RRR (2022)
★★★★½ — RRR (2022)
RRR arrived in 2022 as something of a cultural event, both in India and, rather unexpectedly, across much of the English-speaking world. The film takes two real historical figures, the Telugu freedom fighters Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem, and imagines a fictional friendship between them set against the backdrop of British colonial rule in 1920s India. It is not a biography and does not pretend to be one; it is a full-blooded action epic that uses the period and the personalities as a canvas for something considerably more operatic. For viewers coming to Telugu-language cinema for the first time, it serves as a reasonable introduction to what the industry, often called Tollywood, can do at its most ambitious and its most unrestrained.
S. S. Rajamouli directed the film for DVV Entertainment, and his name carries genuine weight in Indian cinema. He had already demonstrated a talent for large-scale spectacle with his two-part Baahubali series earlier in the decade, so RRR was not exactly a leap into the unknown for him, more a continuation of a very particular vision. The two leads, N. T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan, are both established stars in Telugu cinema in their own right, and the film gives them room to work together with an easy, enjoyable chemistry. The British antagonists are played by Ray Stevenson and Alison Doody, two recognisable faces who add a certain theatrical menace to proceedings. The film runs to a considerable 187 minutes, which is not unusual for Indian popular cinema but is worth knowing before you sit down with your snacks. It is a long film with a great deal going on: action sequences, musical numbers, political drama, and a friendship at its centre that the screenplay treats with real warmth. For context on the broader landscape of Indian cinema, it is worth knowing the blog has reviewed films from across the country's long filmmaking history, including the silent era with A Throw of Dice (1929) and the art-house tradition with A River Called Titas (1973), which gives some sense of just how wide a range that tradition covers. In purely commercial terms, RRR sits at a very different point on that spectrum, sitting closer in spirit to something like The Raid 2 in its commitment to escalating, physical action, or Hardcore Henry in its willingness to push set-pieces into genuinely outrageous territory.
A-Z World Movie Tour India Since I've already watched Sholay... I decided to go for the cream of the crop for the Indian selection. RRR is a record breaker. A tour de force. It's the first Indian film to win an academy award. The first Asian film to be nominated for and win a golden globe. It won countless other awards and broke streaming records on Netflix... and all of those accolades are well deserved. It has hilariously over the top vfx and fight scenes that would make Marvel fans envious. It has dance and music numbers that would make Andrew Lloyd Webber weep. At 3 hours long I do think it's a little bloated in the middle section of the film with a back n forth betrayal and retribution angle multiple times. My only gripe. A very well deserved high score
That said, a slightly indulgent middle act is a small price to pay for a film that commits so wholeheartedly to its own excess and earns almost every minute of it. For me, the sheer ambition on display here is what sticks, the sense that the people making this film genuinely believed they were making something enormous and then went ahead and made it. You do not often get that kind of confidence, and when it pays off the way it does here, it is hard not to be swept along. If this is the cream of the crop, as I went in expecting, it does not disappoint. Films like this remind you that spectacle, when it is handled with care and a certain gleeful conviction, is still worth celebrating. The naanku naanku scene alone is worth the price of admission.
Rating: ★★★★½ | Year: 2022 | Watched: 2025-06-28
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for RRR (2022) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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