott Buxton

Alison Doody as Cassandra Buxton

Olivia Morris as Jennifer 'Jenny' Buxton

Samuthirakani as Venkateshwarulu

Shriya Saran as Sarojini

Chatrapathi Sekhar as Jangu

Makrand Deshpande as Peddanna

  • S. S. Rajamouli

Writer (story)

  • Vijayendra Prasad
  • S.S. Rajamouli

Cinematographer

  • K.K. Senthil Kumar
  • Sreekar Prasad
  • M.M. Keeravaani

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2022, Action/Drama, 3h 7m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Intoxicatingly over the top, RRR pulls out all the stops to make the absolute most of its 187-minute runtime. Read critic reviews

Audience Says

Top-notch singing and dancing combine with a terrific story to make RRR a three-hour feast of entertainment. Read audience reviews

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Rrr   photos.

Freedom fighters Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju join forces against British colonialists in the 1920s.

Genre: Action, Drama

Original Language: Telugu

Director: S.S. Rajamouli

Producer: D.V.V. Danayya

Writer: S.S. Rajamouli , Sai Madhav Burra , Vijayendra Prasad

Release Date (Theaters): Mar 25, 2022  wide

Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2022

Box Office (Gross USA): $596.5K

Runtime: 3h 7m

Distributor: Sarigama Cinemas

Production Co: DVV Entertainments

Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

N.T. Rama Rao Jr.

Komaram Bheem

Alluri Sitarama Raju

Ajay Devgan

Venkata Rama Raju

Shriya Saran

Samuthirakani

Venkateswarulu

Olivia Morris

Ray Stevenson

Scott Buxton

Alison Doody

Catherine Buxton

S.S. Rajamouli

Screenwriter

Sai Madhav Burra

D.V.V. Danayya

K.K. Senthil Kumar

Cinematographer

A. Sreekar Prasad

Film Editing

M. M. Keeravani

Original Music

Production Design

Nikolai Kirilov

Art Director

Rama Rajamouli

Costume Design

Vijayendra Prasad

Kaala Bhairava

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The Indian Action Blockbuster That Should Make Hollywood Jealous

RRR is the heroic epic we’ve been waiting for—one that’s not afraid of its own extravagance.

Ram Charan walking away from a burning building in "RRR"

I can think of two action films from the past decade that involved a stunt in which an actor throws an entire motorcycle at someone. The first is the 2015 Marvel sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron . Captain America (played by Chris Evans), battling bad guys in a snowy forest, does a flip with his bike and flings it at an armored tank . But the moment is brushed off; Cap mutters an unrelated joke and his wild accomplishment is immediately undercut, an eye-rolling punctuation to a busy but washed-out combat set piece.

The other movie to feature two-wheelers as handheld weapons is the Indian epic RRR , a box-office phenomenon that’s become one of the highest grossers in the country’s history . In the final act, the rebel hero Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), confronted with a motorcycle vrooming toward him, stops it in its tracks with a kick, grabs it by the front wheel, and uses it to demolish various opponents, swinging it around like a very unwieldy sword. The feat is ridiculous, but also utterly glorious, rendered in ultra-slow motion set to booming, jubilant music.

RRR , written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli, is more than three hours long, and its run time is bursting with moments like this, aggressive spectacles that are given enough room and emphasis to let the audience revel in them. Bheem is introduced with a training montage in the forest that sees him battle a tiger and a wolf. Later on, in one of his most preposterous attacks on nefarious colonial Brits, he mounts a truck filled with animals and crashes it into a gated fortress, then leaps out, flanked by an assortment of wild creatures, while carrying flaming torches in each hand. The visual is heroic nonsense, sure, but it’s also stirringly maximalist poetry, the kind of sincere triumphalism that feels absent from peer Hollywood blockbusters.

RRR (in English, the title stands for “Rise, Roar, Revolt”) is possibly the most expensive Indian film ever made, with a budget equivalent to $72 million. It is a product of the Telugu-language industry based in Hyderabad, which rivals the Mumbai-based Bollywood and has begun to threaten that sector’s position in terms of financial success. Rajamouli’s last two movies before this one are among the country’s biggest hits. So upon its March release, RRR ’s smash reception in India was to be expected. But its impressive performance in America , where it was initially screened in about 1,000 theaters, was surprising, given the comparative lack of press and advertising.

Since its strong opening weekend, RRR has become a word-of-mouth event in the U.S. Some theaters have organized packed special screenings as one-night events, and others have gone all in on daily showtimes for the foreseeable future, even though the film is now available to stream on Netflix. RRR has broken through for American audiences for likely a few reasons—many people desire fun, communal viewing experiences after years of COVID lockdowns, and cinema chains are casting wider nets as traditional Hollywood studios have had far fewer theatrical releases than usual in recent years. But I think the main explanation is that RRR offers the kind of action extravagance that even the biggest-budgeted superhero movies (such as Spider-Man: No Way Home or Black Widow ) seem curiously afraid to embrace.

Read: The new Doctor Strange is not just another Marvel movie

RRR is decidedly less cautious—even a single fired bullet will sometimes get its own slow-motion star treatment, as it blasts gracefully through the air toward a particular evildoer. No self-aware jokes are let loose to undermine the melodrama, and while most of RRR ’s many action scenes are overwhelming in scale, they also all manage to feel thematically different. The tale follows two freedom fighters, both loosely based on real-life figures from early-20th-century Indian history (though the script is entirely fictitious): Bheem, a defender of the Gond tribes looking to rescue a local girl kidnapped by the British, and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan), who, in the film, is a military officer for the empire and secretly hopes to use his position to foment rebellion.

Though they share a hatred for the British, Bheem’s and Raju’s missions are often at cross-purposes, and the script delights in bringing the pair together as friends against all odds. After extended prologue scenes that separately depict their martial prowess, the movie finally unites them about 45 minutes in, when they both chance upon a train accident on a bridge that endangers a child. Bheem and Raju, despite never having met, immediately lock eyes from thousands of yards away and execute a complicated rescue. One of them charges forward on a horse, the other on a bike, and then they both do a series of gymnastic jumps that involves swinging from the bridge on ropes and passing a flag back and forth. (Almost every martial sequence in RRR is very difficult to describe in words, as should be the case for any good action movie.)

After all this, the boy is rescued, Bheem and Raju’s friendship is forged, and the film’s title finally flashes on-screen in full, as if Rajamouli is just now acknowledging that he’s earned the audience’s attention for the rest of the adventure ahead. Montages follow of the leads palling around, along with a masterful dance-off, multiple romances, plenty of tense fight scenes, and lots of lip-curling villainy from the occupying Brits. The thrill of RRR is not the density of its storytelling, though—it’s the exuberance of it.

I’ve invoked Marvel movies—plenty of which I enjoy—because they’re the most common example of the current American blockbuster style, one that lavishes hundreds of millions on intricate CGI action shots that often end up feeling airless, and in which even the grandest battles are executed with a depressing sameness. In those movies, giant monsters are defeated, and portals in the sky are closed, but seeing a film as visually inventive as RRR serves as a reminder of how much modern action usually follows a formula. If wonder is to be consistently found on the big screen, then Hollywood has plenty of new lessons to learn from its best competitor.

