rrr movie review in english essay

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.

• 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

Cinematographer

• K.K. Senthil Kumar
• M.M. Keeravaani
• S. S. Rajamouli
• Sreekar Prasad
• S.S. Rajamouli

Writer (story)

• Vijayendra Prasad

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‘RRR’ Review: A Hero (or Two) Shall Rise

Scenes of glorious excess make the screen hum with energy in S.S. Rajamouli’s action epic set in British colonial India.

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By Nicolas Rapold

It’s not long in “RRR” before a tiger and a wolf collide midair during a brawl with one of the film’s two musclebound heroes. Scenes of glorious excess make the screen hum with energy in the latest feature from S.S. Rajamouli, the director of the “Baahubali” blockbusters.

Set in 1920s India before independence, “RRR” pairs two of the country’s biggest stars, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. (known as “Jr. NTR”) and Ram Charan, as superfriends from either side of a bloody colonial divide. A goofily gallant Jr. NTR plays Bheem, a warrior from the Gond tribe, while Charan smolders as Ram, a fearsome police officer who is underestimated by his white superiors. (The characters are inspired by two rebel heroes from the era, Komaram Bheem and Alluri Sitarama Raju.)

Bheem journeys to Delhi to rescue a Gond girl enslaved by the British governor and his wife, a couple of sadists. Ram has orders to identify and capture Bheem by going undercover with revolutionaries. Instead, the men unwittingly make fast friends when they save a child stranded on a river that’s on fire. (As one does.)

But their missions get inevitably entangled, and Rajamouli (who collaborated on the story with his screenwriter father, Vijayendra Prasad), stirs in an aw-shucks courtship between Bheem and the governor’s not-racist niece (Olivia Morris).

Rajamouli shoots the film’s action with hallucinogenic fervor, supercharging scenes with a shimmering brand of extended slow-motion and C.G.I. that feels less “generated” than unleashed. Here-to-there plot filler in “RRR” is instantly forgiven with each wild set-piece: Ram furiously tunneling through a hundred-strong mob outside his garrison, or the rumbling dance-off (the “Naatu Naatu” musical number) where Bheem and Ram giddily exhaust the British cads and delight the ladies.

The rousing anticolonialist battle royal concludes with one final fist-pump: an end-credit song celebrating political figures from across India.

RRR Rated PG-13 for violent sequences, some intense language and general mayhem. With subtitles. Running time: 3 hours 7 minutes. In theaters.

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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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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."

‘RRR’ Review: Telugu Cinema Superstars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan Shine in a Splendidly Exciting Epic

Roaring tigers, flaming arrows and revolutionary fervor are on display in director S.S. Rajamouli's audacious action-adventure.

By Joe Leydon

Film Critic

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Straight out of Tollywood: “ RRR ,” a bigger-than-life and bolder-than-mainstream action-adventure epic, is performing mightily in international release as audiences marvel at its spectacle, embrace its emotions, and sway to its music while being repeatedly gobsmacked by its unfettered audacity. Propelled by the Telugu Cinema triumvirate of superstars N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan and director S.S. Rajamouli — whose combined names are one reason for the triple-consonant title — the movie is such an irresistible and intoxicating celebration of cinematic excess that even after 187 minutes (including intermission or, as the title card announces, “InteRRRval”), you are left exhilarated, not exhausted. Which, truth to tell, is hard to say about certain comic-book movies from two major extended universes.

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Mind you, the two protagonists here aren’t supposed to be superheroes. In fact, they are flesh-and-blood humans out of Indian history: Komaram Bheem, a revolutionary leader and guerrilla fighter from the Gond tribe during the British Raj; and Alluri Sitarama Raju, a similarly inclined insurgent who often led his under-equipped followers during raids on police stations to acquire firearms. There is no record of these two men ever meeting in real life. But hey, when have filmmakers ever allowed facts to get in the way of an exciting story? There also isn’t any record of their possessing any abilities more superhuman than cunning and charisma. But Rajamouli doesn’t let that bother him, either.

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In the 1920s world according to “RRR” — which also stands for “Rise, Roar, Revolt,” when the full title finally makes its first appearance on screen — Raju, referenced here as Ram, is a fiercely determined firebrand from Andhra Pradesh who goes undercover as a member of the British army in the hope of arming his compatriots. Early on, he demonstrates his faux loyalty to the Crown — and more or less establishes his superhumanity — by singlehandedly punching, kicking, beating and otherwise manhandling what appear to be thousands of protesters to seize a guy who tossed a rock at a portrait in a police outpost. In most action movies, this sequence would satisfy as a rousingly over-the-top climax. In “RRR,” however, it’s nothing more than a curtain-raiser.

In the Adilabad forest, the working-class-heroic Bheem establishes his own preternatural bona fides while outrunning a wolf in order to lead the beast into a trap. Unfortunately, the wolf is taken out of the equation by a tiger, who proceeds to chase Bheem. Fortunately, Bheem is more than a match for the big cat, even when the trap doesn’t quite work. The tiger roars. Bheem roars back. And if you are fortunate enough to see “RRR” in a theater, as it is meant to be, the next roar you hear will be that of a cheering audience.

The fuse is lit for an explosive meeting of these exceptional men when the British governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his crueler-than-Cruella wife Catherine (Alison Doody) go slumming in a Gond village — accompanied, of course, by a contingent of heavily armed soldiers. Catherine is enchanted by a little girl named Malli (Twinkle Sharma), and claims the child as an amusing plaything to entertain guests in their palatial Delhi home. This doesn’t go over well with the child’s mother — or anyone else in the village, for that matter — but Buxton has enough muscle power to enforce his wife’s whim of iron. He doesn’t have anyone shot only because he doesn’t want to waste expensive bullets on “brown rubbish.”

At this point, you may be tempted to shout rude things at the screen. But don’t fear: Bheem vows to journey to Delhi and, with the aid of simpatico locals, retrieve Malli. It doesn’t take long for word of Bheem’s impending arrival to reach British authorities — and it takes even less time for Ram to volunteer to find and arrest the potential troublemaker. But fate (along with the shamelessly contrived scenario by Rajamouli and co-writers Sai Madhav Burra and K.V. Vijayendra Prasad) tosses both men a curve when each sees a boy trapped in a Delhi river while flaming railroad cars drop into the water around him. Both men rush to a conveniently located bridge — Ram on horseback, Bheem on a motorcycle — and improvise a rescue detailed in another jaw-dropping action set piece.

And all of this happens in the film’s first 40 minutes.

It would be unfair to spill more beans and spoil any fun by providing additional plot details or scene descriptions. (Just wait until you see what Bheem does with a truckload of nonhuman disruptors.) Suffice it to say that Bheem and Ram develop a deep friendship without either knowing the other’s true identity or grand designs, and they greatly enjoy each other’s company until they don’t, and then they do again. There are two splendiferously spirited song-and-dance sequence where the guys delight in their bromance, and they play like fever dreams of Stanley Donen directing an action-movie remake of “Singin’ in the Rain.”

