Both Bollywood and Tollywood (btw, I actually hate this word, as it is a forced and stupid variation of Hollywood) are quite bad at making good trailers.  Most Indian movie trailers discourage you from watching the movie most because trailers are badly made and poorly conceived and create no excitement about the upcoming movie. I have escaped so many bad movies (some times good ones too because of poorly conceived trailer of a good movie) because I saw the trailer in advance and prematurely predicted quality of the movie. Indian teasers unintentionally discourage “thinking” viewers to go for the movie.  Contrarily Hollywood is too good in make a good trailer even out of a bad movie.   I remember going for some movies thinking that it will be a great comedy only to realize all the jokes in the movie are already part of the trailer.  There are few exception in Bollywood, ex: Amir Khan’s teaser are often impressive.  Recent “Eega” teaser from Telugu industry is also equally impressive.

Coming to the topic, I watched trailer for movie “RACHA” a month ago, and instantly decided that this movie is not in my list.  I had found the trailer to be gory in violence, cheesy and low quality humor.  My belief further strengthened by reviews on the web or on print media.  My sister had booked the tickets in advance without knowing the background of the movie.  She asked me about the movie after she got the tickets, I told her “Good Luck” J.    I had lowered her expectations of the movie to sub zero level.  I guess “zero expectation” syndrome had caused her not to hate the movie so much.  She said except last 20 minutes, most of the movies can be considered as time pass (in desi style)

Yesterday, I was alone with Aniketh at home (Radhika went out for seva, and Revanath was in US, so we were getting bored (remember we pulled the plug on cable TV 8 years so no opportunity to watch junk on TV). We weighed between two movies Battleship and Racha and decided to go for Racha (with a small fear going through our spine for our decision) as we wanted to watch Battleship with Revanth.   We drove to local multiplex (mom and pop type) which is 1 KM away from home at 6:25PM though knowing that the movie starts at 6:30PM.  We were confident that it would be easy to get the tickets given the bad reviews.  We were little shocked to see fully loaded parking lot as we approached the theatre. We asked the parking lot ticket collector about the status of the booking.  He said with a grin, “It’s sold out, Sir”.  But immediately offered to sell us two tickets at 200% premium (now you know the reason for his grin).  I scoffed at him, watching this movie at the face value itself is a big risk. So finally negotiated the final price to 50% premium (cursing ourselves knowing that we will be laughed for watching this movie at a premium price).  But while the price is being negotiated some hardcore fans of Ram Charan (hero of this movie) grabbed the tickets at full premium.

We drove back home and then came back to movie theatre within 10 minutes to book the tickets in advance (now at face value) for 9:30PM show.  We convinced Radhika to join us for the movie.  I did tell her that I would park the car outside the theatre, so that we can exit the movie at anytime or skip last 20 minutes of the violence and predictable ending.  We drove to the theater at 9:25PM. I found a strategic parking spot (which will not be subjected double parking) and will allow me to exit the movie as part of Plan B.

We entered the movie as the titles were rolling. Movie starts in a predictable mass style, with a duel between hero (called as betting Raj) and the “other” guy in a nicely shot chase on the railway track.  Hero wins the bet (why else would he be called as betting Raj) and followed by the title song.  Everyone in Hyderabad had no choice to hum this sung unconsciously, as all the radio stations in twin cities played this song zillion times during last 3 weeks.  So, it was all right watching the song.   Let me cut short to the interval, as I am yet to master how to write review without giving too many spoilers (though it does not matter for this movie).    Movie is a breeze until interval with just about one or two fight sequence (not the gory ones), comedy tracks, and bets between leading lady and betting Raj.  I liked the way first bet was handled, as I was on the curious when Raj confronts with the bad guy, guessing how he would come out of untouched by his bodyguards.  Most songs were not pleasing to watch or hear, except the much hyped rain song.

Last but one fighting sequence was shot well (in oriental style).  We left the theater 20 minutes in advance just when the big fight is about to begin.  Thanks to risk mitigation plan in place, we drove out of the parking lot without suffering from bad ending and associated head ache (which most folks hated the movie for).

That’s all folks,