Beloved by many, and some seeming to view it as the greatest cinematic spectacle ever made, it would be a hard-hearted viewer indeed who was impervious to the charms of RRR, an epic piece of Indian cinema that teaches Hollywood a lesson in how to stage large-scale action sequences.
Set in India in 1920, a chain of events is started when a British governor (Ray Stevenson) and his wife (Alison Doody) decide to take a young girl, Malli (Twinkle Sharma), away from her mother (Ahmareen Anjum). They can do what they please, and don't care for the lives of the local people around them, as evidenced by the orders given to a soldier who is told to deal with the distraught mother. Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) is the protector of the tribe, and he vows to rescue Malli. He heads to the city, where he eventually meets, and becomes firm friends with, Raju (Ram Charan). Bheem is unaware that Raju is actually an officer looking to protect the British officials, and Raju is unaware that Bheem is the main man he needs to track down and arrest. Those secrets, once revealed, are really going to complicate their friendship, and there is one other big secret that will change the lives of everyone involved.
Written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli, RRR is, let's face it, a superhero movie with a different set of clothes on. Both Bheem and Raju are super-skilled, super-strong, and survive injuries and incidents that would have killed off other people. They are gods amongst men, with their biggest super-powers being friendship and hating the loathsome Brits. They can also sing and dance way better than I ever could, although I could say the same about most stars of Indian cinema. Because, yes, you get a few well-choreographed numbers here, although not many. The 3+ hour runtime flies by, and the musical numbers help with that, working like an extra set-piece in between the superb action beats.
Both Rao Jr. and Charan are excellent in their roles, practically overflowing with charisma and talent for every minute of their screentime, and I look forward to checking out more of their filmographies. In fact, it's worth noting here than I haven't seen anywhere close to as many movies from India as I would like to (and others who are more well-versed in the output from their still hold this in very high regard). RRR is a film that should work well as a gateway for anyone who is at least willing to expand their cinematic horizons, being such a solid crowd-pleaser for so much of the runtime. Stevenson is an excellent villain, Edward Sonnenblick is equally despicable in his role (a douchebag named . . . Edward), and both Alia Bhatt and Olivia Morris and very good as the respective love interests of Raju and Bheem. There's also a supporting role for Alison Doody, playing the nasty wife of Stevenson's character, and enjoyable turns from Ajay Devgn, Rahul Ramakrishna, Chatrapathi Sekhar, and others.
There is a wealth of impressive CGI on display, although some of it works better than others, and the emphasis is always on the epic. Every stunt takes things a step further than you might expect, the odds are always overwhelming, the feeling persists throughout that our leads are not just against one main villain, but all he represents with his attitude, and even just his presence in such a position of power in their country.
The hefty runtime, the songs that crop up to underline all of the emotions and details of certain events, the sheer, unabashed, joy of the main stars being showcased as absolute stars, RRR has plenty here to mark off any checklist of "things you expect to feature in Indian cinema". It's also a whole load of fun, unforgettable, and may well encourage people to start exploring more world cinema. I just didn't find it to be quite the masterpiece that so many others have labelled it.
8/10
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