Widely known as Jr NTR, N.T. Rama Rao Jr. is effective and empathy-grabbing as a seemingly ordinary man who achieves the extraordinary while evolving into an iconic hero. (He also gets a few laughs, especially during Bheem’s shy yet stealthy romance of a British beauty sweetly played by Olivia Morris.) Better yet, he has sensational chemistry with the more conventionally dashing Ram Charan. It may be overstating the case to suggest Charan carries himself with the authority and assurance of a deity — that is, when he’s not physically or emotionally anguished — but when Ram “borrows” the bow and arrow from a statue of Lord Rama, it seems less an act of sacrilege than an example of professional courtesy.

Echoes of John Woo abound in “RRR” as themes of loyalty, betrayal, and mutable identity are recurrently sounded, providing a powerful anchor of seriousness and mortal stakes during the most fantastical fights, flights and feats of derring-do. Occasionally your mind may tell you, “This is absurd!” Each time that happens, though, your heart will reply, “So what? Give me more!”

Reviewed at Regal Edwards Greenway Grand Palace, Houston, April 1, 2022. Running time: 187 MIN.

• Production: (India) A Sarigama Cinemas release (U.S.) of a DVV Entertainment production. Producer: D.V.V. Danayya.
• Crew: Director: S. S. Rajamouli. Screenplay: S. S. Rajamouli, Sai Madhav Burra, from a story by K.V. Vijayendra Prasad. Camera: K.K. Senthil Kumar. Editor: A. Sreekar Prasad. Music: M.M. Keeravani.
• With: N.T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan, Ajay Devgn, Alia Bhatt, Shriya Saran, Samuthirakani, Samuthirakani, Olivia Morris, Ray Stevenson, Alison Doody, Twinkle Sharma. (Telugu, English dialogue)  

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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RRR Movie Review : 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 67 days ago

♥️♥️❤️

vsudharshanreddy 250 days ago

Excellent �� movie

Basha Elaganuru 271 days ago

Rishitborra 515 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 578 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

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.

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

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

Jun 10, 2022

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Photo: ‘RRR’

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

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

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

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

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

Sign this Petition: RRR Must Receive Oscars Nomination

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

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

Please sign the petition above.

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

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

Go watch the magnificient 'RRR' now.

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‘RRR’ – The Powerful

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

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

The Bonkers

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

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

The Well-Crafted

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

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

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

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

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

By Nader Chamas

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We choose quality over quantity, compassion over oppression, wisdom over intelligence.

If the detailed social realism of the Dardenne brothers represents one kind of cinema, RRR is its polar opposite. 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 film that looks great in a clip on Twitter but is disappointing when you sit down and watch the whole thing. But have no fear — RRR (it stands for “Rise! Roar! Revolt!”) is a big, gaudy, sledgehammer-subtle slice of escapist cinema that is fun from first frame to last.

Set in 1920s India, the plot, as it is, pits soldier Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan) and villager Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr) against the British Empire, represented by Governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson, terrible) and his even more vindictive wife Catherine (Alison Doody, who wields a particularly nasty whip as a reminder of her Indiana Jones days), after the Brits kidnap Bheem’s kid sister. Raju and Bheem are introduced in fantastic fashion — the former performing an in-camera version of The Matrix Reloaded ’s ‘burly brawl’ to apprehend a wrong’un, the latter outrunning a wolf and then shouting down a tiger — and then come together to save a little boy in a river on fire (don’t ask) using a motorcycle, a horse, a rope and a ridiculous feat of timing that puts Spider-Man bridge-rescues to shame. This is all in the first half hour.

RRR never runs out of steam — the dust-ups of the final jungle battle feel as fresh as the opening scene.

From here, the inventiveness and originality of the action escalates to giddy levels, often completely oblivious to the laws of physics. The quality of the VFX is variable but it doesn’t matter, partly because Rajamouli has got such a great eye for brazen movie heroics and partly because it has so much spirit it is easy to be carried along (to wit, there is a fantastic set-piece as Raju batters Brit stooges while being hoisted aloft on Bheem’s shoulders).

In-between the fighting there are heavy-handed, John Woo-esque thematics (loyalty, brotherhood, identity), low comedy as Bheem tries to woo English rose Jenny (Olivia Morris), and catchy musical numbers — the best of the bunch being a dance-off as Raju and Bheem show the stiff shirts of the Raj how it’s done. The plotting is creaky and the writing ham-fisted (“Take the special forces and nail the bastards”), but it wins the day thanks to Rajamouli’s bravura, the infectious charisma of Charan and Rama Rao Jr, ace filmmaking talent (M.M. Keeravani’s huge score, A. Sreeker Prasad’s propulsive editing) and the imagination of the stunt team. RRR never runs out of steam — the dust-ups of the final jungle battle feel as fresh as the opening scene — meaning that 185 minutes run by in the blink of a digital tiger’s eye.

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A copious amount of blood, beating, crying, saving, sacrificing, nationalism fills up its staggering three hours running time. Emotions run sky high, but you feel nothing, sighs Sukanya Verma.

Everybody knows how cruel the British empire was.

But who knew they loved body art so much they would risk everything to keep a tribal kid hostage for her tattoo creating skills and provoke a tribe's ire.

Director S S Rajamouli has a knack for crafting mega visuals and captivating cinema out of wacky plots and overarching ambition but in RRR , it feels like he came up with the idea at a birthday party, where you have those tattoo artists sitting in one corner and drawing colourful designs on every child's hand.

Except in RRR, the roles are reversed.

It's the 1920s and India is yet to gain Independence when a pre-teen Gondi tribe girl's nightingale voice and afore-mentioned tattoo talent catch a bossy, beastly British lady's (a hilariously hammy Alison Doody) eye. She decides to make off with the kiddo resulting in much hysteria and heartache.

This instance of injustice is the trigger point or as Rajamouli dubs ' The Story ' of RRR -- short for Roudram Ranam Rudhiram or Rise Roar Revolt , depending on whether you are watching the Telugu original or Hindi dubbed like I did.

What follows next are chapters called The Fire and The Water , personified by Ram (Ram Charan) and Bheem ( NT Rama Rao Jr) across overblown introduction scenes and ear-splitting background music.

If Ram's daredevil British officer singlehandedly overcomes a crowd of thousands to nab a protestor, Bheem is the local Tarzan who bathes in blood and bare-handedly takes on the wolves and tigers of the jungles he inhabits.

Among his other gifts, Ram is a master shooter and archer, can do pull ups despite fractured knees and fight a battalion while perched on a man's shoulder.

Bheem can make lac bangles within minutes, whip up herbal medicines in forest or streets and navigate through a battalion with a man perched on his shoulders.

They know Morse code, drums and dancing. And man, can they fly!

Ram is fire, Bheem is water. Lest we miss the symbolism, the pre-interval bout has one charging towards another holding a fire torch and water hose.

All the action unfolds in Delhi and thereabouts that looks a lot like how Delhi and thereabouts would if shifted to South of India.

Likewise, Ram and Bheem are only superficially inspired by real-life Deccan revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem . Neither their hijinks nor their ' Har haath mein hathyar hoga ' philosophy bear any resemblance to the freedom fighters not only reimagined by the Rajamouli brand but portrayed as best friends too.

When the twain first meet, they are saving a kid from drowning, which involves a horse, a bike, a rope, bridge and a whole lot of balancing act. (Actually RRR could add an extra R for rescue, it's all everyone does in the movie -- central plot, sub plot.)

