The petty goon falls for the pretty girl and decides to go straight in life. That's after he has bashed the baddies, busted the underworld, in between found time for naach-gaana and gone bombastic with dialogues.
Right... you have seen all of it before, so what's new. Nothing really, unless you consider Shahid Kapoor decides to turn fully filmi with this one - which may count only if you are a Shahid Kapoor fan.
For all others, any resemblance R... Rajkumar bears with a zillion masala flicks is wholly intentional. Shahid needs a big bang at the box-office right now - it has been ages he has had one - and wooing the masses seems his way out.
The actor's rugged tapori act is directed by Prabhu Dheva, which would seem an advantage. Prabhu Dheva has scored with the all-out commercial trick twice before by way of Wanted and Rowdy Rathore.
In look and spirit, R... Rajkumar tries following that template. It backfires because Prabhu Dheva has no new gimmick to hawk this time. Jaded in style, treatment and plot, R...Rajkumar becomes a caricature of the very formula that made Prabhu Dheva one of mainstream's hotshot directors.
The similarity with Wanted and Rowdy Rathore also backfires because Shahid, despite innate talent, lacks the star power of Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar when it comes to going larger than life. His character of Romeo is imagined as a happy-go-lucky thug who beats the living daylights out of the bad guys. Shahid gets the happy-go-lucky bit just right but barely convinces bashing up a whole pack of goons twice his size.
Romeo's druglord boss (Sonu Sood) gives him the job of eliminating rival gangster Manik Parmar (Ashish Vidyarthi). A feeble twist comes with Chanda (Sonakshi Sinha), the girl he falls in love with. To win Chanda, he realises he must destroy the drug mafia. Which is as easy as the script is convenient, of course.
With R... Rajkumar, Prabhu Dheva commits his second blunder this year after Ramaiya Vastavaiya. He needn't have made this film. The film does not leave you with a single memorable scene despite its loud effort to impress. Prabhu Dheva clearly loses track of his own film early on. The first half is a jumble and the second seems too long.
R... Rajkumar will not break Shahid's wretched run at the box-office, coming after Mausam, Teri Meri Kahaani and Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. He has chosen too hackneyed a project to get back in business.
Sonakshi Sinha is looking too typical in these desi girl roles now. She is lost in this mess of a screenplay. Sonu Sood and Ashish Vidyarthi get on with hamfisted ho-hum. Even the item girls fail to fire.
A couple of songs (Pritam) are catchy, and Shahid's dances as spiritedly as ever. This isn't a film about song and dance though, so that is hardly a reason you would shell out the bucks for.
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