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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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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.

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'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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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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RRR Movie Review : Rajamouli delivers a power-packed entertainer

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RRR - Official Trailer (Telugu)

RRR - Official Trailer (Malayalam)

RRR - Official Trailer (Kannada)

RRR - Official Trailer (Tamil)

RRR - Official Trailer (Hindi)

RRR | Telugu Song - Naatu Naatu (Lyrical)

RRR | Malayalam Song - Karinthol (Lyrical)

RRR | Tamil Song - Naattu Koothu (Lyrical)

RRR | Kannada Song - Halli Naatu (Lyrical)

RRR | Hindi Song - Naacho Naacho (Lyrical)

RRR - Motion Poster

RRR - First Look

RRR - First Glimpse

RRR | Song Promo - Karinthol

RRR | Song Promo - Naattu Koothu

RRR | Song Promo - Halli Naatu

RRR | Hindi Song - Janani

RRR | Hindi Song - Sholay

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Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Rohit Kumar 61 days ago

&hearts;️&hearts;️❤️

vsudharshanreddy 244 days ago

Excellent �� movie

Basha Elaganuru 265 days ago

Rishitborra 508 days ago.

Felt above average but not up to the mark and I still think why Rajamouli took few years to Direct a normal film... Rajamouli's previous projects are even good than these...

sesank 572 days ago

Super movie

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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’ Review: A Magnificent Cinematic Explosion

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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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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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User reviews

Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, N.T. Rama Rao Jr., and Ram Charan in RRR (2022)

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. 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. 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.

S.S. Rajamouli
Vijayendra Prasad
Sai Madhav Burra
N.T. Rama Rao Jr.
1.7K User reviews
127 Critic reviews
83 Metascore
93 wins & 155 nominations total

Top cast 39

Komaram Bheem

Alluri Sitarama Raju
(as Ram Charan Teja)

Venkata Rama Raju

Scott Buxton

Catherine Buxton

Venkateswarulu

Venkat Avadhani

Young Alluri Sitarama Raju

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Best of 2022: Top 10 Most Popular Indian Movies

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Did you know

Trivia Alluri Sita Ramaraju and Komaram Bheem were freedom fighters of India who didn't meet in real life. This film is completely fictitious and based on an idea of what if those two met.
Goofs Brazil, but not Belize, is marked as part of the British Empire in the large map on the meeting hall. Brazil was never a colony, protectorate or a client state of the UK, unlike Belize.

Komaram Bheem : Your friendship is more valuable than this life, brother. I'll die with pride.

Crazy credits The title doesn't appear on screen until 40 minutes into the movie.
Alternate versions The Hindi version released on Netflix has some changes made to it. The title card mentioning "Rise Roar Revolt" has been translated to English, the intermission has been removed, the ending song and end credits are played separately, and the overall film is presented in an open matte format, as opposed to the theatrical version.
Connections Featured in Vishal Mishra & Rahul Sipligunj: Naacho Naacho (2021)
Soundtracks Dosti (Telugu) Lyrics by Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry Music by M.M. Keeravani Vocals by Hemachandra Vedala

User reviews 1.7K

matthewssilverhammer
Aug 18, 2022
How long is RRR? Powered by Alexa
March 25, 2022 (United States)
Official site (Japan)
Official Twitter
صعود ودوي وثورة
Ramoji Film city, Hyderabad, India (Film city)
DVV Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
₹3,500,000,000 (estimated)
$15,156,051
Mar 27, 2022
$166,611,197

Technical specs

Runtime 3 hours 7 minutes
Dolby Atmos
IMAX 6-Track

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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’ Review: Jr NTR & Ram Charan In S.S. Rajamouli’s Latest Epic

By Stephanie Bunbury

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Rajamouli’s success with his previous Baahubali series and RRR ’s starry cast – led by Ram Charan and Jr NTR (aka N. T. Rama Rao Jr ), with megastars Ajay Devgn and Alia Bhatt in supporting roles — meant that the Indian audience was expecting great things this time round. Nobody will be disappointed.

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From the first scene, when we see a young “tribal” girl stolen from her mother to become the British governor’s wife’s plaything, we are in a heady world of good versus evil. In the next scene we see Alluri Sitirama Raju (Charan), an officer in the British army, tear through a surging crowd of seemingly tens of thousands to bring down one miscreant. Time and again, he is pulled down, beaten and rises to return to the chase. As the crowd disperses, beaten and dispirited, the one British officer with a lick of sense tells his nervous subordinate that while the angry masses were unnerving, he was much more scared of their own native recruit. Quite right, old chap. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

After that, RRR is one action crescendo after another, never dull but not exhausting either; there are plenty of scenes of Raju’s burgeoning bromance with Komaram Bheem (NTR), a similarly invincible knight come from the forest to find the missing girl, to give cheerful respite. Mostly, however, it’s all about cracking heads and derring-do.

RRR wastes no time on nuance; it doesn’t give a second’s credence to the lingering British belief that theirs was a benevolent kind of colonialism. Governor Scott is an ogre who tells his men not to waste good British bullets on these brown scum when they can easily beat their brains out; his bloodthirsty wife looks capable of poisoning 10 Snow Whites before breakfast. The officers are vain wimps; the men brutes. As for the railways, Britain’s much-vaunted legacy to Empire, the only train in RRR , catches fire on a bridge and collapses into the river that is the people’s livelihood. Nice one, Britain.

