What went wrong with RaOne ?

Introduction

At several instances we have criticized the Indian film industry for not trying something new. Well, one such experimental film was released twelve years back on the occasion of Diwali. The film was RaOne starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles, and was directed by Anubhav Sinha. RaOne revolves around a game designer father, who makes a never seen before game to impress his son. Disaster strikes when the supremely powerful villain of the game comes into real life and vows to  kill the game designer's son. It was the costliest Indian film at that time, with a production budget of 130 crores (USD 20 million). Shah Rukh Khan in an interview said that he even had to host a TV show to finance the film. On paper, the film was a clean hit,  recovering it's entire budget, grossing over 200 crores at the global box office and even winning a National Film award for the Best VFX category, but the film was heavily criticized. I would've made my peace with heavy criticism, but to make matters worse the film was outright mocked by the audience at such a time, when Internet wasn't even a thing. Today, I will try to put forward my perspective on what went wrong with RaOne.

 

According to my opinion, RaOne went wrong in several departments which can be broadly classified into three groups, namely : Subject matter, Comedy and Making. The widely discussed 'ahead of time' theory comes into play in the subject matter and comedy portions (discussed in the conclusion part)

Subject Matter

Back in 2011, GTA franchise, IGI series, Moto GP, NFS were flooding the PC gaming sector in India, and the Indian parents struggled a lot to keep their kids away from the games. RaOne was all about gaming and thus received immediate criticism from Indian parents due to it's subject. The concept of playing the game with a VR (Virtual Reality) headset as shown in the film, simply didn't resonate with the Indian audience in 2011 resulting in audience terming it as a fake concept. Also, the makers went wrong with their target audience. They marketed the film saying it's for children, and showed too much science fiction which was simply difficult for even adults to understand back in those days. 

Comedy

We love Raj and DK's slapstick comedy and are still waiting with bated breath for the next season of Family man. Comedy presented in a slapstick manner is something which we have got used to now, but it was not always this easy. Back in 2011, people objectified the Comedy in RaOne. They mistook slapstick Comedy for vulgarity and accused the makers for allegedly being comfortable with children watching the same. Kareena Kapoor practicing hindi cuss words, the power yoga joke, the airport metal detector scene, the main part jokes, GOne watching old Hollywood adult films and publicly repeating the dialogues, were few of the many slapstick comedy scenes, majority of which were pulled off nicely. 

Making

Things were seriously wrong in this department. The story and concept were really good, but it's the inconsistent screenplay and weak writing which played majority of the spoilsport. The direction by Anubhav Sinha was although a brave and honest attempt, but ended up being sub par, questioning his caliber in directing sci-fi films. The emotions were weak and almost negligible, which was a major letdown. One didn't feel for the death of Shekhar Subramaniyam, which resulted in the makers failing in job of keeping up with Indian sensibility. Also, the stakes were very low for a super hero like GOne. It was only Prateek and Soniya. People love watching super heroes doing a 'save the world exercise', and were really disappointed with a one dimensional threat that only loomed over Prateek and his mother Soniya. People were so clueless after seeing the film, they even went on to say the film was illogical (I mean, who questions logic in a sci-film anyway ?). Such was the level of misinterpretation of the film. 

Conclusion: What if RaOne was released today ? 

Reports say that Anubhav Sinha came with the idea of a superhero action sci-fi film to Shah Rukh Khan in 2006. SRK was interested but had budget problems. They finally collaborated five years later for that project, and that's how RaOne was made. The people concerned with RaOne should be happy that the film didn't release in 2007 or 2008. That would've been perceived as rocket science at that time. 

RaOne as a film had all the elements which a commercial Indian action film should have; Blockbuster music, stupendous VFX, spine chilling BGM, dedicated BGM for characters, strong reference according to Indian Context (Ramayana), renowned actors, powerful performances, villain more powerful than hero, slapstick comedy, and many more things. Yet, the film lacked soul and substance. People call RaOne ahead of time and believe that it would've been successful, had it been released today. This theory is correct to a great extent as gaming has become a business, and watching gameplay videos on you tube is very  common nowadays. This was almost unthinkable back in 2011. Every famous you tuber has a gaming channel now, just to cater to their audience in a different way. A gaming related film would've definitely created hysterical hype among Indian youths, had it been released now. The film would've got it's target audience and appreciation for slapstick comedy, but would've still faced criticism (if not mockery) for bad writing, sub par direction and lack of soul. 

All said and done, RaOne still remains one of the landmark experimental films in a yet to be exploited genre, which unintentionally created the VFX revolution in India with SRK's Red Chillies VFX becoming the pioneer VFX company in India that currently provides visual effects for several Marvel films.  It doesn't matter how RaOne would've fared had it been released today. What matters, is the brave attempt by the makers who dared to try their hands on something new for the audience to enjoy. Probably some day we will witness an Indian super hero universe like Marvel, consisting GOne from RaOne, Krrish from Krrish and Chitti from Robot. But these are all speculations which we want to turn to reality. Who knows, had we welcomed RaOne (in spite of it's flaws) with open arms, our speculations would've come to reality more sooner than later.