• Tejas Nair
    Tejas Nair
    258 reviews
    Top Reviewer
    1

    The cast and the music had a magnetic effect on me. But once the film reel began rolling, I was experiencing symptoms of depression and schizophrenia.

    Roy starts and ends on one single note: blankness. While I am still trying to figure out what the writer intended by conveying such a senseless story, I have not yet recovered from the trauma I had after sitting through two and a half hours of nothingness. Vikramjit Singh's characters are pretentiously polished: Arjun Rampal as an arrogant writer and director who uses a typewriter, Jacqueline Fernandez as a book-loving, reserved filmmaker, and Ranbir Kapoor as a (mute) thief who drives around in a convertible, you know, for the effect. Yes, Kapoor has a total of fifteen dialogs (including "Ooh," "Aah," and "Aao") in the film. (Also, if you observe, the beginning credits introduces Kapoor to be in a "dynamic role." What does the director mean by this? If ever I meet the amateur Vikramjit Singh in a coffee house, I'll make sure that I ask him this question and write a piece about it verbatim.)

    The thief in the film introduces himself as a thief so that we don't misconstrue the makers as thieves for robbing us off through the ticket costs. This happens in less than twenty minutes into it, and I did not need any more proof to consider how bad the film was gonna be. Even if I forgo the snail-paced narration, I cannot forgive Singh for botching up the screenplay. It has the worst screenplay I have seen all this year, and it is a good thing from a Bollywood point of view. The story constructed is so choppy, I bet you will turn to your therapist after watching it.

    Bad cinematography and good photography mix together and bring out blues in the exotic locales the film has been shot in. The dialogs are plain bad, and so is the cast performance. Only Rampal comes out as an average player.

    If you want me to tell it, then, yes, the music and songs are good. Period. But the score is repetitive, often sampling many of the songs' melodies. I bet most of us have seen the best parts of the movie in the trailer, and if you were to divide Roy, as a film, into two parts: one as the trailer, and one as the film intrinsically, you would have two polarizing videos.

    BOTTOM LINE: There is not an iota of thrill in the storyline, nor is the story fathomable. Roy only looks good in the trailer, and for a moment there, I even thought the whole film was a tediously long advertisement for Godrej lockers and CCTV cameras. Regretlessly Avoidable!

    Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

    April 08, 15
  • Bindu Cherungath
    Bindu Cherungath
    126 reviews
    Top Reviewer
    6

    Roy, Vikramjit’s debut movie, seemed to be a promising movie when its trailer was released. It hasn’t received very good reviews from different corners. The main challenge with the movie is that its pace is hyper-slow. There are lot of pauses in between dialogues. Also, first few frames are not introduced with lot of clarity. Still I felt that the director has experimented a new style of storytelling through this movie. You may not like this movie, if your parameter to define a movie is on the basis of its entertainment quotient or laughter quotient. You may like this movie, if you want to watch a movie with a different presentation style. Arjun Rampal plays the role of Casanova film-maker as Kabir Grewal. He is in news for his films as well as girls (had 22 break ups). His two movies Guns Part -1 and Part -2 on Roy (Ranbir Kapoor)- a thief’s story were very successful and now he is on his mission to write the sequel to these and complete the trilogy on the same. According to Kabir, the film is the dream of the filmmaker which is there in his mind and has to put it in words properly. In search of a story, he goes to Malaysia, where another filmmaker Ayesha Aamir (played by Jacqueline Fernandez) is also there for her film Malacca Diaries. He finds a story in Ayesha, and starts shooting for his movie. You may get confused with the initial frames wondering and struggling to understand whether Kabir is shooting, narrating his story of Roy or he himself has become part of his own story. One needs to make out who is Ayesha and who is Tia- the double roles of Jacqueline. Kabir and Ayesha’s story moves parallelly with Roy and Tia’s story. Further frames of the movie talk about how a rude, obnoxious (as defined by the world) Kabir falls in love with Ayesha, how a thief Roy falls in love with Tia. What happens to their love? Do they manage to get their love? It is also the story of a filmmaker who makes extravagant movies, full of colours, is actually a loner.I was wondering why Kabir has still to use his typewriter in this hi-tech world. Why so much of gravity to introduce such a beautiful concept of love? Light moments are not there in the movie. Kabir makes his protagonists also appear very serious. Malaysian FM channels are full of bollywood grapewine, which seemed a bit misfit.

    Certain frames are simply beautiful with its vintage feeling. Certain minute details are covered very nicely. Hoarding projecting the image of a successful filmmaker, and with passage of time, another filmmaker takes his place. Yes, it is difficult to retain success, unless and until, we consistently and continually strive to excel. Father (Anupam Kher) & his son- Kabir’s informal friendly relationship are projected nicely, though I wish, Anupam played a bigger role. Though dialogues are less, certain dialogues have very much deeper meaning. Khamoshiyon me bhi shor hota hai (There is noise in silences as well). The last scene, where two halves of a picture is combined.

    February 20, 15