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Ram Setu Movie Review : A lopsided argument on mythology versus history

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Ram Setu movie review: Akshay Kumar film is enjoyable desi take on Indiana Jones

Ram setu movie review: akshay kumar stars in this enjoyable action adventure that manages to overcome its flaws because of a fun story and amazing visuals..

Ram Setu is a throwback to the Hollywood capers from a generation ago, when Harrison Ford or Nicholas Cage would go on a globetrotting adventure to uncover an ancient archaeological secret. Ram Setu takes that genre and blends it with Indian history, mythology, and socio-political commentary. The result is an enjoyable thrill-a-minute ride that is as fun as it is clichéd. But once you look past the flaws in logic, Ram Setu emerges as a fun popcorn adventure, the kind Bollywood hasn’t produced in quite a while. Also read: Ram Setu: Akshay Kumar's film likely to open at half of Sooryavanshi's earnings

Ram Setu stars Akshay Kumar and Jacqueline Fernandez as scientists on a mission to save the mythical Ram Setu.

Ram Setu is about a veteran archaeologist Dr Aryan Kulshreshtha ( Akshay Kumar in long hair and a distinguished grey beard), a non-believer, who is tasked with disproving the reality of the Ram Setu, the bridge between India and Sri Lanka described in Valmiki’s Ramayana. However, he finds that the structure may actually be man-made, implying Lord Ram may be historical after all. The film is the story of how Dr Aryan dodges obstacles to find a lost trail in search for Ravana’s golden Lanka, helped by an environmentalist Dr Sandra ( Jacqueline Fernandez ) and a local Lankan guide AP (Satya Dev).

First things first, Ram Setu is enjoyable. It is in parts slick and in other parts, quite thrilling. The credit for that goes to a good story backed by some of the best background score used in a Hindi film this year. The VFX and CGI are questionable indeed, as the trailer had indicated. The scenes with the diving suit are cartoonish, almost. But what makes up for that is the stunning underwater sequences. The way director Abhishek Sharma has captured the beauty and grandeur of Ram Setu under the Indian Ocean is reminiscent of BBC Earth’s Blue Planet documentary.

Ram Setu works best, when the protagonists are out on the field, in the thick of the action. As Dr Aryan and his comrades search for the historical evidence for Lord Ram’s tale, the viewer is engaged. But it falters the moment there is a lull in the action. We suddenly begin to notice how people can barge into the Supreme Court of India with an ‘I object milord’ and not get arrested (or shot). We notice how Akshay’s character is the only one doing any deduction and thinking and everyone else is just along for the ride, hardly contributing much. And we also notice small continuity errors, like Akshay’s beard changing into a stubble and then back again in successive scenes.

Akshay Kumar is given a golden opportunity in this film. His character – Dr Aryan – is unlike anything he has done in the recent past. He is an atheist, who needs to be converted to the cause. He looks different, talks different, and is conceptualised in a much different manner than many of his recent roles. His recent filmography has often been criticised to contain many public service announcements disguised as motion pictures. Ram Setu gives him a chance to do something different.

Sadly, the women in the film haven’t even been given that freedom to do something differently, or do anything at all. Jacqueline’s character is reduced to looking good and uttering some scientific terms every 20 minutes or so to justify her place on the ‘expedition’. Nushrrat Bharuccha fares even worse because her character is reduced to the shrieking wife, hardly contributing anything to the plot or the other characters. It is a letdown for the actor after a rather strong outing in Janhit Mein Jaari just a few months ago.

The surprise package of the film for me was Pravesh Rana. As the muscle to Nasser’s corrupt businessman, he is the film’s primary antagonist. And he plays that role perfectly, bringing enough menace and charm in what is essentially a filler role. The other highlight of the film is Satya Dev. Even though his character AP is written as a stereotypical Lankan with the clichéd accent, he brings through his performance enough charm and humour for the role to stand out. Between this and GodFather, the actor seems to be having quite a good year.

In tone and tenor, Ram Setu is similar to a sleeper hit from earlier this year – Karthikeya 2. That one was about finding the historicity of Lord Krishna and this one is about Lord Ram. The action, pacing, and other elements are also similar. But the films differ in scale. Ram Setu, with its reported ₹ 150-crore budget towers above the Telugu film, which was made in ₹ 30 crore as per reports. But it is, perhaps, a good thing that Ram Setu reminds one of a successful film from the south this year.

Ram Setu takes the best from the Indiana Jones and National Treasure schools of storytelling and injects some desi action in it. Sadly, it also injects Bollywood’s melodrama. Once you manage to look past all that though, Ram Setu takes you on a fun ride.

Director: Abhishek Sharma

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Satya Dev, Nasser, Nushratt Bharuccha, and Pravesh Rana.

Akshay Kumar
Jacqueline Fernandez
Nushrratt Bharuccha
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Akshay Kumar, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Jacqueline Fernandez, and Satyadev Kancharana in Ram Setu (2022)

An atheist archaeologist turned believer must race against time to prove the true existence of the legendary Ram Setu before evil forces destroy the pillar of India's heritage. An atheist archaeologist turned believer must race against time to prove the true existence of the legendary Ram Setu before evil forces destroy the pillar of India's heritage. An atheist archaeologist turned believer must race against time to prove the true existence of the legendary Ram Setu before evil forces destroy the pillar of India's heritage.

Abhishek Sharma
Chandra Prakash Dwivedi
Satyum Gupta
Akshay Kumar
Jacqueline Fernandez
Nushrratt Bharuccha
176 User reviews
26 Critic reviews

Top cast 57

Dr. Aryan Kulshrestha

Dr. Sandra Rebello

Gayatri Kulshrestha

Indrakant Varma
Anjaneya Pushpakumara

Dr. Gabrielle

Dr. Chandra

Prof. Andrew

Addl. Solicitor General

TV News Anchor

Minister M. K. Sathe

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Trivia The official announcement of the film was on 14 November 2020 coinciding with Diwali.
Alternate versions The UK release was cut, the distributor chose to make cuts to scenes of strong violence in order to obtain a 12A classification. An uncut 15 classification was available.

User reviews 176

mayanklouteriya
Oct 25, 2022
How long is Ram Setu? Powered by Alexa
October 25, 2022 (India)
Abundantia Entertainment
Amazon Prime Video
Cape of Good Films
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$18,632,550 (estimated)

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 20 minutes

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Ram Setu Review: Akshay Kumar's Film Is About A Floating Stone But Has No Clue How To Stay Afloat

Experts are huddled in a floating laboratory aboard a ship out at sea and terms such as carbon dating, sonar imaging and global warming are bandied about. but forget science, this isn't even proper, passable fiction..

<i>Ram Setu</i> Review: Akshay Kumar's Film Is About A Floating Stone But Has No Clue How To Stay Afloat

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Satyadev

Director: Abhishek Sharma

Rating: 1 star (Out of 5)

A wobbly bridge that stands on exceedingly weak pylons, Ram Setu , written and directed by Abhishek Sharma, is an abomination of mythic proportions. It is a film that dives into an ocean. But all it does is flail about in a sinkhole of silliness.

In the end, the film, which does occasionally cite books and other sources of knowledge, expectedly formulates a convenient conclusion about the Ramayana, Lord Rama and Ram Setu that smacks of WhatsApp university-level wisdom.

Let us find some evidence, the male protagonist says when he is faced with a foregone postulation. He sounds like a clueless man looking for a samosa vendor in the Gobi Desert. He is not alone. Everybody, yes everybody, in Ram Setu sounds pretty much the same and looks just as lost.

