Ram Setu review: Akshay Kumar starrer is a broken bridge with bumpy screenplay and bad CGI

2/5

Story:

Before evil forces demolish the foundational piece of India's history, an atheist archaeologist who has since become a believer must race against time to establish the real existence of the mythical Ram Setu. A thrilling action adventure with lots of unexpected surprises.

Review: 

There's a scene where Akshay Kumar carries a rock and walks in the Indian Ocean. The bad CGI-ed scene leaves everyone flabbergasted in the scene, as well as the people watching it in the theatre. It indicates that the water level is lower there, thus he is walking on Ram Setu. What does it prove? That there's no landing on the eye-catching sequence; it just floats.

Akshay is an atheist archaeologist named Aryan Kulshreshtra (I read it as Kurukshetra first). During an excavation in the Taliban with a fellow Pakistani archaeologist, he discovers a chest full of treasures and a reclining statue of Gautam Buddha. Of course, if India and Pakistan are involved, the communal discussion is non-negotiable.

But the problem with the whole sequence is that it's just there to show Aryan is an atheist, which doesn't make sense in the screenplay. The whole sequence could have been just a news snippet instead of taking up 20% of the film.

Then, even before touching down in Ram Setu, we see Aryan and his wife Gayatri (Nushrratt Bharuccha), a professor who is a God believer and warns him of the repercussions of being an atheist in this country.

The "liberalism" approach looks too good to be true, going by the title of the film. But Ram Setu is just a little piece of the film and more about Shri Ram's existence.

It takes up the age-old debate between science and religion, which looks good in documentation and maybe even in the screenplay penned.

But the poor CGI, even in underwater sequences and showing the mountains, just messes up the whole viewing experience.

Moreover, Akshay Kumar is shown as a veteran archaeologist with a salt-and-pepper hairdo and a beard. So did it REALLY take Ram Setu's existence to make an atheist like him believe Ramayana was not just a book but the history of our country?

Sure, that might be the case too. But it's not India that turns out to be the catalyst to make his case stronger. The second half of the film, which builds up the story and takes on the Indiana Jones mode, is actually the most interesting part of the film. Sadly, it's short-lived in a very hurried manner. The whole movie is shifted to Sri Lanka in the search of Ravana's "Sone Ki Lanka", which makes up for a good narrative but that's it! 

Anyway, at one point in time, we are in the deep blue sea, which seemed to be shot against the backdrop of an aquarium. Well, they made us believe so, as the Indian Ocean is CGI-ed to impress a pre-teen kid. I am sure even they might not be.

Soon after, we reach the land to find more evidence, or maybe an angle to make the film look better in any way. Don't worry, they have covered all modes of transport, including air too.

They have a Pushpak chopper for transit and also have the stupidest aerial fight sequence in recent times.

Speaking of performances, Akshay Kumar surely needs a break, and so does the audience. The actor has so much in the film that I felt like offering water to him in a few sequences or asking him to take deep breaths.

On the other hand, the film has Jacqueline Fernandez as an environmentalist named Dr Sandra from Goa. When you have a Sri Lankan actor, you might as well have made her from the same native land. Her character also suggested the same. Performance wise, well, she indeed did a better job.

The major disappointment came from Nushrratt Bharuccha, who was just zeroed down to a bimbo after showing up as a smart professor who is a God-believer. It seemed like she had come back into her Pyaar Ka Punchnama mode.

The actor to look out for is Satya Dev as AP, who comes out of nowhere on the big screen and steals the show.

Director Abhishek Sharma made his debut with Tere Bin Laden. The shift is good, but like his debut flick, it stayed super fictitious despite having good material.

Ram Setu is an amalgamation of Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and even Blue (yes, that same Akshay Kumar starrer). But, like many others who seek God, you will become distracted by the pursuit of good execution.

Verdict:

Ram Setu helped Shri Ram come back from Lanka, but the film is just stuck on a broken bridge.