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The Telugu language Indian action epic “RRR” (short for “Rise Roar Revolt”) has returned to US theaters for an exceptional one-night-only engagement on June 1st following its initial theatrical release. Some hindsight has made it easy to guess why writer/director S.S. Rajamouli has only now broken through to Western audiences with “RRR” despite his consistent box office success. Rajamouli’s latest is an anti-colonial fable and buddy drama about the imaginary combo of two real-life freedom fighters, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju ( Ram Charan ). “RRR” is also a fine showcase for Rajamouli’s characteristic focus on maximalist action choreography, overwhelming stuntwork and pyrotechnics, and sophisticated computer graphics.

By the time he made “RRR,” Rajamouli had already developed his brand of Nationalistic self-mythologizing with some help from recurring collaborators like regular story writer (and biological father) Vijayendra Prasad and both co-leads, who previously starred in Rajamouli’s “Yamadonga” and “Magadheera,” respectively.

Set in and around Delhi in 1920, “RRR” pointedly lacks historical context so that Rajamouli and his team can transform a straight-forward rescue mission into a rallying cry for reunification and also cathartic violence. Bheem, the avenging “shepherd” of the Adivasian Gond tribe, visits Delhi to track down Malli ( Twinkle Sharma ), an innocent pre-teen who’s kidnapped from her Gondian mother by the cartoonishly evil British Governor Scott ( Ray Stevenson ) and his sadistic wife Cathy ( Alison Doody ).

Raju, a peerless Colonial police officer, befriends Bheem without realizing that they’re at cross purposes: Bheem wants to break into Scott’s fortress-like quarters to rescue Maali while Raju wants to catch the unknown “tribal” that Scott’s lackey Edward ( Edward Sonnenblick ) fears might be lurking about. Raju and Bheem immediately bond after they save an unrelated child from being crushed by a runaway train, as clear a sign as any of Rajamouli’s love for Cecil B. DeMille-style melodrama. (“Ben Hur” is an acknowledged influence for Rajamouli, as are the action/period dramas of fellow DeMille-ian Mel Gibson ).

It’s also fitting that “RRR” is Rajamouli’s big breakthrough since it's inevitably about Bheem as an inspiring symbol of quasi-traditional, boundary-trampling patriotism. Rajamouli has gotten quite good at incorporating potentially alienating elements, like his cheap-seats love of grisly violence and brash sloganeering, into his propulsive, inventive, and visually assured fight scenes and dance numbers.

Rajamouli has also already perfected the way he works with and uses his actors as part of his shock-and-awe style of melodrama. Rama Rao is ideally cast as the naively sweet-natured Bheem, whose messianic qualities are also effectively high-lit in a handful of rousing set pieces, like when a bare-chested Bheem wrestles a tiger into submission. Rama Rao’s performance isn’t the main thing, but it is the emblematic inspiration that, along with a “Passion of the Christ”-worthy scourging, understandably leads an assembly of Indian nationals to attack Scott and his bloodthirsty hambone wife in a later scene.

Likewise, Charan’s steely-eyed performance in “RRR” is limited, but strong enough to be credibly superhuman. Rajamouli knows exactly how to capture his best sides, as in an astounding opening action scene where Raju descends into a rioting mob just to subdue and apprehend one particular dissident. Rao and Charan’s bro-mantic chemistry and syncopated physicality have already made a viral success of the movie’s splashy “Naatu Naatu” musical number, but that scene’s infectiously joyful presentation is supra-human by design.

The spirit of the individual matters more than any single person in Rajamouli’s movies and “RRR” is a perfect expression of that notion. It’s also a decent reflection of Rajamouli’s fame, which Film Companion South ’s Sagar Tetali keenly suggests is “the triumph of directorial ambition over the actor-star—the triumph of a brand of storytelling over the South Indian star image.”

With “RRR,” Rajamouli repeats his preference for one nation under populist ubermenschen. Both Bheem and Raju are extraordinary men because they are, at heart, aspirational expressions of the people’s will. Their lives, their loved ones, and their relationships are all of secondary importance—check out Bollywood star Ajay Devgn ’s explosive cameo!—so it makes sense that the cast’s images and performances are also blown up to James Cameron-sized proportions.

Like Cameron, Rajamouli has earned a reputation for pushing the limits of industrialized pop cinema. In that sense, “RRR” feels simultaneously personal and gargantuan in scope. Film Comment ’s R. Emmet Sweeney is right to caution viewers regarding the towering streak of “Hindu-centric” Nationalism and characterizations at the heart of Rajamouli’s “Pan-Indian address.” Sweeney is also right to hail Rajamouli’s dazzling “technical innovation.” It’s not every day that a new Indian movie—which are typically not advertised to Western viewers beyond indigenous language speakers, and therefore largely ignored by Western outlets—is presented as an event to American theatergoers. Attend or miss out.

Available in theaters tonight, June 1st, and also streaming on Netflix.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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187 minutes

N.T. Rama Rao Jr. as Komaram Bheem

Ram Charan as Alluri Sitarama Raju

Alia Bhatt as Sita

Ajay Devgn as Venkata Rama Raju

Ray Stevenson as Scott Buxton

Alison Doody as Cassandra Buxton

Olivia Morris as Jennifer 'Jenny' Buxton

Samuthirakani as Venkateshwarulu

Shriya Saran as Sarojini

Chatrapathi Sekhar as Jangu

Makrand Deshpande as Peddanna

S. S. Rajamouli

Writer (story)

Vijayendra Prasad
S.S. Rajamouli

Cinematographer

K.K. Senthil Kumar
Sreekar Prasad
M.M. Keeravaani

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India’s wild action movie RRR re-imagines real-life revolt as an epic superhero battle

The latest outsized crowd-pleaser from Baahubali series director S.S. Rajamouli finds massive thrills in revolution

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by Katie Rife

Jr NTR roars in the face of a Bengal tiger in RRR

In the famous “No Man’s Land” sequence from 2017’s Wonder Woman , Gal Gadot strides across a barren battlefield in slow motion, deflecting German bullets with her wrist cuffs and magical shield. The wind blows through her hair as she leaps across the muddy fields with godlike nimbleness, the score swelling behind her with patriotic pride. There’s a similar moment in RRR (“Rise Roar Revolt”), S.S. Rajamouli’s action-drama hybrid about the adventures of two Indian revolutionaries who have divergent approaches to resisting British occupation in 1920s Delhi. The difference is, in RRR , it’s just one of half a dozen scenes of its kind.

The latest outsized action spectacle from Rajamouli — director of the much-beloved Baahubali movies , available on Netflix — mythologizes two historical figures, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Konidela Ram Charan). In real life, Bheem was a leader of the Gondi people who collaborated with other groups to resist landlords and mining companies encroaching onto tribal lands. Raju, meanwhile, led guerrilla attacks on imperial police stations, seizing British guns and ammunition to level the playing field between colonizer and colonized.

This last point makes its way into RRR , as part of a storyline that reframes Raju as a supercop on a mission to take down the British power structure from within. That’s a minor liberty, however, compared to the fact that in the film, both Raju and Bheem have superheroic agility, strength, and fighting abilities. Both can scale buildings like Spider-Man, dodge bullets like Wonder Woman, and flip their opponents like pro wrestlers. Bheem, representing the element of water, counts the animals of the forest among his allies, and bursts onto the field of battle with tigers and wolves by his side. And Raju, representing fire, drives a burning carriage and shoots flaming arrows. Picture Benjamin Franklin and Paul Revere joining the MCU, with Franklin harnessing the power of electricity, and Revere the swiftness of the wind.

The superpowers aren’t the only liberty taken with their stories. RRR explains gaps in both men’s histories by proposing that they became friends after they each made their way to Delhi in the early 1920s — Raju as an undercover imperial cop, Bheem on a rescue mission to save a village girl kidnapped by a colonial governor. (They never met in real life.) In the film, the pair bond over their mutual derring-do. They’re two strangers who agree with a nod to embark on a dangerous impromptu rescue mission to save a little boy trapped by a flaming train accident on a Delhi river.

