"It is not what you are underneath, but what you do that defines you"

In the end, it's all about the kid. Two irrestible forces come at the kid from different ends, one trying to protect it, and the other trying to catch the former in the process. Both the characters are defined by their single minded motivation. They are mechanical, tactical and robotic, more than human. Their approach is relentless and their methods are unpardoning, and the object of the game is, who gets there first. They each finish off anyone whoever crosses them or their path, clearing off everything that comes in their way. At this point, it is not possible to gauge what each one's character is, to the point that it is not even needed. Their motivation IS their character, whether noble or otherwise. And trying to find one is missing the point completely. The moving parts of the machine (character) is immaterial once it is set to task (motivation) and when it finally accomplishes it (goal).

And no one understood it better than James Cameron in his second iteration of the Terminator series, 'T2: Judgment Day'. These are two machines programmed to not stop at anything until the final task of their mission is accomplished, and they cheat and lie and disguise and kill, honing in on their target, and once the invariable point occurs where both their paths cross, it becomes even more clinical. There are no value judgments here, no right or wrong, character doesn't enter the fray here. Movies usually bestow the cold-heartedness to the villains allowing them to do the ghastly deeds with little compunction and the hero falling short in that area with his humanity. But how about both the villain and the hero ordained with the same sense of aloofness to the emotions, and whatever humanity has been holding back the hero till then was taken out of the equation? Cameron showed how explosive the results could be pitting the immovable object against an unstoppable force.

Rajamouli's job was (more than) half done at the scripting stage itself, when both the heroes are set in collision course with each other, both with noble intentions (though one narrower and the other larger, but both noble nonetheles) and a defeat of either was still a victory to the greater good. This is not the standard multi starrer fare with the stars usually on either side of the Morality Line and the inevitable fight in the second half leads the strayed one realize the error in his ways and return him to the fold of good. But in the battle of good vs (greater) good, whom to root for? whom to rail against? With deft plotting, Rajamouli accomplishes this with not so much as words, back stories, characters, intentions and other devices, but with a single minded devotion, a precise motivation. One has to free the kid and other has to prevent him from freeing the kid. Cameron would surely appreiciate and approve of this (homage)! It is sheer audacity to wager on both the stars being relentless robots, not falling into the trap of elaborating on the circumstances and focussing solely on who gets there first and what happened after.

In terms of scripting, "RRR" has to be Rajamouli at his finest minimal best, even better than 'Eega', wherein he does away with dialogues majorly and relies entirely on the emotion of the moment, be it the fight sequences that carry a lot of depth and purpose, be it in the turmoil that each character undergoes even while winning the battle over the other, be it when they (eventually) join forces and go at the common enemy, and all this was possible only because the motivation of the characters was so strong and so noble, that it becomes impossible to pick sides in this battle between do-gooders. One other movie comes into mind in terms of forcing the perspective to go against the conventional wisdom. 'The Godfather' is about a family seeped in crime - gambling, prostitution, racketeering, corruption, covering a majority of the seven vices. Yet the script makes it about the family, which only happens to be in the business of vice, clearly drawing a line between this "family" and the BIG BAD CRIME SYNDICATE, forcing the audience to side with the heroic villains in the battle betwen bad and EVIL. By ascribing nobility to both sides and not shortchanging anyside, not only has Rajamouli achieved a perfect balance in terms of the characters, he placated the commercial cravings of multi starrer formats too in one single swoop. This is no mean feat at all, considering even Hollywood fell flat on its face more times than not bringing superstars together and trying to ride on the charisma alone (remember the riduculous "why did you say Martha?" sequence in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice?").

What Rajamouli set off with 'Eega', moving away from the staple of telugu cinema, the POWERFUL dialogues, he doubles down in "RRR" finding a new home to carry his strong emotions forward - ACTION SEQUENCES. Fight sequences are usually intended to heighten (and then to release) the emotional build up of a scene, and very rarely, to narrate the story. The cycle chain sequence in 'Siva', the farm fight in 'Athadu', and couple others in Rajamouli's own movies serve as transformative events that reveal, define or change course for a character. The fight sequences in "RRR" serve the specific purpose of replacing dialogue while defining the character or serving the motivation, never being superfluous, unnecessary, out of place or gratituous (which even Rajamouli's earlier movies are accused of, to a certain extent). Take the specific example of Rama raju's introduction action, which is as rousing, taut, at once both personal and sweeping as the Battle of the Bastards sequence from the Game of Thrones that it seems to have taken as a reference point. The facial expressions of Rama raju during that sequence, on one hand trying to earn the confidence of his masters by being cruel to his fellow countrymen, and on the other hand hating himself every moment of it while doing it, is visual story telling at its finest. Words can never take the place of the emotions telegraphed through the grimace, pain and frustration, barely contained in a stern exterior, all using his face as a blank canvas, each writing its own subtext. Rajamouli's evolution as a true action designer/creator/director finds a new plateau with "RRR", as he combines the visual story telling of Chaplin with seamless action sequences of Cameron, with a sprinkle of a little desi tadka.

All this build up and release wouldn't have been possible without the actors in question, NTR and Ram Charan. Whereas Rajamouli's heroes before have mostly been valourous, courageous and symbols of bravery, he makes actors out of the stars in this edition adding the vital ingredients that brings humanity to otherwise fantastical characters - pain and vulnerability. While NTR has it a tad easier portraying the role of a tribal who wears his heart on his sleeve, allowing him to explore all the emotions without any restriction, Charan portrays a more complicated and a nuanced role, a subdued, suppressed and a struggling character, whose perennial pain lurks just an inch underneath the skin, as he is forced to put his mission in front of his own humanity. But when both the characters get their chances to portrary the toughest emotion there is, compassion (karuNa) - NTR in "komuram bheemuDO" song (a nice tribute to the folk ballad "madana sundari madana sundari") and Charan in the fight sequence allowing NTR to escape, the actors in both of them outshine their individual star power.

Enough to say that the technical aspects serve at the pleasure of Rajamouli, starting with Keeravani. The violins screech and scream, hum and drone, when Rama Raju takes the center stage and the emotional chord of score is always one of melancholy, underlining his dichotomy, the difficult situation he finds himself in. Even in epic fight between the two characters, sorrow reigns supreme in the background and it is those violins again that tug and pull at every note. Keeravani's choice of refraining from the use of rousing scores to (needlessly) amp up the already charged up situation, and instead go with the purpose of the scene at every turn is quite laudable. Senthil's camerawork, Sreekar's cutting work compliment/complement each other setting up the spectacle side of the proceedings, elevating each of them to the level of eye feast.

Scale, when meets vision, budget, when serves imagination, stars, when turn into actors, script, when shows the right places to all these, and a director, who conducts the various elements into a rousing symphony, can turn watching a movie into having an experience. "RRR" is one such.

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