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India’s wild action movie RRR re-imagines real-life revolt as an epic superhero battle

The latest outsized crowd-pleaser from Baahubali series director S.S. Rajamouli finds massive thrills in revolution

Jr NTR roars in the face of a Bengal tiger in RRR

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In the famous “No Man’s Land” sequence from 2017’s Wonder Woman , Gal Gadot strides across a barren battlefield in slow motion, deflecting German bullets with her wrist cuffs and magical shield. The wind blows through her hair as she leaps across the muddy fields with godlike nimbleness, the score swelling behind her with patriotic pride. There’s a similar moment in RRR (“Rise Roar Revolt”), S.S. Rajamouli’s action-drama hybrid about the adventures of two Indian revolutionaries who have divergent approaches to resisting British occupation in 1920s Delhi. The difference is, in RRR , it’s just one of half a dozen scenes of its kind.

The latest outsized action spectacle from Rajamouli — director of the much-beloved Baahubali movies , available on Netflix — mythologizes two historical figures, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Konidela Ram Charan). In real life, Bheem was a leader of the Gondi people who collaborated with other groups to resist landlords and mining companies encroaching onto tribal lands. Raju, meanwhile, led guerrilla attacks on imperial police stations, seizing British guns and ammunition to level the playing field between colonizer and colonized.

This last point makes its way into RRR , as part of a storyline that reframes Raju as a supercop on a mission to take down the British power structure from within. That’s a minor liberty, however, compared to the fact that in the film, both Raju and Bheem have superheroic agility, strength, and fighting abilities. Both can scale buildings like Spider-Man, dodge bullets like Wonder Woman, and flip their opponents like pro wrestlers. Bheem, representing the element of water, counts the animals of the forest among his allies, and bursts onto the field of battle with tigers and wolves by his side. And Raju, representing fire, drives a burning carriage and shoots flaming arrows. Picture Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere joining the MCU, with Franklin harnessing the power of electricity, and Revere the swiftness of the wind.

The superpowers aren’t the only liberty taken with their stories. RRR explains gaps in both men’s histories by proposing that they became friends after they each made their way to Delhi in the early 1920s — Raju as an undercover imperial cop, Bheem on a rescue mission to save a village girl kidnapped by a colonial governor. (They never met in real life.) In the film, the pair bond over their mutual derring-do. They’re two strangers who agree with a nod to embark on a dangerous impromptu rescue mission to save a little boy trapped by a flaming train accident on a Delhi river.

Subtlety, to put it mildly, is not Rajamouli’s thing. And so the director not only takes every opportunity available to hammer home the “fire and water” theme, he also works in dramatic slow-motion shots wherever he can. Bheem trips and knocks a silver tray out of a waiter’s hand at a garden party? The tray drops in slow motion and spins to a stop as guests stare with wide eyes and jaws agape. Raju pummels a punching bag in frustration after being passed over for a promotion? You bet those drops of sweat are beading off of his glistening, muscular shoulders and dashing mustache at half-speed.

RRR also deals in big emotions to match its hyper-dramatic shooting style. Betrayal, loyalty, and legacy are all major themes, and an alternate title of the film could be SSS — “Secrets. Subterfuge. Sacrifice.” Compared to a stereotypical Bollywood film (which RRR is not — it’s a Telugu production), RRR is relatively light on music and romance, devoting much of its screen time to visual spectacle, gonzo action, and patriotic zeal. The dynamic between Bheem and Raju has shades of the macho bromance of John Woo’s 1980s movies, until it transforms into a superhero team-up. And Rajamouli’s camera is unabashed in its worship of these men, introducing them with protracted sequences designed to build anticipation for viewers’ first look at the characters.

But RRR does make some time for comedy and music amid its stylized feats of mythological bravery. Between the title card — which pops up around the 45-minute mark — and the intermission (sorry, “InteRRRmission”) break two hours in, RRR pauses for a breezy interlude that invites viewers to hang out with the provincial Bheem and the more Anglicized Raju as they get into mischief and chase girls. Raju has a sweetheart back home — his childhood friend Sita (Alia Bhatt), to whom he pledged eternal loyalty before leaving his village to join the Indian Imperial Police. So he acts as Bheem’s wingman, helping Bheem charm sympathetic Englishwoman Jenny (Olivia Morris) with his aw-shucks attitude and impressive dance skills.

A shirtless Jr NTR shoots an arrow through a gap in a wall of fire in RRR

Jr NTR (the common abbreviation for N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Ram Charan, both Telugu superstars in their own right, show off those skills in the rousing “ Naatu Naatu, ” RRR ’s only real musical production number. (Another song, “Etthara Jenda,” plays over the end credits, and Bheem puts his defiance into song while being punished for his revolutionary activities.) Longtime Rajamouli collaborator M.M. Keeravani provides music for these numbers, along with a title song and instrumental compositions designed to get audiences to their feet.

RRR is a busy movie, full of kinetic camerawork, bustling crowd scenes, elaborate set design, expensive-looking CGI, and loud sound effects. Rajamouli is skilled at balancing the film’s many elements, so “overstimulated” isn’t quite the word for how walking out o f RRR feels. It’s more like the pleasant exhaustion after a good workout.

The extended running times of Indian films used to form a barrier to entry for Western audiences unaccustomed to spending three full hours at the movies. But times have changed, and RRR is only 10 minutes longer than The Batman . On the other hand, although it’s set for release in 30 countries , the film assumes a familiarity with certain characters and iconographies that might go over foreign viewers’ heads. Still, at its core, this is a story about people fighting for their beliefs against impossible odds. It’s about perseverance and the power of working together toward a common goal. Those themes are universally relatable — as is the giddy thrill of watching racist forces of imperial oppression get exactly what’s coming to them.

RRR is now playing in select theaters worldwide.

[ Ed. note: We recommend viewers check local listings or contact the theater to make sure you’re catching the version of RRR you want to see. The film was shot in Telugu, but some theaters are running multiple screens with versions of the film dubbed into one or more of the other major Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. A Telugu screening will give you the original voice performances with English subtitles.]

Film School Rejects Logo

‘RRR’ is Pure Awe, Wonder, and Spectacle in Cinematic Form

RRR K.K. Senthil Kumar

Some movies leave you wanting to mention it to friends as a fun diversion from their day, but once in a while a film comes along that will leave you yelling its name from the rooftops. Now, admittedly, that’s a tough sell when the movie’s title is RRR — people are likely to confuse your aggressive raves for the mad rambling of a demented pirate — but however you manage it, expect to be giddily sharing your love for the film to everyone within earshot for weeks afterward. This is an action spectacle that will have you alternating between jaw-drops, big smiles, and tears of joy, and it’s the epitome of a film that benefits from enjoying it on the biggest screen possible.

It’s early in the 20th century, and the sun is threatening to set on the British Empire. Their rule in India is being shaken by rumblings of revolt, but rural skirmishes lead to urban brawls when a British general ( Ray Stevenson ) and his despicable wife abduct a young girl from a remote village. The local’s go-to strong man, Komaram Bheem ( N.T. Rama Rao Jr. ), heads to Delhi to rescue the child only to find resistance in an unlikely place — a fellow Indian named Rama Raju ( Ram Charan ). Raju is a police officer motivated by a desire for promotion, and capturing Bheem would secure his rise through the ranks. A complication rears its head, though, when the two men become fast friends wholly unaware of the other’s true identity.

RRR — a gRRReat abbreviation for “Rise Roar Revolt” — is an epic the likes of which Western audiences see far too infrequently. Hollywood studios wouldn’t dream of attempting even half of what S.S. Rajamouli ‘s wildly ambitious twelfth feature knocks out of the park, but that’s part of what makes the film such an overwhelming success. Action set-pieces mixing spectacular visuals with the ridiculous, a bromance pairing heroic bloodshed with genuine playfulness, and a blistering pace that sees the three-hour running time fly by all make for the most entertaining and thrilling spectacle you’re likely to see this year.

