I just walked out of the interval of Ra.One
And in between sitting down and walking out, I also took a break to the loo, where I had an epiphany that watching Ra. One was similar experience to going to the loo.
Disclaimer:
This comparison is based on visiting Men’s Loos for the the past 42 years. I have never been to or used a Women’s loo so pardon my lack of experience in that domain.
Now, the comparison:
– Relief:
When you go the loo, it’s to relieve yourself. I have heard Men say ‘ahhhhh’ standing next to me. It’s a great relief to just be able to service your body.
When you see Ra.One it’s the same feeling. Though instead of your bladder, you relieve your brain.
In the first 15 minutes of the film, you see a beautiful expulsion of humor, action, juvenile behaviour, London, hindi movie actors, rebellion, slap stick comedy and GAMING.
U wonder what the movie is about till quite a while – but then when u r in a loo u aren’t supposed to think too much.
– Company
The loo provides some interesting Company. It’s all mixed up. Some men who take forever to fasten their trousers, some who cough so loudly that you feel their throat will come out; others spit like they just swallowed a snake, and interestingly lots of men who take so long to just be ‘done with it’, it’s like they had their bladders stitched till that time.
In Ra. One, you meet similar interesting people – but on screen.
Weird women warriors, cigar sucking (hmmm… cigars are NEVER sucked – they are smoked) actors who you cannot identify with; classroom teachers, students, computer programmers, doorman, hot blondes, curly haired freaky men, south Indian men who eat chinese noodles with yogurt, south indian men who eat Chinese noodles with yogurt AND with their hands, bosses who announce that their office in London will become a south Indian restaurant, women who claim that there are things ‘in the air’, etc etc etc…
By the time you take an inventory of the people who you met in the loo – oooops – Ra. One, you will have wet your pants.
– Theme
When you go to the loo, the ‘theme’ is easy to comprehend. The business is to repel waste.
In Ra One, your time is wasted with perfection.
An hour gloriously wasted in establishing a ‘theme’ that really I could not understand till I walked out of the interval.
One doesn’t know if it’s about a father disconnected with his son, how gaming companies work, what happens at launch parties when games get launched, how people survive after downing 20 shots, a son unimpressed by his dad, a computer program gone bad, good vs. evil, artificial intelligence and what will happen to the world or….
I gave up.
– Style
Most loos are built on a ‘style’, They may be contemporary, classic, highly chic, very old school or plain and simple ‘high school’ style.
In Ra.One, you will see a wonderful mix of Crouching Tiger, Matrix, Lots of Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino, Tomb Raider, Bollywood funeral scenes of grieving, nice Dance ‘Item’ numbers etc..
Interruption
Interval
The guy behind me in the loo is asking me if I am dreaming or planning to wait at my station for a second round.
I prefer to walk out.
*******
Pradeep Chaudhary
huh..well observed
Specially “In Ra One, your time is wasted with perfection”
Urvi Dutia
JUST WAIT FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS MORE . THERE WOULD BE no.one to watch this movie .
Tapash Sinha
Post Ra.One let SRK find peace at the Rodinhood monastery were the mool mantra is “your product is your marketing” but if only he knows how to reach the monk…
Satish Addanki
Pee.One
Nagesha Seshadri
ra.1 to g.1 to no.one
Abey John
I actually think Ra.One is a great piece of work. It shows the cutting edge of thought that our directors and screenwriters are exploring. It is inevitable that man will one day migrate to robothood and Ra.One is precursor of that. So I really can’t understand why all you guys are so cheesed off at the movie. Come on guys give Indian creativity some credit. They spent a ton on the SFX, imported the world’s best SFX crew, marketed the shit out of it (whoops another loo angle), and generally have done a credible job of packaging it and ramming it down everyone’s throats. After all as entrepreneurs you must appreciate the product delivery cycle and how costs incurred have to be recovered and you need to show a profit? Otherwise why are we in the business of business? Shahrukh ji won’t be pleased.
….But then I didn’t watch the movie. 😀
abhijit agarwal
great comparision indeed!! but i pity the man who was standing behind you – he did not have the compulsion to hold on till he answered the 13th question like sushil kumar !! poor him – a double torture – RA ONE and then …
Munish Goyal
lol
Anushka Shroff
Hi Abey….
