Ram Leela
Cast: Abhijeet, Havish and Nandita
Direction: Sripuram Kiran
Story line: An NRI’s marriage goes awfully wrong and he’s left lookding for answers
Bottom line: Amateurish and shoddy.
When one has to watch films as part of work on a regular basis, one knows not to expect a masterpiece each Friday. There are films that offer nothing new but entertain nevertheless; there are films that are amusing and can pass off as a one-time watch and there are films that take you by surprise with the content and execution and make every minute in the cinema hall count. Then there are films that make you wonder why they got made. Ram Leela falls into the last category.
Apparently, this film’s story is based on a true incident. But sadly, the way the story unfolds left us amused at first and then thoroughly bored. Here’s a gist: Krish (Abhijeet) works in the US, is told by his parents that he should get married soon. Krish spots Sasya (Nandita) on a Telugu channel, doing a few moves that can best be described as aerobics + yoga + Bharatanatyam. He asks his parents to trace this girl and takes the next flight to India! Yes, because that’s what an educated young man would do, fly down with the hope of marrying a girl he saw for a few minutes on television. Oh, he doesn’t know her name, but it doesn’t matter.
Once in India, he joins the same gym, parents in tow, and befriends her. Time to break into a song and by the end of it, the two are married. Sasya springs a surprise, says she doesn’t want to go to the US because she would miss family functions. She doesn’t mind him working in Singapore or Dubai though because she could take one flight and be home. We wonder if the characters can get any more bizarre and, sadly, they do.
Krish immediately calls his boss (Telugu speaking, of course), asks in which other countries the company has branches and in a minute, is granted transfer to Malaysia. Once in Kuala Lumpur, Sasya leaves Krish with a note that she is going to find her boyfriend. A dejected Krish meets a loud, self-proclaimed ‘girl magnet’ Ram (Havish). By this time, the filmmaker realises the need for some comedy and brings in Saptagiri who can only think of alcohol and Ali who is walking/running around the world in 80 days for, what else, world peace.
Through the film, there are sporadic dialogues to hint at some mythological reference. For a story based on real life incidents, the narration is devoid of any heart and one doesn’t care if Krish finds the truth about Sasya and her boyfriend.
Give this a miss and re-visit Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s blockbuster of the same name instead. At least that drama had the effervescent Ranveer Singh and smouldering Deepika Padukone to keep us hooked. Less said about the acting prowess of this film’s lead actors, the better.