That said, there is an interesting undercurrent of intersectionality at the Governor’s garden party (shot in Ukraine, incidentally) where all the ladies are very taken with our heroes and want to give their kind of dancing a go, much to the chagrin of their men. There is even a flicker of romance between Bheem and the Governor’s niece, who lends the revolutionaries a crucial hand when needed. This scene lasts no more than a few seconds, however; RRR is very much about men. That’s an opportunity missed. Even Alia Bhatt, as Raju’s stalwart fiancée Seetha, is barely there.

A serious question emerges, however, between the thrills, whippings, beatings and the happy scenes of boyish togetherness that punctuate them. It is the old chestnut of means and ends. How many innocent people constitute legitimate collateral damage in the fight for freedom? Would you kill your best friend? Should you be capable of that? Maybe if soldiers killed both your parents in front of you when you were a child, you would be — but is that a righteous fury or just another wound? It is a question both heroes must ask themselves, both in the course of battle and its aftermath.

In real life, neither of these revolutionary heroes would live to see their battle won. There is, however, a harbinger of a better future. In the last speaking scene — there is another song and dance to come, of course, in which Bhatt finally joins the boys for some Busby Berkley-style kaleidoscopic swirling — the forest-dweller Bheem announces his new goal: to learn to read and write. Bheem did, in fact, learn to read and write in English, Urdu and Hindi, but RRR makes no claim to documentary truth. The myth is what matters, right down to Raju’s ultimate transformation into Lord Rama, shooting down the enemy with his divinely unerring bow and arrow. But do you want the truth, or something beautiful? RRR ’s vision is a far cry from the bitter realities of Narendra Modi’s India, but it makes a truly great story.

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RRR movie review: Jr NTR and Ram Charan are dazzling, Bollywood has a lot to learn from this SS Rajamouli epic

Rrr movie review: ss rajamouli gets so much right in his latest film starring jr ntr and ram charan..

Larger-than-life characters, high-octane action sequences, gravity defying shots that give you an adrenaline rush, world class VFX and sets mounted on a huge canvas-- SS Rajamouli once again serves you the perfect visual spectacle with RRR. Starring Junior NTR and Ram Charan in the lead, the film is a wholesome entertainer and it only gets more grand with every scene. (Also read: RRR release live updates: Ram Charan's fans dress up like his RRR character Alluri Sitarama Raju; ruckus at theatres)

RRR movie review: The film stars Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn.

It took Rajamouli five long years since Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) to have his next big screen outing and when you watch RRR, you understand why wait was so long. His penchant for grandeur, perfection and attention to details comes alive in each frame of this multi-starrer. Keeping the emotional core of his story strong, he beautifully adorns it with superlative action, interesting origin stories and a tinge of humour, too. Even the most unrealistic visuals would impress you as the narrative and magnificent screenplay complements them well.

Set in 1920s in Delhi, RRR narrates the story of two individuals — Ramaraju (Ram Charan) and Bheem (Jr NTR) who become close friends without knowing each other's truth or the intention behind their actions for or against the British kingdom. While the fierce, hotblooded and angry young cop Ramaraju is the 'R' in fire, the innocent, calm, charming yet beast-like Bheem is the 'R' in water. Ramaraju works for the British but has faced much humiliation for his skin colour. On the other hand, Bheem, belonging to Gond tribe, has come to Delhi to rescue the young girl called Malli, help captive by the British. What happens when Bheem and Ramaraju's paths cross and they become friends? What happens when the actual truth is unearthed?

It's the camaraderie between Ram Charan and Jr NTR that wins you over. Both have an endearing screen presence and with their unique persona, bring so much more to their respective characters. While Ram Charan flexes his muscles, Jr NTR connects with you in the emotional and vulnerable scenes. Their bonding, chemistry in the song Nacho Nacho is the highlight of the film and gets you grooving in no time.

Sita is played by Alia Bhatt in an extended cameo but feels like she is forcefully fit into the narrative. She doesn't bring much to the table other than a couple of scenes, and a dance sequence with the lead pair in the end credits, where she delivers with dedication. On the other hand, Ajay Devgn is a better-crafted character and holds your attention. Other supporting parts — King Scott (Ray Stevenson) Lady Scott (Alison Doody) are merciless as antagonists. Jennifer (Olivia Morris) is the benevolent Brit who helps Bheem in his purpose. She will remind you of Elizabeth from Lagaan who helped Bhuvan fight against the British rulers.

RRR is not just high on star quotient but also scores big with an overwhelming story. The film keeps you hooked from the word go. No time is wasted in the beginning to build up the plot and it's only as the story unfolds, that we are familiarised with the backstories of characters. The movie's intermission block narrates a story in itself and is such a powerful visual. I quite like how Rajamouli, throughout the film, maintains the reference to fire and water whenever Jr NTR and Ram Charan's characters are shown. The fight sequences in particular are great and filmed in an elaborate way. Some slow motion shots just blow your mind and you want to cheer and applaud, looking at the cinematic marvel. Full credit here to KK Senthil Kumar for such spectacular cinematography. Despite its nearly 3-hour runtime, the film never looks dragged or boring for it has a tight screenplay and crisp editing by A Sreekar Prasad. Background score gives the film depth and adds to the scale of the scenes and characters.

To sum up, RRR is the perfect visual spectacle that you can only enjoy on the big screen and it is sure to leave you spellbound with its magnificent aura and scale. Not to miss, Jr NTR and Ram Charan win will your hearts with convincing performances.

Ss Rajamouli
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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?