A product of India’s burgeoning “Tollywood” film sector — its more familiar “Bollywood” sibling sits to the north — this Telugu-language blockbuster sees Rajamouli following up his record-breaking Baahubali: The Conclusion with another historical action-epic designed to pummel viewers with unrelenting thrills. RRR ‘s script, a collaboration between Rajamouli and Vijayendra Prasad, threads historical characters and events through the eye of an action-oriented hurricane. Bheem and Raju were real-life Indian revolutionaries who fought against British rule, but don’t take that to mean the film is any more historically accurate than something like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012). This is instead an alternate history, of sorts, presenting a world where very real British tyrants are challenged by heroes immune to the laws of physics, where an abundance of cg animals exit a truck like clowns spilling out of a tiny car at the circus, and where an endlessly stunning dance number leaves antagonists on the floor and audiences on their feet.

Those only familiar with India’s Bollywood output might be surprised to see that RRR keeps its in-movie songs to an absolute minimum. One character sings during a serious sequence, but rather than explode into dance the song is instead a call for the downtrodden to rise. Another song plays over a montage showcasing Bheem’s and Raju’s burgeoning friendship, and scenes of the pair goofing off, sharing a motorcycle ride, and more are overlaid with self-aware lyrics wondering if “this friendship will break” when the truths are revealed and that “it’s yet to be seen if this will end in bloodshed.” Spoiler, it is.

The film’s highlight, though — one of many, many highlights if we’re being honest — is a dance that kicks off with Bheem being ridiculed by some pompous Brits for not knowing the flamenco. Bheem and Raju step up with a dance-off built on the popular “Naatu Naatu” song that sees them going toe to toe with everyone else and each other. It’s a ridiculously thrilling and emotionally invigorating sequence, and if you’ll excuse the first-person intrusion, it’s one that left me tearing up at the combination of joy, athleticism, vitality, and pride. A dance scene, yes, but one that also serves as courtship, as a commentary on colonization, and as a powerful sequence of male bonding.

Both lead characters have a special lady in their lives, Raju with a love back home and Bheem building a romance with Jenny ( Olivia Morris ) from the colonist block, but the bromance between them is the connection that powers the film. From their first meeting — a cheerworthy jaw-dropper that sees them team up to save a young boy — to the montage celebrating their friendship, the pair find visible pleasure in each other’s company. When the inevitable truths come out that bond is challenged in ways reminiscent of Hong Kong classics like City on Fire (1987) and The Killer (1989) while still allowing room for surprises and themes of its own. Both Rao and Charan understand exactly what’s needed from their characters and deliver performances that bounce beatifically from the silly to the sincere, and from the intense to the incredibly over the top.

For viewers caring mostly (or only) about its action scenes, rest assured that Rajamouli packs numerous and unforgettable set-pieces into RRR . From an early brawl pitting Raju against a hundred men to a forest battle set against the backdrop of burning trees and equally fiery rage, the action here finds inspiration in the Fast & Furious School of Physics while still delivering beautiful imagery and breathtaking beats. CG is a frequent tool in the film’s arsenal, and while the digital quality varies it’s always in the service of something extraordinary. A scene where Bheem grabs a motorcycle out of mid-air and proceeds to wield it as a weapon is a perfect example — it’s nonsense, but it is glorious nonsense all the same.

RRR has some important observations to make regarding what makes a people truly powerful, and it reminds us more than once about the perceived value of a bullet. The British argument is that an Indian person’s life is worth less than the cost to produce and transport a single bullet, and the locals in turn find themselves assigning a high value to guns to be used to fight back. The weaponries’ worth isn’t wholly dismissed by the time the end credits roll, but an important truth is revealed regarding the value and power of a person’s — or people’s — will to stand strong. It may not be an original conceit, but it’s no less effective or affecting in its observation.

They couldn’t be more different, but RRR is a terrific pairing with the new American film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) as both see viewers gifted with cinematic brilliance. Each is an epic in its own way, both overflowing with emotion and creativity, and each is an absolute blast guaranteed to leave viewers changed for the better. Keep your eyes, mind, and heart open, and you’ll see that it’s always a golden age at the movies if you know where to look.

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‘rrr’ review: s.s. rajamouli’s glorious indian action spectacle.

This Telugu-language action-adventure epic, available on Netflix, has become a worldwide sensation.

By Frank Scheck

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RRR

“Delirious” is the word to describe S.S. Rajamouli’s Indian action-adventure film that has become a worldwide phenomenon both in theaters and on Netflix since its summer release.

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Although the central characters are based on real-life historical figures, RRR (the title stands for “Rise, Roar, Revolt”) is strictly fictional, as one of the most extensive opening disclaimers ever seen onscreen takes pain to emphasize. (We’re also assured that all of the animals seen in the film, and there are plenty, are strictly CGI. Which is definitely a good thing for them.)

We’re introduced to the lead characters in two bravura action sequences before the opening credits, which don’t appear until some 40 minutes into the film. Ramo Rao Jr. plays Bheem, a burly member of the Gond tribe who attempts to trap a wolf only to come into hand-to-paw combat with a rampaging tiger, whom he manages to subdue through a combination of cunning and superhuman strength. Charan plays Raju, a seemingly superhuman Indian member of the British police who, when first seen, dives into a raging mob of what seems like thousands of rioting Indians to subdue a criminal and somehow manages to fight all of them off successfully.

When a little girl from his tribe is abducted by an evil British governor (Ray Stevenson, leaning heavily into his cartoonish role) who regards Indians as “brown rubbish,” and his equally wicked wife (Alison Doody, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ), Bheem embarks for Delhi on a rescue mission. There he encounters Raju in an action-movie version of a “meet cute,” the pair making their acquaintance via a daring joint rescue of a boy from a burning river in a sequence that rivals anything James Cameron or Steven Spielberg has ever devised.

And, of course, there are musical numbers, including the instant classic “Naatu Naatu,” in which Raju and Bheem engage in a frenetically athletic dance-off with rhythm-challenged Brits that would have made MGM’s Arthur Freed proud. (I watched the film on Netflix, and can only imagine the hysteria the scene must have induced in theaters.)

Director Rajamouli, who in just seven years is already responsible for three of India’s highest-grossing films of all time, displays his obvious love of popular cinema in every wildly colorful, overstuffed frame. No matter that the CGI or aerial wire work is sometimes all too obvious, or that the frequent use of slow-motion borders on parody. It’s all presented in such visually dazzling fashion that your eyes are fully satisfied before your brain can make any objections.

And the two endlessly charismatic lead actors display such dynamic physicality in their hyper-muscular performances that they fairly burst from the screen. Their characters provide the most evocative screen bromance since Butch and Sundance.  

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What Is RRR and Why Is Everyone Watching It?

By Keith Phipps

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The streaming era has its downsides but it’s also helped make the world a smaller place, at least when it comes to entertainment. In an earlier time something like Squid Game might have reached Western viewers as a legend passed around via second-generation VHS tapes or Region 3 DVDs. Instead, it became an international phenomenon seemingly overnight. The same is true of RRR , an Indian blockbuster that’s now just a click away for curious Netflix subscribers after playing to packed houses in India since March (and in a handful of screenings in North America). And, click they have, based on the fevered reactions to the film that have taken over social media since it hit Netflix on May 20 ( moved up from a scheduled June debut due to high demand).

So what is RRR ? Put simply, it’s an overwhelming, often awe-inspiring action spectacle that uses CGI to bend the laws of physics (and reality itself), sending bodies flying through the air and explosions high into the sky. If that sounds intriguing, consider carving out a three-hour block and clicking “play” before reading any further. You won't be disappointed.