It’s a great movie to watch…..as there’s lot of creativity in the content :)…usually people miss out on appreciating small things in life….SRK has taken a risk with his “STAR” Image….He has the guts and is not afraid to look foolish…
An analogy..”can you imagine a group of bankers in a conference hall across the table..and one guy looks eye to eye and says…”I am going to build a billion-dollar empire based on a mouse, a fairy and 7 dwarfs, would’ll help me ?” Being foolish became his biggest success..as he was not afraid..
am sure you know who he is…
RA-one has broken all records at the box office. !: sRK too was not afraid…!
Regards
Abey John
Anushka, Ra.One breaking records is more due to its marketing than the actual story (not that I have seen it but I’ll take Alok’s word for it). If you package it and push it hard enough you can make a profit out of selling even crap. We were bombarded with Ra.One ads right up to the launch. Its almost like a one night stand. 2 months from now nobody will even remember the story. I would like to be proved wrong though.
Abey John
Praise be to Allah, Jesus, and Bhagwan if Ra.One crashes and burns. Bad stories deserve to die. 🙂
I’ve never liked Shah Rukh’s brand of acting. Its always Shah Rukh playing the character rather than becoming the character. I know that’s a very subjective assessment and now that I think of it there are very few films where the actor becomes the character rather than plays the character. Obi Wan Kenobi is one (Alec Guinees), Hannibal Lecter another (Anthony Hopkins) another and Naseeruddin Shah. Can’t seem to recall any others…. John Travolta and Samuel Jackson. 🙂
Anushka Shroff
Hi Jyoti
Yes..I wish you go for the movie and then make an opinion out of it….! Its hard to buy out that his super star image is affected due to Ra-one..a super-star always a super-star which is earned !
There are diffrerent reports by different publications…the crtics or analysts are the biggest fool…do they know how to define “content”….Ra-one is content ..most of the audience loved it
Anushka Shroff
OMg Jyoti…Sparsh and Blue Umbrella are art movies type….now-a-days the audience is hot and happening…and would prefer a zindagi na milegi doobara and Mere brother ki dulhan to them..
Sparsh & Blue Umbrella commercial success is ???
The audi’s will be full with Classes and Masses for ZNMD & MBKD ….
everyone wants to go for a fews hours of recreation and not to watch Naseer or PK..plzz..:)
Anushka Shroff
Abey…Audience is smart and intelligent and well informe….comme on….they prefer content and not the marketing….and lets voice out our thought process than Alok’s…i dont agree with Alok…
His thot process is making love to ramdev baba…(for a llightier vein) so u agree to that too,…??
its not a product or a commodity..lits entertainment ..pure entertainment….and people watch movies for a 3 hour fun…who cares about the packaging and design…its the stuff inside …
SRK is a brand himself…he does not need to market it…it’s sold by itself…he has earned it ….
So ..is Blue Umbrella or Sparsh or Black or TZP are being remembered today..?
Abey John
Anushka – what you say is probably correct. I remember one of my college mates going for an Aamir Khan movie where he tried to depict “reality”. The audience it seems didn’t understand. Heroes need to bash up villains and they should be able to show the finger to the laws of physics as well. Entertainment is a nebulous roller coaster and is as much about connecting with the cultural narrative as it is on pushing the edge of reality.
For me tho sci-fi has to stick to the laws of physics and Indians are bad at making movies where the physics is challenged in a believable manner unless you have are doing a Ramayan or Mahabharth.
I went for the Rajnikanth robot story (have already forgotten the name). We rolled about the seat in laughter when he said he’d marry Aishwarya and they would have robo-sapien kids. Now robo-sapiens are perfectly alright if you get the production mechanism right and place it in a believable context. Elsewhere in sci-fi lit they are known as cyborgs. It is a far stretch to imagine that the robot will have nanobot sperm capable of inducing conception. But if I go to a Rajni fan he will light into me with “Why not as a brilliant scientist he will have thought of it, that’s why he is confidently saying it.”
It all depends on the level of intellectual persuasion that is needed to get the buy in and that in turn is connected to your emotional connect to the brand – be it SRK, Coke, or Single Malt Whiskeys.
Abey John
We were sitting next to a Rajni fan and this was a very important scene in the movie, lots of tension and drama, when we laughed he was scandalized. Looked at us like we’d crawled out of the gutter. How can you?? was his silent question. 🙂
Anushka Shroff
LOL …LOL….