In the next scene, they are scaling a coolie red-coordinated human pyramid for no rhyme or reason.

Amidst many such moments of spectacle-sans-context and giant platters of egg biryani, they turn BFFs.

There's no actual dialogue or bonding, but one song and enormous eye contact later, a bromance to die for is professed.

RRR rests on their contrived friendship, pitting a desi British officer with a promise to fulfill and the abducted kid's saviour as friends and foes.

It's a standard 1980s yarn of two-hero fare where best friends harbour secrets whose discovery causes misunderstandings until they realise they are after the same endgame.

Ditto for patriotism, which harks back to the era of campy Bob Christos embodying a villainy (Ray Stevenson) that raised Mard and Kranti 's 'so bad it's good' quotient. Except revisit that aesthetic sans the humour and its Thugs of Hindostan catastrophe all over again.

'Every brown wanker thinks he can dance,' grumbles a gora suitor, unable to digest the belle of the ball, ignoring his blue-eyed good looks for Bheem's scruffy charms.

A vigorous desi dance-off follows, the British are humbled and another 'item' is checked off RRR 's list.

Barring the kindly English Rose (Olivia Morris) who'll help the hero and arouse no one's suspicion, every single British character is a growling caricature whose love for torture and whiplashes gets the extra cheese treatment under Rajamouli's exaggerated vision.

So it's not just *any* whip Bheem receives a lashing from.

But a super spiked edition, the kind reserved for a certain Thakur's shoes.

Trembling in blood and pain, Bheem grabs this opportunity to sing and stir revolution within the sleepy crowds.

This is Rajamouli after all.

The man will show coronavirus vaccines can be produced from cotton balls and we'll buy it.

But RRR is a complete misstep.

What ought to be audacious looks far-fetched.

A copious amount of blood, beating, crying, saving, sacrificing, nationalism fills up its staggering three hours running time.

Emotions run sky high, but you feel nothing.

People on the good side, people on the bad side are tossed, battered, crushed, pummelled, beaten, bitten, strangled, whipped, shot, stabbed, there's no end to all the chasing and bleeding, streams of it literally, but the excesses get tedious to bear.

Unlike Baahubali or Eaga which had fantasy, mythological or supernatural backgrounds, such over-the-top is misplaced in RRR 's action-packed objective of friendship and revolution.

Instead, the constant supply of flying men no different from gymnasts and trapeze artists and horses, cheetahs, tigers, wolves, snakes lend RRR the air of a ciRRRcus.

Technically too, RRR is no great shakes.

The CGI is uneven and VFX overkill robs the adventure of any raw, organic texture.

One could disregard the lack of period detailing in sartorial terms but watching a character roam about markets with a Yashica camera around her neck when it didn't come into existence till 1949 is baffling.

There's also the problem with the on/off Hindi voiceover translating the English lines.

It's inexplicably erratic, like a defective radio whose volume comes and goes on whim.

RRR 's two pillars -- NTR Jr and Ram Charan -- submit themselves fully to Rajamouli's imagination.

NTR Jr is perpetually in overboard mode and his ' Bhai Bhai ' ardour gets overbearing at places.

Ram Charan exudes charisma and stands tall himself despite the flighty manner the screenplay makes him jump between moods. Though they exude fabulous energy in their respective parts, the chemistry is just not there.

The women are perfunctory.

All they have to do is look sparkling at all occasions as snivelling supporters or casualties of violence.

Morris walks the cliché 'Don't call me Memsahib' route.

Alia Bhatt slips in 'Sita' mode awaiting her 'Ram's return in an extended cameo that seems even more undeserving of her talent after the success of Gangubai Kathiawadi .

Ajay Devgn as the rebel leader forming the backstory for Ram's retribution, is back in another guest appearance after Gangubai . His calm and restraint is a welcome relief in an otherwise breathless session of crash, bang, boom.

Bikes are tossed.

Bombs are tossed.

Brits are tossed.

RRR throws so much from all directions and yet I left the theatre feeling nothing.

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RRR : The real story of the two freedom fighters played by Jr NTR and Ram Charan in the film

RRR has become what perhaps only a few directors can dream about: a cinematic festival. Epic in its scope and operatic in its treatment, S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR starring Jr NTR and Ram Charan has crossed the magic mark of Rs 600 crore within barely a week of its release.

But what truly forms the source of the film? Director Rajamouli has repeatedly stressed that RRR heavily fictionalises the lives of two freedom fighters and revolutionaries in the 1920s – Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. The director has said in various interviews that there isn’t much information available about these revolutionaries and RRR attempts to bridge that deficit while also honouring the spirit of these freedom fighters.

Komaram Bheem

In 1922, Indian revolutionary Alluri Sitaram Raju led the Rampa Rebellion against the British raj for their imposition of the 1882 Madras Forest Act. The draconian act was heavily criticised for restraining the free movement of tribes within their own homes, and their sacred forests. It essentially made them prisoners in their own land.

The act also had a larger repercussion as the community could no longer practise their traditional Podu agricultural system which involved shifting cultivation and thus required them to move freely in the forest which they now couldn’t. The armed struggle came to a violent end in 1924 when Raju was captured by the British, tied to a tree, and shot by a firing squad. His heroics resulted in him being titled manyam veerudu or ‘the hero of the jungle’. In the film, Jr NTR essays this heroic role.

Alluri Sitarama Raju

While Kinaram Bheem was born  in Telangana’s Adilabad district in 1901. From the Gond tribe, he grew up in the dense forests of Chanda and Ballalpur. When he escaped from prison only to land on a tea plantation, he was acquainted with the Rampa rebellion. This was all the reason he needed to join Alluri’s forces and fight for the common cause of his Gond community. In the film, Ram Charan essays his role.

Throughout the forested and tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, even to this day, folk songs in honour of these revolutionaries are sung. Many important public works infrastructure projects have also been named after these two freedom fighters who placed the interests of their community and of the sanctity of the forest before anything else.

While RRR never claimed to be a historically accurate depiction of these revolutionaries, it certainly does a good job of honouring their legacy. 

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Table of contents

The importance of culture and family, the path of inspiration, the power of camaraderie, breaking free from confinement, becoming your own god.

The Indian film RRR opened to record box office success earlier this year, and then proceeded to amass a worldwide cult following after its Netflix debut in May—and it’s easy to see why. It’s an incredible spectacle of a film that mythologizes revolutionary leaders from India. The fights are outrageous, the emotion is heightened to unbelievable levels, and the message is one of hope and inspiration.

But how does RRR achieve such highs? Why has this Tollywood film (not the same as Bollywood, by the way) aroused so many people and left them clamoring for more movies like it? While the movie’s narrative isn’t necessarily difficult to understand, RRR is actually quite complex in its visual system. There are so many significant moments of imagery and symbolism throughout that it can actually be quite daunting to keep track of it all.

So hopefully I can help. In this article, I will highlight ten important shots that I believe create a better understanding of why RRR is such a powerful film. The article is split into five sections, with each section highlighting two images that either contrast one another or create harmony when paired together.

The opening scene is a great way to introduce the two opposing parties of the film: the British Raj (the oppressors) and the Gond tribe (the persecuted). There’s a lot of great imagery in this scene that tells us about each party’s values—including two particular shots that highlight a major tension of the film and a central conflict of the Crown rule in India.

