Content Advisory: Kidnapping
The lives of two Indian revolutionaries cross paths in RRR. In 1920 during the British Raj, Govoner Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his wife Catherine (Alison Doody) forcibly abduct a young girl named Malli (Twinkle Sharma) from the Gond tribe in Adilabad. Malli’s brother Komaram Bheem (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) travels to Delhi to rescue her, taking the guise of a Muslim man named Akhtar. After assisting with the rescue of a boy from a train crash, Bheem begins a close friendship with Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan Teja), who happens to be the officer in the Indian Imperial Police assigned to locate Bheem. Neither aware of their true identities, Bheem and Raju will soon have to choose between friendship and duty.
RRR Synopsis
RRR, expanded in English as Rise, Roar, Revolt, is an epic action-drama from Telugu Indian filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli (Eega, Baahubali). The film is a fictional story about the real-life Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. The film imagines what it would have been like if Raju and Bheem had met and become friends. The film is set during the United Kingdom’s occupation of India, with Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone, Thor, Big Game) and Alison Doody (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) taking the antagonistic roles of tyrannical governor Scott Buxton and his wife, Catherine. However, the story also includes some sympathetic British characters, such as Buxton’s niece Jennifer (Olivia Morris), whom Bheem begins courting.
My Thoughts on RRR
Over the course of his two-decade-long career, S.S. Rajamouli has been one of the main forces of the Telugu-language “Tollywood” segment of Indian cinema, with films such as 2009’s Magadheera, 2012’s Eega, and the two-part epic of 2015’s Baahubali: The Beginning and 2017’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. RRR can be considered S.S. Rajamouli’s magnum opus, one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, which received unprecedented global success.
RRR is a film that must be seen to be believed. The film features over-the-top action sequences made to be seen on the biggest screen possible. This includes a climatic scene before the mid-film interval that uses dozens of (computer-generated) animals, with many moments that seem like they came straight out of The Matrix. As with many Indian films, RRR features several musical sequences, with the key song “Naatu Naatu” sure to be one that will stick in the audience’s heads.
While Indian cinema has a long and storied history that often rivals Hollywood, RRR is truly a film that crosses borders to be enjoyed globally. I am glad I could finally catch up with RRR at a theatrical screening since I believe there is no better film from 2022.