Subtlety, to put it mildly, is not Rajamouli’s thing. And so the director not only takes every opportunity available to hammer home the “fire and water” theme, he also works in dramatic slow-motion shots wherever he can. Bheem trips and knocks a silver tray out of a waiter’s hand at a garden party? The tray drops in slow motion and spins to a stop as guests stare with wide eyes and jaws agape. Raju pummels a punching bag in frustration after being passed over for a promotion? You bet those drops of sweat are beading off of his glistening, muscular shoulders and dashing mustache at half-speed.

RRR also deals in big emotions to match its hyper-dramatic shooting style. Betrayal, loyalty, and legacy are all major themes, and an alternate title of the film could be SSS — “Secrets. Subterfuge. Sacrifice.” Compared to a stereotypical Bollywood film (which RRR is not — it’s a Telugu production), RRR is relatively light on music and romance, devoting much of its screen time to visual spectacle, gonzo action, and patriotic zeal. The dynamic between Bheem and Raju has shades of the macho bromance of John Woo’s 1980s movies, until it transforms into a superhero team-up. And Rajamouli’s camera is unabashed in its worship of these men, introducing them with protracted sequences designed to build anticipation for viewers’ first look at the characters.

But RRR does make some time for comedy and music amid its stylized feats of mythological bravery. Between the title card — which pops up around the 45-minute mark — and the intermission (sorry, “InteRRRmission”) break two hours in, RRR pauses for a breezy interlude that invites viewers to hang out with the provincial Bheem and the more Anglicized Raju as they get into mischief and chase girls. Raju has a sweetheart back home — his childhood friend Sita (Alia Bhatt), to whom he pledged eternal loyalty before leaving his village to join the Indian Imperial Police. So he acts as Bheem’s wingman, helping Bheem charm sympathetic Englishwoman Jenny (Olivia Morris) with his aw-shucks attitude and impressive dance skills.

A shirtless Jr NTR shoots an arrow through a gap in a wall of fire in RRR

Jr NTR (the common abbreviation for N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Ram Charan, both Telugu superstars in their own right, show off those skills in the rousing “ Naatu Naatu, ” RRR ’s only real musical production number. (Another song, “Etthara Jenda,” plays over the end credits, and Bheem puts his defiance into song while being punished for his revolutionary activities.) Longtime Rajamouli collaborator M.M. Keeravani provides music for these numbers, along with a title song and instrumental compositions designed to get audiences to their feet.

RRR is a busy movie, full of kinetic camerawork, bustling crowd scenes, elaborate set design, expensive-looking CGI, and loud sound effects. Rajamouli is skilled at balancing the film’s many elements, so “overstimulated” isn’t quite the word for how walking out o f RRR feels. It’s more like the pleasant exhaustion after a good workout.

The extended running times of Indian films used to form a barrier to entry for Western audiences unaccustomed to spending three full hours at the movies. But times have changed, and RRR is only 10 minutes longer than The Batman . On the other hand, although it’s set for release in 30 countries , the film assumes a familiarity with certain characters and iconographies that might go over foreign viewers’ heads. Still, at its core, this is a story about people fighting for their beliefs against impossible odds. It’s about perseverance and the power of working together toward a common goal. Those themes are universally relatable — as is the giddy thrill of watching racist forces of imperial oppression get exactly what’s coming to them.

RRR is now playing in select theaters worldwide.

[ Ed. note: We recommend viewers check local listings or contact the theater to make sure you’re catching the version of RRR you want to see. The film was shot in Telugu, but some theaters are running multiple screens with versions of the film dubbed into one or more of the other major Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. A Telugu screening will give you the original voice performances with English subtitles.]

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RRR Reviews

An absolute sumptuous feast for the senses.

Full Review | Jul 3, 2024

If you enjoyed “The Woman King” (2022) or Namor’s flashback sequences in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (2022) but wanted the fight scenes against the colonizers to be longer, then this movie is for you.

Full Review | Jun 2, 2024

RRR is one action crescendo after another, never dull but not exhausting either.

Full Review | Sep 19, 2023

SS Rajamouli delivers his most complete, his most Rajamouli film yet...

Full Review | Sep 12, 2023

What a blast of filmmaking, talent, & across the board insanity. Emotional, riveting, hilarious, action packed, & flat out just one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen this year. So over the top I couldn’t stop watching

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

There are complications and coincidences at work. That is the heart and soul of this great adventure laden with fantasy.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Mar 24, 2023

One of 2022's 20 best films.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 13, 2023

In a movie that also includes Bheem battling a tiger with his bare hands and an aerial rescue involving a motorcycle, “Naatu Naatu” may be the most impressive action sequence.

Full Review | Mar 10, 2023

It's not just about men transitioning from ignorant to enlightened, sad to happy, or anti-hero to hero. It's about humans morphing into fable, history turning into heavens and hells – and life transforming into visual literature.

...goosebumps raising, whiste-worthy, crazy, insane. Did I say outrageous?

The bonanza with a cast of what looks to be thousands and a storyline about getting back at colonizers is a blast throughout its 3-hour-plus running time.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 2, 2023

This big epic action movie reminds me of some of those Fast and Furious movies because of the really outlandish action sequences, but this film has the added attraction of Bollywood style musical numbers and a showy dance off.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 27, 2023

... A show that escapes realist drama at every turn. [Fulll review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jan 27, 2023

Between the stunts, the music, and the acting, you don't want to miss this fantastical spectacle of an adventure. It's cinema at its finest!

Full Review | Jan 22, 2023

One of the beset films of 2022, RRR stands as a gateway into South Asian cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 17, 2023

There are many twists as this beast punches its way through three long hours, but it moves so beautifully and is so frequently astonishing that it's well worth a look.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 13, 2023

We critics occasionally forget that one of the main purposes of cinema is to entertain, impress, and have the audience simply have fun watching. “RRR” reminds us just that.

Full Review | Original Score: 7 | Jan 2, 2023

...has just about everything in it—colonialism, revolution, mateship, a massive cast, insane stunts, amazing costumes and sets, and lots of music and dance.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jan 2, 2023

It taps into many of the basic emotional centers that have always made movies of this sort popular and, in the process, offers hope that there may still be room for non-IP epics to exist side-by-side with Hollywood’s overbranded franchises.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 31, 2022

RRR was amazing… No other word can describe it! The stunts, story, choreography, music, it was pure cinema. Oh my goodness. A MUST WATCH!

Full Review | Original Score: 9.5/10 | Dec 29, 2022

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If you haven't been back to the movies yet, Indian epic 'RRR' is the reason to go

John Powers

Ram Charan stars in RRR, an action-packed bromance set in India in the 1920s. Raftar Creations hide caption

Ram Charan stars in RRR, an action-packed bromance set in India in the 1920s.

If you're over the age of, say, 40, you will surely remember the 1975 cult phenomenon The Rocky Horror Picture Show . Weekend after weekend, year after year, decade after decade, audiences turned up at theaters — often dressed in corsets, fishnets and other costumes — to shriek out lines ahead of the characters and sing along with the songs.

I've never seen anything like it — until now. A few nights ago, I went to a packed screening of RRR , an epic action-picture bromance from India. The screening had 900 people — some of whom had already seen the film 10 times — clapping and dancing from the opening credits.

Made by box-office titan S.S. Rajamouli, RRR induces such unabashed giddiness in its audience that Hollywood is witnessing a push to get it nominated for the Oscars. Forget Best International Feature Film, folks are talking Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor. And having seen RRR twice myself, I'm part of the bandwagon.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'rrr' is an interrrnational phenomenon.

Set during the British Raj in the 1920s, the movie tells the story of two heroes with impressive physiques and super-charged abilities. The tightly wound Ram — played by Ram Charan — works for the British as a crack military officer who we see quash a mass Indian uprising single-handed. His tiger-hunting counterpart, Bheem, played by N.T. Rama Rao, Jr., is a tribal villager who has come in disguise to Delhi to reclaim a young girl from his village who has been capriciously snatched by the evil wife of the evil British governor.

Ram and Bheem meet heroically while working in tandem to save a child from a train crashing into a river. Kindred in their bravery, they instantly become fast friends. But they don't know one important thing. While Bheem secretly opposes the governor, Ram is secretly working for him. They're bound for a head-on collision.