Parts of Ram Setu , presented by Prime Video and based on a story by creative producer Chandraprakash Dwivedi (who recently helmed Samrat Prithviraj , which was designed to serve a largely similar narrative) pretend to be science fiction. Experts are huddled in a floating laboratory aboard a ship out at sea and terms such as carbon dating, sonar imaging and global warming are bandied about. But forget science, this isn't even proper, passable fiction.

Poorly written, shoddily mounted and badly acted, Ram Setu is pure, self-serving and hysterical drivel that rides on the back of a Bollywood star who enjoys undisputed monopoly on the genre. There is absolutely nothing new here except for the fact that Akshay Kumar sports a studiedly professorial look that could be regarded as a departure from norm. That apart, he starts off spouting surprisingly provocative lines that go against type.

" Dharm sirf todta hai, sanskriti jodta hai (Religion divides, culture unites)," he says in one early scene. Worthy of applause? Well, it is easy to predict that all this is going to be too good to be true. Ram Setu is constructed around half-baked theories about India's past and present that sound more like ill-informed pronouncements of a vote-seeking politician than considered inferences of pundits who know what they are talking about.

The lead actor plays Aryan Kulshreshtha, an archaeologist we first see in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2007 as part of a subcontinental team of experts deployed to save the remnants of a Buddhist site destroyed by the Taliban. The man is soon in the line of fire. He saves himself and, in what is a minor miracle, a Pakistani archaeologist by the skin of their teeth.

Aryan next surfaces in the Delhi headquarters of a fictional Archaeological Society (not Survey) of India. His boss gives him a new task with the express instruction to serve the interests of a politically connected shipping tycoon (Nasser) who wants to demolish the Ram Setu and build a sea passage between India and Sri Lanka to maximise profit. Against the advice of his history professor-wife Gayatri (Nusshratt Bharuccha), Aryan accepts the assignment.

He proceeds to dig a mammoth hole for himself and his department. He becomes the fall guy and is suspended. After he has cooled his heels at home for a while, a lifeline is thrown to him. The shipping magnate who wants Ram Setu out of his way engages Aryan to find evidence to substantiate that the bridge predates Lord Ram and can be brought down without hurting religious sentiments.

The job requires Aryan to report to an onsite project manager (Pravesh Rana) who is just the sort of guy who revels is revealing to all and sundry that his loyalty is to his employer even if that means giving truth a wide berth. Needless to say, Aryan finds himself fighting to scuttle a major conspiracy.

In trying to find his way out of the hole he is in with mysterious tour guide named AP (Satya Dev) and scientist Sandra Rebello (Jacqueline Fernandez), he creates for the film a series of even bigger holes that engulf everything that Ram Setu wants to pass off as the ultimate truth. This, of course, isn't the fault of the character or the actor.

Ram Setu will be remembered - does it deserve to be remembered? - for serving up an unappetising goulash of history, mythology and fatuous fantasy. A lot of vigour has visibly gone into the making of the concoction. What is missing is logic.

Ram Setu presents the faith-versus-science debate in a manner so ham-fisted and heavy-handed that one can sense from thousands of nautical miles away that it isn't the least bit interested in an intelligent engagement with veracity, belief and reason. Sense is a bridge too far for Ram Setu. Its arguments, which do not hold much water anyway, are submerged by waves and waves of inanity.

Revolving around an archaeologist who does not believe in God and propounds the theory that Ram Setu is a natural formation and not a man-made structure, the film huffs and puffs its way to a very predictable climax where the naysayers have no qualms about changing course and voting against rationality.

All that Ram Setu portrays takes place in pre-2014 India. This allows the screenwriter to paint the government of the day in poor light and brand them as corrupt rulers who are in cahoots with robber barons out to make a killing by destroying the nation's cultural and religious heritage. Mercifully, no politician that the film portrays resembles a real figure. But that is only a minor concession that does little to offset the film's lopsided worldview.

Had the gratuitous gibberish that it peddles been presented with some flair, Ram Setu might have leapfrogged, Hanuman-like, over the hurdles that it creates for itself. But it has absolutely no mitigating quality. It isn't even well mounted. The VFX is rudimentary and the action scenes - underwater, on land, and in the air - are pedestrian.

Ram Setu seeks to drive home one singular point, and in unambiguous black and white: "I ss desh mein Ram ko jo nahin manta uska muh toh kala hona hi hai (In this nation, one who denies Lord Rama's existence deserves to have his face blackened)."

Well, does anybody need a two-and-half-hour movie to make that assertion? A detailed WhatsApp message from the makers would have sufficed. Ram Setu is cinema that does nothing for the medium or the audience. It is a film about a floating stone but has no clue how to stay afloat. Avoidable even if you are an Akshay Kumar fan.

Cast Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Satyadev
Director Abhishek Sharma.

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‘Ram Setu’ movie review: A bridge too far to cross for Akshay Kumar

The akshay kumar-starrer reads like the cultural manifesto of the ruling dispensation that seeks to put faith above everything else.

Updated - October 26, 2022 03:52 pm IST

Published - October 26, 2022 02:05 pm IST

A still from ‘Ram Setu’

The flow of films that voice the present political dispensation’s cultural manifesto has reached a volume where we can pick the cogent from the shrill and the forthright from the manipulative. In this distinct category of films, where you can see Whatsapp messages and dinner table discussions come alive-on screen, Ram Setu is a persuasive attempt to keep afloat the contentious theory that the limestone shoals that connect the Pamban and Munnar islands are part of a man-made structure and not a work of nature.

Drawing from the controversy around the Sethusamudram Project and Pushkar Bhatnagar’s little-known 2003 book where the writer attempted to date the era of Lord Ram on the basis of planetary positions described in Valmiki’s Ramayan , the makers have tried to construct a bridge between faith and science, between myth and oral history, and between religion and culture. It is a wobbly ride that ends with a potent lecture on preserving cultural pride and along the way, and gives a clear picture of the so-called majoritarian view on conserving the channels of faith, which can even sweep the judges off their feet and threaten to melt the structure of the constitution.

The VFX looks fake, and the performances are just about average, but the idea has enough heft to keep the devotees interested. For others, there is a clear message; those who don’t believe in Lord Ram, their faces deserve to be blackened.

Ram Setu is directed by Abhishek Sharma, but the voice is of creative producer and co-writer Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, one of the creative forces who work in the realm of fiction to provide legitimacy to the realpolitik of the ruling party and paint the previous governments in dark shades. In Samrat Prithviraj , Dwivedi presented an epic poem, taught in Hindi literature classes, as history. Here again, he positions a venerated epic poem as a source of historical evidence to keep the faithful invested and convert the fence-sitters, for Adam’s Bridge or Ram Setu is one spot that takes the story of Ram beyond the religious semantics and geographical boundaries.

Set in 2007, the narrative follows the structure of The Kashmir Files . If the Vivek Agnihotri film portrayed the change of heart of a young, secular Kashmiri Pandit, Sharma depicts the makeover of a celebrated liberal archaeologist Aryan Kulsheshtra (Akshay Kumar).

Aryan is working with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts to save the Buddhist heritage in Bamyan, before he is sent by those in power to Tamil Nadu to save the interests of a shipping tycoon (Nassar) whose expensive vessels could not float in the shallow channel between Indian and Sri Lanka.

He wants a ‘favourable’ report to be placed before the Supreme Court, and in ‘atheist’ Aryan, he sees the right candidate. But when Aryan and his team begin to find traces of evidence of Lord Ram, they become a threat to his business interests. In his search for ‘hard’ evidence, Aryan crosses over to the Sri Lankan waters and finds AP (Satyadev Kancharana), a mysterious guide who takes them to the spots mentioned in the Ramayan.

