Stay away from this tortuous romantic drama

Raymo

Kannada (Theatres)

Cast: Ishaan, Ashika Ranganath, Madhoo Shah, Achyuth Kumar, Rajesh, Sarath Kumar

Director: Pawan Wadeyar

Rating: 1.5/5

Yavaga mugiyute guru ee film? Karma, karma! (When will this film end? Sigh).

This lament from youngsters in Bengaluru’s leading cinema hall, which had an occupancy rate of less than 15% for the first show of the film, sums up the quality of ‘Raymo’.

By all means, ‘Raymo’, a love story, is an epic misfire from Pawan Wadeyar, who made the enjoyable romantic drama ‘Googly’, starring Yash and Kriti Kharbanda.

The flick tells the story of an industrialist’s son Revanth Deshpande aka Raymo essayed by Ishaan, a boozehound, and an egoistic, brat. His father, played by Sarath Kumar, marries a doctor, who takes care of him after the demise of his first wife. This forces Revanth to nurse a grudge against his father and stepmother. However, his father secretly works to fulfill Raymo’s dream of becoming a rockstar.

Raymo comes in contact with a classical singer Mohana, played by Ashika Ranganath, during his search of a female singer for a performance abroad. They fall in love with each other. However, circumstances create a huge rift between them. Mohana vows to settle scores with Raymo by scaling heights as a singer and Raymo secretly helps her to realise her goal. Watch it (at your own risk) to know what happens in the end.

What dents Raymo is the absolute lack of effort put in script and screenplay. We are witnessed to illogical events till the horrifying experience of watching the film for over two-and-a-half hours comes to an end.

Is the flick about a rock star, a love story or the celebration of a hero? Only the filmmaker knows answers. Two unjustified action sequences and ill-timed songs add salt to the injury. In Arjun Janya’s music, there is hardly any music. You just hear sound and noise.

In terms of performances, Ashika is slightly impressive, while the rest of the cast, including the seasoned Achyuth Kumar, let us down.

The flick forces us to believe that having sex in a car, having affairs with women, consuming alcohol every minute, smoking cigarettes every second, wearing designers dresses and goggles are essential qualities of a celebrated rock star.

Pawan Wadeyar appears to have stitched many scenes from romance dramas for his outing, which surely competes for the worst movie of the year.