RRR — the title stands for Rise Roar Revolt — is populist filmmaking. Its emotions are simple, its anti-colonial politics broad. Rajamouli makes the British rulers of India even worse than they actually were, and they were mighty bad. But his mega-star lead actors play their roles with such ardent conviction that we don't merely believe in Ram and Bheem's friendship, we're moved by it. Rajamouli unfolds the many twists and turns of their story with such confidently rampaging energy that, by comparison, most Hollywood blockbusters feel anemic.

I'm normally bored by action sequences, but from the opening riot to the assault on the governor's mansion to the big prison escape — during which Ram rides atop Bheem's shoulders with guns ablazing — RRR contains more exciting action scenes than all the Marvel movies put together. Indeed, there's a slow-motion shot right before the intermission that is one of the most jaw dropping moments in the history of cinema. Just as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix offered American viewers a new vision of action, so RRR possesses a delirious inventiveness and originality that audiences will love. And I haven't even mentioned the marvelous "Naatu Naatu" song-and-dance sequence that recalls the dance-off between the Jets and the Sharks in West Side Story , but is vastly more alive.

You can currently see RRR on Netflix, and it's a good enough movie that you'll enjoy it. But if you can — and I'd urge local theaters to bring it back — you should see it on a big screen. For two reasons. First, Rajamouli is in love with the sheer bigness that makes movies so much grander than TV. Bursting with fights, rescues, wild animals, surging crowds, sadistic monsters, larger-than-life showdowns and mythic transformations, RRR is not a movie that leaves you asking for more.

Indeed, in these days when the box-office is way down, movie chains are wobbling, and experts wonder whether the movies will even survive, RRR makes the case for returning to theaters. It reminds us that movies are always more thrilling when they're part of a collective experience, when you can share the excitement with the people around you. That excitement is electric when you watch RRR . You may well leave the theater humming the catchy tune, "Naatu Naatu."

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The Netflix Hit “RRR” Is a Political Screed, an Action Bonanza, and an Exhilarating Musical

When it comes to cinematic propaganda, blatant is better than insidious. Overt advocacy has the virtue of candor and the vigor of fervent emotion. A movie such as “ Top Gun: Maverick ” hides its messages under the guise of unexceptionable realities, whereas another new, high-energy, political action spectacle, the Indian film “RRR” (which was released theatrically in March and is now streaming on Netflix, where it’s in the top five), makes its statements explicit. It thrusts its imaginative artistry thrillingly and gleefully to the fore.

“RRR”—the title stands for “Rise Roar Revolt”—turns history into legend by way of heightened visual rhetoric. It’s based very loosely on the real-life stories of two Indian revolutionaries of the early twentieth century, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, who contested the oppressions of British colonial power. There’s no record of their having met, let alone joining forces. The director, S. S. Rajamouli —who also wrote the screenplay, based on a story by V. Vijayendra Prasad (his father)—derives a magnificent outpouring of creative energy from the inspiring fantasy of their volatile connection. (The movie’s original language is Telugu; the version shown on Netflix is dubbed into Hindi.)

On a motor trip through the Indian countryside, Catherine Buxton (Alison Doody), the high-handed wife of the British colonial governor, buys an Indian girl named Malli (Twinkle Sharma) as one might buy a pet. The governor’s party carts the child away over the protests of her mother, Loki (Ahmareen Anjum), who is brutalized by British guards. Malli is from the Gond tribe, which is said to hold fast together, and its so-called shepherd, Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao, Jr.), a fierce warrior, heads to Delhi to find her, disguising himself as a Muslim mechanic named Akhtar. The British governor, Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson), is warned by an Indian police officer about the shepherd and his ferocity; Buxton orders his officers to find and capture the shepherd. One of his Indian police officers, Raju (Ram Charan), volunteers for the mission, planning to infiltrate the city’s revolutionary Indian circles. In Delhi, two Indian strangers see a boy drowning in the river and team up to rescue him; the two men, Raju and “Akhtar,” become fast friends. Raju is unaware that Akhtar is the warrior he’s looking for, and Akhtar is unaware that Raju works for the man whose household he aims to raid. The drama of their secrets, and the circuitous path of their ultimate collaboration (it’s no spoiler), involve scenes of moral and emotional horror that are redeemed in the high purpose of their historic mission.

The similarity in tone to other Indian action films is matched by what it shares with Hollywood blockbusters, too. The drama is built around action, stints on character, features very little dialogue that doesn’t advance the plot, and offers neither psychology nor history nor social context to enrich the historical framework. It’s a movie of shortcuts and elisions no less relentless than those of American superhero or superstar vehicles, but Rajamouli is an artist of a distinctive temperament and talent. He spotlights the halo of legend in an extended scene that introduces Raju, at a prison where Indian people are storming the gates to free a prisoner. There, Raju takes on the entire surging crowd by way of impossible acrobatics and eruptive martial artistry (highlighted by a madly rotating camera) that plays like a live-action cartoon. The element of fantasy is intensified by a sequence of Bheem’s rigorous self-imposed training, which involves single-handed battle with a wolf and a tiger.

There’s an overt element of exaggeration that bends the story into the substance and the tone of legend—the effect is of an onscreen tall tale. It’s a film of giddy, exhilarating hyperbole in which physical action pierces the barrier of impossibility but stops short of the supernatural or superheroic. And there’s a dashing graphic sense of composition and an assertively precise sense of rapid action that owes nothing to the generic jumble with which most Hollywood action scenes are filmed and edited. “RRR” is also filled with gore: streaming blood, spurting blood, bodies beaten and pierced and torn. Yet the combination of sharply determined political purpose and compositional artistry lends the horror an air of abstraction that stokes a sense of indignation or of justice without physical disgust or titillation.

The plot has twists and turns, hidden byways and surprising connections, that have the dazzle of magic tricks. The story’s omissions and truncations—an odd thing to refer to in a movie that runs to nearly three hours—contribute to the air of wonder and lend a jolt of astonishment to an extensive flashback that’s dropped in midway through. The drama is rooted in the absolute sadism, the monstrous and indeed genocidal racism of the British, the governmental terrorism with which Buxton reigns, the pathological bloodlust of power that Catherine flaunts, the dehumanizing prejudices of subordinate officers, and the vile politics of hiring indigenous people to do their dirty work. The story’s view of colonial despotism involves not only grievous economic inequality but also relentless political repression—and a sense of fear that’s nearly a sense of doom, signalled by the absolute ban on Indian people owning firearms and the tumult that results when even a single rifle falls into the hands of one of them.

For all its political determination, “RRR” is also a musical, and an electrifying one. The movie is filled with music and with characters singing at moments of grand political import; when Raju and Bheem manage to attend a high British social gathering, they convert a moment of cultural chauvinism into a spectacular dance-off. The frenetically athletic choreography involves gestures of a rapid-fire sculptural majesty to match the geometric flair of the images that capture it. Where the movie’s central dance is pugnaciously competitive, the fight scenes are dance-like, featuring moments of phantasmagorical splendor. One won’t soon forget the vision of a warrior carrying another on his back, with the one on top bearing two rifles and shooting them with deadly accuracy in opposite directions while the bearer breaks on the run through a brick wall. Or a runaway motorcycle being stopped with one foot as if it were a soccer ball, caught in midair, and hurled with the devastating force of a cannonball. Or a single flaming arrow igniting the entire countryside and yielding Wagnerian images of sublime destruction.

The drama of political unity that song lyrics characterize as “friendship between an erupting volcano and a wild storm” is also a flag-waving spectacle of patriotic pomp. The movie’s powerful sense of revolutionary virtue and collective purpose yields to nationalistic pride that’s danced and sung with uninhibited joy. The concluding production number, with militaristic bravado, spotlights the present-day purposes of this quasi-historical tale.

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‘rrr’ review: s.s. rajamouli’s glorious indian action spectacle.

This Telugu-language action-adventure epic, available on Netflix, has become a worldwide sensation.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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“Delirious” is the word to describe S.S. Rajamouli’s Indian action-adventure film that has become a worldwide phenomenon both in theaters and on Netflix since its summer release.

