It must require a special set of skills to make a movie like ‘R… Rajkumar’ – While you can’t expect a plot in these mostly commercially viable no-brainer masalathons, chances are you might cringe in disappointment at the way Director Prabhu Deva wants to define entertainment here. The style (is there any?) remains the same but what worked for him in ‘Wanted’ and ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and didn’t work in ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ becomes a question for the film-going audience – Can this be called entertainment?
Rajkumar (Shahid Kapoor in rugged stubble trying hard to look the part) comes to a lawless village where two drug-dealers can’t stand each other – played by Sonu Sood and Ashish Vidyarthi in a way that you have two buffoons here, not villains. He starts working for Shivraj (Sonu Sood). Rajkumar falls in love with Chanda (Sonakshi Sinha), stalks her, gets slapped and humiliated but even then manages to win her heart. What an achievement! Very intelligently then, Shivraj also falls for Chanda. What else! Rajkumar and Shivraj fight to win.
Director Prabhu Deva has all the necessary ingredients for a pot-boiler; something which he has been successful in with ‘Wanted’ and ‘Rowdy Rathore’. But those movies had Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar, both huge superstars. Shahid Kapoor isn’t a crowd-puller and that was proved yet again in his last dud ‘Phata Poster Nikla Hero’ (that average flick being a classic compared to this one). The Director tries to give Shahid a make-over; a rough and tough macho image which is far from convincing. However, that isn’t the real problem here. The dialogues are too corny and the characters are hilariously (pun intended) portrayed. In a scene which left me in splits (not in a good way), Chanda (Sonakshi) throws off the loose end of her sari and tells Shivraj (Sonu) to be a man and fight her lover; if he wins, she will strip for him. Utter crass! Prabhu Deva seems to have a very regressive outlook towards women and sex. So, there is another scene where a policeman is shown to rape a woman and you wonder why that would be needed. In another scene, Chanda teases Shivraj explaining how Rajkumar would make love to her after marriage.
I guess Prabhu Deva was mainly targeting the front stall audience and that too, in B and C centre single screens while filming or he clearly has a bad taste in humour though there are two scenes where you laugh well. He also throws in a cheap item number towards the climax. Even the dialogues are too plain and are made out to sound important and crackling. Rajkumar has two favourite dialogues in the movie – “Silent ho jaa warna main violent ho jaaunga” and in the second dialogue, he summarizes what ‘R… Rajkumar’ is all about – “Mere life mein sirf do cheez hain… pyar, pyar, pyar yaa maar, maar, maar!” Whoever penned the dialogues! Music by Pritam is okay. I liked ‘Saree Ke Fall Sa’ and the way it was choreographed. ‘Gandi Baat’ is the other pick. Action is the kind that we see often these days.
Shahid Kapoor tries hard to look the part but ends up looking more untidy than macho. He slips into the role, delivers the unconvincing dialogues with ease and is comfortable doing action (flaunting the same pair of Nike shoes throughout the movie) but you can’t ignore the fact that he has been miscast. You just can’t accept him as someone who bashes up an army of villains single-handedly. He might be reaching out to the masses with this one just like Saif did in last week’s ‘Bullett Raja’ but it is a sincere yet unconvincing performance. I have already lost count on the number of silly roles Sonakshi has played in the few years she has been here. This is yet another one and probably the silliest so far. Sonu Sood, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mukul Dev, Asrani – they all do some stupid buffoonery here.
Watch it or not: A must-watch for the front-stall single-screen crowd in B and C centres. They might love it. You need to choose if you can get entertained by a movie like this. It is like one of those awful movies made in 1980’s – the worst phase in Indian Cinema.
At the Box-Office: Though Shahid Kapoor isn’t a crowd-puller, Director Prabhu Deva seems to be one. Collections will be decent and will be better than ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ but nowhere close to ‘Rowdy Rathore’ or even ‘Wanted’. Reviews will be poor and this will affect the BO Collections. Had Salman or Akshay done this, it would already be on its way to cross a ton.
My Verdict
My Rating
This was earlier supposed to be named ‘Rambo Ramkumar’. I’m glad they have stuck to ‘R… Rajkumar’… perhaps the makers are so dim that they couldn’t spell ‘Rubbish’!
