Radhe Shyam movie stars Prabhas and Pooja Hegde as the lead couple. What does an ace palmist who declares that he is never wrong in his predictions, have in common with a pretty young thing who enjoys hanging out of open train doors? It’s love, of course, stupid, the kind that ‘Radhe Shyam’ expects us to swallow, hook, line and so many sinkers, while we keep collecting our jaw off the floor. And what kind is that? After nearly three hours of this bizarre rigmarole, filled with the massive computer-generated sets and scenery, and the most preposterous situations, I’ve been left rubbing my head, trying to figure that one out.
Why don’t you also have a go? Let me help you with some details. Here’s how it begins, in 1974. Vikramaditya (Prabhas) strides across a marble floor, surrounded by armed guards, and fetches up by Mrs Indira Gandhi’s (Flora Jacob, looking remarkably like the Congress leader) side. She proffers her palm; he stares at it, and intones, ‘you will soon declare Emergency’. Guys, now you know. (In case any of you were still wondering just how the then PM of India kickstarted one of the most turbulent periods of the nation’s recent history, that is).
If you think this is spoiler, worry not. There’s a lot more from where this came; this was just so you would get the drift. From here on, it’s open season. Cut to Rome, where Vikramaditya meets-cute with Prerna (Pooja Hegde) in a rail compartment: remember I told you about her thing for open train doors. Why Rome? Who knows? Next up, Vikramaditya spends some tender moments with his dancer mother (Bhagyashree, who looks just like she did when she was romancing a pigeon and Prem in ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’), and his best pal (Kunaal Roy Kapur), who appears to have a permanent slot in their house. Why? Who knows?
This pretty much sums up this film. The script, such as it is, is clueless about why the characters do the things they do. Prerna happens to be a doctor in her spare time (when she is not swanning about in trains, her long hair in Rapunzel ringlets), with a mum, dad, sister, grandmum, dutifully showing up to deliver their lines and vanishing. There’s a train accident. A car crash. And an almighty Titanic like ship-being-swallowed-up-by-the-ocean, with our hero, labelled adoringly ‘India Ka Nostradamus’ and ‘Palmistry Ka Einstein’, emerging wet and victorious, on the other side. The ship, in case you were wondering, is called Da Vinci.
All through this, we are given ‘gyaan’ on how ‘all science is 99 percent’. Huh? What’s the remaining one percent for? More such lines keep spilling out from our palmist’s indefatigable guru (Sathyaraj) back in India. Going by their unshakeable belief in ‘haath ki lakeer’, you wonder exactly what the purpose of this film is: is it to justify superstition? Because that’s really what it feels like. A refutation does come — humans make their own fate, everything is in their hands — but in a tearing hurry, and right at the end.
All this unpeeling of the unknown refuses to give us the biggest reveal. Why did Prabhas, coasting on his macho action hero image, agree to play a role in which he has to mouth such lines as, ‘I am not a relationship type, I am a flirtationship type’. Who knows? My head is buried in my palm.
Radhe Shyam movie cast: Prabhas, Pooja Hegde, Bhagyashree, Sathyaraj
Radhe Shyam movie director: Radha Krishna Kumar
Radhe Shyam movie rating: 1 star
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
