Time: 182 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence & cruelty
Cast:
N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as Komaram Bheem
Ram Charan as Alluri Sitarama Raju
Ajay Devgn as Alluri Venkatarama Raju
Alia Bhatt as Sita
Shriya Saran as Sarojini
Samuthirakani as Venkateswarulu
Ray Stevenson as Governor Scott Buxton
Alison Doody as Catherine Buxton
Olivia Morris as Jennifer “Jenny”
Director: S. S. Rajamouli

A fearless revolutionary and an officer in the British force, who once shared a deep bond, decide to join forces and chart out an inspirational path of freedom against the despotic rulers.

I admit that I’m not familiar with Indian cinema, I had been meaning to check out one of their movies for some time. However, I had been hearing about a particular Indian movie in the Telugu language (Tollywood) named RRR, which had been garnering quite the following and popularity worldwide. As someone who hasn’t watched any Indian cinema, I loved it.

RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) is a very well constructed movie. It is a lot: part action movie, part romantic comedy, and part historical drama. This means it can be tonally all over the place, going from dramatic and dark scenes of innocents being killed and children being kidnapped, to then cutting to upbeat scenes with dancing sequences. Still, it does actually work together quite well. It is an unabashedly wild movie, with over the top action and exhilarating musical numbers. There is a lot of genuine heart and emotional stakes too, especially with the central friendship, which is one of the most heartfelt and best bromances you’ll see in a movie. RRR is a very long movie at 3 hours in length, and while you do feel it, there’s so many things constantly happening that I was never bored.

The lead actors N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan are great, they really sell their characters and give sincere and layered performances. There is such strong chemistry between them, and you can really buy into their friendship. Most of the others performances are good too. The English actors generally weren’t that good; they were fittingly over the top and cartoonish, especially with the accents, but that’s it. For what its worth though, Ray Stevenson it at least entertainingly over the top as the main villain, and does seem to be working at the right level of silliness for this movie.

S.S. Rajamouli directs this incredibly well, the scale of the movie is immense and it has some top notch production value. The cinematography is stunning, with amazing use of colour and exciting camerawork, the editing works really well, and the costumes are good too. Even the occasionally shaky special effects add a lot to its personality. The action sequences are brilliant, so over the top, dynamic and creative. You’ll definitely need to suspend your disbelief, but its some of the most memorable action I’ve seen in recent years. The dance sequences are also worth noting, among the standout scenes in the film and are amazingly choreographed.

RRR is a bonkers, incredibly entertaining, and visually gorgeous spectacle, fantastically directed and with wonderfully over the top action. It’s such a breath of fresh air in terms of recent blockbusters, and such a crowd pleaser that its no surprise that this ended up being an international hit too. I highly recommend it, it’s one of my favourite experiences watching a movie in 2022.