Is RamLeela worth watching???

Almost one and half years ago when Mr Bhansali had announced Ramleela no one had much curiosity. At that time, Bhanshali had given two back to back to flops, Ranveer had not delivered brilliant performance in “Lootera” and Deepika had not given three back to back 100 cr films. On paper Ranveer and Deepika were not sounding like a sizzling pair, but the man Bhanshali had it in his mind so he took the decision to cast this unusual pair that too in the adaptation of a romantic story. Yes this time its official that Ramleela is a adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, it’s not always that Mr Bhanshali gives credit to the original inspiration (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam , Black).

Then after one and half years when the promos came out it really caught everyone’s attention, everyone came to know after Black film and Blue film (Saawariya) Mr. Bhanshali has made a multi-color film. It reminds us of “Devdas” and “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” too.

So the audience enters in theaters with an expectations to see a mixture of “Romeo & Juliet”, “Devdas” and “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam” and all that in a true Sanjay Leela Bhanshali style.

From the very opening credit song the movie takes it viewers to the world of Gujrat with the lovely folk song “Mor bani thanghat kare” but just when the credit song ends it seems you have entered in a wrong theater. it’s not a love story rather its showing an imaginary village where there is rivalry between two communities from more than 500 years, no problem we all know if it is Romeo & Juliet there must be rivalry but is this the way to show that , that every person in the village holds one or maybe more than one gun and they can start firing anytime. In fact Anurag Kashyap or Ram Gopal Verma has not shown so much gun and firing in their underworld and mafia movies. Probably this will be the first and only movie where you can see people are dancing garba holding gun and sometime firing too just to add more beat to the garba track.

We all have heard or read “Romeo & Juliet” and even if  we don’t read then at least we have seen the earlier adaptations “Kayamath Se Kyamath Tak” or recently in “Ishaqzaade”, so the basic story is known to everybody and even the climax too(there is nothing to reveal the secret its quite well known). But the main thing is how the story has been adapted by the director in his own world.

Every director has his own vision but here Mr. Bhanshali has changed the meaning of love and showed it as true lust. Ram and Leela use their lips to kiss each other more than to talk with each other; they can sing song and dance with each other and even they can kiss each other in their very first meeting. Whenever they meet they talk about their figure, their size and their sexual desires. You never feel that they are in love.

Suddenly two important people get killed from both the families in an unintentionally funny sequence and everything changes between Ram and Leela’s lives. In the second half goliyon ki rasleela dominates more than Ram Leela ki premleela and finally it goes to the predictable climax. 

The story is already known but it has been setup in Gujrat convincingly, the issue between Gujrat’s to communities has been focused in a movie for the first time though the community names have been changed as Rajari and saneda(which is actually Rabari and Jadeja).But the screenplay is not convincing enough there are too many questions which comes in audience's mind but remains unanswered till the end of the film. Some scenes are written too childishly for example the murder sequence of the brothers of Ram and Leela. 

Some extra songs also could have been easily chopped out from the film, like the old 80s fashioned song "Ishqiyaun Dhishqiyaun" and the item song featuring Priyanka Chopra. This is good as a promotional song but in the movie it has been pushed forcefully. 

Does that mean it’s not a good movie; no not like that it has lots of good points too. As a director Bhanshali’s command is visible throughout the movie. Just like his other films his signature style is visible in every frame by the look and feel.He has succeeded to make his imaginary world, as believable to the audiences. All his technical team has given him proper support too. Wasiq Khan’s sets are very much larger than life and appropriate as per the demand of the movie. Ravi Barman has done superb cinematography, not a single color has been left from his lens. Everything is colourful here even in the action sequences the villains are thrown on colourful rangoli which throws a blast of colours. There are some shots which he has shot in slow motion which looks good on screen like the sequence where Ram and Leela are falling down from their balcony to a water pool or the chase sequence between Keshar (Barkha Bisht) and Bhabani (Gulshan Devaiah). The movie would not have been so much colourful without the superb clothes designed by the two talented designers Anju Modi and Maxima Basu too. The way every characters look has been designed are very nice and shows the gujrati culture, although the dresses of the leading couple are little over the top sometimes but it suits the overall mood of the film. Sham Kaushal has got limited scope as an action director. In the name of action there is only bullet firing maximum time, but there is one sword fighting sequence featuring Ranveer Singh that has been co-ordinated very well.  Another technical area which stands out is the dialogues of the film written very well by Siddharth and Garima. The dialogues are very interesting and sometimes bring laughter too which is a refreshing change for a SLB movie. Sometimes the dialogues are a little bold but in lust leela, it is expected.

 Acting wise everyone has done fantastic job. Ranveer Singh as Ram has done a commendable job.

His effort is showing not only in his good acting also it is showing in his preparation to make the character look like the way the director had visualised it. His well chiseled body will be the talk of the town for long time. The director has not left any option to showcase his body. In a particular passionate song sequence his dhoti has been lowered more than the waistline of a Shilpa Shetty saree. Deepika Padukone is getting better day by day with every film. She has proved this year that she is not only a guarantee to box office success rather she can register her name in the list of the actresses who can act well too. While watching her as Leela it is tough to believe that the role was not written keeping her in mind and she was the third choice for this role (After Kareena and Priyanaka). In the first half she shines as a bubbly and bold carefree girl and in the second half she is more serious in a jogan

avtar and she has carried off both the parts brilliantly. Although her acting can remind of Aishwarya Rai of HDDCS and Devdas, but that is because of the vision of the director is similar again, there is nothing to blame Deepika for that. Together Deepika and Ranveer has a fire crackling chemistry.

Not only the lead pair, the supporting cast is also superb here. Supriya Pathak(Dhankor Ba) as Leela’s mother and a lady don of the community shines very well. With her convincing eyes she can emote too well. In fact she has become a parallel third lead along with Ranveer and Deepika. Richa Chaddha another fine actress has done very good job in the role of Raseela, the daughter in law of a don family, though her potential has not been totally utilized. She could have done more if she would have been given a longer screen time. Gulshan Devaiyah as Bhabani has done good job in a negative role but again his character is half baked. Abhimanyu Singh has a smaller role as Meghjibhai and he is at ease with his character as always. Sharad Kelkar a well known face of television has done good job as Kanji bhai. Another TV actress Barkha Bisht has a smaller but good role as Kehsar. Apart from this, the bribe taking police officer, Banka and the archaeologist fiance of Leela, Karsonbhai will also be remembered for their good job. The rest of the cast members are also well casted and provide able support.

Music is also another high point of the movie there is almost seven to eight songs in the movie but the songs are so nice to ear and so well pictured that it never looks boring. All credit goes to SLB again but this time as a music composer. Siddharth and Garima have penned quite good lyrics too especially the songs like “Lahoo moonh lag gaya” and “Ang laga de”.

The choreography is also expressive. The garba moves are excellent in “Nagade sang dhol baje” and “Lahoo moonh lag gaya”. Ganesh Acharya has again provided an unique signature step in the song “Ramjee ki chal dekho”. Priyanka Chopra has also shown nice dance moves in the item song. This is her best item song so far. The background music by Monty Sharma is also nice.

Overall RamLeela is a visual treat, it looks good to your eyes, it sounds nice to your ears, but it fails to touch your heart with the passion and pain of love. Even in the climax you did not feel the pain for the leading pair as they were not shown in love that way ever so that in can gain sympathy. Recently to avoid a controversy the name has been changed from “Ramleela” to “Goliyon Ki Rasleela RamLeela”, but while watching the movie you will think it should have been named like this from the beginning only as there is more Goliyan and less Premleela.