The film opens with Malli singing a song for Catherine, the wife of the tyrannical governor Scott Buxton. Catherine is mesmerized by the song and throws a few coins to Malli’s mother, Loki. Malli’s mother, however, has no idea that Catherine has just bought Malli. And when Loki tries to get her daughter back, the “purchase” becomes an abduction. 

Loki drops in front of Catherine’s car and begs for her daughter to be returned. And because she won’t get out of the way, a sergeant pulls out his gun to shoot Loki in the head. But before he can shoot, Buxton stops him and gives a speech:

“Do you comprehend the value of the bullet in your barrel? It was manufactured in an English factory using English metals. It crossed the seven seas in an English vessel. By the time it reached the barrel of your gun, it cose One Pound. One Pouts Terling! And you want to waste it on brown rubbish?”

The sergeant then puts his gun away, grabs a lot, and hits Loki upside the head with it, knocking her out cold. Which is when we get this telling image:

For Loki, the money didn’t matter at all—she just wanted her daughter back at home. But the British empire treasures wealth and materials (think about the speech just given by Buxton) over the Gond tribe’s familial values. The British know nothing of Malli’s place in the tribe and don’t care how devastating it would be to remove her. Catherine just wants to flaunt a piece of Indian culture as a presentation of her status. Malli might as well be just another fixture in Catherine’s palace.

Thus, the bloody hand holding the coins becomes a powerful image. It showcases the pain and suffering many people experienced as the British Raj used its wealth and power to break families and customs apart. But the hand is also extended, reaching for her daughter. There is hope and longing expressed in the face of defeat.

This becomes the driving force of the movie. It is a sworn duty for Bheem (played by N. T. Rama Rao Jr., aka Jr NTR) to be a shepherd and rescue his sheep. He is determined to find Malli and reunite her with Loki. He is driven by the power of family and fights to keep the morale of his people alive. His culture cannot be bought.

This situation is similar for Raju (played by Ram Charan), who is secretly fighting for his family and village while pretending to work for the Indian Imperial Force. He has also made a promise to his people, and we are informed of this promise during a moment early in the film when Raju looks down at a pendant in his hand. The other half of this pendant belongs to a woman, who is waiting for him to complete his mission and return home. In this scene, director S. S. Rajamouli strings various shots together to convey the heightened emotion of this promise: Raju looks down at his pendant, then we cut to a woman holding the other half of the pendant, then back to Raju holding his half.

At first, we aren’t told who this woman is. But as we later learn, it’s Raju’s wife. And she’s been waiting for him to come home back to their people. Raju has been away for years on his mission, and he’s always kept the other half of this pendant as a constant reminder of who he’s fighting for.

That relationship makes the following shot all the more powerful. It comes towards the end of the movie when Raju’s cover is blown and he’s been captured by the Indian Imperial Force. Raju lies on the ground, ostensibly defeated and his mission failed. And then we get this shot of him holding the pendant:

Pretty familiar, right? I paired these two images together because they each seemingly depict moments of defeat: Loki has lost her daughter, and Raju has failed his mission. 

But really these moments serve as sources of inspiration. For Bheem, the “purchase” of Milli is what causes him to stop everything he’s doing and tend to his village. And for Raju, this pendant marks the moment he left his village and pursued a job in the Indian Imperial Force. The first shot shows how clueless the British Raj is about Bheem and Raju’s values, while the second shot highlights something more valuable than money.

Note that there are several more meaningful images throughout RRR that specifically use hands as important symbols (several of which we’ll observe in this article). Hands are often reaching for something desirable but seemingly unattainable—they serve as representations of both desire and inspiration. This shot from the opening scene lays the foundation for that recurrence.

Raju’s introduction is so awesome. The choreography of his giant brawl with hundreds of people is entertainingly shot and displays just how incredible of a fight he is. The entire scene illustrates just how determined he is to please the British Raj.

And while we might be confused about why he’s battling his own people at first, it is eventually revealed that he’s working undercover in order to supply his home village with weapons. Which makes the following image very important in retrospect:

At first sight and without context, this image is cool to look at. This shot seems to highlight Raju’s savageness, his commitment to the British Raj. But it’s only later—after many emotional trials and tribulations and much bloodshed and betrayal—that we learn why this particular shot is so powerful. And it gains that power when we contrast it with one other specific moment from the film.

Throughout RRR , Bheem and Raju are constantly beaten down into submission. Just when you think they can’t escape? They find the willpower to push forward. And that determination inspires the people around them. You can find a contrasting image to the one above when Bheem is being tortured. In a moment where it doesn’t seem like he can go any further, he calls out to the crowd:

In the second shot, Bheem is reaching out to his people, desperately trying to inspire them. Again, this is another instance where hands play an important role. Both Bheem and Raju have to remember who they’re fighting for. And here, Bheem reaches out his hand to show everybody that he hasn’t forgotten, that he hasn’t given up. This action inspires everyone to revolt.

So in retrospect, that shot where Raju is looking out into the crowd is very powerful when contrasted with Bheem’s moment. Raju’s shot comes at the end of the fight when he’s obtained a wanted criminal and beaten up hundreds of men. Once we learn that Raju is secretly undercover and how difficult it was for him to hurt his own people, this particular shot gains a lot of ferocity and conflict. Raju has been forced to keep his emotions in check as he fights for the greater good. 

The writer Mark Manson has a great article about understanding your emotions. In the piece, he argues that emotions are “your brain’s way of telling you something good or bad is happening in your life.” And…that’s about it. Manson says that emotions “are here to help us achieve our goals and find a sense of purpose. They are not the purpose themselves. And that’s where people get messed up. Most people mistake their emotions as the goals themselves. That is, a lot of people think that their emotions are all that is important.”

So when our emotions are all that’s important, we make rash, irrational decisions that can hurt us—which Raju cannot afford to do. That’s why in that shot where his eye is focused on his people, he must fight away tears and put on a face of impassiveness. He knows it’s the only way to win, to truly inspire people to stand alongside him and fight. His action is no different than Bheem reaching out to the crowd—it’s just taking a different path that will ultimately inspire people to rebel.

Raju and Bheem are both great warriors, and they become even more powerful when they band together. But when they oppose each other? When they lose sight of their values? When they don’t communicate? Those opposing forces bury each other and they don’t make headway.

So the movie makes a point to test their relationship—narratively and visually. The narrative features two people fighting for the same thing, but dressing that fight with different motives. Bheem pretends to be Muslim so he can get close to Malli, while Raju prenteds to be part of the Indian Imperial Force to obtain guns for his village. They believe they are on opposing sides, but really they’re fighting for their families and they share the same values. Thus, there’s inherent tension in their relationship.

Visually, this tension is displayed with two particular shots. The inherent connection Bheem and Raju share is displayed from the get-go when a boy falls into the water and is surrounded by a burning ring of oil. From across the water, Bheem and Raju instantly connect with each other and form a plan via hand signals. And after they rescue the boy, they clasp their arms together in a moment of camaraderie:

This is when we get the title sequence. The letters “RRR” stand for different things throughout the film, but in this moment, they spell out “Rise Roar Revolt.” As Bheem and Raju hold each other’s arms, this is the energy Rajamouli conveys. Separately, these two can surely rise up and make a difference. But together? The change they can create is endless. When they rise up, they should rise together. If they do that, the revolt they can inspire is gargantuan, the roar they share is amplified.

