Social justice has never been so fun! For a film with blood and torture and systemic racism, RRR plays like Lord of the Rings … and, given the runtime and fantastic action sequences, that is not a bad comparison. If all Hindi films were this good, we might forsake Hollywood altogether.
All you need to know about RRR (“Rise Roar Revolt”) is that it’s about two disparate friends, and on that score there’s nothing new: one is an undercover cop, the other is a freedom fighter. Eventually, of course, their paths will clash; that’s how films like this work. The fact that this one is set in 1920’s Raj India just means there will be a disproportionate amount of snooty English people and maybe an unnecessary dance number or two.
Rama Raju (Ram Charan) is the cop. Also, he’s The Fire (it’s a whole movie symbol thing, don’t ask) Raju is a member of Indian Imperial Police, a pro-Raj group of British rule enforcers. Would-be special officer Raju is the force’s attack dog. He’s introduced to us by taking on an entire crowd of angry protestors to bring one man to justice. And when I say, “entire crowd,” I don’t mean the line at the post office or even a school cafeteria. I mean, imagine the crowd at Woodstock, except sober and angry.
This is a great scene.
Meanwhile, in another film, there’s Water, or Komaram Bhreem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.). He is the guardian of a remote forest tribe the local British governor exploits. Bhreem is introduced to us by acting as wolf bait … except the wolf is trumped by a tiger and the man is forced to battle a tiger for his life.
This is also a great scene.
The British governor abducts a child from the tribe under the guise of “cuz I want to,” thus activating Bhreem to go undercover himself to retrieve the girl. Raju goes undercover to quell a potential Indian uprising in the same area. And both meet in Delhi by saving a child from an elevated burning trainwreck. No words can give this scene justice other than the following: this is the very best action scene I have witnessed since the barrel-riding in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
And that’s essentially the prologue. RRR is an epic, a spectacular collection of action scenes that melds into a
great friendship between two we know have to be rivals. Fire and Water don’t mix, right? Or if they do, we get tequila. Is there a Hindi equivalent of tequila?
Yet for all the great action is this film, my favorite scene is the “You Got Served” 1920’s Hindi style. I suppose we can forgive the offender because he’s English and stupid and doesn’t know any better, but NEVER, NEVER, NEVER insult an Indian man on the subject of dancing in anything resembling a Bollywood film. Just how dumb are you?
Like many Hindi films, RRR is long, a bit convoluted [read: involved], and slanted. This films loathes the English and English rule; can you blame it? But the good parts of the film so outweigh the iffy stuff that unless you’re English royalty or had some personal stake in Raj rule, I cannot see why you couldn’t enjoy the film otherwise. RRR has the best action in 2022 film. RRR has the best cinematography in 2022 film. RRR has the best friendship in 2022 film. This is an easy top 10 pick, and might even make #1 in a year that didn’t include Everything Everywhere All at Once. It’s that good, and I truly hope it doesn’t disappear just because it’s foreign to Americans.
Two Indians under British Raj
Went from friendship to a barrage
For Bhreem was protector
And Raju an inspector
Now they just jam in a garage
Not Rated, 187 Minutes
Director: S.S. Rajamouli
Writer: S.S. Rajamouli, Sai Madhav Burra
Genre: Stickin’ in to THE MAN, international historical chapter
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Action fiends
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who believe that Great Britain should still rule India
