R
ocky Bhai worked because the camera never once doubted him. He was built to be worshipped, frame by frame. Raya isn't that guy, at least not by design. Several reviews describe Mohandas telling the story through a specific, damaged psychological point of view instead of a straightforward rise-to-power arc. Whatever your read on that choice, it seems to be the exact thing splitting critics before anyone's even gotten to how well it's acted.
Then there's the dual role, which honestly might be the smartest thing in the whole film. Yash plays Raya, then later plays his son Ticket, who's angrier and much less controlled. A few reviewers singled out the scenes where the two collide as the strongest stretch in the movie, the one place the gimmick stops feeling like a poster tagline and actually does something. One reviewer went further, calling the ending the only part of the film that makes sense of everything before it. Not every critic had that much patience getting there, though. We'll get to them.
Even the reviews tearing this film apart still give Yash credit. He's described, over and over, as commanding, particularly in the action sequences, bringing stillness that reads as menace when he's Raya and a much messier, more unstable energy when he's Ticket. It's a real range exercise. A couple of critics said it's honestly worth watching for that alone.
But not everyone's fully convinced. A couple of reviewers pointed out that Raya still walks and talks a lot like Rocky Bhai did, same swagger, same rhythm, like four years wasn't quite long enough to shake that character loose. Which, fair. That's a hard thing to pull off.
The women get a much worse deal, and this is where reviews across totally different outlets start sounding weirdly the same. Nayanthara's Ganga is introduced like she matters and then gradually fades into the background. Kiara Advani's Nadia, a circus performer tangled up with Raya, gets more screen time but a thinner arc than the setup promises. Rukmini Vasanth makes an entrance well into the second half that a few critics called genuinely striking, and then the character loses steam almost immediately. Tara Sutaria and Huma Qureshi round out the cast. Both sincere. Both handed very little to actually do. Five major actresses. I couldn't find a single review that thought any one of them got a full character.
Not everyone was kind. One Telugu-language outlet gave the film 1.75 out of 5, calling a chunk of the second half an unintentional parody of pan-India spectacle. The specific complaint was a widely mocked sequence involving Raya rescuing a child from water, the kind of moment that would've gotten dragged online a decade ago. Multiple reviews, independently, landed on the same core issue: the first half tries to juggle too much at once. A sibling arc, a romance, an arranged marriage, an entire criminal empire, all competing for attention before the interval even shows up.
The dubbing didn't help either, especially the Telugu and Hindi versions, where reviewers said the dense, almost poetic dialogue loses whatever weight it had once it's pulled out of the original Kannada and English.
Nobody can agree on the budget, either. Numbers range from around Rs 500 crore to well past Rs 800 crore depending on the source. But basically everyone agrees this is one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, and it looks it. J.J. Perry, who's choreographed action for the John Wick films, handled the fight sequences here. DNEG, fresh off Dune: Part Two, did the effects.
Whether that spends translates into a real box office run beyond opening weekend is still up in the air. What's not in question is that Yash didn't play this safe. Whether that was the right instinct probably depends on which review lands in your feed first.
Yash returns in a dual role after his post-KGF break, playing a Goa-based gangster and, later, his estranged and considerably angrier son. The film leans into a fractured, opium-trade backdrop instead of the clean mythmaking that made KGF work. Reviews since release are genuinely split. Some critics are calling it bold and worth the wait. Others think it's a bloated mess that wastes five talented actresses on nothing roles.