Like The Kashmir Files , Ram Setu sees liberal and secular values in the Hindu society as a kind of rot that needs to be checked. The film gives a sense that if you hold a contrarian view, get ready to face the backlash. Aryan’s wife (Nushratt Bharucha) is a history professor who advises her husband to take into account the aastha (faith) of the majority before filing the report. Their son, who is shown to be studying in ‘Lutyens’ School — a term often used by those close to the government to target others who hold a contrarian view — is targeted for the views of his father.

In both films, the writers read the past from a sense of persecution complex of the majority, and tell us that we are in the midst of a war of civilisations. So it documents the demolition of the Bamyan Buddha and Jaffna Public Library, but makes no mention of the erasure of the Babri Mosque. It points out how the Metro route was shifted to save the Qutb Minar, but makes no mention of how it steered clear of the iconic Hanuman statue in Karol Bagh. It talks of the environmental concerns around the Taj Mahal, but forgets to tell the viewers that one of the reasons the Sethusamudram Project didn’t get clearance was because the apex court took note of the concerns of environmentalists. There is an environmentalist in the film as well, but she, played by Jacqueline Fernandez, remains a decorative piece.

The makers want to see the issue from the prism of faith, and instead of negotiating the complex layers of the past, Ram Setu seeks to jump to an imagined golden age, without building a bridge.

Ram Setu is currently running in theatres

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‘Ram Setu’: Review

By Namrata Joshi 2022-10-26T12:13:00+01:00

Amazon Prime’s first foray into Indian film production stars Akshay Kumar as a conflicted archaeologist

Source: Abundantia Entertainment

Dir/scr: Abhishek Sharma. India. 2022. 144 mins

Amazon Prime Video’s first foray into film production in India, Ram Setu sets a disappointing new marker for the streaming platform. Far from breaking fresh ground, the Abhishek Sharma-directed co-production with Abundantia Entertainment, Cape of Good Films and Lyca Productions pliantly peddles yet another variation of the in-vogue narrative in Hindi cinema – celebrating India by invoking its glorious (specifically Hindu) mythology, culture and heritage – this time in a more pedestrian than persuasive manner.

In its larger-than-life framing, this new age Bollywood conservatism seeks inspiration in modern Hollywood

This Diwali release sees Akshay Kumar playing Indiana Jones-style archaeologist Aryan Kulshreshtha, a man who stands by hard facts and cold logic, science and recorded history, rather than unproven beliefs and unquestioning faith. The future of a hot-button shipping canal project in the stretch of water between India and Sri Lanka (a reference to the real-life Sethusamudram project that has been temporarily shelved) depends on his research and findings. Our Brahmin hero (the caste underscored in his family name) might be an atheist to begin with, but the prodigal will return to the religious fold with the Hindu chants of endorsement—Jai Shri Ram, Om Namah Shivay and Asato maa sadgamaya—playing on in the background.

The key issue facing Aryan is whether the titular Ram Setu is just a chain of natural limestone shoals under the sea between Rameswaram Island in Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island in Sri Lanka. Or, as per hardcore Hindu belief, is it truly the bridge, mentioned in Valmiki’s epic ‘Ramayana’, that was built by Lord Rama and his army of vaanaras (monkeys) to cross and rescue his wife Sita from Ravana? In which case, shouldn’t it be protected, and the project cancelled?

While the virtuous religious groups and committed environmentalists are firmly in Team Ram Setu, the rapacious government (the year is 2007, so not the current administration) and ambitious industrialist Indrakant (Nassar) are the villains, in denial of the divinity of the hallowed structure and undermining Hinduism for personal profit. Even when Aryan questions religion, calls it a divisive force, you can still clearly see the writing on the wall.

In its larger-than-life framing, this new age Bollywood conservatism seeks inspiration in modern Hollywood. So, the action-adventures of Aryan aspire to those of Harrison Ford’s Jones; hitting upon a lost treasure, ancient scripts and a rare statue of the reclining Buddha in an expedition to Afghanistan. With his specs, long hair and grey stubble Kumar looks suitably nerdy but also channels his macho soul when called upon in dodging bullets and in fights and chase sequences.

But just as Aryan can’t rise above being a poor cousin of Jones, a lack of imagination and ingenuity seeps through the film. The screenplay can come across as childish in its machinations, while the action and underwater sequences lack thrill; especially in the scene where Aryan is shown walking on the sea (Ram Setu under his feet) with a huge rock extricated from the structure on his shoulder. A throwback to the iconic image of Prabhas as Shivudu lifting the giant Shivlinga in Baahubali: The Beginning .

The Hindu supremacy is underscored time and again, and disingenuously at that. Aryan is pained at the destruction of Jaffna Public Library in 1981. While on a UNESCO mission to restore the Bamiyan Buddhas, he rues its annihilation by the Taliban in 2001. But the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid is brushed aside in a passing reference as a “land dispute”, without so much as mentioning the structure’s name. On the other hand, there’s a show of Hindu victimhood. Why should Ram Sethu not be protected when (the Mughal structures) Qutub Minar and Taj Mahal were adequately cared for during the works for the Delhi Metro and Taj Corridor projects respectively?

Elsewhere, Aryan berates the British for renaming Ram Setu ’Adam’s Bridge’ in the early 19th century, due to the belief that it was used by Adam to cross over to Sri Lanka after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. He calls this name change an erasure of history and blames it on the “Eurocentrism of England”. Heavy duty words and phrases indeed. Such jargon, scientific and otherwise—sonar imaging, carbon dating, sedimentation, marine archeology—are strewn all over the script, as are references to events including the Civil War in Sri Lanka and the vague and arguable discovery of the date of birth of Rama by Pushkar Bhatnagar.

This mythology is also given a gender angle, with Ram Setu pitched as a bridge that aided in the protection of a woman. The women in the film’s cast, however, are left with nothing much to do on screen. In fact, good guys or bad, women, men or children, no one else quite matters in the Akshay Kumar universe as he goes about fulfilling his primary duties as another flag bearer for an increasingly right-wing Bollywood. But even propaganda also needs to have some spark; Ram Setu is a damp squib.

Production company: Abundantia Entertainment, Cape of Good Films, Amazon Prime Video, Lyca Productions, Skywalk Films (Line Production)

Producers: Aruna Bhatia, Vikram Malhotra, Subaskaran, Mahaveer Jain, Aashish Singh, Prime Video

Cinematography: Aseem Mishra

Editing: Rameshwar S. Bhagat

Production Design: Dayanidhi Patturajan, Amrish Patange

Music: Daniel B George, Ajay Gogavale, Atul Gogavale, Vikram Montrose, Chandan Saxena, Ved Sharma

Main cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushhratt Bharuccha, Nassar, Satyadev Kancharana

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Ram Setu movie Review| Akshay Kumar and logic go out to sea

“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence,” wrote Christopher Hitchens in God Is Not Great. It is a quote I half-expected to stream forth from the mouth of Dr Aryan Kulshrestha (Akshay Kumar), an atheist archaeologist obsessed with ‘facts’ and ‘hard evidence’ in Abhishek Sharma’s Ram Setu. No soap. Aryan has no use for the Hitchen’s razor (or any razor, given his splendidly fuzzy white whiskers). He’s an atheist in the same way certain Amitabh Bachchan characters in the 70s and 80s were atheists: as a set-up for a turnabout further ahead.

This film about the origins of the Ram Setu—a 48-km chain of shoals between India and Sri Lanka that many believe is the eponymous bridge mentioned in the Ramayana—opens, befuddlingly, in Afghanistan, after Taliban forces have destroyed the Bamyan Buddha statues. Aryan, joining a crack team of foreign archaeologists, is researching there when they’re set upon by more terrorists. Aryan escapes—but not before retrieving a chest of ancient coins linked to the reign of Dahir of Ahor, the last Hindu king of Sindh. “Religion divides but culture unites,” he later says, sagely, at a press conference. How wonderful! How secular! Surely the headlines back home will agree?

