RAAVAN Movie Review (All Members+Critics Reviews) - Page 4

An upright cop, the punisher, the law/Lord Rama [Vikram];
His doting wife/Goddess Sita [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan];
The lieutenant he befriends in the forest/Hanuman [Govinda];
His confidante/Lakshmana [Nikhil Dwivedi];
The antagonist's sister, who triggers off the war/Surpanakha [Priyamani]

• And, of course, the antagonist, the Robinhood turned Raavan who kidnaps the top cop's wife and keeps her in his custody, in his Lanka/Raavan [Abhishek Bachchan].

You've come to expect scintillating visuals in the master film-maker's films and RAAVAN is no exception. But RAAVAN falters in narrating the story with dexterity. In fact, this one's a game of see-saw, with a dull and lifeless first hour, an absorbing second half and a weak, lacklustre climax.

Final word? RAAVAN comes with the baggage of humungous expectations, mainly for the one name attached to it: Mani Ratnam. Even though comparisons with the genius film-maker's earlier accomplishments like MOUNA RAAGAM, NAYAGAN, AGNI NAKSHATRAM, GEETHANJALI, ANJALI, ROJA, BOMBAY and GURU are sacrilegious since all belong to diverse genres, RAAVAN is nowhere close to those epics. The benchmarks only get higher and higher every time Mani Ratnam makes a film and RAAVAN, unfortunately, is a step down. Sorry, several steps down!

Dev [Vikram] falls in love with Ragini [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan], a spunky classical dancer who is as unconventional as him. They get married and he takes up his new post in Lal Maati, a small town in northern India. A town where the world of law is not the police, but Beera [Abhishek Bachchan], a tribal who has, over the years, shifted the power equation of the place from the ruling to the have-nots of the area.

Dev knows that the key to bringing order to any place is not to vanquish the big fish; in this case -- Beera. In one stroke Dev manages to rip open Beera's world and set in motion a change of event which will claim lives. Beera, injured but enraged, hits back, starting a battle that draws Dev, Beera and Ragini into the jungle. The forest becomes the battleground. The battle between good and evil, between Dev and Beera, between Ram and Raavan.

Mani Ratnam's adaptation of 'Ramayana' begins with the wife getting kidnapped and her husband launching a massive hunt to track down his wife and nail Raavan aka Beera. The reason why Beera takes this extreme step is revealed much, much later, towards the post-interval portions, which means that Mani Ratnam follows the nonlinear pattern to narrate his story.

Let's talk about the factors that pull this film down. First and foremost, when you've a title like RAAVAN, the demon king, who couldn't be vanquished by Gods, demons or spirits, you expect Raavan aka Beera to be equally powerful, who could send a chill down your spine, who spells terror and fear. But, in RAAVAN, Beera comes across as a psycho. The streak of madness in his character makes a mockery of the character itself.

Also, his makeup and also the shabby avtaars of his family/henchmen is not something that makes them looks menacing. In fact, it makes the entire gang look repulsive.

Even the finale leaves a lot to be desired. Ideally, the film should've ended after the fight on the bridge, but the entire track thereafter seems like an add-on, which is forced into the screenplay. Ash having a change of heart for Abhishek is equally unpalatable and makes you wonder, how and when did she develop such strong feelings/emotions for Beera? The writing is flawed, no two opinions on that!

On the plus side, the track, which starts from Nikhil's kidnap to the entire flashback portion, is attention grabbing. The factors that prompt Beera to spell havoc in Dev's life are apt, although Beera's sister's portions, while narrating the atrocities committed on her, aren't easy to comprehend in entirety. What was she trying to say, frankly? Yet, the impact of the flashback portions is worth noting.

The fight on the bridge -- between Abhishek and Vikram -- is astounding. One hasn't watched something like this on the Hindi screen yet, I'm sure. In fact, the execution of each and every stunt [Shyam Kaushal, Peter Hein] is exceptional. Every Mani Ratnam film is embellished with stunning visuals and RAAVAN boasts of mind-boggling visuals as well. Shooting the film at tough locales isn't easy and Santosh Sivan and V. Manikandan's vision creates magic on screen. Every frame is worth admiring and applauding.

A.R. Rahman's music is excellent and the visual appeal only enhances the impact. I'd like to single out 'Behne De' and 'Thok De Killi', two tracks that I'd like to hum even after the show has concluded. In fact, the latter is very energetic in terms of choreography. Vijay Krishna Acharya's dialogue hit you like a sharp object at times, which is in sync with the mood of the film.

I've admired Abhishek's work in Mani Ratnam's earlier films YUVA and GURU, but despite putting his best foot forward, for some strange, inexplicable reason, Abhishek doesn't look convincing for the part. Also, the dialogue delivered by him aren't coherent at times. Aishwarya is wonderful, looking ethereal and enacting her part with conviction. Vikram is first-rate, although the role isn't substantial enough. Govinda fails to create any impact whatsoever. Amongst the plethora of actors, Nikhil Dwivedi [a revelation; very good], Ravi Kishan [nice] and Priyamani [perfect] stand out.