Anyone wanting a sample, however, might consider skipping to around the thirty-minute mark. There they’ll hit the scene in which the film’s two heroes—Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), both inspired by real-life Indian revolutionaries though the adherence to fact pretty much ends there—meet, lock eyes, and silently concoct a plan to rescue a child from a fiery death after a train crashes into a river. Said plan involves a motorcycle, a horse, a rope, a flag, a pair of daring leaps, and expert timing. As they clasp hands in friendship, the proper opening credits (finally) roll.

It’s an amazing moment of go-for-broke filmmaking from director S. S. Rajamouli. It’s also one of many in a film that features a dance-off, bone-crushing hand-to-hand combat, and a menagerie of vicious wild animals (which, as a film-opening disclaimer needlessly clarifies, are CGI creations). It’s quite possible to watch RRR just for the spectacle, which helps explain why it’s broken through to a wider audience. It also works as a story of friendship triumphing over adversity with clearly defined villains and (extremely handsome and charismatic) heroes. Set in 1920, RRR pits Raju and Bheem against a truly vile colonial governor (Ray Stevenson) and somehow even more despicable wife (Alison Doody), who are introduced kidnapping a child and somehow grow even less sympathetic as the film progresses. After much struggle, good triumphs and evil suffers (sometimes by getting impaled on the horns of a stag).

Put simply, the film’s a blast. But there’s more going on in RRR beneath its eye-popping pleasures. Below are a few facts that help put it all in context.

Image may contain Human Person Clothing Apparel Hand Hair Finger and Shirt

Don’t call it Bollywood. The term “Bollywood” refers to the Indian film industry based in Mumbai. Its Hindi-language films have become synonymous with Indian popular filmmaking for much of the world. But Indian filmmaking stretches far beyond Bollywood. RRR is a product of the Hyderabad-based Tollywood, which produces films in Telugu, a language spoken primarily in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Formidable in their own right, Tollywood and other regional filmmaking centers have mostly operated in the shadow of Bollywood, though recent trends at the Indian box office have started to change that. Somewhat confusingly, the version of RRR on Netflix has been dubbed into Hindi. Also confusing: there’s another film industry called Tollywood, which makes Bengali-language films. It’s a large, complex country.

The central star team-up is a big deal. RRR ’s directors and stars are all huge figures. The English-language subtitle of the film reveals that it stands for “Rise, Roar, Revolt” (“Rage, War, Blood” in Telugu.) But it could just as easily stand for “Rama Rao, Ram Charan, and Rajamouli.” Writer Ritesh Babu has published a newsletter exploring the film’s origins and implications that sheds light on the historic pairing of its stars, both of whom come from families with deep Tollywood roots and who have fervent followings. “[B]arring very rare exceptions,” Babu writes, “these heroes do not star in films with one another or team-up.” RRR is one of those rare exceptions, which helps explain why both its stars share what appears to be perfectly balanced amounts of screen time.

Rajamouli, who has worked with both stars in the past, is a big name in Tollywood, too. He’s been making films since 2001’s Student No. 1 (starring Rama Rao) and those films have just gotten bigger and more ambitious over time. RRR follows the two-part fantasy epic Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (both of which are also available on Netflix). With a budget of $72 million, RRR is the most-expensive Indian film ever made. Its success suggests that Rajamouli may next move on to even bigger projects.

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Reality is out the window, and the stunts are stunning. Watching RRR means forgetting about conventional notions of how the world works. Characters leap tremendous distances, throw motorcycles through the air, and outrun and outwit tigers on their own turf. It would be pure chaos if Rajamouli didn’t orchestrate it so gracefully. He shifts in and out of slow motion with a stuttering rhythm, letting the awesomeness of his images dictate how long he holds a shot. (There are shades of John Woo’s work both in his visual style and in a plot driven by friends who might be rivals but ultimately share a common cause.) RRR is set in a world whose physics operate by movie logic and controlled by an expert choreographer (who occasionally lets full-on musical sequences take over the film). The set pieces go on and on, resurgent after they’ve seemingly reached their climax. The effects seldom look convincing but they’re breathtaking anyway, helping the film create a reality all its own.

It’s a fun reality to get lost in. It’s not fair to the film (or Indian filmmaking in general) to judge RRR by how it compares to Hollywood’s action spectaculars, but it’s worth noting that Rajamouli’s idea of blockbuster filmmaking is refreshingly different than a dominant Hollywood style that builds films around the work of previsualization teams . Anyone tired of that style, or just wanting a break from it, should look to this as a breath of fresh air.

It’s not overtly political (which makes it kind of political). The same opening statement that assures viewers no animals were harmed in making the film also notes RRR is “set in the backdrop of pre-independent India and is purely fictional […] The director or the technicians of the movie have no intention of maligning the beliefs of any individual or group.” That’s fair enough. The British, apart from one sympathetic woman smitten with Bheem, are all snarling racist bad guys and history does little to dispute that view.

They serve as easy-to-agree-upon villains for a film that concludes with a long, (literally) flag-waving patriotic musical number celebrating India that reminds viewers “there is an iron man in every lane and home,” almost as if we’ve just been watching a three-hour recruitment film. RRR ’s appearance coincides with a surge of Narendra Modi-stoked nationalism in the country, and while Rajamouli’s film doesn’t overtly celebrate that trend it does little to contradict it.

In a dive into the politics around the film , Slate ’s Nitish Pahwa points to the pointed absence of Muslim figures from the icons of revolutionary heroes included in the final dance numbers, explores how the film reinforces stereotypes via the Gond characters, and uses references to the ​​ Ramayana to confirm the caste system. As portions of India, like America, try to look back to an imaginary simpler time for solutions to present problems, RRR , in Babu’s words, reinforces a “regressive status-quo maintaining upper-caste Hindu fantasy set in the pre-independence era India.”

All that’s beneath the surface, however, and what’s on the surface is tremendously entertaining. When Bheem and Raju first spy each other from a distance they come to the instant understanding that they’ve met someone they’ve been searching for their whole life but didn't know it. Those looking for a giddy, enthralling film of the kind they’re never seen before will share that feeling when they discover RRR .

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RRR

Summary RRR is a fictional story about India's legendary freedom fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem who fought against the British Raj and the Nizam of Hyderabad respectively.

Directed By : S.S. Rajamouli

Written By : Vijayendra Prasad, Sai Madhav Burra, Madhan Karky, S.S. Rajamouli

Where to Watch

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N.T. Rama Rao Jr.

Komaram bheem.

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Alluri Sitarama Raju

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Venkata Rama Raju

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Olivia Morris

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Shriya Saran

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Ray Stevenson

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Venkateswarulu, chandra sekhar.

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Rajeev kanakala, venkat avadhani, rahul ramakrishna, edward sonnenblick, varun buddhadev, young alluri sitarama raju, spandan chaturvedi, mark bennington, ahmareen anjum, kirron arya, bheem's mother, eduard buhac, critic reviews.

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‘RRR’ Review: A Hero (or Two) Shall Rise

Scenes of glorious excess make the screen hum with energy in S.S. Rajamouli’s action epic set in British colonial India.

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By Nicolas Rapold

It’s not long in “RRR” before a tiger and a wolf collide midair during a brawl with one of the film’s two musclebound heroes. Scenes of glorious excess make the screen hum with energy in the latest feature from S.S. Rajamouli, the director of the “Baahubali” blockbusters.

