RRR maker SS Rajamouli is the first name among ‘Grand Masters’?

Are we making the same mistake that we often do when the West recognizes and acknowledges one of our talents? We begin to value the talent more than we did earlier. It happened with Satyajit Ray and Mira Nair. Their maiden effort Pather Panchali and Salaam Bombay! were recognized by Western critics before their Indian counterparts reluctantly did the same.

Applause Entertainment, known to do pathbreaking work since its inception, has now announced an ongoing docu-series entitled Grand Masters. The first to feature in the series is the newsy globetrotter SS Rajamouli who has definitely taken the song-and-dance tradition of Indian cinema to the West with RRR. The firangis love the anti-colonial bacchanalia. The let’s-show-the-colonists-the-middle-finger mood has caught on. Let’s Naatu Naatu!

But as far as the commercial dynamics of Indian filmmaking go, is RRR a better film than Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi. Is Rajamouli a better filmmaker than Bhansali?

The answer to that is hovering in the populist culture that inveigles Indian cinema. Just because a film is popular it doesn’t follow that it is worthy of anointment. If that were so, we must immediately place Dada Kondke and David Dhawan in the Grand Masters series. These directors didn’t make great films. But they made popular films.

RRR is not a great film. But it is a popular film. Very popular film. In Rajamouli’s oeuvre, RRR comes below his Magadheera and Eega. Both are smart intelligent mass entertainers. Baahubali 1 and 2 got right the eclectic expressionism of comic book narration.

Baahubali was more kindred entertainer than RRR which suffers from performance anxiety. Every frame has to be the crest of captivity. Every shot has to end on a climactic exclamation mark. Every emotion is heightened to orgasmic peaks. It’s like watching a showreel of the most exhilarating moments from Gemini Circus’ existence.

Of course RRR is hugely entertaining. But does it really add up? Is Rajamouli one of our great filmmakers, on par with Raj Kapoor, K Balachander, L V Prasad, V Shantaram, Bimal Roy and Sanjay Leela Bhansali? Are we not overestimating the merits of a capable efficient intelligent filmmaker who has brought the Bollywood formula on the world map?

Sure, that is no mean achievement. But there is a difference between accessibility and excellence. I think RRR is high on the former, and not so high on the latter. Of course, I love RRR, just like the rest of the world. But it is the equivalent of junk food for the soul.

Sorry, RRR doesn’t give off the edifying vibes of Great Cinema.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.

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