In the end it is Bhansali – credited for screenplay, editing, music, and direction – who leaves his stamp all over the film. He brings great style and aesthetic to an unapologetically commercial film, which I’m happy to say is far more engaging than the lazy blockbusters we’ve seen lately. It’s great fun – not the word you’d normally associate with a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.

…creates a couple that ignites the screen, and most of the time when these two are on screen, you keep watching. It’s when the guns come on, and the gun-masters start roaring and shouting, that the love-story drowns, and everything gets both too noisy and too choreographed. I enjoyed the lovers, and their ram-leela: if only the film had been more ras, not goli-leela, more roses than guns.

However, it’s Deepika Padukone whom the film belongs to. Looking drop dead gorgeous and going at her part with a wallop, she’s the prime asset of ‘Ram-Leela’. Eminently worth a dekko.

…is a monstrously excessive film with a riot of colours, a girl who looks very pretty indeed and a daft hero, but despite that being the warning on the tin whenever you attempt (foolhardily) to buy into a Bhansali product, this can’t be what you bargained for. GKRR is an overplotted, bloody mess.

Deepika and Ranveer make Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-leela worth watching.

If you are drawn by the raw magnificence of the setting and the inevitable excitement of the occasion – after all an SLB offering cannot but be an event film – here’s sound advice: your travel agent could do a better job of getting you to Kutch.

Goliyon ki Raasleela Ram-Leela is all body and no soul.

What new can a filmmaker do with William Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo and Juliet? The answer is, if you are Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who is technically sound and artistically astute as far as art and craft go, you just become impudent, set the story in Gujarat, sign Bollywood’s currently best actress Deepika Padukone (Leela), team her up with `I’ve-got-fire-in-my-loins’ actor Ranveer Singh (Ram) and then let them loose on one another

…is not a realistic film, nor does it play out as well as it should. But you cannot take your eyes off the screen. With this film, Bhansali is back to his best — depicting the spectacle of falling in love. No one does it better than him. Forgive the flaws and savour this one.

This is a film by a true romantic, who is brimming with crazy passion. If you share that with him, watch it.

It’s well hyped and still surpasses all expectations. For me Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram Leela is a masterpiece!

Sanjay Leela Bhansali still masters his marvel at making magical films. Picking up an unoriginal and much beaten about idea, he mystically tweaks out a work of genius. Indefatigable and supremely engaging, the film despite its ostentatious feel is at core a fierce love story enacted effectively by Ranveer and Deepika. Putting up an astonishingly prodigious chemistry, the duo pull through the film with might. Cinema should be a fulfilling experience like this!

At a run time of two-hours-forty minutes Ram-Leela could get a bit laborious but you can surpass that because Bhansali comes forth with a love story that is enthralling, sparkling and compelling but not self-indulgent like Saawariya.

…ought to be watched for multiple reasons: the electrifying chemistry between its lead actors, the strong dramatic content, the scintillating musical score, the violent streak in the narrative and of course, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s execution of the material. This is Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s most accomplished work to date. It’s a work of outstanding artistry. No two opinions about it. A masterpiece by the master craftsman Sanjay Leela Bhansali!

Like most Sanjay Leela Bhansali films, RamLeela has a big canvas, stunning visuals and is very self indulgent. On the flip side, the story inspired by Romeo and Juliet is one of those that have been churned out with clock work regularity. In fact, you wish that Bhansali had treated the story a little differently than just to indulge in those ‘oh-look-how-beautiful-this-is’ kind of shots.

…is visually spectacular but the love story makes little impression.

…is an illogical love tale dressed up in opulence. A classic case of looks can be deceptive.

…could be for those who want to see cinema in its art form, without much giving thought to content.

While the first half keeps you riveted, the second half sags a bit in parts even when you are reeling under the sudden twists and turns of the script. A must watch.

…is yet another SLB creation, replete with opulence and grandeur. For all its hype, grandeur, money, blood, sweat, music, tragedy, Ram Leela is worth a watch.

While Sanjay’s indulgent script, which runs into two-hours-and-thirty-five-minutes might appear a bit tedious, we forgive him because what he eventually spins out is an enchanting love story.

It would have been so easy for the film to wallow in opportunistic schmaltz or obvious sentimentality but instead Ram Leela is a slyly fun movie, and one that is best appreciated on big screens.

In a time when noir has been defined by visceral works like Gangs of Wasseypur or a trippy Shanghai, Ram Leela is almost like that chick-flick pretending to be noir, or a noir killed by its secret wish to be a romantic musical. For all its beauty, it’s a baffling film.

…is a surefire hit. The film has masala for audiences of all classes and age-groups. It will score in multiplexes as well as single-screen cinemas, in big cities as also smaller centres. It will be liked by the classes as well as the masses.

… has brilliance written all over it. One of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s finest. Yes, there are flaws but it isn’t said for no reason that imperfections make a thing more real.

Overall, the film is first-rate as it brings down the curtain with a universal message of peace and love.

You may watch the film if you love larger than life moments.

An Indianized-version of the Shakespearean classic infused with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s keen sense of Art & Aesthetics.

Goliyon ki Rasleela Ram-Leela (the new title is perhaps the worst thing about the film) is an all out celebration of cinematic excess. Forget the tragedy, the Kutch landscape, its costumes, colours, expanses and details, are stuff of visual magic.

…after Saawariya and Guzaarish, this film marks Bhansali’s return to form. Ram-Leela establishes that Bhansali’s best comes out when he’s free of ostentatious pursuits and left to narrate a story with vigour, like he did with Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam earlier. It’s only half the battle, though. Next time, hopefully, the script too will match up to the director’s grandiose vision.

You won’t come out of the theatre texting your friends that it’s a must-see film. But it’s a film where you can enjoy the imagery, the intensity, performances and chemistry, and forgive the excesses. A frilly good watch!

From love at first sight to till-death-do-us-part style, crazy love via the banter and misunderstandings that any relationship goes through – Ram-Leela has it all, in gorgeous frames, amongst lots of song and dance. That also makes it predictable, long and over-dramatized.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is back. Taking a break from producing uncharacteristic bilge like Rowdy Rathore, he storms the helm again to have a go at what he knows best – using Bollywood elements like song, dance, larger-than life heroes and their epic love affairs -and attempting to redefine the form of Hindi movies and telling them in his own auteur style.