{"id":204098,"date":"2013-11-19T19:48:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=204098"},"modified":"2013-11-19T19:48:10","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T14:18:10","slug":"film-review-goliyon-ki-raasleela-ram-leela-1-55-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/film-review-goliyon-ki-raasleela-ram-leela-1-55-stars\/","title":{"rendered":"[Film review] Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo:
Film rating: 1.5\/5 stars<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nSanjay Leela Bhansali\u2019s Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela<\/em> is essentially two films mashed into one. The title, imposed on the film by the Madhya Pradesh High Court after the Bajrang Dal protested against their sentiments being hurt, neatly divides the film into two parts, which differ substantially on quality. When it comes to the scenes between the two protagonists, Ram (Ranveer Singh) and Leela (Deepika Padukone), there is a primal intensity, great sensuousness marking what is one of the most passionate romances seen on the Bollywood screen in recent times. But when you look at the rest of the film, the Goliyon Ki Raasleela<\/em> if you will, it seems flabby, awkward and unlikely far beyond what our suspension of disbelief allows.
\nRam and Leela, like Parma and Zoya in Ishaqzaade<\/em> or Rahul and Bachchi in Issaq<\/em> \u2014 to just mention the Romeo and Juliet adaptations by Bollywood this year \u2014 are star-crossed lovers from warring families, who have been raised to hate the other but through their love, try to bring the age-old feud to an end. (In Ram and Leela\u2019s case, the families have actually been fighting since Shakespeare\u2019s time.) They meet when Ram sneaks into Leela\u2019s family\u2019s Holi celebration, and before any sort of meaningful conversation, are sharing a passionate kiss, enjoying love at first sight. Despite their families\u2019 objections, they continue the romance, mostly through text messages and the occasional musical number. All that\u2019s fine, really; the chemistry that Singh and Padukone share is enough to paper over any cracks that show up so far.
\nThings take a drastic turn for the worse once Ram kills Leela\u2019s brother after a shooting contest goes awry, Bhansali\u2019s adaptation of Romeo\u2019s duel with Tybalt. Up until now, the romance has been separate from the blood feud raging around them, an over-the-top conflict with little by way of real drama or logic. Once the two protagonists are involved in the war, they themselves lose what little reason they have and begin a bizarre sequence of events that had me looking for a blunt instrument to bang my head with. One moment, Leela accuses Ram of killing her brother. The next moment, they\u2019re making out, all accusations forgotten. The two elope, but only to a small village a few kilometres away; it takes Ram\u2019s friends all of one day to find them, and all of one night to trick them into coming home.
\nOnce back \u2014 spoilers ahead, so you might want to skip this paragraph if you intend to watch this atrocity \u2014 the two are installed as the heads of their respective families. You\u2019d think that means the two come together and end the feud, but that would mean they act out of logic. But no, Ram plays the pig-headed male and escalates the war. Leela, meanwhile, is carrying the torch but never actually tells Ram she\u2019s doing so, even though they have friggin\u2019 cellphones! Eventually, the proverbial hits the fan when a cousin of Leela\u2019s cousin makes a power play and issues written orders in her name to kill Ram\u2019s family (because obviously, you want to leave a paper trail of your mass murders). In the midst of the carnage, which no one really wants but is bound by the orders to condone, Ram and Leela meet again and decide the smartest thing for them to do is kill each other.
\nIt\u2019s not all bad; every other reviewer wouldn\u2019t be raving about it otherwise. The songs, in particular, are well-composed and shot, even if we could have done without that \u201cLook Ma, no dandruff!\u201d step. Bhansali\u2019s skills at creating a visual treat are at the fore, and he creates a backdrop that seems very authentic. More a pity, therefore, that he can\u2019t create anything resembling authentic human beings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bhansali creates a backdrop that seems very authentic. More a pity, therefore, that he can\u2019t create anything resembling authentic human beings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":204111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[8040,8219,7275,7548,7553,354,8536],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204098"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}