Ram Leela: **1/2

Just like its forcefully imposed title “Goliyon ki Rasleela Ramleela”, the recent release and 7^th directorial venture of Bollywood's self-confessed rangrezz (colorful man) Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the movie is a forceful Indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (But wait a minute, Romeo and Juliet was a love story and not a lust story, right? May be SLB just got too carried away by hormonal (testosterone) imbalance).

Set in a village named Ranjaar (with its own newspaper Ranjaar Times!!), a world as bizarre as Hogwarts or the Mountain home of the Lords of the Rings (though the other two seems more believable) where gang wars, murders, rape, smuggling and all those dreadful crimes that you can think of are days job, where guns go blazing at the snap of a finger, where weapons are sold like vegetables and where two communities Sanedo and Rajadi live on the edge of their 500 years old enmity (actually from Shakepeare’s time. What a coincidence!). Our two protagonists Ram (Ranveer Singh) and Leela (Deepika Padukone) are two young lads of their respective families. Ram, younger brother of Rajadi clan’s don Megji (Anhimanyu Sigh) is a flamboyant, sexy, carefree and kind hearted playboy who loves wooing women and stays away from guns and fights. Leela on the other hand is a protected and pampered daughter of Sanedo clan’s chief Dhankor Baa (Supriya Pathak). They meet at a Holi celebration when Ram sneaks into rival clan’s house and the two scorches up the heat almost instantaneously (even in reel time. No meaningful exchange of words or feelings, no gradual progress of affection, straight into the action.  In few minutes they are all over each-other in Leela’s bedroom. LUST story! Wish it was possible in real life, Huh!).

Problem starts when Ram’s brother Megji gets accidently killed in a fire exchange by Leela’s brother Kaanji who in turn gets killed by Ram. Ram confronts Leela over it and the two decides to run away from their families to live a peaceful life (the two argues over killing each other’s brothers and in the next moment falls into each other’s arm passionately. Everything thing is forgiven. I am banging my head!). They go to a place few kilometers away from their village and stays in a lodge where Leela forces Ram for marriage in order to stay under one roof together (Huh. The girl showers kisses on a guy she met just before 5 mins, goes to his video parlor to have fun and just can’t stay under one roof because they are not married. What a chastity show!). However, Ram’s friends finds them the next day and tricks him over a party which ends in Leela getting picked up by her brother Bhavani (Gulshan Devaiah). From here on meaningfulness, logic, common sense and all such jargons goes for a complete toss and the movie which was descending gradually so far, nose dives! On return to their homes, Ram and Leela are made the head of their respective clans (as against the plan devised by Bhavani). Despite of knowing the fact that both were tricked by their respective families (and being in touch through mobile phones) Ram and Leela gets dragged in the rage of their family rivalry and the situation gets worst when jealous Bhavani tricks Leela to sign an agreement they entered into with Rajadi clan (of business and territory division) which actually starts blood thirsty war. Ram and Leela confront each other in the end and lovingly end their lives to bring an end to this enmity.

Grandeur, Opulence, Colors and beauty in excess is quintessentially SLB style and Ram Leela is no short of this. Beautiful sceneries, larger than life sets (Leela’s balcony can even make Juliet jealous of her), splendid colors, and some awesome cinematography are in abundance in Ram Leela but problem is everything in excess is poison. Too much of fabric and too little substance makes Ram Leela overwhelmingly intolerable especially in the second half. Over the top drama, absolutely ridiculous dialogues (I felt like banging my head in the scene where Leela being convinced by Rasila (Richa Chadda) to forget Ram and she replies in shayaris. Way too ridiculous!), loose screenplay, unwanted and forceful accent by characters and poor editing are some of the spoilers for Ram Leela. After Sawariya this is probably the weakest directorial project of SLB. The poetic and vivid sense which SLB displayed in HDDCS and Devdaas were completely missing in Ram Leela. He has tried to put similar sequences in Ram Leela (Ram talking to his friends about Leela, crying over separation at the temple in the desert, Leela getting her finger chopped off and many others) and surprisingly fails totally to bring the emotions out. At no point of time he is able convince us that it’s a love story. It’s Guns and lust all over and the intensity, pain, passion of love is nowhere to be seen. The sequences reduce to a mockery wherever he has tried to imbibe those emotions due to over the top acting, unwanted drama and poor dialogues.

Deepika looks stunningly beautiful as Leela and carries the charm, boldness, arrogance, pride, intensity, confidence and elegance with such an ease. Ranveer Singh as Ram looks convincing in the first half as a harmless, happy go lucky lad but doesn't look effective in intense scenes. The chemistry between Ranveer and Deepika is sensuous for sure and they look very good on the screen. Two most noteworthy characters are Dhankor Baa (Supriya Pathak) and Rasila (Richa Chadda). Supirya looks menacing as ruthless clan leader and does complete justice to her role. Richa Chadda looks beautiful and convincing as Rasila and gives some fine performance. Gulshan Devaiah as Bhavani gets some good screen space but his character is not shaped as effectively. Shard Kelkar and Abhimanyu Singh have done well in their limited roles.

Music is not of the level of earlier SLB movies and absence of Ismail Darbar is clearly visible. However, Lahu Muh Lag Gaya and Tattad Tattad are good numbers. Choreography is excellent. Technically the movie is spectacular with some breathtaking shots and crisp cinematography but poor editing (so many unwanted scenes and songs could have been avoided to reduce good 20 odd mins of running time) and loose direction (poor handling of some very intense sequences) are spoilers.

Ram Leela is a beautiful body without soul. One advice for SLB – Leave few things to Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bhardwaj (Fantastic screenplay and direction in Gangs of Wasseypur, Omkara, Maqbool) and focus more on stories instead of sets, dresses, colors and all other extravaganza! Else it may happen that – “Aila, hum ne to tragedy banayi thi, ye comedy kaise ban gayi???”

Bhai Bhai, Bhai Bhai!!