That’s why this image is copied almost verbatim in a contrasting moment later in the film. Bheem has broken into the British Raj’s grounds in an attempt to rescue Malli, but Raju has put a stop to his plans. Raju has managed to wrap a thread around Bheem’s hand and trap him. Knowing he’s been defeated, Bheem gives in. And Raju, knowing he can’t reveal his true intentions to his friend, cries a bloody tear onto his own hand. Which is when cut to this shot:

Notice how their arms aren’t touching, but are instead bound together by a string. This particular string is actually a “holy thread” that was worn by Bheem and was given to Raju when he was poisoned by the snake. When Bheem hands over his holy thread, a man says to him, “Removing it will only bring you problems.” To which Bheem responds: “He needs it more than me.”

The story behind this thread makes this shot all the more beautiful. Soon after this shot, we’re going to learn of Raju’s backstory and why he joined the Indian Imperial Force. So in this moment where Bheem is holding on by a thread (literally), we learn just how painstaking it is for Raju to betray his friend like this. By its very nature, by the manner in which it was given to Raju, this holy thread signifies their shared beliefs and culture—yet they cannot hold each other like they do after saving the boy. 

This makes their shared connection both a physical and emotional one. Obviously their physical prowess allowed them to save the boy. But their psychological connection from across the lake is what truly puts them in sync. When they grab each other’s arms after rescuing the boy, there’s just as much warmth as there is tenacity. They are happy to have saved a life, and this shared experience creates a friendship. You can tell that they are truly happy to be around each other after that.

So when that shot of them holding each other’s arms is contrasted later by the holy thread, a new space is introduced between them. They have a lot to overcome before they can reunite physically and fight together once again. Their spiritual and emotional connection must be rekindled—which is what happens at the very end of the movie. So after this shot of the holy thread, they slowly work towards building their camaraderie and banding together once again.

One recurring motif throughout the film is confinement—or, more specifically, the desire to break free from confinement. There are several shots of people trapped behind bars, unable to be with their loved ones. The bars make matters worse, as freedom is still in sight on the other side. Yet they remained trapped by the British Raj. The prison becomes symbolic of how the Indian people feel trapped in their own country.

The earliest moment where someone is stuck behind bars occurs when Bheem gets inside the palace and finds Malli. Bheem recognizes her singing voice and locates her room, but is unable to free her from her imprisonment. They touch each other, cry together, yearn together—but are unable to actually be with each other:

Malli is just a little girl. There’s not much she can do for herself here, so it’s upon people like Bheem and Raju to save her. But that’s also the point of using Malli to first establish the motif of confinement: it serves as motivation for our heroes to break her (and their people) free from oppression.

That’s why in subsequent shots throughout the film, we see Raju and Bheem persevering through imprisonment. Whether it’s Bheem failing to kneel while being tortured or Raju performing pull-ups while in solitary confinement, our heroes are constantly pushing themselves to remain strong, to never subject themselves to defeat in front of their people. That determination is ultimately what drives their people to rise up and revolt—and what inspires one another to keep fighting.

And that inspiration comes to fruition at the end of the movie. Bheem sneaks into the British Raj grounds and finds Raju in solitary confinement. And in a moment that’s strikingly similar to Bheem’s moment with Malli behind bars, he and Raju share a connection while Raju is trapped:

Here, Bheem cries just as he did with Malli. But this time, it’s not because of how bad he feels for a little girl who can’t defend herself—instead, he’s sorry that his actions led to Raju’s imprisonment. And ever since he lost Raju in his life, he’s been missing a piece of himself he thought he would never get back.

That drives the emotion of this moment. Bheem doesn’t think he deserves forgiveness, but Raju understands what’s more important. They need to band together once again and break free from this physical prison, this cultural prison imposed by British rule. That energy is what drives them to fight back in this final scene of the film and overcome oppression.

Throughout this article, we’ve identified several motifs that involve rising up and fighting back. The characters of this film are constantly down and out—only to find the strength within and carry on. And obviously that inspiration comes from the people around you. But it also comes from your culture and beliefs. You must fully embody your doctrine, your ideals to become a realized individual.

In a sense, you must become your own god. You can certainly pray to a god and believe in something greater than yourself. But to truly bring those beliefs to life—to become a breathing manifestation of the gods and live by their divine concepts—that requires you to become a god. 

For the record, there’s nothing blasphemous being said here. It’s a common philosophical talking point known as pantheism , which is the “belief that reality is identical with divinity, or that all things compose an all-encompassing, immanent god or goddess.” Or as this article from The New Indian Express puts it, “God is your making.”

I believe RRR recalls this very idea at the end of the movie. Before the final scene of the film, Bheem and Raju are great warriors who can battle tigers and take down soldiers—but they have yet to become deities that conquer oppression, to be forever immortalized by their people, to inspire change for generations to come. That is until the very end when Raju transcends his mortal bodies and becomes something greater and embodies divinity.

The moment is teased in this shot when Bheem takes Seetha’s hands and promises to bring Raju back:

Notice those two statues in the background? They are Lord Ram and Mother Sita from a famous Indian story called the Ramayana. It turns out that the entire movie borrows the story from this and another Hindu epic: the Mahabharata. While Raju and Bheem serve as fictionalized versions of two real-life Indian revolutionaries (Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem), they also become embodiments of two gods featured in those legends: Ram is depicted by Raju, and Bhima depicted by Bheem. In addition, Seetha comes to represent Ram’s wife Sita.

In that moment where Bheem promises to bring Raju back to his wife, what he’s really promising is to bring that story of the gods to life. This is a demarcation point in his life: the Ramayana is no longer just a story, but a creed by which to live your life. Bheem is going to will Raju and Seetha’s reunion into existence.

And that’s exactly what Bheem does—which is what inspires Raju to take a divine leap. In the forest, Bheem comes across an even bigger statue of Lord Ram, who wields a bow and several arrows. Bheem then adorns Raju with the bow and the attire worn by Lord Ram, which in turn creates a god out of Raju:

This is the climactic moment of the movie. From this point forward, there is no stopping Raju. He has elevated himself to a higher plane in order to free his people and reunite with his wife. As a deity, he is now in a position to win the fight and create a legend that will inspire people for generations to come.

That’s what makes Raju and Bheem’s conversation at the end of the movie so emotional. Raju says to Bheem, “You’ve taken me closer to my ambition. You’ve given me this attire that will inspire me to fight. What can I offer you in return?” To which Bheem replies, “Teach me, brother.” Raju nods, and a song in the background sings: “There is an iron man in every lane and home.”

This leads to the closing scene of the movie, when Raju and Bheem perform a dance number with a crowd of people and honor various revolutionary figures in India’s history. That quote, “There is an iron man in every lane and home,” shows that anybody can find that god within and become an inspiration for change. We, in fact, just witnessed one in the form of Raju. And now Bheem wants to be taught how to achieve it as well.

• RRR explained

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Common Sense Media Review

Epic blockbuster studies colonialism, has brutal violence.

