Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela (2013)

Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela is a Bollywood movie that is one, based around the story of Romeo and Juliet, and two is quite a mouthful. The film features everything from big dances to kind of crazy songs and to say this is supposed to be one of Shakespeare’s tragedies well then it sure doesn’t feel like that. The full movie is set around the 500 year old feud between two clans, the Rajadi’s and the Sanera’s and both although maybe don’t go to war with each other, if you cross the dividing line between the two’s areas, you’re in big trouble. 

The story plays out a bit insanely, at 155 minutes long it feels stretched out to watch online and even for a Bollywood movie this is just too long for what material it has. The story flies around the place and never settles down and even at times can become increasingly confusing as well with the entire crazy goings on that happen. The characters of Ram Rajadi(Romeo) and Leela Sanera(Juliet) are unlikeable as the two leads, the chemistry doesn’t light a match, it’s dull and especially in the case of Ram where he is not a likeable person from the first time he rides in on his motorbike. Ranveer Singh plays Ram and is not that great in the role, like I said fails to create a person you can like, sure at the beginning he is meant to be unlikeable but over time you are meant to get to connect with him more. Deepika Padukone is slightly better in the role, still not so so likeable but she still does a job that she manages well. She really excels when she gets into a position of power in the movie, where no one can tell her what to do and what to think, she becomes a better actor when she is shouting I swear. The director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is behind the helm on this movie and I feel he fails to do what he usually has to do in the movies he makes. It’s the pure emotion that is lacking here and the love side of things just never works, we never feel bad for any character nor that happy and when we should be rooting for certain people, it just never materialises. He co-writes the movie as well and although the script isn’t horrific, well it isn’t much to shout about either way, the movie suffers from basic dialogue and some over dramatics that just make this feel silly but not in a fun way. I’ll give the film credit where it’s due some, it’s shot well and the choice of camera angles is done well so that at least the movie is trying to show you some raw emotion of the characters involved. 

I liked the settings too and the fact that i can free download this movie from filmxy. Also the shots taken in Udaipur are purely beautiful and the film definitely uses it’s backdrop to great effect. The parts mostly shot in Gujarat are beautiful too, some of the movies scenes get a little confusing where suddenly a character is in the desert but all in all it looks great. Overall if I had to point to an adaption of Romeo and Juliet it wouldn’t be this one although I can’t say I have ever seen it done in such a fun kind of way. The choreography is nice there is no doubt all though the songs are not always fantastic, if the movie has made the characters more developed (which they could have in such a long film) then the movie would have been so much more lovely and we could have maybe actually felt something for the people who get very emotional in this movie.