After Prakash Jha presented a modern day Mahabharata in the form of Rajneeti, Mani Ratnam now brings the modern day version of Ramayana in his movie Raavan.
With Mani Ratnam at the helm of things and his ‘Guru’ team of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, the expectations were really high. But unfortunately, the movie not only disappoints you but leaves you in a state of shock that is it the same team that made Guru such a fabulous movie.
The story is obviously from Ramayana:
Apart from the great visuals and a few good songs there is nothing that you take away from the movie. The story is weak right from the start and ends with a not so great climax as well.
As far as the performances are concerned, Abhishek does not convince us as Raavan. The main problem here is that Raavan was someone who spelt terror while in the movie; he seems more like a psycho! Aishwarya looks good and does a good job. Vikram is good even though the role offers him limited scope. Govinda is totally wasted. Ravi Kishan is very good and Nikhil Dwivedi also plays his part well.
A special word for Santosh Sivan and V. Manikandan’s cinematography – they literally create magic on the screen. A R Rahman’s music is good with Beera, Behne de and Thok De Gilli standing out.
Final Word – Raavan fails to deliver and just like Kites, is one of the biggest disappointments of the year. An important suggestion – Just a final suggestion, search on youtube, you could watch the original Ramayan videos, they are much more engrossing. A combat video is below…enjoy 🙂
My Rating – 1.5/5
Oops! then 🙁
Good one! 🙂
sad movie , chuck it
Yes, I agree with your review of “Raavan” for the most part. I watched the movie yesterday,but the Tamil version. Other than the exotic locations and deft handling of camera by Santosh Sivan and Manikantan, there is not much in the movie. Of course, in Tamil version, where Vikram plays the Ravan character has done a good job. The story is weak. During the first part of the movie, I was sulking in my seat with restlessness as the movie was not moving at all. Many leading star cast seem to have heldped create a hype about the movie, but some ordinary new comers would have done the job equally well. Overall, the movie was disappointing – may be we had great expectations about it.
@Bachodi – Yes, that’s the truth 🙁
@Ashish – thanks 🙂
@Ravi – Exactly…
@T N Neelakantan – Yes, we had great expectations especially because of the big stars and Mani Ratnam attached to it. The storyline is weak…the visuals and music are good but they alone cant make a movie worth a watch!
I heard the Tamil version is better. Though I do think that this meddling with epics in modern contexts is not doing much for our talented filmmakers. Maybe they should leave them for serialwallahs..:)
Bollywood is going down, day by day!
I agree that the Beera character should have been much scarier, which would have made it more interesting when he and Ragini fall for each other. The first half was very slow but I think the second half made it much better. While it may not be Mani Ratnam’s best film, I don’t think it was entirely disappointing. I think we as audiences just expect way too much once a director reaches a certain level of success and achievement.
Here’s my review: http://www.the-nri.com/index.php/2010/06/film-review-raavan/
And…one more eats the dust..!!!
@Journomouse – Well…Im dreading the days when epics will be made into serials…I think the earlier ones were great and should not be tampered with
@keerthana – Well…I dnt think so…there are bad movies but there is loads of great stuff as well
@Pulkit – Yes, that is true Pulkit. The problem I felt was there was no attention to other characters at all and there shoudl have been something more to the storyline.
@Piyush – Yes, it does…
hey Vishal
Watched Raavan
I totally agree wid u…..I would like you to review Knight and Day
Kp gng.
http://999sviewpoint.blogspot.com/2010/06/eaters-coma.html
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