Rey is a film without of a ray of
hope or sanity. It is a celluloid tribute to nepotism and the theory that you
can indulge as much as you want if you only you were part of a big time family
in the fraternity and money sacks. The sacks suck. This is obnoxious
celebration of an idea based on gender jokes and stances that went out of
fashion over a few decades ago. In one of the moments of the film the heroine
reacts to the wooing of the hero with a single word which is actually appropriate
for the entire 168 minutes of the film: disgusting. The first problem with the
film is about the Editor (K. Venkateshwar Rao) who permits reels and reels of
inanities to muster space and time in the narrative. He could have
unhesitatingly removed half of the film on the ground of irrelevance or lack of
basic standards of storytelling. The whole idea of encouraging eve teasing and
casual references to rape in the context of our times is repulsive and
retrograde and reflect a total lack of sensitivity. This is surely not
entertainment. The attitude of celebrating aggressive love by permitting the
hero to get away with anything with the heroine since he has a bunch of clowns
for friends and has muscle to extinguish the worse baddies is not justification.
This celeb of the stereo type macho image was all very fine when Shanker
Jaikishan backed up the dancing Shammi Kapoor in the 60s. Even when the Mithun
Bappi Lahri combo tried it out in the 80s it was summarily rejected. To revisit
such a premise at a time when rape is a serious social concern in the country
is not just abject irresponsibility but a very very poor choice at the very
start-point of the film.
Jenna (Shradha Das) is a musical diva gone wrong. She spends all of her time
killing her competitors ruthlessly and maintaining a harem of worthless goons
to execute her vile plans to stay of the top of some annual musical event in
the US of A. Away in the Caribbean you have Rock (Sai Dharam Tej) who is a
street urchin who treats his parents like a shabby doormat – with Naresh and
Hema playing the role that Chandramohan and Lakshmi have been doing for
centuries. Alongside is the story of how Jeena’s first victim Sandy (Farhad
Shahanawaz) was killed and his sibling Amrutha (Sayami Kher) wants to fulfil his
dream of making it to the Grammy of the film. After having made a wild card
entry to the finals they are more into a bout of violence in the scale of a
local war. Yes you have guessed it right that the group is Amrutha and Rock and
they rock. At the competition Jena delivers her punch and gets 100% of the
votes. So it’s a foregone conclusion that she is the winner, but wait, a few
mayhem filled moments of music later it the Rocky group that wins with 200%.
That is the level of the film’s intelligence.
The entire film is dedicated to ogling by sex starved guys for a while in the
Caribbean islands and for a while in USA. Then there is song after song after
song all loud, all without with a pretension of melody totally dedicated to
rhythm which goes wrong and dollops of purposeless violence. The Caribbean
police are treated with the same contempt that the West Indies bowlers were in
recent times. The American police are treated as if they are non-existent. The
filmmaker’s idea of romance is pathologically sexist and unacceptable to the
times in which it is rendered. His ideas have outlived their shelf life. This
is arguably the most violent musical you would have seen – that is if you get
to the theatre and last the reels. The music (Chakri) is a rehash of the Bappi
Lahri of the Disco Dancer times. If this is his last work than it is a tragic
reflection of what the Bard said: the evil that men do lives after them, the
good is oft interred with their bones.
Rey has stay away not only written all over but even loudly stated in every
moment of the tedious 168 minutes imprisonment at the theatre.
Rating: 1/2 Star
_ : The film
+ : the interval.
L. Ravichander.