Set in 1920s India before independence, “RRR” pairs two of the country’s biggest stars, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. (known as “Jr. NTR”) and Ram Charan, as superfriends from either side of a bloody colonial divide. A goofily gallant Jr. NTR plays Bheem, a warrior from the Gond tribe, while Charan smolders as Ram, a fearsome police officer who is underestimated by his white superiors. (The characters are inspired by two rebel heroes from the era, Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju.)

Bheem journeys to Delhi to rescue a Gond girl enslaved by the British governor and his wife, a couple of sadists. Ram has orders to identify and capture Bheem by going undercover with revolutionaries. Instead, the men unwittingly make fast friends when they save a child stranded on a river that’s on fire. (As one does.)

But their missions get inevitably entangled, and Rajamouli (who collaborated on the story with his screenwriter father, Vijayendra Prasad), stirs in an aw-shucks courtship between Bheem and the governor’s not-racist niece (Olivia Morris).

Rajamouli shoots the film’s action with hallucinogenic fervor, supercharging scenes with a shimmering brand of extended slow-motion and C.G.I. that feels less “generated” than unleashed. Here-to-there plot filler in “RRR” is instantly forgiven with each wild set-piece: Ram furiously tunneling through a hundred-strong mob outside his garrison, or the rumbling dance-off (the “Naatu Naatu” musical number) where Bheem and Ram giddily exhaust the British cads and delight the ladies.

The rousing anticolonialist battle royal concludes with one final fist-pump: an end-credit song celebrating political figures from across India.

RRR Rated PG-13 for violent sequences, some intense language and general mayhem. With subtitles. Running time: 3 hours 7 minutes. In theaters.

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RRR Netflix Review 4k UHD & 5.1 Channel Audio

HD Report

RRR might be best described (from an American point-of-view) as a hyper-action film with a dose of West Side Story . Yeah, West Side Story . But don’t get turned off if you’re not into musicals. There is really only one scene that features ballroom dancing. The rest of the film is a mix of drama, comedy, and action.

At times, RRR is also a brutal movie that isn’t for the faint-hearted. Add a drop of violence from á la Inglorious Basterds into the mix and we’re getting closer to defining the genre. Or, maybe the genre doesn’t need to be defined. Maybe we can just call it “fun.” But we’re here to discuss the video and audio quality of RRR . So, let’s get to it.

RRR-British-court

RRR is presented in super-sharp 4k resolution but without Dolby Vision HDR. Not that it needs it. The color palette in the film is already super-saturated and contrasty, as if the video was passed through an Instagram filter. Does RRR hold up to the standards we are used to? It certainly does.

At eight minutes you can get a wide shot of a crowd that is very impressive. The color is minimal but rich with detail. The barbed wire in this specific shot really displays the clarity that content is capable of in 4K. The close-ups of eyes, mustaches, and military medals on the uniforms are also evidence of this high-quality video (check out how clear the name tags are!).

The big dancing scene (referred to as “Let’s Naacho”), is, let’s just say, goofy and unforgettable. But the video quality is something you won’t forget – a very bright image with good sharpness and color saturation. It would be great to see this on 4k Blu-ray with HDR, however, where some of the blown-out highlights might be recovered.

RRR-release-the-tigers

Starting with the opening credits and music score, the audio is a left-to-right and front-to-rear experience. We reviewed RRR on three different audio systems. The first was a five-channel system with two front towers, a center 2-way, two side speakers, and a sub-woofer. This was obviously the best way to hear the film. The dynamic range was clear through the various frequencies and at key moments filled the space. The dialogue is crisp. Some sound effects probably didn’t need to be so overexaggerated, as in knife punctures and kicks to the body, but you might expect that type of sensationalism in a film like this.

The sound design elements and the music score (both by M. M. Keeravani) tended to move to the side channels more than anything else. Audio in the rear channels was sparse but popped up here and there. The scene where Raju leads Bheem to be hanged has some excellent audio design that puts the viewer in the chase. The finale of the movie seemed to have some of the best immersive sound. Effects and music score elements move around subtly, but gunshots (although maybe placed randomly) are dropped into the rear speakers.

The second audio review was done with high-quality Sony headphones connected via Bluetooth. The sound really moved around even with just two channels (left and right ears). The third audio system was a Sony Atmos sound bar 7.1 with a subwoofer. This setup (as expected) provided a mainly frontal audio approach with occasional movements from the left and right sides.

All three systems provided an excellent experience, each with its own qualities that worked for the film.

RRR is a blast. At 182 minutes it’s a long movie that may call for one or two breaks but you may find yourself wanting to get back to the story real quick. The CG animals don’t exactly fool you into thinking they are real (in fact, a disclaimer at the beginning of the film tells you no animals were harmed in the making of the film) but if you can just suspend your disbelief for a bit the story becomes even more fun. The 4k presentation is really good. The close-ups are extremely sharp, but we’d still love to see what this could look like on 4k Blu-ray or as a 100GB download. As far as audio, the music composition, sound design, and dialogue are vibrant throughout.

Movie 3.5/5

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Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, N.T. Rama Rao Jr., and Ram Charan in RRR: Naatu Naatu (2021)

A fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in this epic saga set in pre-independent India. A fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in this epic saga set in pre-independent India. A fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in this epic saga set in pre-independent India.

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  • Sai Madhav Burra
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  • 83 wins & 150 nominations total

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  • Alluri Sitarama Raju
  • (as Ram Charan Teja)

Ajay Devgn

  • Venkata Rama Raju

Alia Bhatt

  • Scott Buxton

Alison Doody

  • Catherine Buxton

Samuthirakani

  • Venkateswarulu

Makrand Deshpande

  • Venkat Avadhani

Rahul Ramakrishna

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Spandan Chaturvedi

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  • Trivia Alluri Sita Ramaraju and Komaram Bheem were freedom fighters of India who didn't meet in real life. This film is completely fictitious and based on an idea of what if those two met.
  • Goofs Brazil, but not Belize, is marked as part of the British Empire in the large map on the meeting hall. Brazil was never a colony, protectorate or a client state of the UK, unlike Belize.

Komaram Bheem : Your friendship is more valuable than this life, brother. I'll die with pride.

  • Crazy credits The title doesn't appear on screen until 40 minutes into the movie.
  • Alternate versions The Hindi version released on Netflix has some changes made to it. The title card mentioning "Rise Roar Revolt" has been translated to English, the intermission has been removed, the ending song and end credits are played separately, and the overall film is presented in an open matte format, as opposed to the theatrical version.
  • Connections Featured in Vishal Mishra & Rahul Sipligunj: Naacho Naacho (2021)
  • Soundtracks Dosti (Telugu) Lyrics by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry Music by M.M. Keeravani Vocals by Hemachandra Vedala

User reviews 1.6K

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  • Jun 29, 2022
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  • March 25, 2022 (United States)
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  • صعود ودوي وثورة
  • Ramoji Film city, Hyderabad, India (Film city)
  • DVV Entertainment
  • See more company credits at IMDbPro
  • ₹3,500,000,000 (estimated)
  • $15,156,051
  • Mar 27, 2022
  • $166,611,197

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  • Runtime 3 hours 7 minutes
  • Dolby Atmos
  • IMAX 6-Track

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RRR Review: Jr NTR, Ram Charan Give Sweeping Saga Of Hyper-Heroism All They Have

Rrr review: the film rings hollow because it never pauses for breath and does not grant its two male protagonists anything akin to recognizable human qualities although they do constantly harp on love and longing..

