DONT lose interest in RAMAYAN

Sabydeep

I for one appreciate the work that everyone is doing, and afaik, not one person has ever questioned the commitment or the acting capabilities of any of the actors in the serial. Thanks for sharing the details of their work schedule.

However, since we aren't discussing here Jyoti or Bandini, the story we see does have a major impact on whether we continue to enjoy it or not. There are several other channels, and competing for attention are several other shows (not to mention the IPL). All of us are familiar with the original, and when we see serious distortions of what we know and hold sacred, people cannot blame us for not taking seriously the show. At the end of the day, what we see is the Ramayan - not Debina rehearsing, not Rishab & Perin practicing their lines, not Vikram Sharma practicing his stunts, the rishis simulating an yagna, et al. What we see is the end product that's shown, and how we judge it will be on the front end, not the back end. This sounds harsh, but that's how it always is in the real world: people always judge based on the end results, rather than the efforts and processes put into a task.

Everybody has noted that the acting is great, and the popularity of the fan clubs is testimonial to that. However, unless the acting is singularly bad, how one acts is secondary to whether the story in question is properly represented. As an example, in the previous Ramayan serial, some of the acting was atrocious, such as the Vanaras getting down instead of falling when hit with rakshas arrows. However, because that serial largely followed the script, it was very highly acclaimed.

No offense to you, Gurmeet or anybody, but it is highly disingenuous to call any of the sources other than Valmiki authentic, since Valmiki's was a contemporaneous work, whereas the others all came thousands of years later - many of them during the Gupta period, if I recall right, and the vernacular versions, like Tulsidas and Kamban, during the Moghul period. If those are authentic, then I could write a Ramayan out of whole cloth, and demand that it be called authentic. It is interesting to know these various versions, and sometimes incorporate things from them that doesn't contradict Valmiki, but not to the point where they drive the serial, as is clearly the case here. An example: in Valmiki, Kush & Luv were clearly mortals with no special martial or other abilities, except for very melodious singing voices, with which they made history. In the serial, they do everything short of showing them as superman. Creating myths about these 2 kids just because they were Rama & Sita's kids does no good, and in fact, plays into the hands of those who consider the Ramayan fictional and a fairy tale. Incidentally, what sort of an excuse is 'it is too precise?' Since when is precise a bad thing?

I watch the serial the same way I stop by next to a car wreck - it's fascinating to watch. But I'm not enjoying it the way I did previously. Previously, what they had was largely accurate, although they sometimes threw in very outlandish variations, like Bharat being wounded in battle, Lakshman killing Shambri, Kaikeyi ordering Sumantra to get Yudhajit to invade Lanka, et al. But those things then were few and far between. Now, in this 'Uttarkand', we are being treated overwhelmingly to fiction, and and the only thing they have got right in this stretch is Sita giving birth to Kush & Luv.

I didn't and wouldn't suggest to anyone that they stop watching the serial, and if Gurmeet, Debina, et al are benefiting from us watching it, the last thing I'd want would be for that to be interrupted. However, given what they are now showing, it's a little much to expect people who know better to take it seriously. I'd definitely not recommend it to anybody who's using it to enhance his/her knowledge!

_LJ_

You read 'precise' as 'consize'? Precise means accurate, which is what one would hope the story would strive to be. Concise means abbreviated.

I read Sabydeep as precise being precise. How exactly did you read him as saying consize?🤓

Originally posted by: _LalithaJanaki_

Sabydeep,

I think Chandraketu summed it up pretty well. We certainly appreciate the effort Gurmeet, Debina, Rishab, Perin, and the others are putting in👏, and we really admire their great acting skills, because sometimes, the actors themselves are the only thing which motivates us to continue the serial.

However, one thing I was confused at was: how is Valmiki Ramayan short?😕 I consider it one of the longest versions of Ramayans we have, and if directors of serials actually follow it scene for scene, it would be one heck of a serial with more than 300 episodes.

Usually, either Valmiki Ramayan or Tulsidas Ramcharitmanas (and sometimes Kamban Ramayan) are taken as the main sources when Ramayan mythologicals or movies are made, and though directors certainly use scenes from other versions, most don't use scenes which highly go against these versions, like Sita taking up exile herself, Luv Kush fighting rakshasas (which never happened as far as I know😕), Lakshman trying to kill himself when he has a pregnant wife back home, etc. We audience don't mind scenes from other versions as long as it's not too controversial, but when scenes from other versions overlap Valmiki or Tulsidas, giving them more importance than Valmiki or Tulsidas Ramayan, that's when the audience becomes bored and loses interest in the serial, no matter how hard the actors are working.

That's because we've all grown up listening to stories from Valmiki Ramayan or Ramcharitmanas from our parents and grandparents. These stories, like Ram exiling Sita though he had complete trust in her chastity, are ingraved in our minds since a very young age and when we see Sita taking up exile, we get confused and cautious about everything else they're showing.

It's really great that you went to Baroda and met Gurmeet, Debina, and the others😃. If you ever get the chance again, tell them that we really appreciate and love their acting. However, unless the story is shown better, I'm doubtful that we'll be more interested.