India Doesn’t Seem to Love ‘RRR’ as Much as the West

I’ve gotten a few emails from Indian readers this fall telling me that they find it very amusing how westerners have fallen head over heels in love with SS Rajamouli’s “RRR.” To them, it’s the kind of film that, even though entertaining, feels familiar and cliched.

It seems as though India finds it cute that we, foriegners, keep tweeting about how good “RRR” is, and that it’s one of the best movies of 2022 etc. On Rotten Tomatoes, “RRR” has a 94% score based on 77 reviews. Of the 5 negative reviews listed, 4 of them are from Indian publications …

Here’s an interesting take of the West’s infatuation for “RRR,” from someone who lives in India:

“A foreigner watching an Indian movie will have a very different reaction to a colorful, over the top movie than an Indian. Many foreigners are watching an Indian movie for the first time and when comparing it to the movies they are used to are just going gaga over details we are far too used to with our movies. While some Indians may not be having the same overwhelming response to RRR, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the movie is bad, it means that the novice palate and the experienced palate have different expectations.”

“RRR” is Rajamouli’s most expensive film, and one of the priciest Indian films ever made, with an estimated budget of $70 million.

I only found out today that the film was shot over 320 days. That’s Kubrick-level madness. Not just that, it seems as though production went on and off from November 2018 to August 2021.

I’ve said this before: It’s entertaining; the action is deliriously over the top, the story very silly, and its 3-hour runtime is a little too indulgent. I know Rajamouli was going for an “epic” scope and the sheer exuberance of the whole thing is pretty contagious, but it’s a whopping 187 minute assault of the senses …

Part of the charm of this movie is its outlandish bombast. You shouldn’t take it too seriously, it plays like a live-action cartoon — a muscular Looney Tunes-esque action epic that American critics have been praising to the high heavens. Hell, Rajamouli even won the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Director. Pretty shocking considering the auteurs that he beat in the process.