‘Ruslaan’ (2024) Movie Review - A Bland Ayush Sharma In A Bland Action-Thriller

In a recent interview with Baradwaj Rangan, Aayush Sharma talked about moving away from Salman Khan's shadow and discussed his plans for reinventing himself. Sharma wants to keep us on our toes. He doesn't want to be trapped in a single image (action hero, lover boy, etc.); he wants to explore various genres. Sharma, in other words, wants to be an "all-rounder." Unfortunately for him, his new movie Ruslaan doesn't have the same ambitions. We once again sit through the same-old terrorism routine where Pakistan and/or China threaten to destroy India and its citizens. Why do these villains even bother waking up in the morning? Don't they watch Bollywood movies? Have they not yet learned anything?

Movies like Ruslaan don't think about nuances or even decent storytelling. They remain content with cartoonish bad guys who exude extreme hatred towards the Indian Army. This lame and unoriginal trope no longer produces any feelings. The audience yawns while the bad guys have wet dreams about blowing up the country. Perhaps these evil men of Bollywood should complete their basic training before coming up with grand (and bland) schemes. There is a scene in Ruslaan where the titular character, played by Sharma, gets surrounded by masked gunmen. They all fire their guns at the same time, yet not even a single bullet manages to touch Ruslaan's skin. It's not like they fire from a long distance. They look quite close to the titular character. Scenes like these never fail to amuse me. It's 2024, and our movies are still stuck in a different time.

Sharma speaks fluently and sounds intelligent in that Baradwaj Rangan interview. In Ruslaan, however, whenever he or any other character opens their mouth, you feel like closing your ears. Ruslaan says something along the lines of, "Students karte hai mujhpe trust. Isliye mai leta hun unke life mein interest." It's an awful line, though that doesn't stop the film from admiring itself. Ruslaan tells his friend to put these words in his status. I suggest you don't do the same if you want to have friends. It's painful to listen to dialogues like, "Apne guitar ke saath tabla laaya hun," or something like that. "Tabla," in this case, is Ruslaan's friend (Raashul Tandon). Why is he referred to as tabla? Blame his fat stomach. Yes, these are the kinds of "jokes" Ruslaan offers to the audience. Hence, you get that scene where Ruslaan points at some twins while talking about the phone cloning process.

Ruslaan is a music teacher, but the songs in this film are uninteresting. He takes the audition of his students for a music festival, and the first girl who plays her guitar and sings turns out to be much better than the main character. Ruslaan, however, ignores her and starts talking to the person sitting beside him. This means he is a terrible teacher. Ruslaan is also a bad friend because, to crack a phone, he plays with "tabla's" (I don't remember his real name) feelings and ends up getting him tortured by the police. A superior officer (Vidya Malvade) constantly complains that Ruslaan doesn't follow her orders. Sure, call him a bad agent, given how he often ends up blowing his (and other agents) cover. Despite such clumsiness, Ruslaan finds a place in the R&AW office. I guess the R&AW officers in this film are as perceptive as the studios who hire writers to come up with movies like these.

Sharma's eyebrows are utterly distracting. They form an S-shape and move constantly as if screaming, "Hey, look here, please!" He is unconvincing as an action hero because he seems to be imitating other action heroes. There is no distinct style or originality in the way he walks or poses on the screen. The action scenes, too, appear generic - you don't feel the punch or the kick. I almost fell asleep at one point when a bad guy told his goons to "take care" of Ruslaan while he himself left the scene. Instead of running towards their target with a baseball bat, someone should have fired their gun and saved us from sitting through additional runtime.

Ruslaan's real father was a Muslim. A Hindu cop (Jagapathi Babu) adopts Ruslaan, and in one scene, we see the latter in a Hindu temple praying to the almighty. If nothing else, you can - in this election year - walk away with the lesson that god treats everyone equally. So don't listen to anyone who uses god to create discord, discrimination, and an atmosphere of hostility.

Final Score- [3/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times