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‘RRR’ Review: A Magnificent Cinematic Explosion

Siddhant adlakha.

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S.S. Rajamouli ’s “ RRR ” is a dazzling work of historical fiction — emphasis on the “fiction” — that makes the moving image feel intimate and enormous all at once. A pulsating period action drama, it outshines even the director’s record-smashing “Baahubali” movies (viewers familiar with them probably won’t know what to expect here) thanks to its mix of naked sincerity, unapologetic machismo, and balls-to-the-wall action craftsmanship. The film is playing on over a thousand screens in North America, and watching it with a packed audience familiar with Telugu-language cinema is likely to yield one of the noisiest and most raucous theatrical experiences imaginable. Plenty of recent releases have been hailed as “the return of cinema” post-pandemic, but “RRR” stands apart as an unabashed return to everything that makes the cinematic experience great, all at once.

To talk about the film in any meaningful sense — especially for unfamiliar viewers — first requires setting the stage. Its title is a backronym that stands for “Rise, Roar, Revolt” in English (and similar phrases in various other Indian languages), a fitting label for its early 20th century story about a pair of Indian anti-colonial revolutionaries. However, “RRR” started out as the film’s working title. It stood for director Rajamouli, and the film’s two renowned Tollywood stars, Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr. (or N.T.R. Jr.), whose first on-screen collaboration is a good enough reason for many people to buy tickets. The title stuck. The high-caliber names involved are the main attraction, something that becomes all too clear when each actor first appears, and adoring fans turn darkened multiplex screens into lively spaces of celebration, whose walls echo with hoots, hollers and wolf whistles.

The film is worth this reaction, too.

Charan and N.T.R Jr. play Alluri Sitarama Raju (or simply Ram in the film) and Komaram Bheem, a pair of freedom fighters who, as far as anyone knows, never actually met. However, Rajamouli and his co-scribes — story writer K. V. Vijayendra Prasad and dialogue writer Sai Madhav Burra — imagine a fictitious friendship between the pair, during a period in the early 1920s where historical documentation of both figures happens to be scant. “RRR” takes that mild coincidence and turns it into a boisterous, melodramatic saga filled with action that’s over-the-top in its staging, but grounded in its emotional reality.

Charan’s Ram is introduced first, in a manner that’s as viscerally enjoyable as it is narratively shocking. In a strange inversion of history (though one that no doubt establishes a distinct trajectory for his character), we meet this fictitious version of the revolutionary when he’s a police officer for the British Empire. He leaps into battle against a sea of righteous Indian protesters and takes on hundreds of them at once, a superhuman feat typical of South Indian action stars, but one that Rajamouli anchors to tangible bruises, blood and broken bones, blending ludicrous staging (via wide shots that feel like baroque tableaus) with piercing close-ups that rarely cut away as the action plays out. All the while, Ram remains fearlessly and obsessively dedicated to the Crown, and it’s hard not to cheer him on despite this ugly setup — especially when he doesn’t receive the requisite thanks from his British superiors and takes out his frustrations by reducing a punching bag to sandy pulp.

Before long, Ram — now undercover as a revolutionary in the hopes of a big police promotion — is set on a collision course with N.T.R. Jr.’s kindly and heroic Bheem, whose own introduction plays like a fever dream. After a young girl from Bheem’s forest tribe, the Gond, is kidnapped by a British aristocrat, he sets a mysterious plan in motion that involves capturing a number of wild animals (a setup whose payoff is magnificently unexpected). We first meet Bheem as he sprints through the forest — Rajamouli and cinematographer K. K. Senthil Kumar charge towards him with their camera, making his movements feel limitless — and when he manages to capture a roaring tiger in a net, he roars back in its face, accessing something primal and animalistic, as the camera zeroes in on his quivering veins and muscles.

Both men are, in a strictly narrative sense, straight — Ram has a fiancé back home; Bheem has a bit of a will-they-won’t-they with an English woman, Jenny (Olivia Morris) — but everything about the way they’re captured and the way they interact drips with an unapologetic homoeroticism that forms the film’s emotional core. The duo, unaware of each other’s true identities as a cop and revolutionary, first become friends in a scene of explosive heroism that involves a bike, a horse, a train, and both men swinging off a bridge, but the beat that feels most colossal amidst the mayhem is an intimate close up in which they clasp hands, a moment so enormous that it yanks the film’s title onto the screen about 40 minutes in (who would’ve thought “RRR” would have something in common with “Drive My Car”?)

Charan is suave as Ram, and he guides N.T.R. Jr.’s more awkward Bheem through romantic advances with Jenny (a dynamic made hilarious thanks to their linguistic barrier), but the two leading men constantly wrestle between several emotional layers. Each one has their own secret mission — Ram hopes to suss out a revolutionary leader who he doesn’t realize is Bheem; Bheem hopes to make his way into a Governor’s mansion to rescue the kidnapped girl — but the duo’s close friendship also begins to infect their respective missions, especially when they’re forced to confront the truth about one another. They have broader ideals for which they fight, but their senses of duty, which they each see as altruistic, soon become complicated by their love for each as individuals.

It may not be hard to predict the plot, at least in its broad strokes — it’s filled with coincidences, and with misunderstandings which are eventually clarified — but each emotional moment along the way is both magnified to the maximum, yet rooted in the kind of devastating sincerity that makes the duo’s eventual, inevitable collision almost difficult to watch. “RRR” is the kind of film where violence and music aren’t just layered atop the story, but intrinsically woven into the way it’s told. Every action beat has meaning, either in the way it’s set up — a brief moment from the duo’s friendship montage, in which Ram sits atop Bheem’s shoulders, later returns in stunning fashion — or in the way it enhances the narrative. A moment of betrayal, for instance, is marked by a flaming carriage wheel coming undone and striking one of the characters in the heart, and it’s only about the tenth or fifteenth wildest thing that happens in that entire set piece.

For every story beat told through action, there’s another expressed through M. M. Keeravani’s music. The themes composed for Ram, especially when he’s in uniform, arrive with terrifying western horns, which blare whenever he jumps into action, while Bheem’s compositions feel more Earthy, creating a connection between him and nature through spiritual vocal chants and more traditional wooden instruments. As the duo’s friendship grows deeper, the lines between these kinds of compositions begin to blur. The film may not have many dance sequences, but the one major number — “ Naatu Naatu ,” which went viral several months ago for the way Ram and Bheem dance energetically arm-in-arm — becomes its own euphoric mini-movie about friendship and revolution, with its own subplot running throughout the choreography. Modern Hollywood blockbusters tend to have one or two standout scenes, but nearly every scene of “RRR” feels like it could be somebody’s favorite, so even its gargantuan 188 minute running time feels like a breeze.

Of course, the Hollywood influence on “RRR” is clear from the outset, as is the case with many Indian blockbusters, but the film is also its own unique beast. While it evokes images of superhero movies, American war films, and even films about chattel slavery, it blends them together in transformative fashion, hyper-charging each image until it pushes up against the line of believability, but is swiftly yanked back into a familiar emotional realm by recognizable performances. Hollywood star Ray Stevenson plays a moustache-twirling British officer, Governor Scott, who initially comes off as cartoonishly evil — so much so that he doesn’t even want to waste precious English bullets on “brown rubbish” — yet the film not only sticks with that cartoonishness until it feels familiar, but even expands on his strange philosophy until it becomes inextricable from the plot. That Stevenson (and even Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn, who appear in supporting roles) feel like also-rans in the face of Ram Charan and N.T.R. Jr. is a testament to just how massive this collaboration feels — there’s really no western equivalent — and Rajamouli captures every moment and every interaction with the requisite scale and adoration.

By the time the film reaches its fiery climax, one filled with jaw-dropping imagery, it imbues both men with a sense of holy mythicism. Ram even ends up molded in the visage of his namesake, Lord Rama from Hindu scripture, wielding a bow and arrow in the face of British firearms, but no matter how ridiculously any of these moments read on paper, they fit perfectly with the film’s emotional reality, in which love and righteousness flow through the characters like electric superpowers, allowing them to achieve extraordinary, face-melting feats that will leave even the most hardened and cynical viewers feeling childishly giddy.

