There have been many films in the past dealing with reincarnation of lovers meeting in the present recalling their earlier lives and its events resulting in an engrossing watch. These films include classics as well as above average and mediocre movies too made by some reputed names. But RAABTA unarguably can be rated as the most uninteresting, ridiculous and weirdly made film in this specific genre with several factors contributing in its overall poor depiction with an otherwise decent cast.
The film frankly gives you an immediate indication of its amateurishly poor writing when in its very first scene, an overacting Punjabi mother conveys to her foreign going son that “Uthe Gori Nahin Uthaani” meaning “Don’t pick up foreigner girls from the road there”. The dialogue clearly reveals what kind of over the top dialogues and performances are going to be there in the next 2 hours missing any appreciable vision or directorial skill.
Perfectly moving on the same path, the film comes up with a typically routine first half entirely focusing on the romance offering a mix of clichéd, likeable and boring moments with no emotional pull or any relatable chemistry in the lead couple. This particular part has Sushant trying to be an over-smart, lady-charmer that never turns out to be anything impressive or pleasant at all except a few scenes where Kriti does the talking instead, thankfully bringing the much required relief moments. In short its Kriti, who keeps you involved in their instant-love-sex interactions instead of Sushant, who unexpectedly never succeeds to come out of the shadow of his followed icons.
The second half begins with the narration taking you back in time in their past and this turns out to be even more unbearable and bizarre giving you the real picture. Here we have Jim Sarbh, the scene stealer of NEERJA proving to be another miscast in the film failing to make any impact on the viewers as a rich (psycho) business tycoon. And then there is the most nonsensical and simply absurd guest appearance of Rajkummar Rao, mercilessly buried under heavy prosthetics appearing only in a few meaningless scenes doing simply NOTHING.
In fact this specific insertion in the film roping in the talented Rao for such miniscule role and then asking him to sit for hours doing such a thick multi-layered make-up just for nothing says it all about the too bland and pointless direction of Dinesh Vijan reaching nowhere.
In the technical department, cinematography does manage to catch your attention well but action and background music remains unable to do so. The film seems to be too long with everything predictable and uninteresting going on asking for a much better edit and the music by Jam8 remains the only positive feature having a couple of appealing tracks as “Ek Vaari Aa” and “Raabta” along with another version of an already hit Punjabi song used in the end credits.
In all, the only thing I honestly enjoyed in RAABTA was the dancing ‘leggy’ cameo of Deepika Padukone waking me up from my sleep. And regarding the inspiration drawn from S.S. Rajmouli’s MAGADHEERA, the film does have the same basic plot, but its not even M of the epic MAGADHEERA to be brutally straight.
Rating : 1 / 5
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Raabta Movie Review by Bobby Sing, Raabta and Magadheera, Raabta Review by Bobby Sing, New Hindi Film Reviews by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com