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 4 Reviews
Kids Say 8 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Epic blockbuster studies colonialism, has brutal violence.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 16+?

The uprising at the core of the film is very violent. There are brawls and bysta

Language used includes "bastard" and "wanker." Derogatory language used toward t

Characters are seen smoking cigars. At a party, characters are seen drinking alc

Any Positive Content?

Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju are incredibly courageous in the face of

The movie does promote the idea that you match violence with violence. But it al

The film is set in India and the majority of the cast are native to the country,

Violence & Scariness

The uprising at the core of the film is very violent. There are brawls and bystanders are hit over the head with rocks and bats. Several brutal deaths. The cracking of bones and bloody faces. Women and children get caught up in the crossfire, being shot and even abducted. There are many explosions and a multitude of weaponry including crossbows, arrows, and cannons. Characters are tortured for information, and are whipped in front of the public as punishment. There are fights between wild animals and humans, the former shot at, the latter mauled. The colonialists beat up helpless Indians, and refuse to use bullets as they are too expensive, killing innocent people using brute force, such as being hit over the head with a branch.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language used includes "bastard" and "wanker." Derogatory language used toward the Indians include them being called "brown buggers," "filth," "rats," and "monkeys."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters are seen smoking cigars. At a party, characters are seen drinking alcohol.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju are incredibly courageous in the face of prejudice and evil. They both realize that teamwork and putting aside their differences will help their cause.

Positive Messages

The movie does promote the idea that you match violence with violence. But it also shows the strength in community and teamwork.

Diverse Representations

The film is set in India and the majority of the cast are native to the country, including the heroes of the piece. The film is very much male-led however, with few female roles of any real note.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that RRR is a hugely entertaining Indian blockbuster with violent scenes throughout and some racist language. The central theme is that of an uprising, standing up and showing courage in the face of tyrannical rule. Set in 1920s colonial India, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja) begin as enemies but realize that in order to defeat the British they must join forces. The uprising itself is incredibly violent, but cinematic in its execution. There are fights between humans and wild tigers, with animals being killed and humans mauled. There are also countless deaths -- including innocent women and children -- some of which are brutal and graphic. Characters are also tortured and whipped. There is some use of "bastard" and "wanker," as well as racist language. Characters are referred to as animals and "brown buggers." This Indian production has a diverse cast -- both Telugu and English are spoken -- though it's fair to say the majority of characters, and the heroes of the piece, are men. It has a runtime of over three hours. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

RRR: N.T. Rama Rao Jr. & Ram Charan dancing

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (4)
Kids say (8)

Based on 4 parent reviews

BLOODY AMAZING

What's the story.

RRR is a fictitious story about real events, focusing in on the colonialism of India at the hands of the British. Set in the 1920s, when a young girl is abducted, and her mother callously murdered, family member Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) seeks vengeance against the perpetrators, though he is coming up against a brutal, tyrannical regime. What doesn't help, is that fellow countryman Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja) is working for the enemy, and he himself proves an indestructible force.

Is It Any Good?

This Indian action-drama offers viewers about as much fun as you can have with a movie. RRR is pure cinema, at times completely over-the-top and ridiculous, but remaining grounded by its historical context. The credit must go to director S.S. Rajamouli for this ambitious undertaking. He truly is a master of his craft, with some spellbinding sequences -- scenes that you may say out loud in the planning stage, but to actually bring them to life is another matter. He may not have the budget of a major Hollywood production, but it matters little such is the strength in storytelling, and his ability to create such epic set-pieces. RRR combines fantasy with realism in a striking way, and while the film tells an important tale, above anything else, it's just purely, and utterly entertaining.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in RRR . How did it make you feel? Did it add to the story? Do some types of media violence have different impact than others?

The movie is set in the 1920s during colonial India. What do you know about this period? Why is it important to look back on the past? What can we learn from it?

Discuss some of the racist language used. What purpose did it serve the story? How did it make you feel hearing these things in the film?

The movie has very little female representation . Did you find this problematic? Why, or why not?

The film is a fictitious account of real events. What other movies have you seen that has taken this approach?

Movie Details

In theaters : March 25, 2022
On DVD or streaming : May 20, 2022
Cast : N.T. Rama Rao Jr. , Ram Charan Teja , Alia Bhatt
Director : S.S. Rajamouli
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Indian/South Asian actors
Studio : Variance Films
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Friendship , History , Wild Animals
Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
Run time : 187 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Award : Golden Globe - Golden Globe Award Winner
Last updated : June 20, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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DVD & Streaming
Action/Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Musical , Sci-Fi/Fantasy , War

Content Caution

In Theaters

Ram Charan Teja as Alluri Sitarama Raju; N.T. Rama Rao Jr. as Komaram Bheem; Ajay Devgn as Venkata Rama Raju; Alia Bhatt as Sita; Olivia Morris as Jennifer; Shriya Saran as Sarojini; Ray Stevenson as Scott Buxton; Alison Doody as Catherine Buxton; Samuthirakani as Venkateswarulu; Chandra Sekhar as Jangu; Makrand Deshpande as Peddayya; Rajeev Kanakala as Venkat Avadhani; Rahul Ramakrishna as Lacchu; Edward Sonnenblick as Edward; Ahmareen Anjum as Loki; Mark Bennington as Cunningham

Home Release Date

March 25, 2022
S.S. Rajamouli

Distributor

Movie review.

