Ram Leela

I think producing a hardcore masala film like Rowdy Rathore has influenced the film maker in Sanjay Leela Bhansali in some way. But the positive side is that it has given more energy to his typical flavors, thus making Ram Leela much more fun and enjoyable. Despite of its heavy load of melodrama in the later portions, this Bhansali movie works simply because of its charismatic lead pair who successfully depicts that passionate romance.

The story is Bhansali’s version of Romeo and Juliet and it is set in this village named Ranjaar. Two groups are there in this village and both Ram and Leela belong to different groups. Film basically traverses through the fun filled romance of the couple and how it gets disturbed when certain tragic incidents ignite the rivalry between these clans.

As I said, it’s the fun factor of the romance that makes this tragedy an attractive one. Bhansali includes all his usual formulas in Ram Leela. But the blend of humor and passion in to the characters really helps the movie in creating a fresh environment. The characters here are all quite heavy and Bhansali easily manages to convey the heat in the atmosphere. For the romance part also, it is not that conventional opposite attracts theory. Here we have two characters with similar amount of craziness, lust and love. The characters around Ram and Leela are also well written. The problem with Ram Leela is in its amount of melodrama. The cover of fun is there for sure, but the majority of second half has this Devdas type outburst which kind of ruins the freshness created in the first half. But Bhansali and his writer were able to get back to the attitude of the characters towards the end and it saves the movie from being a boring tragedy.

On screen Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone shares scorching chemistry and that fast paced romance looked really passionate and vibrant. The explosive dialogs of Deepika and the attitude show off from Ranveer really suited their characters. Supriya Pathak was great in her antagonist avatar and those daring eyes just made her look nasty. After Gangs of Vasseypoor, Richa Chadda gets one more strong character in the form of Raseela. Rest of the cast also did complete justice to their character.

In the making, as I said Sanjaya Leela Bhansali has included all his signature stuff like grand sets, awesomely choreographed songs with whole lot of music, lead pair with severe pain inside, crooked minds within the family etc. But this time he mixes all those dramas with his relatively unfamiliar terrain of humor and succeeds in doing that. Screenplay is attractive in the first half but annoying occasionally in the second half. Dialogs are really good. Awesome cinematography from Ravi Varman. The music composed by Bhansali is nice. Edits are smooth and the art section also has done a good job. Choreography of all the songs kept that usual Bhansali standard.

A lot of films were released in the recent past based on Romeo and Juliet, but this one from Bhansali has a certain edge over them mainly because of its less gloomy treatment. The rating is 3.5/5 from my side. The actors are the real show stealers here.