Parents Need to Know

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…

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 .

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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.

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What Is 'RRR' ? All About the Award-Winning Film Generating Oscar Buzz

Between its action-packed sequences and its record-breaking streaming successes, here's everything to know about the film that spans over three hours long

RRR has garnered global success overnight upon its release on Netflix.

While the Tollywood epic has been a smash hit on the streamer since its release in May 2022 (having made history as the only film to trend globally in English and non-English categories in Netflix's Top 10 for 14 consecutive weeks ), RRR has recently gained critical acclaim with its award wins.

Set in the 1920s and spoken in the Telugu language, the movie — known for its over-the-top action scenes, like out-running tigers and kick-flipping over motorcycles — chronicles the unlikely friendship of Alluri Sitarama Raju (played by Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (played by N.T. Rama Rao Jr.), two Indian freedom fighters who unite to revolt against the British Raj.

The international success of the critically acclaimed film — which has already generated Oscar buzz — exceeded audience expectations worldwide, including director S.S. Rajamouli's.

"Yes, I was surprised with the reception from the West," Rajamouli told Entertainment Weekly of bridging the cinematic gap with the East. "A good story is a good story for everyone, but I didn't think I could make films for Western sensibilities."

The positive reception doesn't stop there. In fact, the genre-bending epic has grossed over $100 million worldwide with $30 million just on its first day — breaking the record for the biggest opening day collectively earned by an Indian film, according to Variety .

As the popularity of RRR — whose name is an acronym for Rise, Roar, Revolt — continues to increase, here's everything to know about the film (before committing to its 3 hours and seven-minute runtime).

What is RRR about?

The official RRR synopsis reads: "A tale of two legendary revolutionaries and their journey far away from home. After their journey they return home to start fighting back against British colonialists in the 1920s."

Starring Ram Charan as Alluri Sitarama Raju and Jr NTR (aka, N. T. Rama Rao Jr) as Komaram Bheem, the film follows the saga of two Indian revolutionary men — who after being once philosophically opposed, join forces to save a kidnapped girl from British colonial rule.

While that's the general plot at RRR 's core, it's the action-packed madness throughout the film that's caused a stir on social media — prompting countless memes and the creation of numerous reaction videos since the trailer first dropped in December 2021.

In particular, it's the scenes filled with over-the-top sequences that defy all rules of physics (and logic, for that matter) that have managed to capture viewers' attention for its three-hour-plus duration, perhaps with some even wanting more.

What scenes exactly? Oh, just Jr NTR's flipping of a full-sized motorcycle with a single kick, characters' leaping humanly impossible distances through the air and the outrunning of tigers and other wild animals upon their unleashing. Did we mention there's fire? (And lots of it!)

Moreover, RRR is jam-packed with stunt work, choreography, pyrotechnics and VFX.

Who stars in RRR ?

RRR 's two leads are Charan and Rao, bona fide actors who have established themselves as A-listers in India long before their work on this film. While they play friends on screen, they are longtime pals in real life.

In fact, the actors' respective familial backgrounds have been known for their arch-rivals in politics — but despite the generational feuding, the dynamic had only fueled a bond between Charan and Rao .

"The whole concept of having a rivalry brought us together," Charan explained to the Los Angeles Times . "The only path we could take was friendship because we were bored of [the] news of rivalry for more than three decades."

Meanwhile, Rao further detailed his camaraderie with his costar. "Opposite poles attract," he began to tell the outlet. "We look up to each other. It's a support system. We complement each other, and we can share a few secrets that will never get out."

What languages is RRR available in?

RRR is a Telugu-language blockbuster but has been subtitled into 15 different languages. Furthermore, both actors dubbed their own voices for several versions of RRR in the most prominent Indian languages. In addition to Telugu, they include Hindi, Tamil and Kannada.

While RRR 's international reach was met with much success, its span across India itself was monumental for the country and its various film industries — blurring its lines that are largely separated by region and language.

"We have started calling it the Indian film industry, as opposed to dividing it into Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood," Rao told the LA Time s . "[Rajamouli] burned the 'woods," Charan added. "And just made it one big united Indian film industry."

When did RRR garner attention in the United States?

RRR 's filming timeline was hindered due to the COVID-19 pandemic but spans its principal photography in 2018 to its production wrap in 2021. More than 270 days were spent shooting , with a single sequence — in which the two friends fight it out amid wild animals and fiery explosions — occupying a total of 65 nights.

The film first premiered in India in March 2022, drawing crowds upon its release. It was also screened in select locations in North America at that time, prior to its official theatrical release.

Two months later, a Hindi-language version made for the Bollywood market was made available to Netflix subscribers in May — which was among the streamer's Top 10 most-watched titles in America for nine consecutive weeks.

In the few months that followed, the New York Times reported that the film had grossed $14 million at the American box office and played in 175 additional theaters across 34 states by August, despite the simultaneous streaming.

Most recently, TCL's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles held a screening in January and the tickets sold out in 98 seconds ! "What makes us very proud is that a small industry from South India, Tollywood, and one movie called RRR could open the gates to global cinema and bring us here," Rao told the LA Times .

Which awards has RRR won?

RRR nabbed the win for best original song at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards , receiving the honor for "Naatu Naatu" (Telugu for "Native Native"), the famed musical number that sees Charan and Rao burst into song and break into synced-up choreography. It also earned a nod for best motion picture – non-english language, though lost to Argentina, 1985 .

It also took home two Critics Choice awards: best foreign language film and best song for "Naatu Naatu." Most recently, RRR made history when the aforementioned song became the first number from a fully homegrown Indian film to receive an Oscar nod in the Best Original Song category when the 2023 Academy Award nominations were announced on Jan. 24.

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Jul 12, 2023 • Article

Ethics on Film: Discussion of "RRR"

By Alex Woodson

Alex Woodson

Editorial Manager & Digital Content Producer, Carnegie Council

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RRR , released in 2022 and directed and co-written by S. S. Rajamouli, is a groundbreaking film. It is one of the most expensive movies in Indian cinema history and had the highest opening-day earning by an Indian film; it is the first Telugu-language film to be nominated for a Golden Globe; and, with “Naatu Naatu,” it became the first Indian (and Asian) film to win an Oscar for Best Song. It’s probably safe to say that no other Indian film (and certainly no Telugu film) has resonated so strongly with a global audience .

For many people—especially for those watching outside of India—it resonated because it is intense, thrilling, and filled with likeable and larger-than-life characters. Its action and dance sequences are endless but never dull, as the momentum keeps building until the scene explodes into something fantastical. The story of redemption, love, pride, and loyalty is also easily relatable to a worldwide audience.

But there are different levels to this film. If you’re looking for it, there are dark undertones of nationalism and classism, made even more potent when combined with the knowledge of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for India and the current Hindu-Muslim tensions. And the violence, though cartoonish at times and mostly directed at British imperialists and criminals, has its roots in the horrors of colonialism and is at odds with the non-violent strain of protest that many think of when they think about Indian independence.

RRR (which stands for “Rise Roar Revolt”) is a fictional reimagining of the lives of two legendary anti-colonial fighters, Rama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), who existed in the early 20th century. Though they never met in real life, their fictional relationship—from strangers to best friends to enemies to heavily armed allies against the British—forms the central story of the film.