Returning to India, Aryan wades into controversy, and, to make matters worse, is made the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India. There he prepares (or is forced to prepare) a report challenging the historicity of the Ramayana. The government, we gather, is working with a greedy private corporation to expedite the Sethusamudram project, which involves dredging around the Ram Setu to build a shipping canal. This is vehemently opposed by religious, political and environmental groups. Aryan’s report causes a furour—as had happened in 2007, though I doubt any of those ASI members were ever invited back, airdropped into a swanky research vessel, assigned teammates named Sandra Rebello (Jacqueline Fernandez) and Gabrielle (Jeniffer Piccinato), outfitted with a bulky exosuit that looks like a child’s action figure and told to prove their earlier theory all over again.

Unable to complete his actual mission, Aryan concludes, “Proving Ravana’s existence will prove Lord Ram’s”. Whatever you say, doc. They travel from tea estate to lake to cave to mountaintop, checking off landmarks like ‘Ashok Vatika’ and ‘Sone Ki Lanka’. From a contained, sea-bound thriller, Ram Setu morphs into an extended commercial for Sri Lankan tourism’s Ramayana Trail (It’s funny to see Jacqueline, a Sri Lankan national, keep a straight face).

Akshay puckers his face in an odd squinch, like someone constantly smelling conspiracies in the air. It is unexplained why his character—a reasonably skeptical, well-esteemed researcher—would undergo such a sudden change of heart, or extract grand theories from flimsy, incomplete evidence.

The finale devolves into a shouting match of WhatsApp pronouncements, in the Supreme Court no less (the scene hits such a fever pitch the makers have to add a separate ‘work of fiction’ disclaimer). Once it’s over, Gayatri (Nushrratt Bharuccha), Aryan’s wife, congratulates him, telling him that “Shree Ram couldn’t have found a better lawyer than you”. Ram Setu attempts to prove the verities of the gods. All it confirms is the presumptuousness of mortals.

Ram Setu Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Satyadev Kancharana, M Nassar Director: Abhishek Sharma Rating: 2/5

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Ram Setu Review

Ram Setu Devesh Sharma , Oct 25, 2022, 16:45 IST

	Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Satya Dev
	Abhishek Sharma
	Drama
	2

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Ram Setu Review: Who Knew Akshay Kumar Would Be the One to Save Us from Propaganda?

Director: Abhishek Sharma

Writer: Abhishek Sharma

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Satya Dev, Pravesh Rana

There’s something delightfully bonkers about seeing the trailer of Ram Setu (2022) play on the digital billboard in the middle of the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Juhu Chowpatty in Mumbai. To see an outsized Akshay Kumar, on a floating screen in real life as he walks on water while carrying a “floating stone” in reel life feels decidedly meta. He’s tasked with shouldering the absurdity that is Ram Setu both in the film and outside it — such are the burdens of being the brightest star in the Alpha Sanskari galaxy.

Ram Setu is about the ghar wapsi (homecoming) of Aryan (Kumar), a self-proclaimed nastik (atheist) archaeologist who embarks on an expedition to examine the underwater structure after which the film is named. Initially, Aryan is a regular, liberal-minded hero and therefore unlike any of Kumar’s recent roles. His life is turned upside down when his opinion that the Ram Setu is a natural formation becomes known to the public. Aryan is attacked and his son, who attends — wait for it — Lutyens’ Public School, is bullied by a classmate. Aryan decides the only way to clear his name and protect his family is to find evidence to support his claim about the Ram Setu. Helpfully, businessman Indrakant (Nasser), who owns Pushpak Shipping, wants to fund a scientific expedition to the Ram Setu and Aryan joins a team of international experts, which includes one Professor Andrew who has two dialogues in the entire film (one of them is “That’s correct”).

That Pushpak Shipping has won a contract to demolish the Ram Setu is a minor detail. It doesn’t bother Aryan that he’s sitting on a “floating lab” aboard a ship owned by Pushpak. “Indrakant is a nice man,” he says reassuringly to his wife, thus establishing that even in the world of fiction, Kumar cannot pass as a man of smarts. Meanwhile, the rest of us know better, having gauged that Indrakant is the bad guy from Nasser’s expressions and the detail that Ravana’s chariot was called Pushpak Vimana. Aryan also cottons on eventually, but first he must go underwater in what is unironically described in Ram Setu as a suit that’ll make Aryan feel like Iron Man even though it makes Kumar look like Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. What follows are scenes with visual effects that rival the submarine scene from Parvarish (1977) for kitschy awfulness.

To Kumar and writer-director Abhishek Sharma’s credit, Ram Setu begins well. Sure, it feels outlandish to think of Kumar as an archaeologist and you’ve got to laugh when the site he’s working at in Bamiyan turns up a gigantic ear. “It must have flown off the Buddhas during the explosion and got buried here,” says one character by way of explanation. When a gunfight breaks out soon after, between the Taliban and Afghan security forces, that massive ear dangles casually from a crane while bullets fly everywhere and Kumar and a Pakistani archaeologist stumble upon an enormous reclining Buddha. While this is not exactly how it was discovered, archaeologists actually did find a reclining Buddha near the niches where the Bamiyan Buddhas had once stood. This is not the only blending of fact and fiction in Ram Setu , but more on that later.

Nobody’s watching Ram Setu with expectations of cinematic excellence or realism and the film isn’t bothered with such things. The only point on which it has to deliver for audiences is by being entertaining. For much of the first half, Ram Setu manages this feat. Sharma balances the tropes of commercial Hindi cinema with a storyline that doesn’t seem to be taking itself too seriously. “Lord Buddha ke baad seedha aap ko enlightenment mila hai (After Lord Buddha, you’re the next to have received enlightenment)”, says a character to Aryan, gently ribbing Aryan’s know-it-all ways. Some time later, Aryan rises out of the ocean and walks on water. Some of the people around him gasp with wonderstruck awe. One elderly gent grins and says, “The water’s less than six inches deep over there.”

The turning point for Aryan and Ram Setu is when he discovers a floating stone that dates back to 7,000 years, a date that has randomly been decided as “the era of Lord Ram” (on the basis of dubious claims made in a book written by a bureaucrat from the income tax department. The book, which is shown in the film, and its author are real while the floating stones, which look like durians, are not). This discovery convinces Aryan that the Ram Setu was made by the vanar sena (army of monkeys), as described in Valmiki’s Ramayana. This is inconvenient for Indrakant, who was counting on Aryan’s atheism and needs a report that will give him the clearance to demolish the underwater structure. He orders his smouldering henchman Bali (Pravesh Rana) to get rid of Aryan. The plot almost succeeds but at a critical moment, a Sri Lankan Tamil tour guide named AP (Satya Dev) shows up and saves Aryan’s life. Our born-again believer lands in Sri Lanka with environmentalist Dr. Sandra Rebello (Jacqueline Fernandez), looking for evidence that Ravana’s Lanka was real. “If I can prove the existence of Ravan, it’s proof that Ram existed,” Aryan tells Dr. Rebello, adding that they’re more likely to find remains from the ancient era in Sri Lanka because its civil war has kept the country from developing the way India has, which would be laughable if it wasn’t offensive. By this time, Ram Setu has gone so far off the rails that its opening sections, which included footage of the Bamiyan Buddhas being blown up in Afghanistan, feels like a different film by a different filmmaker.