During the waning days of British rule on the Indian subcontinent in 1920, a particularly wicked British woman listens to a young girl sing in her native tongue. It’s quite lovely, the woman thinks. In fact, she’d like to take the girl home with her. The woman is, after all, the wife of the particularly wicked Governor Scott.

“I want to have this little package on our mantelpiece,” the woman says, prompting her assistant to throw a couple coins to the girl’s mother, Loki, as payment. But Loki doesn’t speak English, and she’s told that they’re paying her as appreciation for the girl’s song. When the British entourage takes the crying girl away, Loki and the rest of her village are devastated. After all, what can they do to resist the British Crown?

As the Gond tribe, not much. They’re a peaceful people who won’t even raise a finger against oppression and who will mourn when even a young lamb goes missing. At least, that’s what the British are told. But the tribe also has a shepherd, a man who “protects the herd with his life” who will stop at nothing to bring the girl back home.

Well, one man doesn’t seem like much of a threat to the Empire, but a rebel is a rebel, they decide, putting out a request for a member of their police force to bring this unknown shepherd back—preferably alive. Whoever does so will get promoted to Special Officer.

That offer catches the attention of Alluri Sitarama Raju, an Indian man working within the colonial British police force. His desire for a promotion drives him forward with vigorous tenacity, stoking an unquenchable fire within his heart.

Following a harrowing rescue experience, Raju befriends Komaram Bheem, and he’s thankful to have such a good friend to lean on while he works the mysterious case. If only Raju knew that his new best friend was the very same shepherd he’s hunting.

Positive Elements

Though their relationship is tested, Raju and Bheema develop a great brotherly friendship. At different points, both men must pause and think about whether that relationship is worth sacrificing in order to achieve their ultimate goals. The two stick up for one another, and Raju helps the more socially awkward Bheema talk to a woman he is interested in.

Bheem’s ultimate goal as his tribe’s shepherd is to recover young Loki from her British abductors. As we’ll definitely see, he fights many people and risks his life and well-being to save the child.

Raju, for his part, is an earnest and noble officer serving in the British army. He’s ambitious and works hard to earn a promotion that will grant him more authority to assist those fighting against the oppressive regime. We gradually notice the internal conflict he feels as he works.

Spiritual Elements

The film suggests (and occasionally features) Hindu gods who empower their followers to do magnificent feats. Raju is often compared to Ram, a major Hindu deity; Raju’s fiancée, Sita, is compared to Ram’s wife of the same name.

Additionally, the name Bheema references Bhima, a man said to have been born when a wind god granted a son to a couple. A song chants facts about Ram and Bhima, and it references another Hindu god, too. People bow and pray at shrines. We hear reverent talk about the Godavari River.

Bheem uses a Muslim disguise. At one point, he puts his “holy thread” around a man to try to help heal him. Bheem also sings a song about being one with nature around him, saying that nature speaks to him. (And at an earlier point, Bheem called a tiger his “brother.”) Someone is said to have “appeared like a god.”

And, obviously, this Indian film is full of other visual and verbal references to that country’s dominant religion of Hinduism as well.

Sexual Content

Raju and Bheem are both seen shirtless on a number of occasions. Bheem strikes up an unexpected romance with a British woman.

Violent Content

RRR ’s action scenes are as ingenuitive as they are violent, and plenty of blood is shed. In one scene, Raju takes on a crowd of thousands of people, smacking countless men with his baton—and we hear the sound of bones breaking. People fall down a rocky cliffside. A man’s head is hit with a rock, and a woman is hit by a car and bashed across the face by a soldier wielding part of a tree branch. A man’s arm is twisted until a snapping sound is heard.

Animal attacks are frequent in the film, too. A man gets slashed a couple times by a tiger, the claw marks evident on his skin. Another unfortunate is bitten by a snake. One particularly intense scene involves a variety of dangerous animals, including tigers, wolves and jaguars, mauling a large group of people. One man’s arm is impaled on an elk’s antler.

We also see the violence that results in clashes between the British officials and the Indian protestors. A British officer beats a man for embarrassing him. Countless men on both sides of the conflict are shot and killed, and one man’s finger is shot off, leaving a bloody stump. A young child is also shot and killed. A man is beaten to death offscreen with a sledgehammer. Another man is stabbed in the chest by someone wielding a few bullets like Wolverine’s claws. One prominent Indian protestor is publicly flogged with a spiked whip, and the blood loss is evident. We see a man beginning to bite into another’s throat, and a woman who claws a man’s face with her nails. A woman is kicked in the stomach. A suicide bomber explodes, killing a group of soldiers. Plenty other combatants perish via arrows, explosions and other means.

Soldiers catch on fire and burn. Someone is partially impaled on a tree branch. Raju punches a wall until his knuckles bleed. People are crushed by a careening car. Someone is tortured; their fingers are broken, and they are beaten with a stick. A train car explodes. We see a pile of freshly hunted bucks.

Crude or Profane Language

The profanities listed here are in the film’s subtitles: “B–tard” is used eight times, “d–n” is used five times and “h—” is used four times. God’s name is abused seven times. Additionally, “bloody,” “bugger” and “wanker” are all used, too. A man calls someone a “chit of a girl.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

A man drinks a glass of alcohol. Another man smokes.

Other Negative Elements

Pretty much every British person (save the female love interest) is racist and prejudiced toward Indian people. Raju pops a woman’s car tires with nails in order to help Bheem talk to her. A woman “buys” (essentially kidnapping) a mother’s daughter against the mother’s wishes. Bheem pours blood on his head. We hear a few lines about not eating with the left hand (the hand used for cleaning yourself after defecating in some places in the world).

