Ram and Leela Movie Review:
Ideas. Every piece of art is built on an idea, upon which various layers are laid before it reaches its final version. Even if the idea is enterprising, the same can’t be guaranteed for the finished content. Just like how it isn’t enough that a film has its heart in the right place, one can’t really bat for a film just because it is an experiment, or a ‘brave’ attempt. That is the problem that plagues debut director Ramachandran Kannan’s Ram and Leela: neither does it have its heart in the right place, nor does this experiment yield promising results. It tries too hard to play around with the form only to end up as a convoluted mess.
So, Ram aka Raghuram (Rio Raj) is a loser in his love life. Probably having seen Aan Paavam Polladhadhu one time too many, Ram plays the victim card like his life depends on it. He doesn’t find a girl to marry because he thinks having a cocksure attitude is the way to go about things. He has a template ‘middle-class’ family with a grumpy dad (Chetan), sarcastic but loving mom (Malavika Avinash), and a cheery yet quarrelsome sister (Thaafia Abu). Oh, the father and son don’t talk to each other because, well… They are a father and a son. Template, much?
Director: Ramachandran Kannan
Cast: Rio Raj, Vartika, Chetan, Thaafia Abu, Balaji Thiyagarajan
Rating: 1.5
Anyway, with his love life in the dumps and he is so naive that he doesn’t read the sexual signals from his colleague, Ram is frustrated with his life. Of course, because this is an IT company, sex is the primary goal of every employee, who doesn’t really have deadlines to meet, projects to submit, and EMIs to pay. If you can make a sexual innuendo while you’re at it, the appraisals would be better. Nevertheless, Ram, who is shown as a loner, is caught staring at a woman who, rightfully, finds it irksome that a random guy is looking at her waist. Again, as he himself says, “My intentions were pure, but how do I prove it to her?” Did anyone lose their victim card? Ram has a bunch of them ready to dole out.
It is here that he suddenly finds another Ram (Balaji Thiyagarajan), who becomes a conscience keeper, love guru, and a friend all rolled into one. Considering how their equation evolves, you might not be wrong to guess both these Rams know each other from Adam. But nope… Raghu Ram doesn’t even know the last name of the second Ram. We don’t know what that other Ram does for a living, where he stays, what his interests are, or if he even has half a life of his own. All we know is that the second Ram wants the first Ram to have the best life. Why? Because he is the hero’s friend, and that’s what he is destined to think. Generic, much?
Oh, and finally, love blooms during a train journey just like Mani Ratnam once envisioned. It is still stalking, and nothing much has changed since Karthik once told Shakti that he didn’t really love her, but is afraid he might. And our Ram isn’t bestowed with that kind of bravado, and when finally he musters the courage to say a ‘Hi’ to his Leela, she takes up the reins of the relationship, and their love story starts picking up. But she has one condition: She won’t be able to meet him after 6 pm every day. Now, this is the first time the film gathers some sort of steam, but the makers don’t really spend time having fun with this plot point. We rush through these in song montages, which feels like a missed opportunity. Joining this missed opportunity list are the scenes that involve Rio’s Ram trying to get acquainted with Leela’s family and finding a way around their pre-sunset romance. The inventiveness of the idea doesn’t find its way into the narrative, and we are left trying to find a nugget of comedy that might be buried under the heap of nothingness.
It is this nothingness that Ram and Leela is most affected by. The emotions between the lead pair don’t really translate well because, honestly, their fantastical predicament is watered down for some reason. The makers’ decision not to fully enter that fantastical realm, and not to let go of it, leaves the film in limbo. There are multiple fourth-wall-breaking scenes that are so out of trend, and Rio’s earnest attempts at bringing it back fall flat. It is a collection of disjointed scenes that never really gel well together because Ram and Leela is more interested in delivering the shocks that it forgets to get the wiring right. Shocks and surprises work only when they are used sparingly. Imagine watching a horror film where, instead of occasional jump scares, the supernatural being shrieks in your ears throughout the runtime? After a point, you are just numb. And that’s what happens in Ram and Leela, as well.
It is tough not to talk about the film’s core conflict without giving away spoilers, and why give it away when it is one of the better things in the film? In fact, it is in these portions that director Ramachandran has a firm grip on what he wants to say, and how he wants to showcase it. That entire stretch is quite decent, and when Rio’s Ram finds out the secret behind Leela’s activities, why the other Ram befriended him, and more, it lends to one of the most cohesive scenes in the film. It is ironic that the film's fantastical element is its most grounded, but that’s how things stand.
The film loses steam once it enters an elongated marriage sequence that goes on and on and on and on… Did I already say it goes on and on? Well, it does. These are the film’s more trying portions because the wafer-thin plot has already crumbled by then, and now we are just clutching at crumbs that leave a mess all over. Even here, there are a couple of scenes, like the marriage date reveal and Munishkanth making a last-ditch effort to save the day, where things briefly look up. But it is also in these portions that the makers resort to low-hanging fruit of risque humour. In fact, these fruits are so low-hanging that it is more of a creeper… just like a few characters in this film. Even in big 2026, women are still being viewed through the ‘Madonna-Whore’ lens, and the film doesn’t think it is wrong?
And when, finally, the mess is cleared, the chaos is settled, and the fantastical becomes formulaic, Ram and Leela ends with a line best enjoyed with a clear head, giving the eyes enough space to roll back. “Once you become a mother, you will feel like a woman…” It is very rare for a writer to be at a loss for words, but hmmm… well…. I mean… hmmmmm… wow!