The point of showing the Bamiyan Buddhas being destroyed is to make the threat looming over the Ram Setu in the film, feel real. If you’ve sat up in alarm because a film that lists Dr. Chandraprakash “Chanakya” Dwivedi as its creative producer is also finding parallels between the religious extremists of Afghanistan and a (fictional) Indian government, calm down. Ram Setu is set in 2007, not the present. Also, there are disclaimers at the start of the film that assure us that any resemblance to real people or actual incidents is coincidental and unintended.

So naturally, when Ram Setu tells us that an evil corporation, backed by a callous and corrupt government, wants to demolish the bridge described in Valmiki’s Ramayana, we should not be thinking of the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project, which was approved in the mid-2000s when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance formed the government. When the Archaeological Society of India (ASI) in Ram Setu submits an affidavit saying there’s no evidence that the Ram Setu could be man-made and that Valmiki’s Ramayana is “mahakavya” and a work of the imagination, we should not remember ASI’s actual 2007 affidavit, which said the “contents of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas and other mythological texts, which admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature...cannot be said to be historical record to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters, or the occurrence of events, depicted therein.” Both in Ram Setu and in reality, ASI had to withdraw its affidavit following public protests led by pro-Hindutva organisations. These resonances between fact and fiction must be coincidental and not any indication of Ram Setu attempting to embed into public memory what the right-wing revisionist perspective claims as its victory against anti-Hindu forces.

Ultimately, Ram Setu sits in an uncomfortable limbo between pandering to the illusion of majoritarian victimhood and the aesthetics of B-grade, masala movies. This is a film full of ludicrously stupid contrivances. For instance, a character says “I’m out of this” and is promptly shot to death so that they are very literally out of this. AP is able to make a phone call to get government-backed rebels to arrive, complete with a chopper, when the bad guys chase Aryan into Jaffna. Speaking of AP, he tells Aryan his full name when they meet, but Aryan only realises who AP actually is right at the end — by which time everyone should have guessed the grinning and resourceful tour guide’s identity (though this blip could possibly be filed under #NastikProblems). Alongside this silliness are the more problematic arguments that Aryan makes in the bland climax that unfolds in the courtroom. At one point, Aryan implies Mughal monuments, like the Taj Mahal, are given more respect and care than Hindu monuments like the Ram Setu. He also says the Ram Setu is a reminder that each time anyone dares to violate a woman, a Lord Ram will rise to bring justice. (No one mentions the agnipariksha-shaped twist in the Ramayana or points out to our man of science the data on crimes against women.) Aryan’s testimony in court sounds like a speech delivered at a political rally and this would have felt far more sinister if Ram Setu had remained as engaging as it was in its early sections. Kumar is so entertaining as the nastik Aryan that the devout Aryan feels singularly listless in comparison. Add to this the awkward writing, bland acting performances and laughably bad visual effects, and you get a film that’s not just boring but also plagued with absurdity despite its valiant efforts to remind audiences of real events.

Gulte Telugu news

Ram Setu Movie Review

Article by Naziria Published by GulteDesk --> Published on: 8:18 am, 26 October 2022

Cast : Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt, Satya Dev and others Director : Abhishek Sharma Producers : Aruna Bhatia, Vikram Malhotra Music : Daniel B. George Banner : Amazon Studios, Cape of Good Films, Lyca Productions, Abundantia Entertainment Run-time : 143 minutes

Akshay Kumar is churning out films left right and center. His latest release is Ram Setu which has been made on a budget of 150 crores. The film has Jacqueline Fernandez, Nusrat Baruchha and Telugu actor Satyadev in key roles. Abhishek Sharma has directed this film which has music by Daniel B George.

Indrakanth(Nassar) is the owner of the prestigious Pushpak Shipping Corp. He requests the government of India to dismantle the Ram Setu, as part of his Sethusamudram Project. This does not go well with many and a case is filed. The government of India brings in Aryan(Akshay Kumar), the Joint Director of the Archaeology department into action and asks him to submit a report to reveal whether the Ram Setu is man-made or is a natural formation. The rest of the story is about Aryan’s journey into the world of Ram Setu.

Performances

Akshay Kumar is seen in a new look and plays his age. Performance wise, he is sincere and does what is expected of him. In all the confrontation scenes, Akki does really well. Jacqueline Fernandez is decent in her supporting role. Telugu actor Satyadev is superb in his key role and is the surprise package. Nusrat Barucha was dull and was wasted in her role. Pravesh Rana is very good and Nasser was neat in a few scenes but also over acted for no reason.

Technicalities

Ram Setu does not have any songs but Daniel B George’s background score is amazing. It lifts the dull scenes and the score in the crunch scenes of Ram Setu was good. Aseem Mishra’s camera work is pretty good. But the main villain of the film is the VFX design. It is very dull and looks tacky in many areas. Even a good scene is falted by such poor visuals. Editing is just about okay but the beginning of the film should have been trimmed. Abhishek Sharma’s story is very promising and has all the episodes to make an engaging watch but the director’s poor narration spoils the day.

Akshay Kumar’s performance Storyline

Thumbs Down

Tacky VFX Silly Narration Lack of engaging emotions

Ram Setu starts on an interesting note with the Afgan episode. But thereafter, things become slow with the entry of Nasser. The scenes which set up the entry of Akshay into the Ram Setu project are not that great and bore the audience. Only when Akshay takes up the massive project, the film starts getting interesting. Credit should go to the director Abhishek for showing the episodes of Aryan reaching the Ram Setu and then going on a trail to find Ravana’s Lanka in a splendid manner.

The subject matter is such that the audience gets curious to see what happens next. A scene where Akshay Kumar brings the sample of a rock is proof of the same. But it is the lack of grip in the screenplay which spoils the fun. The inexperience of Abhishek is clearly seen in several scenes and the tacky VFX also does not help matters much.

However, the pre-interval block and conflict point during this time keep the audience interested. But things fall apart post the interval. There is no grip in the proceedings and things happen so easily for Akshay that he finds out the truth of several hundred years just like that. These scenes are hard to believe.

Director Abhishek has done extensive research on the film and it is visible in key scenes. But when it comes to narrating it in a cinematic manner, he fails and gives us half baked proceedings. The film has interesting scenes but they do not thrill you completely. Ram Setu had a good plot to be a solid hit but it is marred by some lackluster narration and ends as a below par film from Akshay and his team.

Bottom Line – Hey Raam!

Tags Akshay Kumar Gulte Reviews Movie Reviews Ram Setu

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Ram Setu Reviews

Amazon Prime Video’s first foray into film production in India, Ram Setu sets a disappointing new marker for the streaming platform.

Full Review | Oct 27, 2022

Ram Setu is an example of a movie that thinks it can coast by on some eye-catching cinematography without having a good story. The tedious plot developments are poorly conceived, the performances are mediocre, and the action scenes look very fake.

Full Review | Oct 25, 2022

We want Akshay Kumar to explore the mysteries of Ramayana and instead he offers arguments in court about taking the epic at its face value.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 25, 2022

The surprise package of the film for me was Pravesh Rana. As the muscle to Nasser’s corrupt businessman, he is the film’s primary antagonist. And he plays that role perfectly.

A Hindutva project pretending to be scientific, with aspirations to being a Baahubali.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 25, 2022

It should have been a thrilling yarn. Instead, it's an eye-glazing opportunity lost.

Barring a few decent chase sequences, Ram Setu has no spark and is way too preachy. Lord Rama doesn’t need a salesman or films acting as Instagram influencers for him.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 25, 2022

Experts are huddled in a floating laboratory aboard a ship out at sea and terms such as carbon dating, sonar imaging and global warming are bandied about. But forget science, this isn't even proper, passable fiction.