The two protagonists are based on real-life revolutionaries who never met. The film is entirely fabricated to “show what could have happened in their lives and what would have happened if they met and bonded,” according to director S.S. Rajamouli. That romanticized depiction could potentially lead to misunderstandings about the two historical figures.

Have you been hurt by action movies that end up being more movie than action? Well, that’s all about to change.

RRR, which stands for Rise, Roar, Revolt , is a 2022 Indian release on Netflix. Its two protagonists see plenty of combat by the film’s conclusion—and much of the action sequences are novel and almost comically epic. A man sliding on his knees under a pouncing tiger? Sure. Another man jumping alone into a crowd of a million angry protestors to fight his way to arrest a man? Why not?

And though the half-dozen multi-minute action scenes spread throughout the three-hour timeframe are ingenious in their performance and framing, there’s quite a bit of violence to be had as people are shot, mauled or otherwise injured and killed—all with anywhere from nonexistent to large amounts of blood pouring from their wounds. There’s also a significant amount of Hindu spiritualism present within the film. On the positive side, we’ll also get to watch what may be the best male friendship ever to grace a movie screen.

No, RRR doesn’t reference the rating of the film. But at times, the violence comes close to gaining an R rating in this PG-13 action epic. Think of your action in your average Marvel movie, but with more fight scenes, and the characters more realistically bleed and break bones. There’s a lot that we could summarize here, but for a full description of the film’s rougher edges, make sure to read our “Violent Content” section.

Did I mention it’s a musical, too? As well as the most expensive Indian movie ever made with a budget north of $100 million? Any way you look at it, RRR is a big story. But as we’ve noted here, it comes with some equally big caveats, too.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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RRR (India, 2022)

Although some aspects of RRR may seem foreign to mainstream North American movie-goers, the meat of the tale – an epic adventure featuring two mighty figures – is the kind of thing that American motion pictures used to do well. RRR tosses aside cynicism, “gray areas,” and ambiguity for sheer exuberance. Is it cheesy? Sometimes. Is it over-the-top? Almost always. Is it rousing? Without a doubt. The movie does everything LARGE, whether it’s an action sequence or an emotional connection. By the time the 3-hour running time has expired, most viewers will be exhausted from the nonstop energy of the experience.

As is the case with any spectacle, the best way to see RRR is in theater with a large screen, a top-line sound system, and an engaged audience. However, considering the film’s somewhat inconsistent distribution pattern, that may not be possible. I’m happy to say that RRR still works in a smaller format. There are times when it’s easy to forget the subtitles (there’s also a dubbed version available) and luxuriate in the frenetic energy that infuses nearly every scene. Certain elements, such as the use of treacly songs (a staple in Indian cinema – one that unfortunately doesn’t translate well for many North American audiences) seem out-of-place but that’s as much the result of a cultural schism than a cinematic commentary. With a movie as outrageously over-the-top as this one, who’s going to complain about a little crooning?

The movie transpires in 1920 India during the British Raj. Governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his wife, Catherine (Alison Doody) kidnap a young girl from the Gond tribe. This pushes the tribe’s legendary warrior-protector, Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr) into action. He goes to Dehli to rescue the girl. When sources close to Buxton learn that danger is coming, Catherine seeks out the help of Rama Raju (Ram Charan), a valorous and loyal officer in the Indian Imperial Police. His duty: head off Bheem and kill or capture him. We learn that Raju is actually an anti-Raj revolutionary who is deep under cover. In order to protect his identity, he must pursue Bheem, even after the two become friends while each is masquerading as someone else. This sets up the inevitable conflict pitting them against one another.

As Raju, Ram Charan has the most demanding acting job; the performance requires that he cover the full spectrum of emotions from resolve to grief and he is convincing. N.T. Rama Rao Jr’s role is more in line with that of a traditional hero and he is capable as such. The two have excellent chemistry both as bosom buddies and deadly foes. Irish actors Ray Stevenson (Volstagg in the MCU Thor movies) and Alison Doody (who started her acting career as a Bond girl in A View to a Kill ) are frothing-at-the-mouth evil and make viewers yearn for their deaths. A dash of romance comes to Raju through Alia Bhatt’s Sita and for Bheem through Olivia Morris’s Jennifer.

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Avatar (2022 Re-Release) (2022)
Okja (2017)
Hobbit, The: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
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(There are no more better movies of N.T. Rama Rao Jr.)
(There are no more worst movies of N.T. Rama Rao Jr.)
(There are no more better movies of Ram Charan)
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(There are no more worst movies of Alia Bhatt)

Naruto Live-Action Movie Script Done, Will Focus on 'How Nuanced and Special Naruto Is'

The film is still in its early stages and has no release date..

Destin Daniel Cretton’s live-action Naruto movie now has a finished script and will tell a “nuanced and special” story about the Hidden Leaf Village’s yellow-haired ninja in training.

Our latest update on the adaptation of one of the biggest anime of all time comes from an interview Entertainment Weekly conducted with writer Tasha Huo. She says that her “script is done” and has been passed to Cretton, who is writing and directing the project. A completed script means the Naruto movie has reached a major milestone, and Huo says she’s optimistic about its direction. She trusts the director, saying that his “very personal and relatable” style is one element of his films she enjoys.

The live-action Naruto movie has a finished script.

Huo adds that she feels the director, who is best known for helming Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and 2019’s Just Mercy, will take Naruto’s story in a direction that avoids the franchise’s already large world.

