'Radhe Shyam' Review
October 21st, 2022
Credit: T-Series, UV Creations
Release Date: March 11, 2022
Director: Radha Krishna Kumar
Screenplay: Radha Krishna Kumar
Releasing Languages: Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada
Where to Watch on OTT: Amazon Prime Video
Cast: Prabhas, Pooja Hegde, Bhagyashree, Jagapathi Babu, Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma, Krishnam Raju, Sathyaraj
Rating: 1.0
Director Chandra Sekhar Yeleti initially conceived Radhe Shyam and he worked with his assistant Radha Krishna Kumar to develop a story for the film. However, the idea was dropped after the duo failed to create an up-to-mark conclusion. Radha Krishna Kumar worked on the script for 18 years before coming up with a satisfactory ending. He narrated the script to Prabhas while he was shooting for Baahubali (2015-2017), and Prabhas took a liking to the unique concept & agreed to be the leading man. The film was officially launched on September 5th, 2018, and was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu. Originally slated for release in July 2021, the shooting and post-production work was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released in theaters on March 11th, 2022.
Radhe Shyam aims to highlight the perpetual tug-of-war between the ideologies of free will and fate. Set in Europe during the 1970s, Vikramaditya (Prabhas) is an ace palmist that reads the palms of the most powerful people in the world, including then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. With one look at her palm, he predicts the Emergency period. By describing Vikramaditya as “the Einstein of Palmistry” in the very first minute of the film, the makers seize the opportunity to once again present Prabhas as larger-than-life with clips of him racing with horses or climbing the tallest mountains in the world. These scenes come off as silly and unrealistic, pushing the reader away from Prabhas’s character within the first few minutes of the movie.
Radha Krishna Kumar as a writer and director fails in every possible department, from character development to even a logical storyline. After 140 minutes, the viewer doesn’t know an ounce of information about Vikramaditya: his backstory, rise to fame, and family dynamics. Prerana has a large family, but the viewer only gets to see them in a couple of scenes. Radha Krishna Kumar falls into the trap of ‘style over substance’ by putting all his focus into beautiful background scenes, top-notch VFX, and melodious music. In a scramble for grandeur, Kumar forgets that an engaging movie requires a good plot over anything else. The very meeting of Vikramaditya and Prerana is laughable; In the luggage compartment of a train, Prerana ties one end of a rope around her waist, throws the other end to Vikramaditya (a stranger), and leans out of the train. The makers try to silence the various questions that pop into the audience’s heads with a blaring BGM score and a beautiful background, but all that does is reinforce the ridiculousness of the movie. Scenes are choppily edited, and transitions are very lazy. It is disappointing that despite being given an impressive star cast and a massive budget of 350 crore INR, Radha Krishna Kumar fails to provide an even semi-watchable movie.
Credit: UV Creations, T-Series
Prabhas gives a very disinterested and monotone performance. None of his dialogues are spoken with conviction and he displays next to no emotions throughout the film. Pooja Hegde gives a good performance but is severely limited by the simplicity of her character. Bhagyashree (Girija Rani, Vikramaditya’s mother) acts well but is given no scope, and the same applies to Kunal Roy Kapoor (Vedant, Vikramaditya’s best friend). The supporting cast of Jagapathi Babu, Sachin Khedekar, Murali Sharma, and Jayaram do well in their roles but are given little to no scope to display their talents.
The only positive aspects of Radhe Shyam are its cinematography, background score, and VFX. Cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa captures the beauty of Italy & Georgia in the 1970s and the backgrounds for many scenes are truly mesmerizing. Even the houses and bedrooms of the characters in the movie are lavish. Thaman S. impresses again with a melodious background score that sucks you into the rich landscapes presented in the movie. VFX Supervisor Kamal Kannan hits it out of the park, especially in the climax sequence where Prabhas fights to survive on a cargo ship that crosses paths with a tsunami. This ten-minute sequence was the only enjoyable part of the movie.
Prabhas in a still from Bahubali Part 2: The Conclusion. Credit: Arka Media Works
The debacle of Radhe Shyam in the international box office bring up questions, like: Was Baahubali a one-off? Is Prabhas worth the hype he receives? After the success of the Baahubali series, all producers and directors want to star Prabhas in big-budget movies, but was it really him that made Baahubali a success? Many would argue that SS Rajamouli’s direction and screenplay were the reason for the series’ fame, and Prabhas was just lucky he got the leading role in it. Whatever the reason, Prabhas is now a leading pan-Indian star and must be very careful in which movies he picks in the future as every future film he acts in will be compared to Baahubali.
Overall, Radhe Shyam is a poor film that is better to miss. Hopefully, in the future, Prabhas picks better films because his career is riding on it.