“RRR” is now playing in theaters.

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How the Indian Action Spectacular ‘RRR’ Became a Smash in America

The unusual decision to rerelease the film a few weeks after its initial run has drawn enthusiastic audiences even though it’s available on Netflix.

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By Simon Abrams

The Telugu-language Indian action spectacular “RRR,” or “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” was already a worldwide box office winner when it was released in March, grossing $65 million during its opening weekend. But it took an unusual second release for the period epic from the director S.S. Rajamouli to become a word-of-mouth smash across the United States. Now in its 10th week, it’s the rare Indian hit to catch on with American viewers outside the Indian diaspora, thanks to the unusual decision to relaunch the film weeks after it had already played across the country on 1,200 screens.

Set in Delhi during the early 1920s, “RRR” follows two patriotic but philosophically opposed men (Ram Charan and N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) as they first clash with each other, then team up to rescue a kidnapped girl (Twinkle Sharma) from a pair of sadistic British colonial officials (Alison Doody and Ray Stevenson).

A Hindi-language version made for the Bollywood market has been available to Netflix subscribers since May and was among the service’s Top 10 most watched titles in America for nine consecutive weeks. But even with simultaneous streaming, the movie has now grossed $14 million at the American box office and played in 175 additional theaters across 34 states. By contrast, the Telugu-language crime drama “Pushpa: The Rise — Part 1,” the highest-earning Indian movie of last year, made only $1.32 million during its American release.

The president of the distributor Variance Films, Dylan Marchetti, estimates that most of the “RRR” ticket buyers had never before seen a production from Tollywood, the film industry that caters to audiences in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where Telugu is the main language.

The story of how “RRR” broke through in the U.S. involves a rare relaunch — sold to moviegoers as an “encoRRRe” — by Variance in conjunction with an independent consultant, Josh Hurtado, and Sarigama Cinemas, the movie’s original distributor.

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The Indian Action Blockbuster That Should Make Hollywood Jealous

RRR is the heroic epic we’ve been waiting for—one that’s not afraid of its own extravagance.

Ram Charan walking away from a burning building in "RRR"

I can think of two action films from the past decade that involved a stunt in which an actor throws an entire motorcycle at someone. The first is the 2015 Marvel sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron . Captain America (played by Chris Evans), battling bad guys in a snowy forest, does a flip with his bike and flings it at an armored tank . But the moment is brushed off; Cap mutters an unrelated joke and his wild accomplishment is immediately undercut, an eye-rolling punctuation to a busy but washed-out combat set piece.

The other movie to feature two-wheelers as handheld weapons is the Indian epic RRR , a box-office phenomenon that’s become one of the highest grossers in the country’s history . In the final act, the rebel hero Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), confronted with a motorcycle vrooming toward him, stops it in its tracks with a kick, grabs it by the front wheel, and uses it to demolish various opponents, swinging it around like a very unwieldy sword. The feat is ridiculous, but also utterly glorious, rendered in ultra-slow motion set to booming, jubilant music.

RRR , written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli, is more than three hours long, and its run time is bursting with moments like this, aggressive spectacles that are given enough room and emphasis to let the audience revel in them. Bheem is introduced with a training montage in the forest that sees him battle a tiger and a wolf. Later on, in one of his most preposterous attacks on nefarious colonial Brits, he mounts a truck filled with animals and crashes it into a gated fortress, then leaps out, flanked by an assortment of wild creatures, while carrying flaming torches in each hand. The visual is heroic nonsense, sure, but it’s also stirringly maximalist poetry, the kind of sincere triumphalism that feels absent from peer Hollywood blockbusters.

RRR (in English, the title stands for “Rise, Roar, Revolt”) is possibly the most expensive Indian film ever made, with a budget equivalent to $72 million. It is a product of the Telugu-language industry based in Hyderabad, which rivals the Mumbai-based Bollywood and has begun to threaten that sector’s position in terms of financial success. Rajamouli’s last two movies before this one are among the country’s biggest hits. So upon its March release, RRR ’s smash reception in India was to be expected. But its impressive performance in America , where it was initially screened in about 1,000 theaters, was surprising, given the comparative lack of press and advertising.

Since its strong opening weekend, RRR has become a word-of-mouth event in the U.S. Some theaters have organized packed special screenings as one-night events, and others have gone all in on daily showtimes for the foreseeable future, even though the film is now available to stream on Netflix. RRR has broken through for American audiences for likely a few reasons—many people desire fun, communal viewing experiences after years of COVID lockdowns, and cinema chains are casting wider nets as traditional Hollywood studios have had far fewer theatrical releases than usual in recent years. But I think the main explanation is that RRR offers the kind of action extravagance that even the biggest-budgeted superhero movies (such as Spider-Man: No Way Home or Black Widow ) seem curiously afraid to embrace.

Read: The new Doctor Strange is not just another Marvel movie

RRR is decidedly less cautious—even a single fired bullet will sometimes get its own slow-motion star treatment, as it blasts gracefully through the air toward a particular evildoer. No self-aware jokes are let loose to undermine the melodrama, and while most of RRR ’s many action scenes are overwhelming in scale, they also all manage to feel thematically different. The tale follows two freedom fighters, both loosely based on real-life figures from early-20th-century Indian history (though the script is entirely fictitious): Bheem, a defender of the Gond tribes looking to rescue a local girl kidnapped by the British, and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan), who, in the film, is a military officer for the empire and secretly hopes to use his position to foment rebellion.

Though they share a hatred for the British, Bheem’s and Raju’s missions are often at cross-purposes, and the script delights in bringing the pair together as friends against all odds. After extended prologue scenes that separately depict their martial prowess, the movie finally unites them about 45 minutes in, when they both chance upon a train accident on a bridge that endangers a child. Bheem and Raju, despite never having met, immediately lock eyes from thousands of yards away and execute a complicated rescue. One of them charges forward on a horse, the other on a bike, and then they both do a series of gymnastic jumps that involves swinging from the bridge on ropes and passing a flag back and forth. (Almost every martial sequence in RRR is very difficult to describe in words, as should be the case for any good action movie.)

After all this, the boy is rescued, Bheem and Raju’s friendship is forged, and the film’s title finally flashes on-screen in full, as if Rajamouli is just now acknowledging that he’s earned the audience’s attention for the rest of the adventure ahead. Montages follow of the leads palling around, along with a masterful dance-off, multiple romances, plenty of tense fight scenes, and lots of lip-curling villainy from the occupying Brits. The thrill of RRR is not the density of its storytelling, though—it’s the exuberance of it.

I’ve invoked Marvel movies—plenty of which I enjoy—because they’re the most common example of the current American blockbuster style, one that lavishes hundreds of millions on intricate CGI action shots that often end up feeling airless, and in which even the grandest battles are executed with a depressing sameness. In those movies, giant monsters are defeated, and portals in the sky are closed, but seeing a film as visually inventive as RRR serves as a reminder of how much modern action usually follows a formula. If wonder is to be consistently found on the big screen, then Hollywood has plenty of new lessons to learn from its best competitor.

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RRR Movie Review: A Celebration Of Outrageous Ideas That Mostly Works

Cast: Junior NTR, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt

Director: S.S. Rajamouli

A group of men belonging to the Gond tribe in Adilabad are planning to attack the palace of a British general in Delhi. On the British side, there are police officers, guns, ammunition, and a hundred other items that could count as weapons.

And on the side of the men of the tribes led by Komaram Bheem (NTR Jr) all they have is a truck and a few scrawny men who believe in Bheem. They are also far from home and relatively cornered alone in an unfamiliar part of the world. You begin to wonder how they will attack without getting caught. Surely Bheem is not so naïve that he can't figure out he is going to get caught if he charges at the palace. Or is Rajamouli going to cater to fans and probably have NTR Jr bulldoze his way through the crowd?