RRR Review: Jr NTR, Ram Charan Give Sweeping Saga Of Hyper-Heroism All They Have

RRR review (Courtesy: rrrmovie )

Cast:  N.T. Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn

Director:  S.S. Rajamouli

Rating:  Two stars (Out of 5)

In S.S. Rajamouli's new and characteristically overblown action extravaganza, bowdlerized history yields a misshapen monster of epic proportions. Yes, the film is exceedingly effulgent in terms of scale and ambition, but it is a mess that trivialises the under-documented history of tribal resistance against the British Raj and other forces of exploitation that have never ceased to thrive.

Everything in this sweeping saga of hyper-heroism is written in CAPITAL LETTERS, leaving no space for the little inflections and the occasional punctuations that could add depth to the tale of two warring titans fighting against all odds.

The nuance of human struggle, the tenacity of marginalized communities and any meaningful detailing of time, place and characters are beyond the ken of RRR because the movie is intent on wielding the broad brush of fantasy and mythologizing the real battles that real people fought in real terrains a century ago.

RRR has no dearth of visual spectacle and masculine grandstanding, neither of which lends the film any novelty. Ram Charan and NTR Jr throw all their starry weight behind the endeavour and 'manfully' front quite a few of the film's set pieces (including one that has the two actors dancing in tandem with gay abandon). However, what goes before and comes after these packaged 'highs' are more often than not hard to swallow.

The film rings hollow because it never pauses for breath and does not grant its two male protagonists anything akin to recognizable human qualities although they do constantly harp on love and longing. One represents fire, the other water - this is spelt out in a protracted prelude - but what dominates is blood. A lot of it is spilled, but our two heroes are full-blooded warriors. They stand firm against the atrocities that they and their people are subjected to.

One of them, Ram Charan in the guise of a tough British-era policeman A. Rama Raju, charges into an agitated crowd of thousands when a stone is hurled at his bosses. He is surrounded and beaten up by a section of the mob but he comes out of the confrontation almost in one piece, barring a bruise here and a sprained muscle there.

The other protagonist, a simple-minded and idealistic Gond tribal Kumram Bheem, is played by NT Rama Rao Jr. The man kills a tiger barehanded. The deed done he apologizes to the dead animal for having slain it for the greater good. Don't ask what that 'greater good' is, or at least not so early in the movie.

Rama Raju, likewise, is a forest dweller and a sharpshooter who serves the Empire with boundless zeal. He, too, has a cause infinitely greater than the one he seems to be espousing at first flush - he is in line for a promotion owing to the efficiency that he displays in battering "brown rubbish" into submission.

Rama Raju's backstory, briefly hinted at in the first half of the punishingly long film, features Ajay Devgn in a cameo. The other hero's background is revealed right at the outset of the three-hour film - a tribal girl is summarily taken away a British officer's wife and the man commits himself to freeing her from captivity.

The might of the British is represented in RRR by the brutal Governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his vicious wife (Alison Doody). They possess no humanity at all - they treat Indians like animals but they themselves are worse than animals. The film loses no opportunity to rub that in. Narrative subtlety and psychological ambiguity aren't Rajamouli's forte, certainly not in this film.

The take-no-prisoners style and substance of RRR are targeted at fans of Rajamouli's brand of cinema. They will most definitely find a great deal of value in the grandly conceived and choreographed action and the headily heightened emotions. This critic, however, has no patience for a movie that believes that a hero has no right to a moment or two of silence or contemplation in an action drama. When will men in an Indian action movie - or any action movie, for that matter - return to walking like a normal human being and not fly like a bird, leap like a lion and fight like an ape?

The writer-director known for his penchant for fantasy and mythology incorporates both in his reimagining of the lives of two real-life revolutionaries who stood up against unspeakable injustice in the first half of the 20th century in what is now Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In doing so, he takes the wind out of the history that he so cavalierly fictionalizes.

RRR appropriates the struggle of forest dwellers and tribals and uses it as a mere pretext for an SFX-laden, power-packed cinematic blitzkrieg that flattens all possibility of a genuinely empathetic account of the resistance and rebellion of oppressed people.

The film - it is upfront about the fact that it is a work of fiction - reduces the Rampa rebellion of 1922 (led by Alluri Sitaram Raju) and the Telangana rebellion of 1946 (led by Komaram Bheem) to two broad events condensed into a contemporaneous whole. One centres on the enslavement of a little Gondi girl by the Britishers and the other on a plan to fire up (in a literal sense) a community of forest dwellers.

RRR fancifully transforms one of the rebels with a cause into a personification of Lord Ram and his patient, forever-in-waiting life partner into Sita - that is the name that the character played by Alia Bhatt goes by. His fights take place in and around forest areas - in the climax, he trades British guns and bullets for a good old set of bow and arrows - but no mention is ever made of land forcibly taken away and rights trampled upon.

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Ditto for the character of Bheem, who develops a soft spot for Governor Scott's comely niece Jennifer (Olivia Morris) but does not abandon his mission to liberate the Gondi girl imprisoned in the palatial gubernatorial residence. The Gond hero is allowed to acknowledge his identity but his battle on behalf of his people pans out on a blurry canvas that gives reality a wide berth.

RRR is a big-budget production that does not scrimp on anything at all. It lays it on thick - the background score does more than its bit to help. Ram Charan and NTR Jr, too, give it all they have. All of this might have added up nicely and the flair and flash might have genuinely lit up the screen had RRR not been what it essentially is - a willful mockery of a history that is crying out for more thoughtful and respectful treatment.

N.T. Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn

S S Rajampouli

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Monkey Man Review

Dev patel’s directorial debut features flimsy action and muddled politics..

Monkey Man Review - IGN Image

Monkey Man opens in theaters April 5. This review is based on a screening at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival.

Dev Patel wears his heart and his influences on his sleeve in Monkey Man. But in his first movie as writer, director, and star, the Oscar nominee’s sincerity collides with muddled politics and tepid execution. An action revenge movie in the vein of John Wick – a film the characters in Monkey Man mention by name – Patel’s India-set crime saga is an attempt at cinematic synthesis that ends up more of a facsimile, both culturally and aesthetically. There are gorgeous, evocative shots that don’t quite coalesce, and just as many instances of bone-crunching combat that fails to make an impact due to the way it’s sloppily strung together.

The “monkey man” of the title is a bare knuckle brawling persona adopted by Patel’s impoverished, nameless, slum-dwelling, ape-mask-wearing, fight-throwing character. Flashbacks to his childhood, however, paint a wider religious picture: This alter ego was influenced by stories told by his mother (Adithi Kalkunte) of the apelike demigod Hanuman, a key figure in the Hindu epic the Ramayana, from which Monkey Man draws several major plot points. Recalling religious chants from his youth, and memories of religiously-themed comic books – a modern doorway to Hinduism for young Indian readers – the character clings to tales of Hanuman to guide him through both kindness and vigilante vengeance.

Monkey Man Gallery

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Via a briskly shot and edited pickpocketing relay that recalls the films of Danny Boyle, Patel ends up with the stolen wallet of high-rolling madam Queenie Kapoor (Ashwini Kalsekar), whose illicit brothel serves the political elite of Yatana, a city that’s essentially Mumbai in all but name. His reward is a lowly kitchen job – the film has notions of class inequality on its mind, towards which it lightly gestures – and as he worms his way up the ranks of Queenie’s establishment and towards its hidden VIP room, a tale of vengeance fades into view. While it takes about three-fourths of a two-hour runtime to fully reveal itself, abstract, fiery flashbacks of police violence provide a number of clues. The target is corrupt commissioner Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), a man in the pocket of revered religious and political figure Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), whose name, quite literally, means power.

