RRR(2022) stands for Rise Roar Revolt, or Ratham Ranam Roudhiram, and stars Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. It’s now available on Netflix to watch. Should this Indian epic be on your watchlist? Check out my RRR (2022) Movie Review!
RRR (2022) Movie Review
A fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in pre-independent India.
All right, so let’s get this out of the way right off the bat, this film has singing, dancing, music video esque segments, but there’s also some wild action, crazy deep emotion, and it’s all wrapped in a beautiful package.
The story follows two different protagonists. One is an Indian cop who’s in the British service. Alluri Sitarama Raju is intense, and incredibly talented, and he’s capable of a police officer. Plus he’s practically unstoppable when he set his eyes on a target.
The other protagonist is Komaram Bheem, and he comes from a peaceful village out in the jungle and he’s sort of the protector of the village.
So when the British governor and his wife by kidnap a young girl from the village, Bin sets out to find and then rescue her. And he’s wickedly strong, he’s very kind, but he’s cunning, and just like Ram, he’s laser-focused on his task and they’re really on opposing sides of ideals. As Ram works for the British government while Bheem is actively working to subvert the government.
There’s so much emotion captured within this story. Both of the protagonists are incredibly easy to root for. They both have great charisma, and through an insane action sequence they end up meeting. But they don’t know who the other is or what their purposes are.
So through the shared experience, they begin a friendship. As we watch them interact the growing friendship, it does feel natural, especially as each of them is so kind and caring to the other. I think a lot of the arcs are predictable, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable to watch.
The story takes its time to build out each of the characters now well before they even meet each other. We have a great sense of who they are, what their skills are, and what they stand for as people.
When we first meet Ram, there’s this action sequence. It’s probably close to like ten minutes long and it’s so much fun to watch. I mean, it is pretty unrealistic, but that doesn’t matter.
The fight choreography is immersive and I really appreciate that we don’t want to have just a ton of quick cuts so that we’re not able to see any of the action. No, it is long and immersive.
We’re right there in the middle of it all and get to watch movements and feeds that feel a little like the wirework that you’d see in a Kung Fu film.
This introduction to Ramis exciting and it’s captivating and it’s also pretty violent, but they don’t focus on a lot of the Gore.
And just like the introduction to Ram when we meet Bheem, it starts off as this tranquil sequence in the jungle that then transitions quickly to an awesome foot chase and there’s so much tension throughout this portion of the story.
And then when we get to the climactic scene for this introduction, my heart was beating pretty quickly and I was fully invested in the story.
The main actors are so much fun to watch, but there is a fair amount of melodrama to the production. Looks and emotions, they’re exaggerated at times, which gives it a bit of a cheesy feel.
And then when a sequence would break out into a dance number, this too did have a fair amount of cheese. With that being said, every stinking time this happened, I had a massive smile on my face.
And the dancing was incredible to watch. It’s exciting, expertly choreographed, and it actually fits within the narrative. It’s not like the story just takes some random left term in the middle of the story to have some dance moves. No, the sequences complement what’s happening within the story.
And then when a singing number would begin. At first, I was caught a bit off guard, but when I read the words of the song in the subtitles, I mean they were used to help build the story, and again, this wasn’t just some random break in the narrative, it had a deeper purpose and was executed awesomely.
I’m not sure if the actors are really singing, but if they are, these guys are incredibly talented. I mean not only can they convincingly create characters that are powerful, charismatic and sympathetic, but they are also accomplished dancers, so I guess it wouldn’t surprise me that they really could sing well too.
Their voices are beautiful and they have some great range. Now, I mentioned that this is over 3 hours long. That only becomes an issue if the story can’t support that link, but for this the story is very effective and it uses its time efficiently.
The narrative isn’t drawn out and it’s paced in a way that moves us along, providing some ups and downs throughout that continually reinvigorate interest.
We’ll get a huge action sequence which is then followed up with some good drama and character building to then arrive at an exciting chase or maybe a dance number and each element works to create more intrigue for the story and it’s all balanced well and I was really surprised at the level of emotion that I was feeling.
I really loved that. As the film goes along, we get more and more backstory on our characters as the pieces fall into place in the present, large flashbacks will then be shown to give us even more context for motivations.
These endeared me to the players even more and like I said, a lot of the story progression, it does become predictable, but because I was so invested in the characters and even if I knew the direction that something was headed. I didn’t know how it would be accomplished or even what craziness we were about to see on the way there.
There’s believable conflict within the story as we see two seemingly different ideals clash. I also love the backdrop of the British Empire taking over because of just the conflict that that causes internally among the Indian people.
Now, while most are just trying to live their lives peacefully some have taken up the roles like Ram to join with the oppressors and are they opportunistic traders or is there a deeper purpose to them joining in the British ranks?.
I became so invested in Ram and Bheem. I believed in both of their causes and also became emotionally attached to their journeys. As I said it before but their charisma is wonderful pulling me into the story in ways that I never expected.
So overall, RRR is a wonderful epic filled with exciting action, spectacular emotive storytelling and is then complemented with impactful song and dance numbers. Despite some melodrama and cheese within the storytelling it’s a compelling tale filled with performances that are awe inspiring.
Some of the special effects are less than incredible but because the narrative is so immersive with its captivating tale of justice it’s easy to overlook minor wonkiness to become enveloped in the awesomeness of this movie.
I hope you’ll give this one a watch because it was such an unexpected treat. There’s no sex, nudity, or profanity but there is a ton of violence.
I give RR four and a half out of five couches
So Netflix is bringing more Indian films to the platform. If you have any suggestions of something great for that I could watch please let me know in the comments below.
Guys thank you so much for reading the review of RRR (2022). See you next time.
