Ram-Leela This Indian adaptation was one of the more fun movies I have watched so far in this marathon, perhaps my favorite version "modern day" version of one of these plays.
It has a real tightrope to walk, being loud and bombastic but also staying true to a tragic love story, and somehow it really pulls it off.
Ram (Romeo) is played by Ranveer Singh and perhaps has the best musical entrance I have ever seen a character make:
Why bother whining about "fair Rosaline" when you can instead to a crazy ass song with 50 back-up dancers and pelvic thrusts that make the ladies faint? My three year old was also copying the "hair brushing" move and it was pretty funny.
Leela (Juliet) is played by Deepika Padukone. Unfortunately she isn't given an equally wonderfully introductory song because all her music is quite a bit of fun. Also, for what it is worth, the prettiest Juliet in the marathon so far in my estimation
The two lead characters have such wonderful chemistry between them and the movie is pretty wonderful whenever they are on screen together. For the most part this is the case, even when the story begins to deviate quite a bit following the stand-in scene for the Tybalt-Mercutio duel. There are a few other interesting people here and there but for my money the two leads really steal the show in this one.
One of the biggest weaknesses in the movie also ended up being quite a strength in its own way too. The story really seems to go completely off the rails near the end. Instead of the whole Friar Laurence, fake poison angle, this movie takes the story into full on gang warfare with murders, gun fights, assassinations, attempted rape, and more. It is very unfortunate the story gets so big, sprawling, and violent because it takes us away from Ram and Leela, which was pretty disappointing for awhile. The good news is, however, that once the Shakespeare story was abandoned for such a massive stretch, I really didn't know what was going to happen or how it was going to end. I was rooting for these two more than most versions of the story so far, and it was nice to be far enough away from the expected that there was some reasonable doubt regarding the ending. I won't spoil what happens.
So this was a fun discovery. Thank you for the recommendation roujin!