On the whole, RAAVAN is a king-sized disappointment, in terms of content. From the business point of view, a Mani Ratnam film might ensure a healthy opening [at plexes mainly], but the weak script on one hand and the heavy price tag on the other will make RAAVAN see red.

Originally posted by: maddy1973

SRK

@juniorbachchan had a great time. u all have worked so hard & good in the film.was a great evening. family over have to get brownie points.

@SrBachchan thanx sir had a great time...the film is really nice. all have worked so hard & earnestly. insha allah all will love it.

Mahesh Bhupathi

Enjoyed the movie..different, has a political twist(maoist rebellion) @juniorbachchan, ash and vikram were great. Want to see in tamil now!

Suhel Seth

Raavab is BRILLIANT and Ash and Abhi are STUPENDOUS!!!!

Vikram good too! But go and see Raavan!!! Worth every frame!!!!!

Ratnam working with his regular cinematographer Santosh Sivan and also V Manikandan, and editor A Sreekar Prasad, gives us a hellish vision -- an innocent woman Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan [ Images ]), kidnapped by a Veerappan-like outlaw, Beera (Abhishek Bachchan [ Images ]).

Much of the film is the cat and mouse game -- Beera and his gang, in harmony with the forests, rain, rivers, cliffs, mountains and a lot of mud, always a few steps ahead of the police force led by an officer Dev Sharma (Vikram), who also happens to be Ragini's husband.

Ratnam is one of the most remarkable filmmakers in India [ Images ], taking unique story ideas -- although some with muddled political messages, working within the framework of popular cinema, and yet creating memorable films in Tamil, Hindi and other languages.

From the days when he used to shoot his films in one language (Roja [ Images ], Bombay and Dil Se) and then dub them for other markets, he has now moved to working simultaneously on two parallel productions.

This time he shot Raavan in Hindi and Raavanan in Tamil -- shooting each scene back-to-back, with at least one actor interchanging roles. Vikram plays Dev in Raavan and then Veeraiya (Beera) in Raavanan, while Ash appears as Ragini in both films. He also has a third version -- Villain dubbed in Telugu.

That is a lot of ambition for a soft-spoken 54-year-old man, who first attended business school before becoming a filmmaker. There is ambition written all over Raavan and at most times it succeeds.

But it all happens at such speed that it takes a while to absorb the pace of Raavan. The film needs to be digested, absorbed and mulled over. The visual images are often so powerful and strong, each shot packed with so much activity -- rain, mud, trees, cliffs, and, of course, the actors, that many filmgoers will miss out on all that they see on the screen.

I tried to get ahead of Ratnam and started counting the number of edit cuts during the grand dance performance to the song Thok di Killi, but soon I felt I was on a roller coaster ride, and had to stop to breathe.

Raavan is Ratnam's interpretation of the Ramayana [ Images ] (yes, the rumours and speculations are true), with Bachchan, Ash and Vikram playing the roles of Ravana, Sita and Rama, respectively. And in one of the most brilliant strokes of casting, a delightful Govinda [ Images ] plays Sanjeevani -- a modern day Hanuman [ Images ], playfully hopping from one spot to another as he joins Dev's mission to search for his wife.

The film is replete with references to the Ramayana -- from the 14 days it takes Dev to rescue his wife, to a disturbing take on the Soorpanaka story, which becomes the justification to the kidnapping of Ragini.

But Ratnam takes Raavan beyond the Ramayana. I am not giving away the ending, but I wonder what the purists and Hindu fundamentalists will think about the departures of the film from the religious text.

Ratnam gives us all shades of the three main characters. Beera is not always as evil as Ravana is often portrayed; Ragini's Sita has a strong inner core, and while she starts with hating Beera, she is sometimes in awe of his sudden spouts of gentleness; and Dev turns out to be the not so perfect Rama.

I wish the script and the film in general, had not spent so much time in its technological grandeur, because the real crucial conversation around the Ramayana starts to happen near the end of the film. By this time Beera, Ragini and Dev have stopped being the traditional Ravana, Sita and Rama.

That transition makes Raavan a significant milestone for modern India to move beyond the Ramayana as just a religious text. And so Raavan is perhaps Ratnam's most definite political film.

Bachchan's best work to date has been with Ratnam in Yuva [ Images ] and Guru. But here the actor goes beyond anything he could have imagined he was capable of doing. Through the film he stands tall, observing his landscape, his face twitching with myriads of thoughts and his menacing smile unnerving all those who come in contact with him. Bachchan has never worked this hard in a film and it shows in his performance.

Like him, his wife Ash also gives one of the strongest performances of her career. Few directors have succeeded in making us look beyond her beauty and see the actor in her. Rituparno Ghosh worked wonders with her in the under-appreciated Raincoat and Ratnam did that in Guru and now here in Raavan.