The pair meet by chance while spectacularly saving the life of a young boy caught in a massive train accident in Delhi. Unbeknownst to either of them, they’re already at odds. Bheem, a warrior from the forest who trains by fighting wild animals, has been sent to Delhi disguised as a Muslim merchant (all of the main Indian characters are seemingly Hindu) to rescue a young girl from his village who was kidnapped by the British governor’s family. Raju, a supernaturally gifted police officer working for the British, is told about the rescue plan and poses as an anti-colonial firebrand to get close to the infiltrators. Still, even after meeting him, he doesn’t realize that Bheem is the man he is after. Instead, the likeminded pair become fast friends and are soon sharing meals, life lessons, and motorbike rides. Eventually, through his friendship with Raju, Bheem ends up at the governor’s mansion and finds the imprisoned girl. Raju soon connects the dots, and the bromance then falls apart amidst a garden party turned into an all-out assault from Bheem’s forces and a cadre of fierce zoo animals.

But that just gets you to the halfway point. From there, the film progresses from plot twist to brutal torture scenes to singing and dancing to action sequence to background stories to more plot twists, culminating in an even more breathtaking attack on the British. Through it all, the bond between Raju and Bheem strains and nearly falls apart, but by the end, it has become unbreakable.

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Rrr & tensions in india.

Writing in Slate , Nitish Pahwa sums it up well: “I can’t say you shouldn’t experience this dazzling roller coaster of a movie, but I will say that you should keep your eyes open while doing so.”

With a film as complex as RRR , existing in early 2020s India, incorporating elements of the ancient Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata , with real episodes from colonial history, someone should (and probably will) write a book about the ethical and political themes on display. For an American who is not an expert on Indian history, contemporary society, or film, it’s complicated, to say the least, to parse these issues. The characters’ names, the geographical locations, the fighters’ flags, and the clothes are all packed with symbolism . Some have written that this symbolism strongly alludes to Hindu nationalism at a time when inter-religious tensions are high in South Asia. Others also point out that the story excludes the contributions of Muslims in the fight against the British Empire. A montage at the end, honoring several historical figures, indeed, features no Muslims—and also conspicuously excludes Mahatma Gandhi, who preached non-violence and supported a secular nation.

Class and caste issues are also a sore point for some observers. Bheem is presented, some say, as a version of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “ noble savage .” And his people, the Gond, are depicted as poor and simple and living in harmony with nature. This is a stark contrast to the slickly dressed and cosmopolitan Raju, who takes Bheem under his wing and “teaches” him to dress and impress a British lady. To an American audience, this could seem like a typical “buddy movie” trope, but in India, it might take on a different tone.

In an extensive New Yorker interview , Rajamouli mostly dismisses these controversies. He said that, while he was growing up, his family rejected the caste system and that informs his views of this subject to this day. As for the Hindu nationalism criticisms, Rajamouli, a noted atheist, said that he simply took inspiration from Hindu epics and, in the montage, featured historical figures who moved him, especially as a child. He further states that he “hates” extremism in any form, whether Hindu- or Islam-inspired. While all this is probably true, an argument could be made that these themes could have been toned down, with the history and current societal state of India in mind.

Violence in Blockbuster Movies

Like Avatar , All Quiet on the Western Front , and many other blockbusters, RRR is an extremely violent film. Pointedly, much of the violence used against the British is cartoonish—depicting the freedom fighters as superheroes, using CGI jungle animals to attack a mansion, turning a motorbike into a weapon—while violence against the Indian characters has a much more realistic and somber feel—they are brutally tortured, kidnapped, and beaten with truncheons. The message here is not subtle: The Indians are victims who deserve sympathy, while the British deserve this violence for what they have done to South Asia. This all culminates in a shot with blood splashing on a map adorned with the words, “The sun never sets on the British Empire.”

The British reign in South Asia in the 1800s and early 1900s—and really throughout the world—was indeed brutal and unjust. It’s understandable that citizens of the former British colonies would delight in violence against an oppressive governor, his psychopathic wife, and the entire system of subjugation. But, as has been mentioned previously, the anti-violent strain of protest and civil disobedience popularized by Gandhi is nowhere to be found in RRR . Of course, Gandhi’s story has already been celebrated in an epic Oscar-winning film but celebrating violence in any form can be dangerous, especially in a charged society like Modi’s India.

"Despite these issues and controversies, it is undeniably positive that a blockbuster award-winning movie came from somewhere other than the United States or England."

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A Global Phenomenon

Despite these issues and controversies, it is undeniably positive that a blockbuster award-winning movie came from somewhere other than the United States or England. For many watchers, this is probably their first introduction to “Tollywood" —a term that Rajamouli dislikes. Some maybe assumed that “Bollywood” just referred to all Indian cinema, not realizing the diversity of the country’s film industry, where thousands of films are made each year in dozens of languages , including Kannada (“Sandalwood”), Tamil (“Kollywood”), Malayam, Bengali, and Marathi, just to name a few.

Similar to how Korea’s K-Pop genre has become part of mainstream music in America and throughout the world, RRR could be the first of many Indian films that become part of the West’s cultural landscape . In his New Yorker interview, Rajamouli said that Indian audiences expect “big action set pieces” and the best filmmakers will use the “power of song and dance” to push the story forward. Neither sound like revolutionary ideas to an American audience, but the action scenes and dance numbers have a different sort of energy and exuberance as compared to what you’d see in a Western film. Whether the politics and ethics of RRR overshadows the spectacle that Rajamouli and his massive cast and crew engineered is entirely up to the viewers’ perspective.

Discussion Questions

1. Should artists take politics into account when making and presenting their work? Was RRR an irresponsible movie to make at a time when societal tensions are high in India?

2. Is there a line when it comes to violence in films? Was the cartoonish violence directed at the British in RRR appropriate?

3. How do you feel about the class/caste issues in RRR ? Was Bheem depicted as a “noble savage”?

4. What are some of the differences in RRR as compared to American or British films? Do these differences come down to culture or something else?

5. Is it fair to criticize a culture or society that you’re not a part of? How should non-Indians think about the claims of nationalism and classism in RRR ?

Works Cited

" Global success of ‘RRR’ signals breakthrough for Tollywood ," Associated Press, Jake Coyle, 2022

" The Man Behind India’s Controversial Global Blockbuster 'RRR' ," The New Yorker, Simon Abrams, 2023

" The Netflix Hit 'RRR' Is a Political Screed, an Action Bonanza, and an Exhilarating Musical ," The New Yorker , Richard Brody, 2022

" Oscar nominee RRR: Why the Indian action spectacle is charming the West ," BBC News 2023

" RRR is an incredible action movie with seriously troubling politics ," Vox , Ritesh Babu, 2022

" ‘RRR’ Is the Best — and Most Revolutionary — Blockbuster of 2022 ," Rolling Stone , David Fear, 2022

" 'RRR' Is the Blockbuster of the Summer, but Mind Its Dicey Politics ," Thrillist, Karthik Shankar, 2022

" A Wild Indian Blockbuster Is Ravishing Movie Fans, but They’re Missing Its Troubling Subtext ," Slate , Nitish Pahwa, 2022

Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an independent and nonpartisan nonprofit. The views expressed within this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Carnegie Council.

