Akshay Kumar is back on the screen once again with his fifth film of the year – “Ram Setu”, which is based on a very interesting chapter from the history, i.e, when Lord Shri Ram and his army went out in search of Mata Sita he had built a bridge in the sea from Rameshwaram to Sri Lanka and this bridge was made of such stones, which did not sink in water. And ever since then, Ram Setu has always been a topic of debate and fascination among the general public because of all the religious values associated with it.
The story of the film begins from Afghanistan where the statue of Lord Buddha has been damaged in a Taliban attack. There enters Akshay Kumar with his team as India’s famous archaeologist Dr. Aryan Kulshrestha to restore the historical site. With this entire sequence, the background is set that Aryan is an atheist and does not believe in religion but loves the remnants of culture and believes in only one thing, that is fact.
As the story progresses ahead, there enters South actor Nassar, who plays the role of a businessman Indrajit whose company ‘Pushpak Shipping’ has proposed a project to the government of India. But this project will harm ‘Ram Setu’ and that is why it is being opposed by a certain section of society. The matter reaches the Supreme Court and the government orders to take the project ahead with the help of Dr. Aryan’s report, which says Ram Setu is nothing but a natural construction.
This report obviously hurts the religious sentiments of the public who believe that Ram Setu is not nature’s charisma but it was built by Lord Shri Rama and eventually leads to Dr. Aryan’s suspension. On the other hand, Indrajit doesn’t want his project to get into any troubles so he decides to prove it with complete scientific facts that Ram Setu is indeed a natural construction and not man-made. To prove it, he sends Dr. Aryan to find the truth. But what if the truth of Ram Setu turns out to be different from what Indrajit had expected?
The treatment of the film is serious and Akshay Kumar too tries his best to maintain the mood. He succeeds in it to an extent in the first half but in the second half the film gets very confused and its story starts falling apart. Dr. Aryan, who sets out to find the truth of “Ram Setu”, is more interested in the news reports and documentaries made on the subject than what he does in the name of finding facts in his journey. The goal of Dr. Aryan’s mission seems confusing and the adventure which initially kept the audience binded to the story eventually loses its luster. Even Abhishek Sharma’s direction could not save the story from getting confused. The director’s responsibility increases even more while making films on cultural heritage and religious subjects, and Abhishek Sharma miserably fails at both. Despite being associated with religious faith, the film fails to connect to the audience, and makes us question its intentions and time of release.
Talking about the supporting cast, there’s Nushrratt Bharuccha who is seen in the role of Akshay Kumar’s wife, Gayatri and Jacqueline Fernandes as an environmentalist scientist from Goa, Dr. Sandra. Their characters are very lightly written for us to care and so is the case with the rest of the cast too. The saving grace of the film is Satyadev’s character AP who injects a fun and light element in the story. Well, it’s high time, the directors in Indian Cinema need to realize that a film is not going to work just on the hero’s name. Every character how big or small, plays a very important role in developing the story and you can’t go on avoiding it.
In the technical department too, the film is nothing more than average. Daniel B. George has tried to design the sound according to the mood of the film and it’s good. It helps in engaging the audience with the scenes. Rameshwar Bhagat’s editing is sluggish.The film’s VFX is poor and makes you cringe so often. Though, Asim’s cinematography has definitely helped a lot in keeping the film full of mystery and thrill.
With all said and done, the first half of the film takes a lot of time in building up and the second half is very bland and boring. The climax of the film is a courtroom drama, which has always been a weak point for Bollywood, so we won’t make any remarks on it as this film too doesn’t add anything to the template. “Ram Setu”, despite revolving around a serious and interesting topic, fails to weave it into an adventure-filled journey rather losts its path mid-way and starts testing the audience’s patience. From the story, direction and the star cast, everything comes down like an effort towards nothing.
”Ram Setu” is now showing at theaters near you. Watch it if need be.
