2.5 stars
Action masala movies are savour of the season, factually. But lately, the genre have not really caught the fancy of the audience, with immensely anticipated & overrated movies turned out to be damp squib. There are certain substances which cineastes surmise from masala flicks but all those neoteric masala potboilers lack that minimal exigencies. However, bearing in mind the fact that Prabhudheva, who has been carving space for himself as a director, has proved his mettle time and again when it comes to his field of expertise – masala entertainers and dance. It has been ages since Shahid Kapoor delivered a true-blue hit and after the recent disaster in the form of RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA for Prabhudeva, the two of them really need some luck going and how! Not merely forsooth is R...Rajkumar the maiden venture for the duo, it also marks the novel inning for Shahid Kapoor with Sonakshi Sinha (Male & Female Leads) and Prabhu Dheva with Pritam Chakraborty (Director & Music Director) as well. For the uninitiated, the film was earlier titled Rambo Rajkumar. But the makers of the original Rambo series of Hollywood had copyrighted the word Rambo, making it unavailable for usage by other filmmakers. However, since the film's title is already known among the audience, the makers decided on dropping a few letters from the title, rechristening it to R... Rajkumar & even dubbed some scenes with ROMEO Rajkumar.
R...Rajkumar – a romantic action love story set in dusty and rugged backdrop of the Hindi Heartland in Dhartipur has Shahid Kapoor essaying the role of Rajkumar - a rugged, rebellious, passionate small-time goon, trapped in a crime, who also has devilish charm. One moment he makes you feel really comfortable and the very next, completely ill at ease! Rajkumar is sexy, brooding and raw. He is a rebel without a cause, leads a carefree life and works for a drug baron named Shivraj (Sonu Sood). Rajkumar's latest mission is to eliminate the rival drug dealer of Shivraj, Manik Parmar (Ashish Vidyarthi). But his life changes forever when he claps eyes on Chanda (Sonakshi Sinha) – a epitome of beauty. Although she is educated, she has a rustic charm and is feisty. She is independent with a mind of her own. She has you weak in the knees one moment and running for safety at the very next. A perfect amalgamation of sugar and spice. No matter how tough a situation is, the moment he sees his girl, he forgets what he’s supposed to do. He even calls his lady love Lollypop. What Rajkumar doesn't know is that her parents died when she was young and her only surviving relative is Manik Parmar. After some persistent wooing, Chanda succumbs to Rajkumar’s charm and falls in love with him. But before their love can flourish, Shivraj falls in love with Chanda. If he wants Chanda, he has to destroy the deadly drug cartel, to which both Shivraj and Parmar owe allegiance, that is operated from Madhya Pradesh and has its roots in Malaysia. The drug cartel is controlled by a Mafia don named Ajit Taaka (Srihari), who is back in India. How Rajkumar manages to destroy the huge drug cartel and gets Chanda back, forms the crux of the movie.
The first half packs a solid punch with sequences/moments managing to keep the viewers attentive (story - Prabhu Deva). The rapid pace, redounding in shaping the story (screenplay - Ravi S Sundaram, Prabhu Deva and Sunil Agarwal) coerce the spectators to believe in the all-rounder qualities of the protagonist, that is, to romance, sing, dance and flex muscles, when required. Prabhu Dheva has been serving us the same dish, albeit in new avatars and modifications successfully, with prominence on romance yet again in R… RAJKUMAR, with action (Ravi Varma) being the icing on the cake, which is stark hardcore & barbaric this time. Alike every single masala fare, the foot-tapping songs at regular intervals, uplift the mood of the enterprise, with 'Gandi Baat', 'Saree Ke Fall Sa' and 'Mat Maari' already being the chartbusters. The lyrics (Anupam Amod, Ashish Pandit, Mayur Puri and Nilesh Mishra) too are mass appealing, with South Indian touch in them. The background music by Sandeep Chowta is unerring, that goes with the mood of the movie throughout, notably the kissing sound. With dialogues (Shiraz Ahmed) already a rage among movie buffs, Shahid Kapoor's mouthing them with manful yawl will make the viewers go gaga. Watch out for Shahid in the high-voltage action scene following the interval and the scene, when he proposes Sonakshi. He is an absolute scene stealer with whom common people could easily relate to. Not only he's fierce in bashing goons, he is equally worth drooling over in his dance steps (choreography - Bosco Martis, Caesar Gonsalves and Vishnu Deva) and jaw-dropping chiselled body. Prabhu Dheva is making a norm lately, of appearing specifically in a dance number and his latest offering is no exception. It's a delight watching him & Shahid matching steps altogether. The movie too has some striking visuals (Dop Mohana Krishna). Overall, the first half deserves to be lauded again and again, with claps & whistles.