And then the film reveals Bheem's real plan with the massiest of mass entries of NTR Jr. It's outrageous. It's stunning. It's hair raising. It's full of conviction and frankly makes you think what else could these men have done but this. And this is not some surprise or convenient twist of the screenplay for the sake of a goosebumps moment for NTR Jr and his fans. Rajamouli has planted clues and hints so that this pre-interval sequence becomes a stunning set piece for Bheem and his men. And because they are such underdogs at this point you can't help but cheer for them and applaud the audacity of the idea.

It's outrageous but it's fun.

RRR starring Ram Charan and NTR Jr is a series of such equally outrageous ideas from the mind of Rajamouli. Take the premise and story. There are a couple of years of history that are missing on Telugu revolutionaries Alluri Sitaramaraju and Komaram Bheem.

And Rajamouli simply asks what if they met? What if he narrated the story of how they impacted each other? What if he told the story his way? This historical fan fiction idea itself sounds so out there and implausible that Rajamouli is not just happy if they shared a cup of tea at a roadside stall. He wants them to fight together, against each other, atop each other, engage in a dance battle with Britishers, and ultimately save each other and give each other the purpose that defined their later lives.

On top of the historical baggage of the two characters is the meta baggage of his leading men. Rajamouli wants to bring together two stars belonging to the two biggest families in the Telugu film industry which seems a mean feat considering that the families have had been political rivals, film rivals, and even their fans have been rivals leading to violence.

Additionally, Rajamouli is not content just bringing two stars to be the two versions of the same as multi-starrer films do when they want to play safe and make sure neither leading actor is shortchanged. He wants them to have different emotional arcs, he wants them to be two full characters rather than two stars looking for equal footing on screen.

He also does not want to play it safe and simple as seen in other multi-starrer films such as Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu or Gopala Gopala or Deva Das. These films either eliminated any elements of masala or had a clear hierarchy of stars.

To use a Baahubali-an metaphor Rajamouli wants to take the bull of masala films by its horns and make a proper multi-starrer that results in a great theatrical experience.

And on paper, all of RRR's ideas work and they mostly translate on screen.

Let's look at what works first.

Rajamouli is interested in showing dualities through his films and maybe for the first time you see such literal interpretations of these dualities. Ram Charan and NTR Jr. Fire and Water. Patriotism and Personal love. Orange and Blue. Wild and Civilised. Utilitarian and Deontological. Maybe even Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

I was worried before watching the film that these would be ornamental and shallow ideas which might not have any emotional depth. But I was wrong on this one. You just need one example to understand why Rajamouli has covered his emotional bases.

There's a stretch in the second half and I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll be cryptic about it. A character is going through immense pain and this character is singing a song to console themselves. On the surface, it's about this character healing and this character spreading the message of patriotism through their song to others.

But the camera lingers on the one inflicting the pain. And the way their world and ideology begin to crumble. The character inflicting the pain has always assumed that weapons mean guns. And for the first time, this character sees that a weapon need not be a gun. It could be anything. Fists, legs, and even a song. And the camera shows fists punching the others inflicting pain, legs stepping on barbed wire to break fences, and then it lingers on to the character experiencing change.

This is the film's best emotional sequence and probably the most important turning point within the larger journey of the film.

And it is here that you get why Rajamouli is so obsessed with dualities and the story that he chose to tell. This scene tells you why the potential intertwining histories of two of the most celebrated figures in Telugu culture is so interesting to Rajamouli. It isn't just about bringing two big stars to act in a film or the potential box office numbers or even the chance to execute some outlandish and some downright silly ideas.

It is also here that MM Keeravani, the music director, is in supreme form and you wonder how someone manages to make you think the music is mediocre before the release of a film and after viewing it you can't help but hum his songs. Komaram Bheemudo sung by Kaala Bhairava haunts you even after you leave the hall.

Similarly, Rajamouli's story is not fully convincing as to how these Ramaraju and Bheem become such good friends suddenly. If the film was on mute it would have felt rushed but Keeravani and editor Sreekar Prasad save the screenplay with the way the song Dosti is pieced together audio-visually. Of course, NTR Jr and Ram Charan are great but it needed something more and the music director and editor land the bond between the principal protagonists. Other songs like Naatu Naatu and the soft hymns that are used to elevate a mass scene are prime Keeravani territory and there are barely any blunders he makes in those.

It's also to Rajamouli's credit that he's extracted such fine performances from all his actors. It takes a special kind of film where you walk out thinking Alia Bhatt might have been the weakest link and that's not her fault because it has more to do with dubbing and her character length and the various times the screenplay uses her character Seeta as a crutch. I'll get to that later.

Everyone has always known that NTR Jr is a great actor but somehow one could never name one film where he acted well throughout. There were scenes and stretches where he exhibited the full range of his acting prowess but there is no one film where it felt like his full potential was used. And finally, that film has come. In terms of histrionics which he always puts in fifth gear has finally mellowed in the hands of Rajamouli and he has toned it down by using NTR Jr's eyes more than his voice. There's a scene where he hears the voice of someone he's been looking for, for the first time in ages and his face lights up but it also panics because of the consequences of what it might mean for him and the other character if they recognize each other. He captures innocence and naïveté and the feeling of being wronged without resorting to melodrama like he usually does.

Similarly, Ram Charan who had dispelled myths about his acting capabilities with Rangasthalam, gets a stoic character with a tragic past. There's a certain woodenness and sullenness to his Ramaraju. But for the first time the woodenness of his face works because of his acting and not because he can't. Early on in the film, he charges at a wrongdoer who broke a law. He's getting beaten up by a mob. And he's beating them up too. But there is this look of masochistic glee where the harder he gets hit the more determined he seems. And the pain passes onto the lawbreaker who thinks he's free. Unlike Bheem, Ramaraju has a more complex and layered character which is not an easy fan favourite. He does questionable things, his emotions are constantly in check, and his purpose is mysterious and broad. It is to Ram Charan's credit that he still manages to retain the audience's sympathy and empathy against an NTR Jr who is not only in sublime form but also has the more crowd-pleasing character.

But in this quest for a duality that isn't just plainly about giving each actor even character graphs and massy moments, Rajamouli seems to have taken lightly the one screenwriting principle that he has maintained throughout his career i.e. creating villains who seem more powerful than the hero(es).

But Ray Stevenson's General Scott and to an extent Alisson Dhody's Lady Scott are the weakest villains in Rajamouli's filmography. It's not just enough that they have an army of soldiers at their disposal or that they are racists and have no feelings about uprooting children from their homes. Those are clichés and you expect better and bigger from a filmmaker of Rajamouli's stature.

This film needed its Gabbar Singh or at least a version of Helmut Zemo from Avengers: Civil War. Because once Bheem achieves his goals and Ramaraju goes through what he must, the third act of the film feels like an extension only to have some fan-pleasing set pieces. The set pieces are whistle-worthy for sure but they don't carry the same emotional weight as the earlier portions of the films did.

All of this is made apparent by two screenplay choices that Rajmouli is forced to make. The first is that all of Seeta's entries occur where convenient and depend on us believing in coincidences that bend the rules of Rajamouli's universe. We cut to one of her scenes in the first half to make us understand the motives of Ramaraju but it doesn't feel organic. Similarly, when she does enter in the third act it feels too convenient. But again, the premise of this sequence is great. It's an inversion of Hanuman going to save Sita and Rajamouli never makes a poor allusion to mythology. But he has created a poor villain which also leads him towards his second questionable screenplay choice.

This involves the flashback of Ramaraju. Given where it is currently it feels like the journey expected of an audience is to go from "Why is he behaving like a villain?" to "Oh! That's why he was like that". Wouldn't it have been better to keep it upfront so the conflict between Ram and Bheem feels more like a tragedy that the audience cannot stop? But then again if Rajamouli does that then that will cause a bloated first half which leaves barely any drama for the second.

I understand it's hard to create a more macho villain than the combination of Ramcharan and NTR Jr playing Ramaraju and Bheem but Lady Scott with all her venom seemed a more promising villain than General Scott. A little more bravery on this front would have made for a strong third act and not having the audience feel like the film ended abruptly.