Vikram, a star in Tamil films, is a real find for the Bollywood industry.

The fate of Raavan and its Tamil and Telugu versions will be judged in the next few days by audiences across India and abroad. But this much is clear -- Ratnam, the quiet master, is in top form here. It will be a challenge for him to outdo himself.

Rediff Rating:

Originally posted by: lalixlili

i don't think we can trust those tweets at all....🤢

Mani Ratnam makes a film every few years, with the slow deliberation of one obsessed with every detail.

The alarmingly prolific Ram Gopal Varma [ Images ] meanwhile seems to follow impulse ahead of scheme. Their diametrically opposed creative paths crossed in the early 1990s as the two got together and each is credited for writing the other's 1993 film -- RGV's Gaayam and Mani's Thiruda Thiruda -- even though Ramu assures that screen-credit notwithstanding, each man made very much his own film.

And yet, today one seems very much in on-screen pursuit of the other, even if not blatantly so. Ratnam's last film Guru ends up in a way rather like Varma's Sarkar, both barely-veiled biopics of popular, powerful Indian icons, films that chose safety over provocation and ended up tame hagiographies. Massively successful films, naturally.

This time, Ratnam's latest takes a big chunk of larger-than-life Indian mythology, sloppily swaps antagonist with protagonist, and ends up giving an earnest Bachchan far too much scenery to chew in far too much spotlight. Oh yeah, this new Raavan is clearly Mani Ratnam Ki Aag.

Not that Raavan, starring ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan, is bad to look at. Not at all, and there are some frames that positively glisten. It's just ill-conceived, amateurishly adapted, and often too lamentably literal in its desperate attempts to reference the epic, trying recklessly but daftly to be contrary for the heck of it.

It's one thing to mask familiar characters with grimy grey, evoking empathy for the villain and giving the hero some flawed ambiguity, but here Ratnam falls prey to sensationalism and turns Raavan into a schizophrenic Robin Hood, and Ram into a bloodthirsty, consistently amoral cop.

The result is painfully one-dimensional, a revenge story devoid of meat, conflict or, really, surprise: I doubt giving away plot details from the Ramayana [ Images ] counts as a spoiler. If you think it does, turn away now.

Tough cop Dev (Vikram) discovers that his wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai [ Images ]) has been abducted by feared outlaw Beera (Abhishek Bachchan [ Images ]). He sets out to get her back, cutting a bloody trail through the jungle even as the violent, loony Beera refrains from besmirching Ragini's honour.

It is a concept with fascinating adaptive possibilities, its potential showing through in stray bursts, like Raavan's sister's wedding brutalised by the cops to give the film's anti-hero his motive for the kidnap.

That very potential, however, is squandered in the next scene when a young cop inexplicably grabs the almost-bride by her nose, to underline how obviously the poor girl is Surpanakha.

In another unimaginable moment nearing the end of the film, the cop asks his rescued bride if Raavan 'did anything' to her. It's a scene dripping with awkwardness and hesitation and misunderstanding, and could have been impactful in a million ways, except the way this film plays it: With the cop asking his wife to take a polygraph test. I'm not making that up, so laughably textbook are the script's attempts at metamorphosis.

The dialogue doesn't help things, the film's characters speaking in the oddly theatrical, surreally simplistic Hindi that can only these days be described as Priyadarshanese.

A few characters get a chance to break away, like Ravi Kissen [ Images ] and Govinda [ Images ], who grab it with both hands and emerge as the best things in the film, by far, while Abhishek Bachchan speaks any which way he chooses, especially when slapping himself. There is one scene when Bachchan, speaking of burning with envy, transcends this poor picture and shines on his own, but outside of that this is a squandered vanity project for the actor.

Unfortunately, both that and the aforementioned squealing have more to do with tortured balloon animals, and there are several ear-splitting occasions when one wishes Mani'd dispense with the school-level allegory and let that pretty balloon abruptly pop.

As for Vikram, the National Award-winning actor we all expected great things from, he gets the rawest deal of the lot, a cardboard cop who scowls, runs in slow-mo, and models Aviator sunglasses.

The film's first half is choppy and bewildering but tight, while the second sprawls all over the place, overlong and exhausting. Sivan's frames are indeed grand, but there isn't one great shot to take away from the film. Even the world-conquering A R Rahman [ Images ] can't save the day, and it's heartbreaking to see the legendary cinematographer-director-composer trio give us such forgettable song sequences.

Raavan's deadliest sin, however, isn't in the clumsy dialogue, hammy acting or lame, oversimplified adaptation. All of that can be forgiven if the tale engages us, and we never watched Ramanand Sagar's endless television show for its subtlety. Where Raavan truly and tragically fails us is in taking one of our greatest epics, and making it unforgivably boring.

It's profoundly sad to see a filmmaker of Ratnam's calibre reduced to this. Yet hope beats immortal. Perhaps we should just wait till he takes on Shiva.

Also Read: New Yorker Aseem Chhabra's very different review

Rediff Rating: