Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Pierre Gruno, Ray Sahetapy
Director: Gareth Evans
Ratings: 3/5
Should we Raid the theatres for The Raid: Redemption...?
By Priyanka Ketkar
Long, long time ago, there was a certain Chan who made the world go crazy with his action and his karate and his style and his movies. But then that time was long ago and the craze for such action flicks was lost somewhere. From another corner of the world suddenly came a cry of survival of this genre and our Indian Censor board was kind enough to hear this cry and let us get re-introduced to the Chan-action. The Raid: Redemption, an Indonesian movie, has finally decided to raid Indian theatres and it will probably even manage to create a lot of stir.
To swipe out the dirt and muck from the city, and free the people from the terrifying clutches of Tama (Ray Sahetapy) and his boss, a SWAT team raids a dilapidated building. What starts off as a winning battle turns into a bloody mess. Soon things start to spiral out of control and amidst a lot of kicks, punches and swords, a dirty secret is revealed. And then there is another secret- Rama (Iko Uwais), one of the SWAT officers discovers that Tama is his brother. How? Why? What next? All these questions are answered in the due course of time.
A terror clean-up theme with undercurrents of dirty politics and relationship of two brothers has been woven beautifully. The movie is shut-your-eyes gory at times, but the action will simply blow your mind. It is fast and racy and each and every blow comes with clear precision. If you have to put yourself in the situation in which the soldiers are caught, you are bound to get goosebumps. The determination that they still have, to save their teammates despite the danger has been portrayed with complete honesty. The first half is almost sickeningly bloody but the second half starts getting better and picks up the pace.
The entire team has worked excellently and although there is more of fighting and screaming, it all involves a lot of acting as well. Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim are the show-stealers and have given impeccable performances.
The fact that a movie with English subtitles and Indonesian language, with a lot of violence, swear words and bloodshed has been passed without any cuts from the censor board is in itself an achievement for the movie. It somehow shows that Indian Film Fraternity is slowly opening doors to wider range of movies; but what is left to be seen now, is whether the audience is also so receptive or not.
The Raid is the kind of a movie which you can watch once for fun but then it is also easily forgettable. All the violence and bloodshed haters, this one is not for you. It will make you cringe and flinch and jump in your seats but your racing heartbeats will be proof enough for the kind of excitement the movie will create. Go raid the theatres for The Raid: Redemption!