Ru-Ba-Ru Movie Review: Uninspiring

This film is a take off on Hollywood's If Only made in 2004 and director Arjun Chandramohan Bali fails to pull off the Hindi adaptation. The film's problem lies with its script and the manner in which the screenplay unfolds. The film's story has a degree of freshness to it, but the manner in which it is developed becomes clich?d. The director is unable to capitalize on fairly promising story idea. What could have been an engrossing, tear-jerker, turns out to be rather flat, emotionally, at least. The lead pair of Randeep Hooda and Shahana Goswami are unable to hold the audience's flagging interest going.

The film centers around the busy lives of Nikhil (Hooda) and Tara (Shahana), who have been living in with each other for a while now. Tara's insecurities, which are brimming under the surface, come to fore as he craves for commitment from an ambitious-to-the point of being insensitive, Nikhil. The eternal drama of the nagging woman, looking for attention and reassurance and the seemingly insensitive man is played in the bickerings between Nikhil and Tara as well. The man is so caught up with his ambition (job) that he has little time to register or reciprocate, the many small ways in which the woman is nurturing the relationship. This unhappy situation continues till Nikhil is forced to contemplate a life without her, a life where he has lost her. There is a drastic change in his personality. From a uncaring, insensitive boor, he becomes a caring and loving boyfriend. He realizes how important she is to his life. He gets another chance to set things right and he does so.

On a story level, all is fine. But Rubaru suffers in execution. The idea about cherishing and loving your near and dear ones because one never knows what tomorrow brings, does not come out with the kind of poignance that it should have. Even the romance angel does not seem to touch a chord anywhere. But this is not to say that the film is all bad. It has its moments, in the first as well as the second half. Bali does manage to draw out his moments ? all pure sentimental of course, in the second half, specially when Nikhil takes Tara to meet his parents and he finally proposes to her. But it is not enough to hold the film together. The first half of the film is quite sluggish, but it picks up considerably in the second half. The film could have done with a little more tightness on the script level as well as the editing. The crispness is missing from the movie, making certain scenes drag on.

As for the lead pair, only Shahana manages to impress. She has already proved how spontaneous she is as an actress in Rock On. In this movie too, she displays her virtuosity as Tara. Hooda, on the other hand, is a little disappointing. He seems to lack the spark and fire that Shahana's Tara has.

The film's music is just about okay. What Rubaru suffers from is staleness. Despite it being a good story idea, even though it is borrowed, there is nothing fresh and lively about the movie, except for Shahana and a few moments in both halves of the movie. It has all the trappings of being an absorbing romantic tale, which fails to take off. The director needs to take some of the flak for that. Quite uninspiring fare.