I sat down to RRR on Netflix expecting to watch maybe an hour of it before going to bed. It was already close to ten and I was bored. I had flipped through the home page so many times, wondering if this movie was worth watching and so I said why not. My only regret is that I didn't see it on a big screen, on the biggest screen imaginable, because if a movie ever deserved the tag line, "larger than life," it is this one!
S.S. Rajamouli hooked me from the start. A seemingly innocent scene where a young girl, Malli, paints the hand of the governor's wife, as she and her husband visit a village buried in the forest outside Delhi, where he serves. The girl sings a lovely song while she works, smiling back at her mother and fellow villagers who all compliantly sit on the ground watching. It is only as the camera pans back that you see that they are all under gunpoint of the governor's armed guard. The wife is pleased with Malli's work and decides to make the girl her own as she would a pet. She instructs her assistant to pay for the girl, who tosses down a couple copper coins at the mother's feet. The mother picks up the coins not comprehending what's going on until the man next to her tells her that she has just sold her daughter. Deeply distraught, she runs after the caravan of cars, including a 1920's Duesenberg where her daughter bangs at the window trying to escape. The caravan comes to a halt. A soldier is prepared to shoot the mother in the head but the governor stops him. He proceeded to tell the soldier how much a British bullet is worth and why on earth would he waste it on a native. So, the soldier picks up the nearest branch he can find and bashes the poor woman in the head. You know at that point you are in for a revenge movie of epic proportions and SSR, as he is known in India, does not disappoint.
I've heard of SSR. There are any number of Indian movies on Netflix but I scroll past them. I can only take so much Bollywood, or Tollywood in this case, as he makes his films in Telugu. He has made many lavish productions but this one may top the cake. He does more with a 72 million dollar budget than any American filmmaker would do with a budget ten times that size. It's just simply dazzling what this guy achieves with CGI. It makes Cameron's Avatar movies look like child's play. SSR builds a story into the unbridled action sequences that is multi-layered and convincing, even if he takes quite a few artistic liberties in telling of a 1920s revolt that actually took place.
You might think this is a Hindu Nationalist film but Bheem hides out as a Muslim in Delhi trying to figure out how to get into the governor's fortress to rescue Malli. As a result, you get the sense this film speaks for all Indians. Meanwhile, you have Raju, a crack Indian soldier in the British army bucking for promotion and willing to take on a mob to appease his superiors, only to be looked over once again because he is a native. No matter, Raju volunteers to find the revolutionary the governor has been warned about to gain the promotion he has long coveted.
SSR packs this film with unbelievable action sequences that hold your attention because they are so beautifully choreographed. It reminded me of Mad Max: Fury Road in this sense. However, you feel like his guy could have gone on for hours with this story, much like Peter Brook's epic stage play, The Mahabharata. Only in this case, the British actors are incidental.
Bheem only seeks the lovely Jenny to gain access to the governor's fortress. She is the niece of the cruel wife. The situations are absurd but that's part of the charm. By this point he has made friends with Raju after the two saved a boy from a fiery train that derailed over a bridge on the Yamuna River. Bheem's a bit shy so Raju shows him the way with women, dressing him up in a dapper suit to attend a party that Jenny has invited him to. Here we get the first major dance sequence that is a real show stopper and Bheem earns his place in Jenny's heart.
Daina had woken from her nap at this point curious to see what I was watching. She became just as enthralled with the movie as I was, although I had to fill her in on the details. We had been to India five years ago, spending most of our time in Delhi and thoroughly enjoying it. We were drawn to the colors of India especially. SSR has a surreal sense of color that would be an overload on the big screen, but would love to see it just the same.
The violence was a bit much for Daina, particularly when Raju is forced to beat Bheem in front of the sadistic governor and his wife, but you know Bheem will live. You also figure something is up with Raju. He can't have given his allegiance to the crown without some ulterior motive, especially after Bheem had saved his life from the bite of a highly toxic banded krait. So, we get a flashback and learn all about Raju and why he is where he is, feeling every stroke of the spiked whip as he lashes his dear friend in front of a throng of Indians. The governor thought it would put Indians in their place once and for all. Instead, Bheem refuses to yield to the crown and starts singing a song that awakens the revolutionary spirit in the crowd. This forces Raju to rethink his entire premise for serving in the British army.
Obviously, this is an anti-imperialist movie and one that would resonate in any country that has been under an imperial yoke, of which there are many. It is also deeply imbued with Indian mythology to the point the two heroes of this film become mythological figures themselves, giving rise the penultimate action sequence where Raju literally becomes the forest warrior or Manyam Veerudu, once again thanks to the help of Bheem, who is schooled in the forest magic. This was truly a breathtaking sequence as both Raju and Bheem become larger than life, filled with "great vengeance and furious anger." The governor's palace looms in the distance. You know what happens next and here again SSR combines pyrotechnics with a great sense of irony in regard to the bullet the governor put so much value in.
Quentin Tarantino fans would no doubt be thrilled by this movie, but this is no Pulp Fiction or Inglourious Basterds. The action serves a deeper sense of purpose. You can argue that it feeds into the current nationalism sweeping India but I think SSR wanted to make a movie that embodied the fervent revolutionary spirit of another time and place. He was helped by his father in writing the screenplay, which provides a great many references that reaches across the broad country and probably to Pakistan and Bangladesh as well. Set twenty years before the partition we should know that India was "unified" at that time, and this spirit of "unity" is strong in the movie. SSR is playing not just to a Hindu audience, but to all Indians: Hindu and Muslim. Hence, its overwhelming appeal in the country and beyond.
Having finally watched it, all I can say is that this was far and away the best film of 2022. I loved Everything Everywhere All at Once, but this Tollywood film is on a whole other level and makes me want to dig through the filmography of S.S. Rajamouli to see what I have missed, particularly his Baahubali movies, which are available on Netflix.
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