First, Rajamouli is in love with the sheer bigness that makes movies so much grander than TV. But if you can - and I'd urge local theaters to bring it back - you should see it on a big screen. You can currently see RRR on Netflix, and it's a good enough movie that you'll enjoy it. 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. 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. 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. 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. Rajamouli unfolds the many twists and turns of their story with such confidently rampaging energy that, by comparison, most Hollywood blockbusters feel anemic. 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 makes the British rulers of India even worse than they actually were, and they were mighty bad. Its emotions are simple, its anti-colonial politics broad. RRR - the title stands for Rise Roar Revolt - is populist filmmaking. While Bheem secretly opposes the governor, Ram is secretly working for him. Kindred in their bravery, they instantly become fast friends. Ram and Bheem meet heroically while working in tandem to save a child from a train crashing into a river. 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. His tiger-hunting counterpart, Bheem, played by N.T. 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. Set during the British Raj in the 1920s, the movie tells the story of two heroes with impressive physiques and super-charged abilities. And having seen RRR twice myself, I'm part of the bandwagon. Forget Best International Feature Film, folks are talking Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor. Rajamouli, RRR induces such unabashed giddiness in its audience that Hollywood is witnessing a push to get it nominated for the Oscars. The screening had 900 people - some of whom had already seen the film 10 times - clapping and dancing from the opening credits. A few nights ago, I went to a packed screening of RRR, an epic action-picture bromance from India. I've never seen anything like it - until now. 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. If you're over the age of, say, 40, you will surely remember the 1975 cult phenomenon The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
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