All style, no substance!. Review on Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

After Sawaariya and Guzaarish, I sort of gave up any expectations from Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I know that he's a master of his craft but his previous two duds sort of took my faith away from him. Sawaariya and Guzaarish were anything but boring to say the least. Therefore, I wanted to see SLB back in his form. I was expecting a movie of the caliber of Hum dil de chuke sanam, Devdas and the magnificent Black(my personal favorite which boosted of  mind blowing performances from Rani and Amitabh Bachchan). Sadly, I was disappointed with Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela(previously known as Ram-Leela).

I have to admit that I am quite fed up of Bollywood directors churning out gazillion clones of the timeless Shakespearean romance'Romeo & Juliet', but I must say SLB recreated this epic love story with panache. With SLB behind the camera, you expect a plethora of colors and grandeur and passion and GKRRL is no exception. Here, we have the six-pack abs, macho village lad Ram(Ranveer Singh) as Romeo and the curvy, sexy and extremely hot to handle, Leela(Deepika Padukone) as Juliet. As predictable as it may sound, Ram and Leela fall for each other at the first sight but theirs is more a case of falling in'lust' than in'love' as Leela places a full-on kiss on Ram's lips at their very first meeting, something you don't expect at least from a village belle. And that is where Bhansali fails as a director. How you wish he had, AT LEAST, built up the eventual romance between the couple so that by the time, Leela forgives Ram immediately after he kills her brother, the audience would not have felt that they are being hit by a thunder bolt! It seems like Bhansali was too absorbed about worrying about the visual aspect of the film that it takes a toll on the plot of the film.

Anyways, if you know the story of Romeo and Juliet, it's no rocket science to guess that Ram and Leela are going to have a really rocky romance with interference from both group of the families.

To be frank, I was quite bothered by the rhyming dialogues spoken by almost every character in the film. Leela says "green hai angur aur kele ka rang peela hai, keh do sari duniya se ram ki leela hai" when she is supposed to be grieving on her separation from Ram. Who talks like that when he or she is supposed to be grieving? I found quite a lot of loopholes in the story, i.e. When Ram and Leela are separated, they are not shown to be actually making an effort to be together again as a couple. It's very unlikely, especially for a pair who are shown madly in love with each other, to not make an effort to connect to each other. When Ram becomes the leader of his clan, he didn't even respond to the messages sent to him by Leela. He is shown to be too involved in his family business, which I found hard to digest, especially at first when he is shown as the black sheep of the family and was not interested in guns and the bloodshed. Leela is shown to be the one to initiate the kiss between the couple. She is also aware of Ram's flirting nature and his ways with women. How did she start trusting Ram without even getting to know him as a person? Also, Leela is shown as being naive and innocent during the latter portion of the film. How can a rural girl who can initiate a kiss with a guy and who does all the dirty talk with him be so naive and innocent at one point? I think that Bhansali failed to flesh out these two characters properly. The ending seems to be more on the lines of the previous year's Ishaqzaade, also a reworking of the Bard's Romeo and Juliet. It seems Bhansali was struggling to think of another innovative way of ending the already predictable film.

Performance-wise, both Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone are in their top form in GKRRL. Despite the inconsistencies in his character, Ranveer does okay as the happy-go-lucky black sheep of his family and his comic timing is also pitch-perfect. Deepika is also in her superlative form as she usually is in all her films. But this time she pushes the envelope a little further with her emotional range and depth. She is definitely an actor to watch out for in the future. Supriya Pathak as the fiendish mother of Leela gives a mindblowing performance, Gulshan Devaiah and Richa Chadda also give their best shot. Though I feel Richa was under-utilised as an actress in this film. Also, Supriya Pathak's menace is largely overdone at some places and this character is the most poorly resolved one in this film.

If you feel you can handle the loud colors, violence and larger-than-life characters, then give GKRRL a try! You might come out applauding the performances of Ranveer, Deepika and Supriya if you do. I give it 3.5/5.