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The RRR ending continues the movie's larger-than-life feel and themes of camaraderie and rebellion. Directed by S. S. Rajamouli and starring N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, RRR is a big-budget spectacle about tribal protector Komaram Bheem and military policeman A. Rama Raju, who become quick friends, but find themselves divided by Bheem's mission to save his sister Malli from colonial authorities. The movie's final act separates its protagonists Komaram Bheem and Sitarama Raju amid mutual distrust, only to bring them together again to continue their fight against the British colonial occupation of India and their different ways of fighting oppression.

Based on true events, RRR culminates with Raju and Bheem coming to blows in a massive fight that ends with Bheem being imprisoned by the colonial authorities. Raju gets his much-desired promotion to Special Officer, but is forced to whip his friend before a large crowd. The spectacle is meant to break the rebellion's spirit, but Bheem's resistance instead inspires a riot. A flashback reveals Raju's true motive to steal guns and arm the Indian peasantry. However, when he's put in charge of delivering an arms shipment and given a golden opportunity to carry out his plan, he instead decides to save Bheem. The epic RRR ending is just one reason the Oscar-nominated movie is considered one of 2022's best movies .

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Why Raju & Bheem Save Each Other In RRR

Raju's decision to return for Bheem marks a major shift in his character and is a turning point in the movie RRR . Previously, Raju had been willing to sacrifice everything, first and foremost his pride, to succeed at his mission of infiltrating the British army. Having seen the reaction to Bheem's whipping, Raju realizes the importance of strong leaders in any resistance movement. The people at Raju's flogging didn't need weapons to revolt, they just needed someone to show them the possibility of maintaining dignity in the face of colonial oppression.

Later, Bheem returns the favor by putting himself in danger to rescue Raju from his underground cell, cementing their superhero-caliber friendship. This central relationship in the movie RRR is not unlike Batman v Superman 's tense rivalry , which has similarly large implications. Bheem had previously abandoned Raju during his own escape, still believing that he was a military policeman who had betrayed him. However, after hiding alongside Raju's fiancée Seetha, Bheem realizes that the two of them were fighting for the same cause the whole time. Bheem then has to make the same choice as his friend did: risking his mission to save him.

The parallel rescues show just how much focus the movie RRR places on its central friendship. Both Raju and Bheem are unable to put their commitment to the anti-colonial cause above the life of their friend. But rather than simply being a case of personal connection overcoming ideology, both men rescue each other because both are necessary for the rebellion.

The Symbolism of RRR's Final Fight

Throughout RRR , Raju and Bheem represent two different ways of fighting oppression, similar to the thematic questions posed in films like Blood Brothers , albeit in RRR 's much more over-the-top register. Bheem is a "tribal" who rejects Western culture and prepares a head-on attack against colonial authorities. Raju, however, is more Westernized, shown handling guns and working on motorcycles, and working within the colonial army in an attempt to undermine it. Together, they represent the age-old dichotomy between challenging the system from the outside and challenging it from the inside.

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This difference in approach and background leads Raju and Bheem into conflict with each other throughout the movie, but in the final fight against Governor Scott's army, they realize that both approaches are necessary. The two heroes switch places: Raju is riding a horse and shooting arrows, while Bheem is driving a motorcycle and firing guns. RRR suggests that the "Revolt" in its title must take a multifaceted approach.

Raju and Bheem are able to triumph, ultimately killing the sadistic Governor Scott. Scott's blood splashes on a map with the slogan "The sun never sets on the English Empire." This was a common slogan during the height of the British Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, referring to both the literal geographical length of the empire (meaning that it would always be daytime somewhere) and the belief that it would continue forever. However, the Empire would unravel following World War II due to various anti-colonial movements such as the one depicted in RRR . The final shot of RRR 's climactic fight is thus an over-the-top way for the film to thumb its nose at India's former colonizers.

The Meaning Of RRR's End Credits Scene

Like many other Indian movies, as well as Bollywood-inspired movies like Slumdog Millionaire , the end credits of RRR feature an elaborate song-and-dance number featuring the movie's cast. Director S. S. Rajamouli also makes a cameo appearance during this sequence. The song the cast dances to is "Etthara Jenda."

The end credits sequence also features a number of Indian national symbols. Most prominent is the original version of the Indian flag created in 1906, with is green, yellow, and red stripes and multiple symbols. The flag went through many changes before becoming the more familiar orange, white, and green flag used today, and its appearance in the 1920-set RRR is a little anachronistic, but it represents the original desire for freedom and is appropriate for the larger-than-life story and hype surrounding RRR . The dancing sequence also features portraits of prominent figures in the Indian independence movement including Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and Bhagat Singh, and historic Indian rulers Rani Laxmi Bai and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Some of these figures remain controversial in modern India, especially Bose, who allied with Nazi Germany against the British.

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Ultimately, the closing sequence of RRR puts the movie's story in the context of Indian patriotism, with the song lyrics suggesting that Raju and Bheem's dream was realized in the form of the modern Indian state. While RRR portrays anti-colonial resistance as heroic, in an Indian context this isn't inherently more subversive than a Revolutionary War movie would be in America. Still, the ending of RRR makes a powerful statement about friendship and resistance, in addition to being full of thrilling action.

Why RRR Was So Globally Successful

The movie RRR combines the catchy song and dance sequences of Bollywood , the high-octane stunts of the Fast & Furious and Mission Impossible franchises, and the friendship and sentimentality that secretly makes Top Gun undisputably the greatest '80s action movie - with a plot that reflects the plight and aspirations of the global working class. RRR is globally successful because it was designed by Tollywood to do just that, and it's proof positive that the Bengali-language film industry is more than ready to live up to its moniker. Despite its heavy story, RRR remains fun, slightly bonkers, and a really breezy three hours of cinema, where the audience is made to experience almost every emotion possible. It's a serious version of 300 or Rambo , which takes itself seriously at exactly the right moments.

The release of RRR is also quite timely. RRR clearly borrows a lot from Hollywood, even though few contemporary Western films can actually measure up to Tollywood's current masterpiece. Though some thought modern ' 80s nostalgia peaked with Top Gun: Maverick , RRR proved that epic '80s action is a continuing sub-genre on its own. Indeed, while the visual effects are superb, RRR authentically represents Bollywood, and the setting is early 20th-century India, RRR truly looks and feels like a classic '80s Hollywood action film. Save for movies like Top Gun: Maverick or Prey , this can't really be said for any other Western action film released in 2022. RRR is the movie that Hollywood used to be able to pull off - it's Tollywood beating its namesake at its own game - underscoring the global anti-colonial sentiment at the heart of what might be 2022's best action movie.

The RRR Ending Isn't The Last Of Raju And Bheem

The RRR ending leaves the door open for further adventures with Raju and Bheem, and given the success of the first movie, it's not surprising the director is already talking about RRR 2 . While S.S. Rajamouli didn't offer any details on what the story might be about, he did confirm that he would love to do a follow-up. Rajamouli confirmed that, as with the first movie, his father V. Vijayendrea Prasad is working on the story. Given how wildly the first movie converged from historical fact, there are really endless possibilities for where the sequel could go. What is certain is that there will be fans all over the world thrilled to know the story of RRR will continue.

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