This shaky attempt at weaving a political tapestry is where Monkey Man’s problems first emerge. Shakti ends up a half-hearted metaphor for India’s contemporary, right wing Hindutva government: He reads like a stand-in for politician and religious fanatic Yogi Adityanath with hints of Modi-esque industrial string-pulling. His religious sermonizing is framed as a façade for corruption, whereas the hero’s adherence to the stories of his youth are the wind beneath that character’s wings, fashioned as a righteous call to violence. But this dynamic misses the mark. Shakti’s religious mission is a front, but the Indian fascism Monkey Man attempts to lampoon is sincere in its notions of Hindu superiority. Meanwhile, the language and imagery adopted by Patel’s character fall discomfitingly in line with Hindutva itself, down to the religious slogans chanted in his support. When a member of the crowd bellows “Jai Bajrang Bali,” they echo words invoked during the lynchings of Muslims and other minorities .

What's your favorite Dev Patel movie?

It’s a well-meaning approach that ends up shockingly misguided. (For an American equivalent, imagine if Colin Firth wiped out that church full of right-wing Evangelical extremists in Kingsman , then yelped “Make America great again!”) Flashbacks to the hero’s childhood, and his forest-dwelling community, reveal police incursions and land-stealing that have painful real-world parallels involving India’s Muslims, its tribal communities, and its oppressed castes. But Patel depicts this theft interrupting a marionette performance of the Ramayana, as though Hinduism itself were under attack. He might be trying to reclaim the religion’s iconography from the talons of Hindutva, but Monkey Man’s use of Hanuman as an inspiration for revenge has a disorienting effect. It’s as though Monkey Man wants to have its cake, eat it, and be congratulated for doing so.

The action is occasionally commendable. Monkey Man’s cinematic influences lie far outside India – primarily, Indonesian martial arts movies, Korean ultraviolence, and the films of Bruce Lee. Its John Wick homages are overt as well, taking cues from that series’ symbols, lighting, and costumes. (Unfortunately, Patel’s take on Keanu Reeves’ signature black suit, black shirt combo is matched by dark lighting and dark backdrops that obscure key moments of viciousness.) The fight choreography cribs from filmmakers like The Raid ’s Gareth Evans and The Night Comes For Us ’ Timo Tjahjanto , with swift, unbroken medium shots allowing combat to play out in close quarters – a rarity in Hollywood filmmaking. While Patel, the burgeoning action star, embodies each motion with a sense of fluidity, emotional drive, and committed physicality, the overall result is uncanny, as though Patel the director had copied the answers to a math assignment without showing his work. The camera, while chaotic and shaky, is indiscriminate in its movements, rarely slowing down to capture impact, and often rolling and somersaulting in ways that oppose the action rather than following it.

The 25 Best Action Movies of All Time

rrr movie review reddit

Patel imbues his character with a humorous, self-effacing streak. He knows the value of an action underdog, à la Jackie Chan, but the fights are also few and far between. One of them, involving an ax, works like a charm and is filmed with clarity. But it also enters the story at random, arising as a matter of disconnected coincidence rather than character-driven plot.

That plot also genuinely strives to hold authoritarianism to account. At one point, the hero is taken in by a “hijra” community in hiding, spending some valuable downtime with this group of tough-but-gentle transgender women who are on the run from the police. (A cameo that will confound anyone familiar with Indian classical music ensues.). But Monkey Man also uses footage of actual political demonstrations against the Modi government while stripping them of their symbology and flattening their political concerns.

At a time of increased government censorship in India, nominally opposing sectarian oppression is admirable, since it will likely ensure Monkey Man is denied an official Indian release. But beyond a point, even Patel’s dreamlike, drug-induced POV shots become vehicles to explore imagery that’s being weaponized against real people ( sometimes in movie theaters ). The action is never intoxicating enough to transcend or transform this ugliness the way S.S. Rajamouli manages to in RRR , a film with similar issues .

The project feels deeply personal, from Patel drawing on the action influences of his youth, to presenting an Indian setting front and center through a lens of childhood memories. That he returns to the Mumbai slums – the backdrop to his most high-profile films, Slumdog Millionaire and Lion – is also an interesting, self-reflexive flourish. While born and raised in England, Patel has, for many years, been Hollywood’s go-to casting choice for characters hailing from India, and as much as martial arts and a Hindu upbringing factor into Monkey Man, Mumbai has also become a part of his public persona. (He also starred in Anthony Maras’ dramatization of the 2008 terrorist attacks in the city, Hotel Mumbai). His Indian accent has certainly come a long way since Slumdog; he sounds marginally more authentic as a native Mumbaikar, though not quite as much as quippy, comic-relief co-star Pitobash, who provides some much-needed levity. And the fact that Mumbai’s seedy underbelly takes center stage places Monkey Man’s vivid, lurid portraiture alongside the films of Ram Gopal Varma, director of gangster sagas like Satya and Company – though the cultural details and specifics feel both vague and over-explained for a Western gaze.

But Varma, too, is a hit-or-miss director; the fumbled action and politics of Patel’s debut may not be a death knell for his career behind the camera. His use of atmosphere and abstraction hint at a filmmaker who knows how to capture moments of mood and introspection, even if he struggles to craft thematic coherence and visual rhythm from these scenes. There’s a sense of promise to way some of the action builds in Monkey Man. It just rarely yields rousing crescendos or satisfying catharsis.

Dev Patel’s diehard sincerity clashes with unwieldy religious imagery in an India-set revenge saga whose tepid action scenes fail to make up for its muddled politics. His influences are all front and center – The Raid, John Wick, Hong Kong maestro Sammo Hung – but the synthesis of choreography and current events rarely leads to anything rousing or original. Monkey Man consists of far more imitation, flattery, and cultural facsimile.

In This Article

Monkey Man

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‘The Fall Guy’ Review: Ryan Gosling Serves Up Another Giddy Example of Popcorn Filmmaking at its Most Cheerful and Enthusiastic

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At this year’s Academy Awards , “ The Fall Guy ” stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt presented a video tribute to stunt performers that included clips ranging from the silent era up through recent action juggernauts like “RRR” and the “Fast & Furious” series. It was a step forward for a group whose contributions are frequently undervalued despite, as Blunt put it, “risk[ing] life and limb” for cinema. And yet, the segment didn’t come with an award attached. 

Although its roots are in the ‘80s, “The Fall Guy” feels very connected to contemporary Hollywood. There’s also a bit where Gosling’s character, washed-up stuntman Colt Seavers, walks onto the set of the movie that’s hopefully about to revive his career and is asked to step into a booth so his face can be scanned and used in perpetuity — a key sticking point in last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike. The technology is used for evil here, of course, in a movie that preaches below-the-line solidarity and the triumph of pluck and talent over money and ego. 

Love is also a powerful force in this film. It’s what drives Colt to return to stunt work after 18 months of painful rehabilitation in the wake of a near-fatal on-set accident depicted in the opening sequence: When producer Gail (Hannah Waddington) calls Colt, now working as a valet, to persuade him to come back to filmmaking, she tells him that the film’s director, Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), asked for him specifically.

The humor in “The Fall Guy” is silly, which consistently works; Jody’s “big break” is directing a sci-fi epic called “Metalstorm,” and Lietch and company have a lot of fun playing with the film-within-a-film’s alien costumes. And the story is very self-aware, which mostly works. At times, the movie’s nods to its own structure — a bit of self-affirmation from screenwriter Drew Pearce, perhaps? — are charming, like a segment where Colt and Jody discuss the thematic uses of split screen over the phone. They’re in different locations, but share the screen thanks to the use of a classic technique — guess which one. Others, like the meta arc of Colt and Jody discovering the power of love while shooting a film about the power of love, can tip over from clever into cheesy. 

