Welcome back to Dark Corners Streaming.
We don’t review a lot of 3 hour films because I’m a busy man
but such was the word of mouth on RRR, which you can find on Netflix,
we had to give it a look and see if it lives up to the hype.
It does.
As always when we review Indian films, I have to say up front, my knowledge is woeful,
so, very little context, this is just how the film struck me,
and it struck me as one of the most fast-paced, entertaining
and yet genuinely emotionally engaging films I have seen in a long while.
Despite its expansive period setting the story is entirely fictional,
set against the backdrop of India under the British,
depicting the fictional meeting of two real life Indian revolutionaries
here recast as borderline superheroes.
Actually scratch, borderline.
This gives the film a tone of; what Dr Zhivago was remade by Marvel with an east vs west dance off in the middle.
Which does make this a blast to watch
but it’s also a very glib description of something with this much heart
the emotions are as huge as you’d expect
and the historical canvas is vast from the beauty of India’s heartland
to the vulgar opulence of the ruling British,
but the driving force of the plot, at least initially, is the recue of a kidnapped child.
And it’s curious how often big movies forget that you don’t have to be saving the world to engage us.
That said, what the movie is really about is the relationship between these two men,
friends across the barbed wire placed on different sides by fate.
This is as much a love story as anything else.
Which is good because the actual love story is one of the few things doesn’t convince,
mainly because Jenny comes across as the most naïve person on the sub-continent.
‘I don’t understand the need for such elaborate security measures’
It’s not a subtle film.
‘I see you have learnt the ways of the Empire, young man’
nor does it mean to be, nor should it be.
For the visuals to work, everything needs to be similarly turned up to 11.
To be hyper-critical, there is a slight lull in the middle
and English speakers will find the English dialogue a bit stilted
which I think is to do with the dub.
'A few lashes and buggers buggered.'
'He barely even cried out loud.'
But these are really small nitpicks in a film that ought to be a salutary lesson to every current Hollywood blockbuster;
if you want to do big and wild and over the top, and you clearly do,
here’s how it's done.
Most importantly, I was right there, with the characters, with the story,
hanging on what would come next, for every one of its 187 minutes.
It earns that runtime.
Incidentally the RRR of the title stands for different things depending on where you’re watching,
which is handy for marketing recognition,
but if you’re English-speaking then it is Rise, Roar, Revolt
and it does.
Thanks for watching. Have you caught this film yet and if so what did you think?
Let us know in the comments below.