Akshay Kumar's latest film is a pedestrian experience, which is interested only in hammering home its message.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Oct 25, 2022

Ram Setu may not be as accurate and well researched as a Nat Geo documentary but it surely is an adventure thriller with great visuals and an engaging narrative.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 25, 2022

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Ram Setu Movie Review: Akshay Kumar and logic go out to sea

Rating: ( 2 / 5).

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence,” wrote Christopher Hitchens in God Is Not Great . It’s a quote I half-expected to stream forth from the mouth of Dr Aryan Kulshrestha (Akshay Kumar), an atheist archaeologist obsessed with ‘facts’ and ‘hard evidence’ in Abhishek Sharma’s Ram Setu . No soap. Aryan has no use for the Hitchen’s razor (or any razor, given his splendidly fuzzy white whiskers). He’s an atheist in the same way certain Amitabh Bachchan characters in the 70s and 80s were atheists: as a set-up for a turnabout further ahead.

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Satyadev Kancharana, M Nassar

Directed by: Abhiskeh Sharma

This film about the origins of the Ram Setu—a 48-km chain of shoals between India and Sri Lanka that many believe is the eponymous bridge mentioned in the Ramayana —opens, befuddlingly, in Afghanistan, after Taliban forces have destroyed the Bamyan Buddha statues. Aryan, joining a crack team of foreign archaeologists, is researching there when they’re set upon by more terrorists. Aryan escapes — but not before retrieving a chest of ancient coins linked to the reign of Dahir of Ahor, the last Hindu king of Sindh. “Religion divides but culture unites,” he later says, sagely, at a press conference. How wonderful! How secular! Surely the headlines back home will agree?

Returning to India, Aryan wades into controversy, and, to make matters worse, is made the Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India. There he prepares (or is forced to prepare) a report challenging the historicity of the Ramayana. The government, we gather, is working with a greedy private corporation to expedite the Sethusamudram project, which involves dredging around the Ram Setu to build a shipping canal. This is being vehemently opposed by religious, political and environmental groups. Aryan’s report causes a furour — as had happened in 2007, though I doubt any of those ASI members were ever invited back, airdropped into a swanky research vessel, assigned teammates named Sandra Rebello (Jacqueline Fernandez) and Gabrielle (Jeniffer Piccinato), outfitted with a bulky exosuit that looks like a child’s action figure and told to prove their earlier theory all over again.

Anybody who loves the Ramayana—as story, myth, history, whatever—ought to dislike a film like Ram Setu . The ancient epic is one of the greatest adventures ever told, with thrilling characters, breathtaking set-pieces and intricate moral standoffs. Abhishek, while riding the wave of Hindu revivalism in mainstream Hindi cinema, can’t even deliver a smidgen of that experience. The underwater scenes inspire yawns instead of awe. Aryan and his crew—now helped by a tour guide named AP (a memorable Satyadev Kancharana)—get into chases and gunfights, yet any excitement is marred by the broken camaraderie of the group and the sheer strangeness of their mission. Unable to complete his actual mission, Aryan concludes, “Proving Ravana’s existence will prove Lord Ram’s”. Whatever you say, doc. They travel from tea estate to lake to cave to mountaintop, checking off landmarks like ‘Ashok Vatika’ and ‘Sone Ki Lanka’. From a contained, sea-bound thriller, Ram Setu morphs into an extended commercial for Sri Lankan tourism’s Ramayana Trail (It’s funny to see Jacqueline, a Sri Lankan national, keep a straight face).

Akshay puckers his face in an odd squinch, like someone constantly smelling conspiracies in the air. It’s unexplained why his character—a reasonably skeptical, well-esteemed researcher—would undergo such a sudden change of heart, or extract grand theories from filmsy, incomplete evidence. The finale devolves into a shouting match of WhatsApp pronouncements, in the Supreme Court no less (the scene hits such a fever pitch the makers have to add a separate ‘work of fiction’ disclaimer). Once it's over, Gayatri (Nushrratt Bharuccha), Aryan’s wife, congratulates him, telling him that "Shree Ram couldn’t have found a better lawyer than you". Ram Setu attempts to prove the verities of the gods. All it confirms is the presumptuousness of mortals.

Critic Movie Review
User Movie Reviews

Ram Setu Movie Review: Despite an interesting premise and wellexecuted climax, RAM SETU suffers from an unconvincing plot and poor VFX.

Ram setu rests on an interesting premise and a well-executed climax. however, it suffers due to a lack of a convincing plot and poor vfx, ram setu review {2.5/5} & review rating.

RAM SETU is the story of an archeologist’s life-changing expedition. The year is 2007. Dr. Aryan Kulshrestha ( Akshay Kumar ) goes to Bamyan, Afghanistan for a joint expedition with a Pakistani team. Here, he excavates ancient treasure belonging to an Indian king. Suddenly, the Talibans attack the site. Aryan escapes, but at the same time, he manages to take the treasure chest with him. At a press conference, he happens to speak about being an atheist and it grabs all the headlines, more than how he risked his life to preserve history. Meanwhile, Indrakant (Nassar), owner of Pushpak Shipping, requests the government of India to dismantle the Ram Setu, as part of his Sethusamudram Project. He believes this will save fuel and reduce the travel time between India and Sri Lanka. This leads to massive anger in the country and a petition is filed in the Supreme Court. The government, which is hand in gloves with Indrakant, takes the help of the Archeological Society of India (ASI). Aryan has just been promoted as Joint Director General of the ASI. The government feels an atheist like him can help them. He is asked to submit a report stating that Ram Setu is a naturally made structure and is not man-made. Aryan asks for time to research on this, but he's not allowed to do so. The report submitted by him, however, also raises question on Ramayana. It leads to a major controversy. But Indrakant is happy. He asks him to go to Ram Setu and prove to the world that it is not man-made. Aryan reaches Rameshwaram. Project Manager Bali (Praveshh Rana), environmentalist Dr. Sandra Rebello ( Jacqueline Fernandez ) and Dr. Gabrielle (Jennifer Piccinato) are also enlisted to help Aryan in his mission. As per some research, Lord Ram was born 7000 years ago. Aryan has to prove that the Ram Setu predates the birth of Lord Ram. As he begins his research, he realizes that he might be wrong in his belief and that Ram Setu was indeed built by Lord Ram and the Vanar Sena. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Abhishek Sharma's story is very promising and has all the ingredients of a blockbuster. Abhishek Sharma's screenplay, however, is a mixed bag. While some scenes are well thought of, several sequences are silly and convenient. Abhishek Sharma and Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi's dialogues are simple and sharp.

Abhishek Sharma's direction is okay. On the positive side, he ensures that the 144 minute long film doesn’t get boring even for a moment. The manner in which Aryan reaches the Ram Setu and does his research makes for a unique watch. The same goes for the scenes where he goes on a trail to find Ravana’s Lanka. Something of this sort has never been seen in Bollywood before and that goes in favour of RAM SETU.

On the flipside, things happen very conveniently for Aryan and his team. It’s difficult to digest that nobody in the last 7000 years managed to excavate or locate these significant places and that Aryan was the first one to do so. The VFX is poor, especially for a big budget film. Lastly, showing the violent attackers were right in assaulting Aryan is problematic.

RAM SETU starts on an interesting note as the Afghanistan episode sets the mood that this is an action film with a dash of history. The film falls thereafter but picks up once Aryan reaches Rameshwaram. The scene where he brings the rock sample is applause-worthy. The intermission point is intriguing. Post interval, the chase sequence in Jaffna and also how easily Aryan finds the ancient manuscript fail to entice. The Ravana trail episode, though engaging, fails on the level of logic. The courtroom scene is arresting while the last scene helps the film end on a fine note.

