The tagline for this film is "a love story like no other," which is a little strange given that it's a reimagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet but it's Bollywood so it doesn't have to make sense.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Romeo and Juliet is the most adapted Shakespeare play out there, but I'm too lazy to check that fact right now.
It's directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and as I'm a big fan of several of his other films, 'Devdas' and 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,' being my personal favourites, I was very excited to be able to watch this at the cinema.
It's big, bold, brash, beautiful and surprisingly risqué for a big Bollywood film, I've seen actual kissing in a few independent / art house type Hindi films but the mainstream still seems to prefer dramatic eye gazing to lip on lip action. I don't really mind this as I think sex is overused in film anyway but it's still nice to see some boundaries being pushed regardless.
There's nothing here a western audience would bat an eyelash at but you only need to read youtube comments branding it as porn, to see how challenging the actors, particularly the lead actress, probably found some of those 'intimate' scenes. Women, as is the norm pretty much everywhere else in the world too, get most of the hassle in Bollywood. Their reputations are more easily damaged in the eyes of their peers and the audience choosing to watch or avoid them.
So it makes me really happy that the actress Deepika Padukone seems to be doing very well in Bollywood right now, Ram-Leela and her other recent film choices have pushed her in to the top spot and she seems very much to be the actress in demand.
Ram-Leela is the kind of film where you know, more or less, what's going to happen but the clever thing about it is that you still find yourself caring about what's going on and hoping for a happy outcome even though you know it's not possible because...remember...you're watching 'Romeo and Juliet' not 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'
The location, the costumes, the music, all conspire to make you feel like you're lost in a crazy world where it could be set a hundred years ago for the most part, but then they pull out their mobile phones, drive cars and mix modern jeans with classic gagra choli's and gorgeous layered lehengas.
I'd kill for all of Leela's outfits in this film, also for her dancing skills.
I enjoyed spotting some places I visited in Udaipur during some of the scenes as well, even though it filled me with an intense longing to be there.
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