Ram Leela, isn’t a “must watch” film. It’s a “mustn’t miss” film.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”small”]

After all its from Sanjay Leela Bhansali, its clearly grand, even grandiose, plenty of attention to detail, some wonderful shots, eye candy actors, saturated colors, large canvas, three hours long, all emotions packed in, great locales, painstakingly made, lots of money raised and lots of money spent…why miss it?

And so I saw it…I give it a 2.5 to 3 stars. Only?
Yes.

It is interesting that this film has received a 1 star from a credible critic ( Raja Sen, Rediff) and 5 stars from the incredible Times of India ( usually everything Times of India offers is “sold”) and everything in between- 2.5, 3, 3.5., 4, and 4.5 stars from the critics ( DNA, Indian Express, Anupama Sharma, Rajeev Masand, Taran Adarsh, not respectively ).

Clearly the reactions are varied, the assessments divergent.

I guess my disappointment is because its from Sanjay Leela Bhansali ( SLB). I now have a problem with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s cinema, having once been a fan. Were Ram Leela from a lesser Director, one may have been far more forgiving, more generous.

So what’s the problem?

Issue one-To me it’s about “cinematic integrity”, if there were such a term. Cinematic integrity is about a certain mix of consistency, completeness and homogenous treatment- where all elements- styles/ costumes/ dances/ language/ contexts/ settings and events exist individually but hang together seamlessly and belong to the unified coherent whole.

Ram Leela suffers some from some amount of lack of cinematic integrity.

Watch the film oscillate from being a realistic intense film to a hindi movie pot-boiler; watch when a scene cuts from a a running child getting shot at to a bare chested hero singing a ludicrous song, dusting dandruff; watch real locales and then switch to really aesthetic theatrical sets, as if from a play. From a completely outlandish gun totting, trigger happy outlawed setting to a twitter fascinated hero in a present day Indian outpost.

These bothered me, and perhaps may not bother you.

My second issue: This is an epic tale told over three hours, and its creditable that the viewer isn’t bored and is happily lapping up all the beautiful sequences. But it is not okay if they don’t feel the tension, feel the pain or feel the heart wrenching separation.

Much has been written about Deepika’s and Ranvir’s chemistry but the audience doesn’t shed a tear after epic tragedy unfolds. As one reviewer wrote-” all body, no soul”.

The Director fails when he isn’t able to get us to feel the emotions, of which there are so many. To live the triumphs and tribulations, to want to clap, to want to kill.

And my third and last issue is that you can take any snippet from Ram Leela, and it could be any other Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.

Evolve, improvise, experiment Sir.

Haven’t you reused the wall pairings from Sanwaria, the Gujrati dances from Hum Dil, the sheers and chandeliers, carpets from Guzarish, the statues from Black, the slow motion long shot of the heroine in a flowing dress against a haveli wall from Devdas, the sun rays streaming through a window somewhere, from every other film, as also the painting like frames and settings.

Its good stuff but its starting to get stale.

So, in summary, go watch it, enjoy SLB’s indulgence, drool over the lovely frames, ogle at Ranvir or Deepika ( and hopefully not both!), marvel at the mind boggling mise-en-scene, forget the flaws, hum the tunes, don’t care who made it.

Get your paisa vasool.