But you never walk out of the theatre feeling like you've been shortchanged for the cash you paid. The questions that linger are more in the zone of what could have been an epic story is now reduced to an epic theatrical experience. And there is nothing wrong with that either, but because of the bar Rajamouli has set for himself you want to discuss and dissect each story and you want it to linger in your mind years later. Now what lingers is how you felt when watching the outrageous set pieces.

And they were goosebumps raising, whiste-worthy, crazy, insane. Did I say outrageous?

Substance & Meaningful Entertainment

Against gossip & scandal, independent media network, global stories from local perspective, factual culture news, ‘rrr’: a powerful, bonkers, and thoroughly executed story that transcends established genres | one of the best films of 2022.

Nader Chamas is an aspiring television writer who seeks to fuse thought provoking progressive ideals into the films, shows, and stories that he loves. Having graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a degree in Screenwriting, Nader seeks to use his writing to advance causes that do not get enough attention or input across mainstream media. Like most, Nader has his own share of his favorite franchises and stories across pop culture. However, he seeks to contribute timely and relevant topics into these stories as well as in his own original material. This is why Nader’s analysis of popular films and tv shows matches The Hollywood Insider’s practice of discussing entertainment from a socially cognizant and critical perspective.

Jun 10, 2022

Table of Contents

Photo: ‘RRR’

Normally, when a movie or show fluctuates in tone and pulls elements from many different genres, it often turns out very convoluted not knowing what type of story it wants to be. This is definitely the case with many blockbusters. Most try to include tropes and tools from a handful of different genres which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however nine times out of ten they end up falling flat causing the narrative to be very dull. This is the polar opposite of S.S Rajamouli’s ‘Rise Roar Revolt’, otherwise known as ‘ RRR’ .

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The primarily Telugu-spoken film follows a fictional story between two real-life characters who try to fight back against the brutally real British colonization of India in the 1920s. The first of the movie’s two protagonists is Bheem, a warrior sent to rescue a girl kidnapped from his village by British troops who is played by N.T. Rama Rao Jr . The other main protagonist is Raju, an officer in the British Army who is tasked with stopping Bheem and is played by Ram Charan . The film also stars Alia Bhatt , Ray Stevenson , Olivia Morris , and Alison Doody . This harrowing story is a tale of friendship, liberation struggles, crazy action sequences, and stimulating musical pieces.

Related article: Sign Petition Now: ‘RRR’ Must Be Nominated for Oscars Best Picture & Best Director Categories & More

Please sign the petition below – ‘RRR’ Must Receive Oscars’ Nominations

Request nomination for 'rrr' in oscar's best picture and best director categories & more.

Sign this Petition: RRR Must Receive Oscars Nomination

We will keep this simple. If you are a lover of Cinema, then you have probably heard of the magnificient 'RRR' directed by S. S. Rajamouli. The film has garnered fans all over the world.

Now, we want to help this piece of brilliant Cinema receive the recognition it deserves.

Please sign the petition above.

We would like to request The Academy and its members to nominate 'RRR' in multiple Oscars catergoes which includes, Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actors, Best Original Song, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score etc.

The Hollywood Insider would like to wish ‘RRR’ and its entire team, the best of luck at the Oscars, for multiple categories including Best Picture.

Go watch the magnificient 'RRR' now.

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‘RRR’ – The Powerful

Despite the story being fictional, the two revolutionaries that the film follows actually existed and the backdrop of British colonization of India obviously took place. The film has its lighthearted moments which will be touched on later in this review, however, it does not shy away one bit from showcasing the brutality that the various people and tribes of India endured during British colonial rule. Whether in the clash sequences between British police and protestors, the prison and torture scenes, or when seeing a girl be kidnapped from her village to be a servant in the governor’s mansion, the film does a superb job of conveying the trauma that victims of oppression and imperialism feel.

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The viewer is also able to feel the conflict of Raju’s character as an Indian man in the British colonial army. Eventually, the film shows us why this character partakes in the suppression of his fellow countrymen, how he found himself in this position, and what has led him here. He finds himself making many decisions that really violate his sense of identity and own well-being. The various characters in the British governance of India such as Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, and Edward Sonnenblick all do an effective job in portraying the attitudes that the colonizer has against the colonized.

The Bonkers

The film goes all out in its wild, wacky, and wonderfully over-the-top style of entertainment. Beginning with the many action sequences, the film utilizes slow-motion as much as it pleases. This can very easily become obnoxious and annoying to the viewer. However, the film seems to almost be aware of this fact and finds a way to somehow embrace the over-the-top nature of repeated slow-motion shots, which miraculously stick the landing. The unapologetic use of slow-motion multiple times throughout every action sequence greatly enhances their entertainment and overwhelms the viewer with excitement. The use of slow-motion especially enhances the entertainment of these scenes during absolutely bonkers moments such as when a character jumps out of a truck carrying two torches with a hoard of tigers, leopards, bears, and wolves at his side. Another one of these moments is when a character swings a motorcycle around his head to fend off approaching enemies. The use of slow-motion is not only acceptable, but welcome with open arms.

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Another wonderfully wacky aspect of this film is the exuberant musical pieces throughout. Some are exciting and moving songs that play while the action on screen is taking place. Others are actual musical sequences that feature the characters singing and dancing. This is absolutely not an exaggeration, but the song ‘Naacho Naacho’ will be one the viewer will listen to on repeat for days after seeing this movie. The music, composed by M.M. Keeravani with lyrical contributions in Hindi as well as Telugu from Riya Mukherjee , Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry , Chandrabose , and Varun Grover along with vocals provided mainly by Kaala Bhairava and Rahul Sipligunj , make for some of most powerful musical moments seen in any film in years. While there are many light-hearted moments filled with music, there are also a handful of scenes where music is used to evoke a more serious emotional effect in an effort to show the many sides of oppression at the hands of a powerful empire like England.

The Well-Crafted

‘RRR’ is not only a great blockbuster and a fantastic spectacle film, it is also an exceptionally well written story. S.S Rajamouli and Vijayendra Prasad’s script takes the time to introduce characters that are not only original but also have reasonable motivations for the audience to buy into. It is impossible to count the number of times, especially in blockbusters, where characters did not have a believable or unique drive in taking the actions that they do. This is especially engaging to watch during scenes of conflict when certain characters both have empathizable motivations for what they are doing, yet that is what brings them into an inevitable impasse with each other.

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The story also features many twists and turns, none of which are unoriginal. They feel earned, realistic, yet unpredictable at the same time, a very difficult point to find in any type of story. The dialogue is also witty when it is able to be, empowering when it has earned itself to be, and sensitive when it has to be. There are a few lines that did feel as if they were there simply because they had to be, but they are very few and far between so this is the most minor of nitpicks. ‘Rise, Roar, Revolt’ or ‘RRR’ is one of the best films of the year and deserves the ever-growing word of mouth it is getting.

Directed by S.S Rajamouli | Written by Vijayendra Prasad and S.S Rajamouli

Producers: D.V.V Danayya , M.M. Srivalli

Cast: N.T Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charen, Ray Stevenson, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Alison Doody, Edward Sonnenblick

By Nader Chamas

Click here to read The Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase’s love letter to Cinema, TV and Media . An excerpt from the love letter: The Hollywood Insider’s CEO/editor-in-chief Pritan Ambroase affirms, “ We have the space and time for all your stories, no matter who/what/where you are. Media/Cinema/TV have a responsibility to better the world and The Hollywood Insider will continue to do so. Talent, diversity and authenticity matter in Cinema/TV, media and storytelling. In fact, I reckon that we should announce “talent-diversity-authenticity-storytelling-Cinema-Oscars-Academy-Awards” as synonyms of each other. We show respect to talent and stories regardless of their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc., thus allowing authenticity into this system just by something as simple as accepting and showing respect to the human species’ factual diversity. We become greater just by respecting and appreciating talent in all its shapes, sizes, and forms. Award winners, which includes nominees, must be chosen on the greatness of their talent ALONE.

