Akshay Kumar who is the highest-paid actor in the country comes with numerous films every year. He is now coming to entertain movie lovers with his film Ram Setu on October 25 as a Diwali treat. Ram Setu OTT rights have been bagged by Amazon Prime and the screening will be done after the end of its theatrical run.Let us see whether Akshay Kumar set the screens on fire with Ram Setu.
The story of Ram Setu is all about an archaeologist and his findings about the Ram Sethu bridge and its bearing on the Indian government and the general public. Archaeologist Dr.Aryan Khulshreshtra (Akshay Kumar) becomes popular in Pakistan and India after his findings in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. He is promoted to ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) and assigned the job of issuing an affidavit regarding Ram Sethu by the Indian Government to the Supreme Court.
But this lands him numerous problems and results in his suspension. Where this leads to and how it affects his relations with his wife Professor Gayatri (Nushrratt Bharuccha), Dr.Sandra Rebello (Jacqueline Fernandez), AP (Satyadev Kancharana), Indrajit (Nassar), CEO of Pushkar Shipping Corporation form the crux of the story.
Ram Sethu's story taken up by director Abhishek Sharma is an interesting one. However, Abhishek Sharma failed to narrate it in an exciting and interesting manner. He passes most of the first half, elevating the character of Akshay Kumar and the way his life gets impacted. Even that doesn't excite anyone and viewers wait eagerly for the thrilling things to unravel but they get disappointed as those things never come and the film ends on a sad note.
Abhishek Sharma's screenplay is not racy and the direction turned out to be unidimensional. Dialogues penned by Chandraprakash Diwedi of the TV serial Chankya fame are just routine. The cliched narration by Abhishek Sarma affected the film in a big way. All the actors seem to have passed through the motions. Abhishek Sharma failed to connect the emotional chords with the viewers with the story. Overall it turned out to be a disappointing affair for everyone.
Akshay Kumar tried to ride on the emotions of the majority of the Hindus with his film Ram Sethu releasing it on Diwali. Though the idea is right and Akshay Kumar tried his best to take the film to a new level, he failed miserably to save Ram Sethu. Akshay Kumar is ok in his role as the archaeologist but one gets a routine feeling as viewers have seen him do such roles earlier in his career. Satyadev Kancharana made a decent debut in Bollywood with his performance. Though his role looked silly and illogical to the core, he made the right impact with his expressions and mannerisms. Jacqueline Fernandez is ok in her role as the scientist while Nushrratt Bharuccha is ok in her role as Akshay's wife. Nassar is apt in the role of shipping corporation CEO. Others performed accordingly.
Daniel B George's music and background music failed to make an impact. They turned out to be below average. Aseem Mishra's cinematography is ok but VFX turned out to be extremely poor. Editing of Rameshwar S. Bhagat left so many drags that it ended up testing the patience of the viewers.
Altogether, Akshay Kumar's Ram Setu has an interesting premise and there ends the matter. Director Abhishek Sharma came up with a ridiculous, childish, and outlandish script (if we call it a script) and even schoolgoers can come up with an interesting script. There are a lot of similarities between Ram Setu and Karthikeya 2 with the protagonist being an atheist and undergoing a change in his thought process with the proceedings. But Ram Setu failed to come up with interesting twists and turns and everything turned out to be artificial. The standard of VFX is below par that of even an amateur could have come with better output. The so-called 7000 years so-called floating rocks looked so modern and artificial and everyone is seen mocking the makers. Altogether Ram Sethu turns out to be mediocre. Considering all these elements, Cinejosh goes with a 1.5 rating for Ram Setu.