“I think that’s such a cool choice because he’s going to be able to capture how nuanced and special Naruto is without getting distracted by the big world that it is, which I think could easily be done by someone who’s not a fan or someone who’s coming in for a cash payday," she says. "This is definitely a movie that comes at it from a love of who Naruto is and that character and his relationships."

Naruto had humble beginnings, starting as a manga series by Masashi Kishimoto in 1997. Its popularity has ballooned since then, as the series has gone on to not only receive its anime adaptation of the same name but sequel shows like Naruto: Shippuden and Baruto, too. It’s also spawned a number of video games such as the Ultimate Ninja Storm series, too. Even with so much content to pull from, Huo teases a narrative that may stick closer to Naruto’s roots.

Cretton was confirmed to have joined the live-action Naruto movie earlier this year. The franchise is considered one of the Big Three in the world of anime , meaning expectations for a film adaptation were high the moment it got off the ground. Kishimoto did at least give his blessing to see the Shang-Chi director bring Naruto to the big screen, going as far as to release a statement on the matter when the filmmaker’s involvement was revealed.

“When I heard of Destin’s attachment, it happened to be right after watching a blockbuster action film of his, and I thought he would be the perfect director for NARUTO,” Kishimoto said at the time. “After enjoying his other films and understanding that his forte is in creating solid dramas about people, I became convinced that there is no other director for NARUTO. In actually meeting Destin, I also found him to be an open-minded director who was willing to embrace my input, and felt strongly that we would be able to cooperate together in the production process. To put it simply, the live-action NARUTO is bound to be a film with spectacular action and profound drama. I can’t help but be excited for it.”

Best New Anime to Watch (Summer Season 2024)

A superhero wrestler, a pop idol revenge plot, and DC’s own Harley Quinn are what you can expect this summer anime season. There's a new season full of anime to check out this Summer like the return of Oshi no Ko, the beautifully animated The Elusive Samurai, and the highly anticipated Suicide Squad ISEKAI. Across Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, Hulu, and Netflix, as well as others, there are a lot of places to enjoy anime at the moment.

The Naruto movie currently has no release date. While we wait for more news, you can see how to catch up on the series with our watch order guide . You can also read about a recent crossover comic run that will see the talkative ninja meeting up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

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‘Close Your Eyes’ Review: The Case of the Unfinished Film

For his latest, the Spanish director Victor Erice, known for the classic “The Spirit of the Beehive,” weaves a meta tale of a director looking for an absent actor.

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A man sits on rocks and pours water out of a shoe.

By Manohla Dargis

A mystery wends through “Close Your Eyes,” a drama in which the past, present and cinema converge. It’s the latest from the Spanish director Victor Erice, who’s best known for the art-cinema paragon “ The Spirit of the Beehive ” (1973), a dream of a movie about a girl who is deeply troubled by the original “Frankenstein” film. Set around 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, “Beehive” elliptically focuses on a traumatized child and country that, when Erice made this classic, was in the waning years of Franco’s fascist dictatorship.

“Close Your Eyes” is the fourth feature-length movie from Erice, who, it’s worth noting, was born in 1940; it’s also his first since “ Dream of Light ” (1992). The story in “Close Your Eyes” turns on Miguel (Manolo Solo), a melancholic filmmaker who hasn’t directed a movie in several decades and now scratches out a marginal living as a translator. Miguel’s last film, “The Farewell Gaze,” came to an aborted, ignoble finish when his lead actor, Julio (José Coronado), enigmatically disappeared. Without his star, Miguel was unable to finish the movie, which brought his film career to an end and, effectively, caused him to vanish as well.

The repressed have a way of returning, as it were. And so it is in “Close Your Eyes,” which follows Miguel as he confronts his old life, his unfinished film and his absent actor, all of whom come back to some kind of attenuated life courtesy of a TV program, “Unsolved Cases.” Miguel agrees to participate in the show, which will revisit his movie’s puzzling history. He sits down for an interview and lets the program present some of the few sequences that he managed to salvage; soon enough, he also tries to find out what happened to Julio, an inquiry that begins practically enough, though it gradually accrues destabilizing existential weight.

Written by Erice and Michel Gaztambide, “Close Your Eyes” quickly takes the shape of an investigation, one riddled with doubles, cinematic and otherwise. Much like Julio’s character in the unfinished film — a long, chatty section from it opens the movie — Miguel assumes the role of a detective who’s charged with finding a missing person and even begins wearing the trench coat that Julio wore in the film. These two former compatriots once shared an artistic calling and other interests, including an ex-lover. As the main story unfolds, Miguel’s exploration of the past reveals as much about the investigator as the investigated, and the men progressively seem like doppelgängers. Each has been lost; each will be also be found.

Erice extends this doubling motif to the intimate one-on-one conversations that anchor “Close My Eyes,” and which incrementally, and at times almost begrudgingly, propel Miguel’s story forward. Erice tends to shoot the conversations in the earlier part of the movie as face-to-face encounters, with Miguel — an earnest, worried-looking soul — seated directly opposite another equally serious character. Later in the movie, after Miguel meets a stranger called Gardel (also played by Coronado), who helps solve the case of the missing actor, Erice often frames the two men side-by-side, as if twinning them. This visual shift underscores their connections without commensurately deepening either character or the overall movie.

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Screen Rant

Beverly hills cop review: 40 years on, eddie murphy has still never been this good.