Ram Setu | Official Trailer | Hindi | Akshay Kumar

Akshay Kumar looks quite dashing in his new look and performance wise, he’s first rate. Jacqueline Fernandez is decent. Nushrratt Bharuccha (Gayatri) performs well but is wasted. Satya Dev (AP) is too good and is a surprise of the film. Pravessh Rana leaves a mark. Nassar is average. Jennifer Piccinato has a good screen presence but has a limited role. Shweta Kawaatra (Lawyer) and the actors playing the judge and Aryan’s senior are okay.

RAM SETU is a songless film. The theme track is played in the end credits. Daniel B George's background score is exciting and in sync with the film’s mood.

Aseem Mishra's cinematography is neat. Dayanidhi Patturajan and Amrish Patange's production design is rich. Costumes by Leepakshi Ellawadi (For Akshay Kumar), Rushi Sharma & Manoshi Nath (For Primary Artists) and Chhavi Thakur (For Secondary Artists) are fine. ANL Arasu and Parvez Shaikh's action could had been more exciting. NY VFXWaala and Shock & Awe Films' VFX is substandard. Rameshwar S Bhagat's editing is appropriate.

On the whole, RAM SETU rests on an interesting premise and a well-executed climax. However, the film suffers majorly due to a lack of a convincing plot and poor VFX. At the box office, it will need strong positive word of mouth to sustain, especially after a not-so-encouraging opening.

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Ram Setu Movie Review: The novel idea of this Akshay Kumar film gets diluted in execution

Planning to watch Ram Setu this weekend? Here's our review of this Akshay Kumar film

Name: Ram Setu

Director: abhishek sharma, cast: akshay kumar,jacqueline fernandez,nushrratt bharuccha, writer: abhishek sharma, rating: 2.5, where to watch: amazon prime video.

A shipping company, Pushpak owned by Indrakant (Nassar), wants to dismantle a part of Ram Setu to save up on shipping time and usage of fuel. But to demolish the Ram Setu, it’s important for them to prove that it’s a natural phenomenon and not a man-made bridge with a cultural impact made by Shri Ram and his troop. In an attempt to prove this myth, Nassar gets an archaeologist, Akshay Kumar aka. Dr. Aryan, a believer in science with little faith in mythological tales. Through the journey of proving that Ram Setu is a myth, Dr Aryan, along with a colleague, Dr. Sandra (Jacqueline Fernandez) encounter facts at multiple places that brings about a change in their psyche taking the Ram Setu. And the journey of discovery is filled with action and adventure and faces opposition from multiple stakeholders of the shipping project.

What’s hot?

Ram Setu rides on a promising plot, which is novel for the Hindi-speaking audience. The adventurous trip to Sri Lanka results is self-discovery for the protagonists as also the discovery of the logic behind Ram Setu. Some of the action blocks - the initial 20 minutes in Afghanistan, the motor boat scene – and the final 10 minutes are among the key high points of the film. The performance by Akshay Kumar and his camaraderie with Satyadev lifts the impact of the narrative in the second half. The attempt to prove the existence of Ram Setu using scientific means is an element that might excite a segment of the audience. The courtroom sequence has crowd-pleasing dialogues, which should work well for tier 2 and 3 audiences. The twist in the last 10 minutes, has a nice connect to Ramayana and comes across as a pleasant surprise.

What’s not?

Ram Setu has a promising plot, but writer/director Abhishek Sharma wasn’t ambitious enough to take things a notch higher. His writing is filled with convenient episodes, where most things happen easily and the journey to prove the existence of Ram Setu is devoid of enough thrill. There is an entire sequence in the second half, where the leads are stuck in the middle of a jungle – there’s so much that could have been done in this with challenges from natural forces like animals, landslides, etc. but Abhishek instead prefers to keep it all linear and convenient. Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha’s characters are undercooked, whereas Nassar and Pravesh Rana, who are the negative forces, don’t get enough scope to be worthy opponents. There are logical loopholes in multiple key plot points and the team could have approached this in a smarter way. The thrill of the pre-interval chase sequence (without spoilers) get’s diluted due to a major lapse in the thought behind the stunt design. The visual effects could have been a lot better, especially in the underwater scenes.

Performances:

Akshay Kumar delivers a sincere performance as Dr. Aryan. He is effortless in the action sequences, delivers his monologue with utmost conviction, and modulates his voice as demanded by the situation. His performance in the courtroom sequence deserves special mention. Satyadev as AP is simply fantastic and this act will help him create his identity in the Hindi belts. Things start moving well in the right direction for Ram Setu on his entry to the story. If Akshay Kumar is the heart of Ram Setu, Satyadev is the soul. His character brings in a new dimension, however, much like the entire screenplay, the character works at the thought level but gets a little diluted on the execution front. A twist in his tale towards the end will be received with seeti’s and taali’s. Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha don’t have much of scope, though the former has a better screen time. Nassar and Pravesh Rana are decent, but not menacing enough.

Final Verdict:

Overall, Ram Setu isn’t a bad film, but it’s not good either – It lies somewhere in between. The subject will have some takers, but we wish, the director had gone wider with his vision by integrating opposition from the natural forces too, and not just stick to the human evils. Watch it for Akshay Kumar, Satyadev, and a rather novel though despite jitters in the screenplay and execution. It’s a mixed bag, though better than the last 3 Akshay Kumar films – Cuttputtli, Raksha Bandhan, and Samrat Prithviraj.

Also Read| Ram Setu Box Office Preview: Akshay Kumar starrer runtime, advance booking, screen count & opening day

Film Journalist

Film Journalist and trade analyst. With over 9 years of experience, every day, Himesh attempts to be credible with exclusive and authentic news breaks in the era of click baits. With an MBA in Finance, he believes numbers bring in an element of objectivity in life. At Pinkvilla, he reports and analyzes the box office collections of feature films and has broken over 1000 exclusive stories. In the past, Himesh has worked with Mumbai Mirror, Catch News, and Bollywood Hungama.

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'Ram Setu' movie review: Here's what audience say about Akshay-starrer

Mumbai, Oct 25: Akshay Kumar's much-awaited Hindi film 'Ram Setu' is seeing the light of the day on Tuesday. It is an action-adventure film written and directed by Abhishek Sharma.

The film has Jacqueline Fernandez and Nushrratt Bharuccha in important roles. Satyadev Kancharana, Shubham Jaykar, Nassar and others are in the supporting roles.

Ram Setu movie review: Heres what audience say about Akshay-starrer

The Bollywood flick has Daniel B George's music, Aseem Mishra's editing and Rameshwar S Bhagat's editing.

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'Ram Setu' Story:

The story of 'Ram Setu' revolves around an archaeologist, who is investigating whether the bridge is a myth or a reality. According to the Hindu epic Ramayana, Ram Setu is a bridge built by the god Rama's army of Vanara to reach Sri Lanka to rescue his wife Sita, who was abducted by Lanka's Rakshasa king Ravana.

The challenge before the atheist archaeologist turned believer is to prove the true existence of the legendary Ram Setu before evil forces destroy the pillar of Indias heritage. Will he succeed? Answer to this question forms the crux of the story.