It's only the second half that makes the movie plain trash. Right from the drama, comedy to unwanted scenes with editing (Ballu Saluja) are shaky, muddled and predictable. The movie gets stagnant with gauche songs like 'Kaddu Katega' entwined in the narration that checks the patience of the viewers. The puerile humor and predictable goings-on act as dampeners. The rum time should have been trimmed down, *only* in the second half, to atleast 20 minutes or so. The dialogues too are in bad taste in this particular half. The director as well as the screenplay writers completely lose the plot, as the story is done to death, hence the lackluster screenplay seems conventional. There being an overdose of masala films, one can actually foresee what's there in the offering. The setting (production designer - Nitin Chandrakant Desai) has no roots (where is this village, who are these people?). It's the elaborated climax that provides respite to the hoi polloi, only because of Shahid's hardcore action.
Shahid Kapoor is synonymous with romantic roles due to his suave look but R...Rajkumar is his foray into the league of action superstar. He gives his heart & soul to the movie. His scorching screen presence is brilliantly portrayed with infectious gusto. Right from his impeccable comic timings to stalking his lady love and bashing the goons, are evidently palpable. There aren't any action scene where he looks odd or unbelievable in beating up the goons, who are almost three times more powerful than him. Sonakshi Sinha is a complete mismatch for an actor of caliber ala Shahid. She needs to reinvent herself. She is genuinely getting wasted. Sonu Sood & Ashish Vidyarthi try too hard to be the mandatory villain but fail teetotally in portraying villainy, except a scene or two. Ashish Vidyarthi goes topless more number of times than Shahid Kapoor and Sonu Sood put together, which is clearly not a pleasant sightAsrani, Mukul Dev, Srihari and Poonam Jhawar are passable and have nothing stimulant to offer. Scarlett Wilson, Charmy Kaur and Ragini Dwivedi are there in the songs to ooze oomph.
To sum up, R…Rajkumar is typically a Prabhu Dheva style movie, fully loaded with over the top action sequences and loud dialogues. Prabhu Dheva has put in full effort to extract the best from Shahid Kapoor. R… Rajkumar has everything to be a successful masala potboiler, starting from Shahid Kapoor’s mesmerizing dance, good dialogues to power packed stunts. Critics be damned, give this one a shot. The movie never loses its grip on ‘Pyaar Pyaar Pyaar and Maar Maar Maar', in the meanwhile, it loses everything while doing so. It's an easy & forgettable watch.
Action masala movies are savour of the season, factually. But lately, the genre have not really caught the fancy of the audience, with immensely anticipated & overrated movies turned out to be damp squib. There are certain substances which cineastes surmise from masala flicks but all those neoteric masala potboilers lack that minimal exigencies. However, bearing in mind the fact that Prabhudheva, who has been carving space for himself as a director, has proved his mettle time and again when it comes to his field of expertise – masala entertainers and dance. It has been ages since Shahid Kapoor delivered a true-blue hit and after the recent disaster in the form of RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA for Prabhudeva, the two of them really need some luck going and how! Not merely forsooth is R...Rajkumar the maiden venture for the duo, it also marks the novel inning for Shahid Kapoor with Sonakshi Sinha (Male & Female Leads) and Prabhu Dheva with Pritam Chakraborty (Director & Music Director) as well. For the uninitiated, the film was earlier titled Rambo Rajkumar. But the makers of the original Rambo series of Hollywood had copyrighted the word Rambo, making it unavailable for usage by other filmmakers. However, since the film's title is already known among the audience, the makers decided on dropping a few letters from the title, rechristening it to R... Rajkumar & even dubbed some scenes with ROMEO Rajkumar.
R...Rajkumar – a romantic action love story set in dusty and rugged backdrop of the Hindi Heartland in Dhartipur has Shahid Kapoor essaying the role of Rajkumar - a rugged, rebellious, passionate small-time goon, trapped in a crime, who also has devilish charm. One moment he makes you feel really comfortable and the very next, completely ill at ease! Rajkumar is sexy, brooding and raw. He is a rebel without a cause, leads a carefree life and works for a drug baron named Shivraj (Sonu Sood). Rajkumar's latest mission is to eliminate the rival drug dealer of Shivraj, Manik Parmar (Ashish Vidyarthi). But his life changes forever when he claps eyes on Chanda (Sonakshi Sinha) – a epitome of beauty. Although she is educated, she has a rustic charm and is feisty. She is independent with a mind of her own. She has you weak in the knees one moment and running for safety at the very next. A perfect amalgamation of sugar and spice. No matter how tough a situation is, the moment he sees his girl, he forgets what he’s supposed to do. He even calls his lady love Lollypop. What Rajkumar doesn't know is that her parents died when she was young and her only surviving relative is Manik Parmar. After some persistent wooing, Chanda succumbs to Rajkumar’s charm and falls in love with him. But before their love can flourish, Shivraj falls in love with Chanda. If he wants Chanda, he has to destroy the deadly drug cartel, to which both Shivraj and Parmar owe allegiance, that is operated from Madhya Pradesh and has its roots in Malaysia. The drug cartel is controlled by a Mafia don named Ajit Taaka (Srihari), who is back in India. How Rajkumar manages to destroy the huge drug cartel and gets Chanda back, forms the crux of the movie.
