I just came out from watching an early screening of Raayan at the AMC 25 in Times Square. This movie exceeded all my expectations!
The slums and the several gang, police and civilian story lines coalescing brilliantly reminded me of Brazil's City of God. The revenge plot, the incredibly choreographed action sequences, and the nighttime glistening chromatic scenes reminded me of John Wick.
The movie clocks in at around 2hrs and 30mins. By the 90 minute mark I started thinking that the movie might become flat because it seems like all plot lines have been fully explored and the race to the ending would be a long-stretched, stereotypical one, but something happens that completely shifts the entire movie in a new direction. That something brought back feelings of rage and sorrow akin to Japan's Akira, where you are left speechless and empty at how things wound up the way they did.
For us westerners that grimace at the thought of a dance scene popping up in the middle of the scene, don't panic. There are only two major dance scenes in the movie that last around 5 minutes each, both of which fit in very well with the movie by conveying the emotions and forcefulness of their particular timestamps; the second dance scene was in particular potent and mesmerizing, nothing of a corney dance spectacle you might have seen in a YT Bollywood scene.
This movie and Kill have been the biggest movie surprises this year for me. It has certainly opened my mind to Indian films, and I can't wait to see more movies of this calibre.
