RA MOVIE REVIEW

A palatial modern bungalow with few inhabitants, eerie silences broken by sudden sound bursts, doors that thud without any reason, whooshing resonance that forebode unnatural events, spirits that pop up at the most unexpected times and television and music system operating by themselves are some of the features that mark a paranormal thriller and Ra directed by newcomer Prabhu Yuvaraj has them all.   

 

The story in Ra as such is not very deep. A beautiful girl elopes and marries a rich boy and comes to his house. The happenings in the house and their reasoning are what Ra is all about. The characters are minimal and the first half although a tad slow is quite promising. 

 

The film begins on a normal mode with a very casual looking hero (Ashraf) driving his car to pick his lover but is delayed because he slept extra hours (!!). His friends and lover are waiting and he very casually answers their phone calls justifying his delay. Soon he picks his lover (Aditi Chengappa) and meets his friends on the way and the couple reaches his residence to be greeted affectionately by his mom and sister. 

 

After setting up this premise, when things seem to be normal and when you expect them to proceed in a particular manner, the debutant director at the least expected moment, throws a googly at you and from then onwards, the mystery begins. The first half travels in a path that is fairly engaging, although a tad slow. In fact, it is quite promising and there are many tangles. The intermission comes at an interesting point making you speculate in which direction Prabhu is going to move his story and you want to get back to your seats fast to see how he untangles them all. 

 

However, the second half turns out to be the antithesis of the first half and you start wondering what the director’s intentions are. Does Prabhu Yuvaraj want his story to glide on a paranormal platform or  does he want to paint it with a scientific color or does he desire to convey something more ambitious than this? Or is this a blending of genres? This is definitely disappointing for a story that had an evenly paced momentum and an intrigue factor in the first half which had you asking for more. There are a few questions that remain unexplained although the film ends with a ‘to be continued’ slide. Perhaps, the answers may come in the sequel. 

 

That said, technically, Ra is quite a strong project from newcomers. Camera work of Saravanan needs to be mentioned. Frames are rich, stylized and sleek and the lighting and camera angles up the scare factor. For a film of this genre, it is imperative that RR rise up to raise the fright quotient and Raj Aryan does this very effectively. Good work by Saravanan and Raj Aryan indeed!

 

Performances are pretty decent. Hero Ashraf although appears a little ‘un’heroic in initial shots, we get used to him slowly and he is fairly convincing in most frames. Aditi Chengappa looks ravishing and fresh but sadly she does not have much screen time for the audience to revel in her beauty. Friend Lawrence Ramu who is also doubling up as the lyricist of the film has done his part well. 

 

The film would surely have hit the right kind of impact had it been more convincing, handled things more effectively and provided logical justification to all those puzzles and tangles of the first half.  All the same Ra is a decent effort from an all new team that scores high on the technical side, averages on the content but certainly does not annoy you.