Though the reviews for Ra.One in India have been fairly divided in terms of appreciation of the film, overseas it’s another story. Seems as if counterparts in the West are enjoying Ra.One quite a bit.
From New York Times to the Hollywood Reporter, reviews have been coming in and the film has received a resounding thumbs up. “Anubhav Sinha’s exhilarating fantasy “Ra.One” is Bollywood at its best. It has energy, spectacle and humor, song and dance, but razzle-dazzle special effects and action stunts never overwhelm its story of enduring love that unfolds amid an intricate and inspired sci-fi odyssey.” says Kevin Thomas, a top critic from the Los Angeles Times.
Even the ever-so-popular standard for quality movies, Rotten Tomatoes, seems to have earned a higher rating for Ra.One than in India. The film has a total critics’ rating of 78%, which is most definitely Fresh. And when you factor in only the Top Critics in the ratings it is raised even further to an 83% freshness! This is much higher than current Hollywood box office darlings such as Real Steel, Paranormal Activity 3 and Footloose.
Ra.One was also screened at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where SRK addressed the audience before the film was shown. Academy Award winning Sound Mixer Resul Pookutty tweeted that they received an “overwhelming response from the fraternity here”.
It seems that the western world has really taken a shining to Shahrukh Khan’s superhero magnum opus Ra.One. In the words of Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter “RA.ONE nicely serves two masters — good family values and good capitalist instincts.” And that seems to suit our overseas neighbours just fine.