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Why Eddie Murphy Hated The Beverly Hills Cop Sequels

Every eddie murphy action movie, ranked worst to best, 10 spider-man villains that still haven't appeared in live-action marvel could use for tom holland's next mcu movie.

Eddie Murphy's performance in Beverly Hills Cop transformed his career, announcing him as an A-lister
The supporting cast offer balance to Murphy's explosive performance
The genre mash-up of action and comedy is incredibly well-observed

It would be very easy to distill Eddie Murphy's career down to before Beverly Hills Cop and after, such was the impact of the 1984 movie. It was, without doubt, one of the most important movies of his career, and the biggest at the box office that year, and it is widely considered among the very best Eddie Murphy movies . But 40 years have passed now, and sometimes it's just as important to revisit classics to remind us all of just what earned them such praise.

After four decades, there are now four Beverly Hills Cop movies , and Murphy's career has evolved so much that we've already seen a revival period, and calls to re-evaluate some of his more critically divisive projects. In short, we've come a long way since Axel Foley crossed the country and both cultural and class lines in pursuit of justice for a murdered childhood friend. But looking back now reveals an infectious, charming action comedy that remains remarkable for Murphy's work in it.

Beverly Hills Cop

Beverly hills cop announced eddie murphy as a hollywood a-lister.

Coming To America may objectively be a better all-round movie, but Eddie Murphy's performance in Beverly Hills Cop is still his most explosive . He has gone on to more critically lauded performances - as in Dreamgirls and Dolemite Is My Name - but it's impossible not to view Axel Foley in his original context. Murphy wears his Hollywood freshness with the confidence of a new haircut. The only other "announcement" performance I can think of that compares is Jim Carrey's turn in Ace Ventura .

Beverly Hills Cop By The Numbers
Box Office Take	$234 million
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score	82%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score	82%

In just over 100 minutes, you're forced to reckon with the Eddie Murphy brand, mostly undiluted . Yes, Trading Place s came before it and 48 Hrs too, but that was far more of a true fish out of water movie: Murphy changed to fill the vessel, as it were. Compare it to Delirious , the firebrand comedy special released the same year, and Murphy feels like he's playing to Hollywood a bit more. With Axel Foley, the fish isn't an impostor; rather, the water is.

Yes, he's more restrained than he was in Delirious , because he had to be, but it's still hard not to watch Beverly Hills Cop as Murphy bending Hollywood to his will. There are flashes of Murphy's "say what he wants" comedy, and most impressively, there's even a meta nod to Murphy's own rising star when he encounters two men walking the streets in the same leather-on-leather costumes he wore in his comedy specials. That should feel outrageous, but really, it's confirmation that this was the moment he became an A-lister.

beverly-hills-cop-movie-sequels-eddie-murphy-hate-reason

Beverly Hills Cop is Eddie Murphy's most famous franchise, but he's made his dislike of the sequels well-known, even dubbing one "atrocious."

Beverly Hills Cop Didn't Invent Action Comedy, But It Wouldn't Be The Same Without It

Considering Axel Foley was almost played by Sylvester Stallone , Murphy's achievement in Beverly Hills Cop is even more impressive. Stallone had infamously tried to remove all the comedy, making it a straighter, colder action movie, and looking back on it now, that would have been close to fatal. Because Beverly Hills Cop impresses most because of its ability to blend the genres.

Before it, the likes of 48 Hrs and The Blues Brothers had mixed up the two genres to great success, and the former can boast more stylish action sequences, if not more impressive ones. The Blues Brothers ' action was more slapstick, and sillier as a result, and Beverly Hills Cop feels like an evolution standing firmly between the two. It's very funny, but its action sequences are also stand outs, and their destructive spirit would escalate with each sequel.

It didn't invent the sub-genre, but without Beverly Hills Cop , there arguably wouldn't have been the rich run of great action comedies that followed . Alongside 48 Hrs , it also helped invigorate the buddy cop genre, and it did so without making the culture clash solely about Foley's race (which its predecessor dealt with more overtly). Instead, Foley is unconventional because he's Foley.

eddie-murphy-action-movie-ranked-worst-best

Eddie Murphy has many action movies in his filmography, but how do they all rank alongside one another, including the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy?

Beverly Hills Cop Is Not Just About Eddie Murphy...

Beverly Hills Cop is also, of course, an ensemble affair, even if Murphy's presence looms large. Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) are as important to the movie's dynamic as the lead . Reinhold plays Rosewood with a delightful naivety with bubbling chaos under the surface that evolves across the sequels into something not untroubling, while Ashton's Taggart is the very personification of curmudgeony conflict. Foley upends their worlds, and the fact that neither is remotely unlikeable despite that conflict is genius writing.

Whisper it, but Axel Foley isn't really the most memorable character in Beverly Hills Cop . It's Bronson Pinchot's art dealer Serge, who has just one scene and steals it wholesale from Murphy. That Murphy allows it, and shrinks back to the straight man in their odd dynamic is another point scored for his performance, but Pinchot is a delightful, silly caricature who avoids any kind of comic victimization despite the colorful performance choices.

Elsewhere, main villain Victor Maitland (Steven Berkoff) is one of the quintessential British action movie villains of the 1980s (Berkoff played several in the decade, in fact), offering another point of parallel with Foley. He's cold but refined, well-mannered but brutal, and a reminder that while Foley is rough, his background and poorer lifestyle (exemplified by his POS car and inability to make rent) don't lead him away from fundamental goodness. A shout-out is also due to Jonathan Banks as his main henchman, who feels like the blueprint for all such characters.

