We have this habit(good or bad?) of trying to watch Mani Ratnam's movies on the first day it gets released. We did better, and watched Raavanan's preview show itself. After lots of hype and hoopla, surrounding it about being the modern day Ramayan, directed probably the only director today who gets applause from the audience when his name appears on the screen, you would expect a spectacle. And he does not disappoint.
Be it the spectacular locations, or the performances of the lead actors-Vikram after a long time looking good in a role which has scope for acting( though his danda naka danda naka dialogue evoked painful memories of the kandasaamy rap!!!) Aish looking bold and beautiful, (yes...'bold' ), Prithviraj filling the shoes of Lord Ram superbly, Priya Mani, Prabhu, Karthik as usual...(though Karthik's monkey jumping scene could have been avoided!). A special mention to the photography, which is top notch. Rahman's background music is somewhat restrained, which blends well to the feel of the movie...
Bad guy kidnaps the good guy's wife, the good guy searches for his wife in the woods with a band of men, finds his wife kills the bad guy. So cliche- but again, who is the bad guy and who is the good guy? The story moves around in a very tantalising manner, with a small under current of romance blossoming between Vikram and Aish..(for those saying "ewwww" search for Stockholm syndrome in google). because thats precisely what it is, an emotion of gratitude towards the abductor.
Where the film falls is the reason behind the kidnapping- how would a wife of an SP who has no hand in the calamity that befalls his sister be held responsible? And that too, after killing the policemen responsible, he kidnaps her to kill her!(If you want to kill someone why should you abduct them in the first place?) Flimsy logic which hurts the very core of the movie- a first in Mani Ratnam's movie, but then nobody is perfect.
After firmly establishing the identities of the characters (vikram-bad and prithvi-good) the director does a complete U turn and starts projecting Vikram as the saint and Prithvi as the bad guy... which is interesting because from your own point of view, you are always a good guy- and so even after all the crimes committed by him, 20 minutes into the second half you start feeling for Vikram and his men( Aish too...) and start wondering why is Prithvi so cruel?(completely forgetting the fact that his wife has been kidnapped!!!).
There have been different versions of Ramayan, in India and in the Far East, each one different, but probably this is the first one which has dealt into Sita's emotions when Rama questions her fidelity. But again, after this point it wasnt Ramayan any more, and all that was going through my mind was Homer's Odyssey- the love, the deceit, the trap and the ending.....
Overall, not upto the usual Mani Ratnam standards, but still good, although I doubt whether it would run successfully in Hindi...
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