What do netizens say about the Hindi flick? Check out

Umair Sandhu: #RamSetu = All that glitters is not gold ! #AkshayKumar need Rest from movies ! Worst Diwali ever ! Worst Advance Booking !! Seems like Public is not interested in #ThankGod & #RamSetu 😶

#AkshayKumar needs break from films !! Seriously! He should do only 2 films in a year ! #RamSetu is Passable flick ! Not upto the mark 😶 — Umair Sandhu (@UmairSandu) October 21, 2022

Things are pacing up well for #RamSetu . With just a few hours to go for the release of the @akshaykumar biggie, momentum is on the side of the film, especially due to audience sentiments and religious significance. The film is now tracking at 15-18 cr with potential to go higher! pic.twitter.com/guy47pT6c3 — Joginder Tuteja (@Tutejajoginder) October 24, 2022

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Delhi basement deaths: 13 'illegal' coaching centres sealed

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has started action against illegal coaching centres and will set up a high-level committee to probe the flooding of the basement of a coaching institute which led to three civil services aspirants' deaths, an official said on Sunday.

A team of the civic body reached the Old Rajinder Nagar area to seal several illegally-run basements of coaching centres, a statement by the Delhi government said.

Around 13 such coaching centres were sealed during the action till late Sunday night.

These included IAS Gurukul, Chahal Academy, Plutus Academy, Sai Trading, IAS Setu, Topper's Academy, Dainik Samvad, Civils Daily IAS, Career Power, 99 Notes, Vidya Guru, Guidance IAS, and Easy for IAS.

"These coaching centres were found to be operating in basements in violation of rules and they were sealed on the spot and notices were pasted," the statement said.

The Rau's IAS Study Circle, where the incident took place on Saturday, has been sealed by the police.

The MCD had last year conducted a survey of such coaching centres after a massive fire broke out at an institute in Mukharjee Nagar, another coaching hub in north Delhi.

"To begin with, the survey will be used to identify those flouting norms," the official said.

Three civil services aspirants -- two females and a male -- died after a library housed in the basement of Rau's IAS centre got inundated in a heavy rain Saturday night and reportedly led to the failure of the single biometric entry and exit point.

"A gross criminal negligence is found on part of the owner of the institute in ensuring safety measures as the library in the basement was running illegally and had only one entry and exit point that was biometric-enabled and got locked due to the flooding," the MCD official said.

"The students could have escaped had the exit been free. The MCD only approves the building plan but if somebody misuses the basement for commercial activities after declaring it will be used for parking and storing purposes, what else can the agency do to ensure protection?" he said.

The official said storm drains in the area, which carry excess rainwater to bigger drains, were covered by "encroachers on street sides" and contributed to the flooding.

"Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi has held a meeting of the officials in this regard and setting up of a high-level committee after talks with the Delhi government will be announced soon," another official said.

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Ram Setu Review
Rediff.com » Movies » Ram Setu Review: Bizarre! Ram Setu Review: Bizarre! By DEEPA GAHLOT. October 25, 2022 16:38 IST. Get Rediff News in your Inbox: email. Ram Setu is silly and boring, sighs ...
Akshay Has Something To Cheer At Last
The manner in which Ram Setu is going, it will comfortably surpass that number as it already stands at Rs 56.70 crore (Rs 567 million) IMAGE: Sidharth Malhotra and Ajay Devgn in Thank God .
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Ram Setu Movie Review: Critics Rating: 2.0 stars, click to give your rating/review,The film plays out like a poorly scripted reality show that isn't even discreet about its purpose.
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Ram Setu movie review: Akshay Kumar stars in this enjoyable action adventure that manages to overcome its flaws because of a fun story and amazing visuals.
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Ram Setu: Directed by Abhishek Sharma. With Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Nassar. An atheist archaeologist turned believer must race against time to prove the true existence of the legendary Ram Setu before evil forces destroy the pillar of India's heritage.
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Ram Setu Review
Quick take: Ram Setu is an Indianna Jones like adventure film. Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharu ... Reviews; Bollywood Movies; Ram Setu Review; Ram Setu Review. Follow On ...
Ram Setu Review: Who Knew Akshay Kumar Would Be the One to Save Us from
Ram Setu is about the ghar wapsi (homecoming) of Aryan (Kumar), a self-proclaimed nastik (atheist) archaeologist who embarks on an expedition to examine the underwater structure after which the film is named. Initially, Aryan is a regular, liberal-minded hero and therefore unlike any of Kumar's recent roles. His life is turned upside down ...
Ram Setu Movie Review
Technicalities. Ram Setu does not have any songs but Daniel B George's background score is amazing. It lifts the dull scenes and the score in the crunch scenes of Ram Setu was good. Aseem Mishra's camera work is pretty good. But the main villain of the film is the VFX design. It is very dull and looks tacky in many areas.
Ram Setu
Rated: 1.5/5 Oct 25, 2022 Full Review Carla Hay Culture Mix Ram Setu is an example of a movie that thinks it can coast by on some eye-catching cinematography without having a good story. The ...
Ram Setu (film)
Ram Setu (transl. The bridge of Rama) is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure film directed by Abhishek Sharma.The film stars Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Satya Dev and follows an archeologist who is investigating the nature of Ram Setu (known as Adam's Bridge in English).. The film was announced in November 2020 with principal photography commencing in ...
Ram Setu review: Akshay Kumar film is very Amar Chitra Katha-cum
Ram Setu movie review: Akshay Kumar's latest film is a pedestrian experience, cobbled together in an even more pedestrian fashion, which is interested only in hammering home its message. Rating: 1.5 out of 5. Written by Shubhra Gupta New Delhi | Updated: October 28, 2022 10:39 IST.
Ram Setu
Ram Setu may not be as accurate and well researched as a Nat Geo documentary but it surely is an adventure thriller with great visuals and an engaging narrative. Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 ...
Ram Setu
The movie is grounded but does take a couple of liberties with its storytelling like most adventure movies based on mythology. After all Indiana Jones discovered remnants of the Ark of god and the Holy grail. Similarly Akshay's Archaeologist is trying to find out is the origin of Ram Setu. Akshay fans should love it.
Ram Setu Movie Review: Akshay Kumar and logic go out to sea
Directed by: Abhiskeh Sharma. This film about the origins of the Ram Setu—a 48-km chain of shoals between India and Sri Lanka that many believe is the eponymous bridge mentioned in the Ramayana —opens, befuddlingly, in Afghanistan, after Taliban forces have destroyed the Bamyan Buddha statues. Aryan, joining a crack team of foreign ...
Ram Setu Movie Review: Despite an interesting premise and well-executed
Ram Setu Movie Review 2022 : Ram Setu Critics Rating 2.5/5. RAM SETU is the story of an archeologist's life-changing expedition. The year is 2007. Dr. Aryan Kulshrestha (Akshay Kumar) goes to ...
Ram Setu Movie Review: The novel idea of this Akshay Kumar ...
Ram Setu rides on a promising plot, which is novel for the Hindi-speaking audience. The adventurous trip to Sri Lanka results is self-discovery for the protagonists as also the discovery of the ...
'Ram Setu' movie review: Here's what audience say about ...
'Ram Setu' movie review. The Bollywood flick has Daniel B George's music, Aseem Mishra's editing and Rameshwar S Bhagat's editing. 'Sardar' 3-day box office collection: Karthi's film off to a good ...
Ram Setu (2022) Movie Reviews
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Ram Setu
An atheist archaeologist turned believer must race against time to prove the true existence of the legendary Ram Setu before evil forces destroy the pillar of India's heritage. ... Be the first to add a review. Add My Review Details Details ... We reveal the 15 best-reviewed movie titles in the Ryan Reynolds filmography, ranked by Metascore. movie;
Delhi basement deaths: 13 'illegal' coaching centres sealed
Around 13 such coaching centres were sealed during the action till late Sunday night. These included IAS Gurukul, Chahal Academy, Plutus Academy, Sai Trading, IAS Setu, Topper's Academy, Dainik ...