But Really, Is Beverly Hills Cop Still Great?

Legacy has a way of shrouding movies in gloss that overlooks whether they're actually good or not. There's no doubt that Beverly Hills Cop is an important movie: in genre terms, it was foundational; for Murphy, it was transformative; and for a black lead to be in such a prominent project in 1984 is not to be overlooked. But it's also just a great time, even now.

It's not as quotable as the likes of Coming To America , though " get the f*ck out of here " is a strong contender in 1980s comedy terms. Its best scenes, though, are more than just lines: Foley arguing his way into the Beverly Palms Hotel is delightful; the strip club robbery scene very memorable; meeting Serge is a joy. All of them rely on Murphy's unadulterated brazenness, but there's also deep and convincing humanity to his performance.

For all my insistence that Beverly Hills Cop 's greatness - and huge rewatchability - is down to more than Eddie Murphy, he's at the heart of everything. Even without the context of his seemingly instant success, his performance here is magic, filled with the kind of energy you'd like Hollywood to bottle and put back into circulation.

The story is serviceable without distracting too much, the villain's plan is quite straightforward but nowhere near as silly as some other 1980s examples, but everything works in service of Axel Foley and Eddie Murphy. Beverly Hills Cop has some interesting observations about race, policing, class, and other such "politics" that various people might make a bigger deal of in 2024, but this is the Eddie Murphy show, and 40 years on, it's impossible not to totally get why it all went so right for him.

Not available

Eddie Murphy stars in Beverly Hills Cop as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit police officer who travels to California to solve his friend's murder. Directed by Martin Brest, the film was a critical and commercial success, spawning three sequels.

Eddie Murphy's performance is solid gold
The supporting cast is better than they ever get credit for
The theme song is a bona fide classic
The story is a little paint-by-numbers

COMMENTS

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
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
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'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 ...
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: A Uniquely Exhilarating Telegu Action-Adventure
In most action movies, this sequence would satisfy as a rousingly over-the-top climax. ... 'RRR' Review: Telugu Cinema Superstars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan Shine in a Splendidly ...
RRR Movie Review : Rajamouli delivers a power-packed entertainer
RRR Movie Review: Watch this one this weekend if you've been pining for a good action packed drama. RRR is not perfection by any means because after the way Rajamouli pulls off certain scenes ...
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' 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
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 ...
Review: The Netflix Hit "RRR" Is a Political Screed, an Action Bonanza
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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 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 ...
'RRR' Is a Maximalist Action Film That Embraces Sincerity
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 ...
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Read the review for RRR, director S.S. Rajamouli's latest epic starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan. ... Cannes Film Festival 2024: Read All Of Deadline's Movie Reviews, Including Palme d'Or Winner ...
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RRR movie review: The film stars Jr NTR, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn. It took Rajamouli five long years since Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) to have his next big screen outing and when ...
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 Movie Review
RRR is a fictitious story about real events, focusing in on the colonialism of India at the hands of the British. Set in the 1920s, when a young girl is abducted, and her mother callously murdered, family member Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) seeks vengeance against the perpetrators, though he is coming up against a brutal, tyrannical regime.
RRR
RRR, the most expensive Indian action/comedy/musical ever made, is as violent and spiritual as it is creative and theatrical. ... Movie Review. During the waning days of British rule on the Indian subcontinent in 1920, a particularly wicked British woman listens to a young girl sing in her native tongue. It's quite lovely, the woman thinks.
RRR
A movie review by James Berardinelli. Although some aspects of RRR may seem foreign to mainstream North American movie-goers, the meat of the tale - an epic adventure featuring two mighty figures - is the kind of thing that American motion pictures used to do well. RRR tosses aside cynicism, "gray areas," and ambiguity for sheer exuberance.
'RRR': What To Know About the Action-Packed Indian Drama
"RRR" is a notable contender for this awards season, with the New York Film Critics Circle naming Rajamouli as its best director for 2022. The film also nabbed two Golden Globe nominations ...
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 Summary and Synopsis
RRR: plot summary, featured cast, reviews, articles, photos, and videos. Directed by S.S. Tajamouli, the Telugu epic RRR tells the fictional story of two real-life figures, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao), who become friends while fighting the governing forces as Indian revolutionaries during the British Raj.
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Naruto Live-Action Movie Script Done, Will Focus on 'How Nuanced ...
Destin Daniel Cretton's live-action Naruto movie now has a finished script and will tell a "nuanced and special" story about the Hidden Leaf Village's yellow-haired ninja in training.
'Strange Darling' Review: Assume Nothing
Playing out in six, ingeniously scrambled chapters, this headlong thriller transforms a simple cat-and-mouse premise — and maybe even a toxic love story — into an impertinent rebuke to genre ...
'Close Your Eyes' Review: The Case of the Unfinished Film
"Close Your Eyes" is the fourth feature-length movie from Erice, who, it's worth noting, was born in 1940; it's also his first since "Dream of Light" (1992). The story in "Close Your ...
Beverly Hills Cop Review: 40 Years On, Eddie Murphy Has Still Never
It would be very easy to distill Eddie Murphy's career down to before Beverly Hills Cop and after, such was the impact of the 1984 movie. It was, without doubt, one of the most important movies of his career, and the biggest at the box office that year, and it is widely considered among the very best Eddie Murphy movies.But 40 years have passed now, and sometimes it's just as important to ...