The film is so self-aware, in fact, that it raises questions about which of its flaws are intentional and which are, well, flaws . The filmmaking here is as polished as one might expect from a Hollywood crowd-pleaser, well lit and only occasionally showy in terms of its camerawork. And the combat and car-crash stunts are great — they better be, given the subject matter. But there are places where the film’s VFX are puzzlingly crude compared to the professionalism of the rest of the craft: Gosling is obviously composited into a sequence where Colt skates alongside a speeding truck, for example. 

Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

This is popcorn filmmaking at its most cheerful and enthusiastic, driven by cheeky needle drops (the KISS disco hit “I Was Made for Loving You” serves as an unofficial theme song), rousing action, and movie stars. It might not give Hollywood power players any more respect for the contributions of stunt performers and coordinators, but it does put a romantic spin on their work that will continue the public’s love affair with the profession. It also ensures that we’ll continue to see a lot of Ryan Gosling in the coming months, which is never a bad thing. 

“The Fall Guy ” premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Universal Pictures will release it in theaters on Friday, May 3.

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  1. Official Discussion

    The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message ...

  2. RRR (2022) Review and Recommendation : r/movies

    RRR does not sacrifice storytelling at the expense of action setpieces. While the action is certainly breathtaking, it's all enabled by incredible character and a profound story of friendship and patriotism. This makes the movie fly by, despite its 3 hour runtime (not a second of which is wasted). Additionally, its stunt-work, practical ...

  3. Curious why people like RRR (2022) so much. : r/bollywood

    ADMIN MOD. Curious why people like RRR (2022) so much. Discuss. Has a current imdB rating of 9/10. 4.7/5 on google with over 90K reviews. I watched it recently I thought it was... pretty boring. I really don't want to offend anyone here, seriously. I thought the characters were badly written, story was illogical and made zero sense, action ...

  4. Dear Americans, please calm down about RRR : r/movies

    Dear Americans, please calm down about RRR. RRR is the biggest movie India has ever produced, and it was predictably well-received in the country (not as well as Rajamouli's last 2 films, but still). So, the idea that its Netfllix release would get a warm reception in the west, wasn't exactly far-fetched. But the sheer scale of the praise, as ...

  5. RRR: The only negative reviews are Indian : r/bollywood

    Firstly Indian movies being loved in the west is nothing new. Multiple Indian movies have been screened at various film festivals in the US and west since Neecha Nagar won Palme D'or in 1946. Movies from legends like Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor are regularly revisited and screened in foreign lands.

  6. RRR

    RRR is a fantasy action movie set during the British Raj era made on a budget of Rs 550 crore making it the most expensive movie of all time. The movie has earned around Rs 1,100 crore worldwide making it the 3rd/4th highest grossing movie of the modern era (Without adjusting the box office of any of the movies of previous eras) and one of the biggest blockbusters of 2022.

  7. RRR Review and Analysis: A Wildfire and Tsunami of a Film.

    In this movie all characters are either black or white, there is no inbetween, no nuance in the characterisation of villain and hero. Only Ram Charan's character had a little bit of greyshade but this movie didn't fully commit to it. In the end even his character was brought to the usual hero villian binary.

  8. RRR movie review & film summary (2022)

    In that sense, "RRR" feels simultaneously personal and gargantuan in scope. Film Comment 's R. Emmet Sweeney is right to caution viewers regarding the towering streak of "Hindu-centric" Nationalism and characterizations at the heart of Rajamouli's "Pan-Indian address.". Sweeney is also right to hail Rajamouli's dazzling ...

  9. RRR

    March 13, 2023 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…. Matt Brunson Film Frenzy. It's not just about men transitioning from ignorant to enlightened, sad to happy, or anti-hero to hero. It's about humans ...

  10. 'RRR' Is a Maximalist Action Film That Embraces Sincerity

    RRR (in English, the title stands for "Rise, Roar, Revolt") is possibly the most expensive Indian film ever made, with a budget equivalent to $72 million. It is a product of the Telugu ...

  11. RRR review: an Indian action epic finds the universal thrills in

    RRR explains gaps in both men's histories by proposing that they became friends after they each made their way to Delhi in the early 1920s — Raju as an undercover imperial cop, Bheem on a ...

  12. 'RRR' is Pure Awe, Wonder, and Spectacle in Cinematic Form

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  13. RRR (Netflix) Movie Review

    Review: RRR movie (Netflix) | AVForums Movies Podcast 25-Jul-2022. Trading in both stories of real revolutionaries and figures of Hindu myth, S. S. Rajamouli's film extracts two 'superheroes' of the Indian fight for independence from their respective lives and asks 'what if they had met?'. The answer to Rajamouli is that not only ...

  14. 'RRR' Review: S.S. Rajamouli's Glorious Indian Action Spectacle

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  15. What Is 'RRR' and Why Is Everyone Watching It?

    The central star team-up is a big deal. RRR's directors and stars are all huge figures.The English-language subtitle of the film reveals that it stands for "Rise, Roar, Revolt" ("Rage, War ...

  16. RRR

    RRR is a fictional story about India's legendary freedom fighters, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem who fought against the British Raj and the Nizam of Hyderabad respectively. ... I usually don't dig Bollywood movies that were too over-the-top, which is like most Bollywood movies. However, I gotta give it to RRR for making it actually fun ...

  17. 'RRR' Review: A Hero (or Two) Shall Rise

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  18. RRR Netflix Review 4k UHD & 5.1 Channel Audio

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  19. RRR (2022)

    RRR: Directed by S.S. Rajamouli. With N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt. A fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in this epic saga set in pre-independent India.

  20. 'RRR' Review: A Magnificent Cinematic Explosion

    The film is worth this reaction, too. Charan and N.T.R Jr. play Alluri Sitarama Raju (or simply Ram in the film) and Komaram Bheem, a pair of freedom fighters who, as far as anyone knows, never ...

  21. RRR

    RRR has consistently kept conversation (and praise) going from its theatrical release, through its Netflix debut, to now. Does it live up to the hype? Here's...

  22. RRR Review: Jr NTR, Ram Charan Give Sweeping Saga Of Hyper-Heroism All

    RRR review (Courtesy: rrrmovie) Cast: N.T. Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn. Director: S.S. Rajamouli. Rating: Two stars (Out of 5) In S.S. Rajamouli's new and characteristically ...

  23. 'RRR' movie review: Beyond the spectacular showmanship

    RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt) turns out to be a canvas for Rajamouli to scale up his showmanship after Baahubali. He leads us into the film in chapters — the story, the fire, the water… introducing ...

  24. Mystery Movie Monday Megathread

    r/RegalUnlimited is dedicated to the discussion of Regal Cinemas' Unlimited movie theater subscription service, as well as any and all things Regal beyond Unlimited. ... So far the movies have been: RRR=Regal Reported Runtime AR=Actual Runtime 1.The Greatest Beer Run Ever - Apple - Sept 26 2022 ... Another low budget Liam Neeson movie that ...

  25. Monkey Man Review

    Monkey Man opens in theaters April 5. This review is based on a screening at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. Dev Patel wears his heart and his influences on his sleeve in Monkey Man. But in his first ...

  26. The Fall Guy Review: Ryan Gosling Leads Another Terrific Popcorn Movie

    The humor in "The Fall Guy" is silly, which consistently works; Jody's "big break" is directing a sci-fi epic called "Metalstorm," and Lietch and company have a lot of fun playing ...