The first half packs a solid punch with sequences/moments managing to keep the viewers attentive (story - Prabhu Deva). The rapid pace, redounding in shaping the story (screenplay - Ravi S Sundaram, Prabhu Deva and Sunil Agarwal) coerce the spectators to believe in the all-rounder qualities of the protagonist, that is, to romance, sing, dance and flex muscles, when required. Prabhu Dheva has been serving us the same dish, albeit in new avatars and modifications successfully, with prominence on romance yet again in R… RAJKUMAR, with action (Ravi Varma) being the icing on the cake, which is stark hardcore & barbaric this time. Alike every single masala fare, the foot-tapping songs at regular intervals, uplift the mood of the enterprise, with 'Gandi Baat', 'Saree Ke Fall Sa' and 'Mat Maari' already being the chartbusters. The lyrics (Anupam Amod, Ashish Pandit, Mayur Puri and Nilesh Mishra) too are mass appealing, with South Indian touch in them. The background music by Sandeep Chowta is unerring, that goes with the mood of the movie throughout, notably the kissing sound. With dialogues (Shiraz Ahmed) already a rage among movie buffs, Shahid Kapoor's mouthing them with manful yawl will make the viewers go gaga. Watch out for Shahid in the high-voltage action scene following the interval and the scene, when he proposes Sonakshi. He is an absolute scene stealer with whom common people could easily relate to. Not only he's fierce in bashing goons, he is equally worth drooling over in his dance steps (choreography - Bosco Martis, Caesar Gonsalves and Vishnu Deva) and jaw-dropping chiselled body. Prabhu Dheva is making a norm lately, of appearing specifically in a dance number and his latest offering is no exception. It's a delight watching him & Shahid matching steps altogether. The movie too has some striking visuals (Dop Mohana Krishna). Overall, the first half deserves to be lauded again and again, with claps & whistles.
It's only the second half that makes the movie plain trash. Right from the drama, comedy to unwanted scenes with editing (Ballu Saluja) are shaky, muddled and predictable. The movie gets stagnant with gauche songs like 'Kaddu Katega' entwined in the narration that checks the patience of the viewers. The puerile humor and predictable goings-on act as dampeners. The rum time should have been trimmed down, *only* in the second half, to atleast 20 minutes or so. The dialogues too are in bad taste in this particular half. The director as well as the screenplay writers completely lose the plot, as the story is done to death, hence the lackluster screenplay seems conventional. There being an overdose of masala films, one can actually foresee what's there in the offering. The setting (production designer - Nitin Chandrakant Desai) has no roots (where is this village, who are these people?). It's the elaborated climax that provides respite to the hoi polloi, only because of Shahid's hardcore action.
Shahid Kapoor is synonymous with romantic roles due to his suave look but R...Rajkumar is his foray into the league of action superstar. He gives his heart & soul to the movie. His scorching screen presence is brilliantly portrayed with infectious gusto. Right from his impeccable comic timings to stalking his lady love and bashing the goons, are evidently palpable. There aren't any action scene where he looks odd or unbelievable in beating up the goons, who are almost three times more powerful than him. Sonakshi Sinha is a complete mismatch for an actor of caliber ala Shahid. She needs to reinvent herself. She is genuinely getting wasted. Sonu Sood & Ashish Vidyarthi try too hard to be the mandatory villain but fail teetotally in portraying villainy, except a scene or two. Ashish Vidyarthi goes topless more number of times than Shahid Kapoor and Sonu Sood put together, which is clearly not a pleasant sightAsrani, Mukul Dev, Srihari and Poonam Jhawar are passable and have nothing stimulant to offer. Scarlett Wilson, Charmy Kaur and Ragini Dwivedi are there in the songs to ooze oomph.
To sum up, R…Rajkumar is typically a Prabhu Dheva style movie, fully loaded with over the top action sequences and loud dialogues. Prabhu Dheva has put in full effort to extract the best from Shahid Kapoor. R… Rajkumar has everything to be a successful masala potboiler, starting from Shahid Kapoor’s mesmerizing dance, good dialogues to power packed stunts. Critics be damned, give this one a shot. The movie never loses its grip on ‘Pyaar Pyaar Pyaar and Maar Maar Maar', in the meanwhile, it loses everything while doing so. It's an easy & forgettable watch.
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