Shah Rukh Khan's superhero character takes too long to boot in this science fiction flick. G.One arrives just five minutes before the interval point by when you have already restarted your system several times, which has been hanging into nothingness. And the film's title character Ra.One, a skeletal villain, gets a face (Arjun Rampal) even later in the second half. Is it worth the wait? Only intermittently and inconsistently!

So what happens before the advent of the superhero? You are introduced to a nerdy South Indian stereotype Shekhar (Shah Rukh Khan), his wife Sonia (Kareena Kapoor) and their apathetic son Prateek (Armaan Verma). The father hopelessly imitates Michael Jackson, the mother is doing a Phd on Indian abuses and you don't blame the son to be uninterested by their goofy gimmickry.

The son wishes to see his diffident daddy as 'Papa - The Great'. So the father designs a virtual reality game and after detailed tutorials on nomenclature and direction-to-use, the video game's protagonist and antagonist come to the fore. So much that they step out of the gaming console to battle it out in the real world as G.One and Ra.One. What follows is a 'Robot- meets-Terminator' plotline with Ra.One in hot pursuit of Prateek while G.One trying to save him.

It's certainly not a 'dream' start for the film with a tacky video game prologue merely to accommodate starry cameos of Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra. Not only does director Anubhav Sinha take too long to arrive, the initial proceedings don't contribute much to the film either. Too much of screen-time is expended on vulgar jokes and tomfoolery. The actual thrill initiates only after the superhero comes into picture and the graph of the narrative soars considerably in the second half.

Though the sci-fi concept seems too far-fetched, the director is able to pull it off with visual dazzlery and fast-paced storytelling that the genre demands. The action sequences are thrillingly and credibly choreographed and esp. outstanding is a freeway chase which leads to car-catapulting sequence in a junkyard at the interval point. The local train sequence in the pre-climax evidently brings back memories of Rajinikanth's Robot. However, the climactic mortal combat in a simulation setup isn't as much awe-inspiring and reminds of the climax of Ajay Devgn's Toonpur Ka Superhero.

Another factor that works against the film is that its title character Ra.One is not half as menacing as it claims to be. Not only is Arjun Rampal inducted pretty late in the plot, being an 'outcome' of virtual reality he is too shallow and ineffective as the main villain. And while G.One is delightful, it could have been a lot more endearing. While it's mechanized avatar and emotionless conduct is again reminiscent of Rajinikanth's Robot, the South sci-fi packed in much more punch thanks to an eventful screenplay as compared to the Bollywood counterpart which relies too much on SRK's stardom than the script. No doubt then that Rajinikanth's one-scene cameo as 'Chitti' garners more applause than Shah Rukh wins in the whole film.

The film has a very crude sense of humour and surprisingly the dialogues are more vulgar than witty for a film largely targeted at the family audience. With the theory that anything sells in the name of Shah Rukh, you are served with butt-spanking, crotch-grabbing, cleavage-popping, nose-picking, condom innuendoes, gayish and garish gags. While any other actor doing that would have been tagged as 'cheap', girls going gaga over SRK would still like to call it 'charming' over here. Kareena Kapoor takes her Golmaal gibberish-abusive legacy ahead. Moreover a SRK film seems incomplete without a karva chauth scene or a K2H2 track playing in the backdrop.

Surprisingly, the ever-dependable Vishal-Shekhar's musical score never rises above the Akon number Chammak Challo. V Manikanandan's cinematography is effective. The editing could have been better and the film could have been much crisper in length. Since the film was not actually shot using the 3D technology and is merely converted into the format, the effects aren't really great and one wouldn't miss much in the 2D format.

Shah Rukh Khan credibly pulls off the G.One part though irritates occasionally as the nerdy South Indian. Despite being a superhero film, Kareena Kapoor is never sidelined and does decent in her part. Child actor Armaan Verma is less cute and more of attitude. He carries an annoyed expression for a major part. It's a cakewalk for Arjun Rampal to remain expressionless (in his mechanical avatar) throughout the film. The base effect added to his voice makes his dialogue delivery less perceptible. Amitabh Bachchan's voiceover in the game's introduction doesn't register. The film offers an apt tribute to Rajinikanth though. Shahana Goswami gets no scope. Dalip Tahil makes a caricature of himself.

On the Indian superhero scale, G.One is certainly way ahead of its Krrish counterparts but still miles behind Robot. Nevertheless Ra.One qualifies for a 'one' time watch.

Verdict: Above Average

Gaurav MalaniGaurav Malani