Opinion| S. S. Rajamouli's RRR: A visual feast, but what else?

_RRR_ is super grand. The action scenes and the drama are mounted on a dizzying scale, so dizzying that the director, the mighty merchant of marathon fantasies S S Rajamouli, seems to have lost balance. There is a distinct sense of imbalance in the presentation, far removed from the unwavering solid narration of Baahubali where Rajamouli climbed the exquisite incline of periodicity borrowed from Amar Chitra Katha comics, without stumbling even once. In RRR, Rajamouli seems too conscious of where he comes from (Baahubali) and where he has got to go (beyond Baahubali). Hence everything is consciously tense, designed to be bigger, brighter, bouncier and more seductive than Baahubali. It is like Ramesh Sippy after Sholay trying to outdo himself after Shaan, though the scale of climbdown, in this case, is not that steep. But yes, RRR is disappointing, especially after Baahubali, or maybe even otherwise. The plot is incredibly shoddy and haphazard, as though the period of its occurrence (1920) was a time when the British behaved like clowns and villains in brocade while the desi population was filled with beefy brave hearts rescuing damsels in distress. Where is the research to be seen in the presentation? The sets, costumes, music, emotions all seem to have been left to the writer’s imagination. For historic accuracy, dial ‘K’ for Kashmir Files. The biggest disappointment is NTR Jr’s character, so ill-sketched and cursory he almost seems like an after-thought in the distraught plot. In fact, Ajay Devgan who has a cameo has a better-written role than NTR Jr who vanishes for long stretches. The entire focus has gone into building the other leading man Ramcharan Teja’s role. He is the only character that has a graph, from loyalty to rebellion. But then Teja is no Brando. If you have seen Mithun Chakraborty following the same character graph in the 1980 film Hum Panch, you would know the difference between an actor struggling across the graph and another getting there. As for Alia Bhatt, I knew she had a brief role. But this is not brief. It is grief! Just weeks after she occupied every frame of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s  _Gangubai Kathiawadi_  what is she doing here?  What is her purpose? Eliminate her role, and the film will still do just fine, thank you. The final thought for the film is that RRR is a feast for the eyes. If you like that sort of flamboyant assailment on the senses. But the scale of visual splendour is not matched by the emotional content. Devoid of a soul, RRR looks like a lavish tamasha. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.