I am sure I am speaking for a multitude of Cinema lovers all over the world when I speak of the following sentiments that this medium of art has blessed me with. Cinema taught me about our world, at times in English and at times through the beautiful one-inch bar of subtitles. I learned from the stories in the global movies that we are all alike across all borders. Remember that one of the best symbols of many great civilizations and their prosperity has been the art they have left behind. This art can be in the form of paintings, sculptures, architecture, writings, inventions, etc. For our modern society, Cinema happens to be one of them. Cinema is more than just a form of entertainment, it is an integral part of society. I love the world uniting, be it for Cinema, TV. media, art, fashion, sport, etc. Please keep this going full speed. ”

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‘RRR’ Star NTR Jr Starts Film by ‘K.G.F.’ Director Prashanth Neel – Global Bulletin

By Naman Ramachandran

Naman Ramachandran

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The upcoming film starring actor NTR Jr and directed by Prashanth Neel , currently identified as “NTRNEEL,” has secured a global release date of Jan. 9, 2026. This project marks the first collaboration between the two.

On Friday, the production team held a traditional prayer ceremony, attended by NTR Jr, Neel, their families, and representatives from the producing entities NTR Arts and Mythri Movie Makers, to kick off production.

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Dhillon co-directed the video with Shauna Gautam, making his debut behind the camera. The visual narrative pays homage to 1990s Indian action films, while concluding with a “say no to violence” message. The song’s production credits include Dhillon’s collaborator Shinda Kahlon, along with AzizTheShake, Gray Hawken, Luca Mauti, Brendan Thomas and Madeleine Kay.

Dhillon described “Old Money” as the start of his “next era,” citing influences from action movies he watched growing up.

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IMAGES

RRR (2022)
RRR (2022)
RRR (2020)
RRR Movie Review: A film that’s meant for the big screen RRR is a
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RRR (2022)

COMMENTS

RRR (2022)
RRR: Directed by S.S. Rajamouli. With N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt. A fearless warrior on a perilous mission comes face to face with a steely cop serving British forces in this epic saga set in pre-independent India.
RRR (2022)
RRR (2022) : Movie Review - High and Low. No, I'm not talking about Akira Kurosawa's Japanese flick from 1963, but I'm talking about SS Rajamouli's RRR. Actually, that's the best brief for the film I can think of. SS Rajamouli has been making mass-friendly commercial films for a long time, but Bahubali brought him pan-India popularity. He ...
RRR movie review & film summary (2022)
In that sense, "RRR" feels simultaneously personal and gargantuan in scope. Film Comment 's R. Emmet Sweeney is right to caution viewers regarding the towering streak of "Hindu-centric" Nationalism and characterizations at the heart of Rajamouli's "Pan-Indian address.". Sweeney is also right to hail Rajamouli's dazzling ...
RRR (2022)
Screen Daily. Riotous good fun from start to finish, RRR, a fictionalised account of two real-life revolutionaries fighting against the British Raj and Nizam of Hyderabad in 1920s India is being deservedly championed for reminding audiences what big screen entertainment is all about. 80.
RRR
RRR is a gift. Go see it. Rated 5/5 Stars • Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review G This is a very entertaining movie! It has it all, the history, the action, the sorrow, the laughter, and ...
'RRR' Review: A Hero (or Two) Shall Rise
Ram Charan in "RRR.". DVV Entertainment. Rajamouli shoots the film's action with hallucinogenic fervor, supercharging scenes with a shimmering brand of extended slow-motion and C.G.I. that ...
'RRR' Review: A Uniquely Exhilarating Telegu Action-Adventure
Propelled by the Telugu Cinema triumvirate of superstars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan and director S.S. Rajamouli — whose combined names are one reason for the triple-consonant title — the ...
RRR review: an Indian action epic finds the universal thrills in
RRR is a busy movie, full of kinetic camerawork, bustling crowd scenes, elaborate set design, expensive-looking CGI, and loud sound effects. Rajamouli is skilled at balancing the film's many ...
RRR
Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 2, 2023. Robert Roten Laramie Movie Scope. This big epic action movie reminds me of some of those Fast and Furious movies because of the really outlandish ...
'RRR' review: S.S. Rajamouli's Indian epic bromance is better on the
RRR — the title stands for Rise Roar Revolt — is populist filmmaking. Its emotions are simple, its anti-colonial politics broad. Rajamouli makes the British rulers of India even worse than ...
Review: The Netflix Hit "RRR" Is a Political Screed, an Action Bonanza
Richard Brody reviews S. S. Rajamouli's political action film, starring N. T. Rama Rao, Jr., and Ram Charan, which takes the stories of two Indian revolutionaries and bends them into delicious ...
'RRR' Review: S.S. Rajamouli's Glorious Indian Action Spectacle
The Bottom Line You won't be bored for a nanosecond. Cast: N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, Olivia Morris. Director ...
'RRR' Review: A Magnificent Cinematic Explosion
March 26, 2022 3:30 pm. "RRR". DVV Entertainment. S.S. Rajamouli 's " RRR " is a dazzling work of historical fiction — emphasis on the "fiction" — that makes the moving image feel ...
RRR (2022)
Synopsis. In 1920, British Governor Scott (Ray Stevenson) and his wife Catherine (Alison Doody) visit a forest in Adilabad and forcefully take away Malli (Twinkle Sharma), a young girl with a gift for singing, from the Gond tribe. Edward (Edward Sonnenblick) is the special PA to the Governor.
'RRR': What To Know About the Action-Packed Indian Drama
DVV Entertainment. Clocking in at just over three hours, director S.S. Rajamouli 's " RRR " is a genre-bending epic filled with exhilarating action sequences, show-stopping musical numbers ...
RRR Review
S.S. Rajamouli's three-hour-plus epic is a riot of outrageous spectacle, gravity-defying stunts, colour, song and dance, big emotions and a menagerie of CG animals. It feels like the kind of ...
How the Indian Action Spectacular 'RRR' Became a Smash in America
Aug. 3, 2022. The Telugu-language Indian action spectacular "RRR," or "Rise, Roar, Revolt," was already a worldwide box office winner when it was released in March, grossing $65 million ...
'RRR' Is a Maximalist Action Film That Embraces Sincerity
The first is the 2015 Marvel sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron. Captain America (played by Chris Evans), battling bad guys in a snowy forest, does a flip with his bike and flings it at an armored ...
RRR
The film "RRR" is a grand Indian epic that amazes the viewer with the grandeur of the production and emotional depth. Director S.S. Rajamouli has created a large-scale canvas where the dramatic destinies of two heroes, Alluri Sita Rama Raju and Komaram Bheem, intertwine. Their paths intersect in the history of the struggle for Indian **** plot ...
'Rrr' Review: A Magnificent Cinematic Explosion
S.S. Rajamouli's "Rrr" is a dazzling work of historical fiction — emphasis on the "fiction" — that makes the moving image feel intimate and enormous all at once. A pulsating period action drama, it outshines even the director's record-smashing "Baahubali" movies (viewers familiar with them probably won't know what to expect here) thanks to its mix of naked sincerity ...
RRR
RRR [note 1] (subtitled onscreen as Roudram Ranam Rudhiram) is a 2022 Indian Telugu-language epic period action drama film directed by S. S. Rajamouli, who co-wrote the film with V. Vijayendra Prasad.It was produced by D. V. V. Danayya under DVV Entertainment. The film stars N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, and ...
RRR Movie Review: A Celebration Of Outrageous Ideas That Mostly Works
It's outrageous but it's fun. RRR starring Ram Charan and NTR Jr is a series of such equally outrageous ideas from the mind of Rajamouli. Take the premise and story. There are a couple of years of history that are missing on Telugu revolutionaries Alluri Sitaramaraju and Komaram Bheem.
'RRR': A Powerful, Bonkers, and Thoroughly Executed Story that
Now, we want to help this piece of brilliant Cinema receive the recognition it deserves. Please sign the petition above. We would like to request The Academy and its members to nominate 'RRR' in multiple Oscars catergoes which includes, Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Actors, Best Original Song, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score etc.
'RRR' Star NTR Jr Starts Film by 'K.G.F.' Director Prashanth Neel
The upcoming film starring actor NTR Jr and directed by Prashanth Neel, currently identified as "NTRNEEL," has secured a global release date of Jan. 9, 2026. This project marks the first ...

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