Movie Review: ‘Ramayana’

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Yash, Ravi Dubey, Arun Govil, Lara Dutta, Rakul Preet Singh, Kajal Aggarwal, Vivek Oberoi, and others.

Music: Hans Zimmer, A.R. Rahman

Cinematography: Pankaj Kumar, Mahesh Limaye

Producer: Namit Malhotra

Screenplay: Nitesh Tiwari, Sridhar Raghavan

Dialogues: Nitesh Tiwari, Shreyas Jain (Telugu adaptation: Akella Siva Prasad)

Direction: Nitesh Tiwari

Among our epics, if there’s one story that never bores us, it is none other than the Ramayana. We have already seen this epic as a film in different languages over the years. The most recent attempt is Prabhas’ Adipurush, which was rejected by the audience. Now, Bollywood has come up with Ramayana on a scale that was never seen earlier. Featuring Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Goddess Sita and Yash as Lord Ravana, the film was directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Namit Malhotra. As Part 1 of the film hits screens today, let’s have a look at how it is.

STORY:

With the blessings of Lord Shiva, Ravana conquers every single realm out there, thus making the Gods restless. Defeated at his hands, Lord Indra reaches out to Rishis to find out the solution to put an end to Ravana’s menace. He finds out that Lord Vishnu is set to incarnate as Lord Rama on Earth and will tackle Ravana. That’s how Rama is born in Ayodhya, and after attaining various warfare skills and reaching puberty, he wins the hand of Sita in a Swayamvaram. While he gets ready to be crowned as a King, he’s forced into exile along with his wife, and brother Lakshman also joins him. The story runs up to the point where Ravana abducts Sita from the forests.

NARRATION-ANALYSIS:

There’s no need to exaggerate about the greatness of the Ramayana to Indians, and especially Telugu folks, who watch it numerous times no matter how many times it is made as a film. However, when Adipurush was released in recent years, it spoiled it to the core with unwanted creativity. That’s why people got scared when another Ramayana was announced. But then, Nitesh Tiwari, who carved out Dangal earlier, made sure that he presented Ramayana as a visual wonder. Never before, such grandeur was seen on the Indian screen, and the quality beats even Baahubali. However, the black-and-white Telugu film Sampoorna Ramayana has better emotions and a divine feeling than this Ramayana. Though this Ramayana tops in terms of visual greatness, the lack of emotional depth creates a sense of an unfulfilled feeling.

We have heard and watched the Ramayana many times earlier, so naturally that brings us to the question of how it is presented on screen. Nitesh Tiwari and his team made sure that every scene is well presented, and the film is enhanced with multiple unseen sequences. Many short scenes that we watched earlier were made into lengthy ones this time. For example, the role of Surpanaka we know about is that she gets infatuated by Rama, gets her nose cut, and because of that Ravana abducts Sita. Here, in Nitesh Tiwari’s creation, the angle of her husband, Vidhyudjeeva, is also shown. Similarly, when Sita is being abducted, we know that the divine bird Jatayu intercepts and gets beaten. Here in Ramayana Part 1, that’s the climactic sequence, with almost 30 mins runtime, and mesmerising us with amazing visual effects brilliance. We could definitely say that this episode stands tall in the entire Indian film history. There are more such magnificent sequences in Ramayana Part 1.

That said, Ramayana hasn’t succeeded to the maximum in terms of creating emotional attachment to the narrative, though it outshines every film there in terms of visual brilliance. Though we can’t pinpoint a particular sequence that isn’t good, the film as a whole hasn’t met expectations in terms of drama. Visuals of Rama’s rest place in the forest, Ayodhya City and every other frame are visually striking and pleasing. At the same time, almost all the actors did a fabulous job, but then, the divine feeling is missing. Especially the emotional bonding between Rama and Sita is not shown strongly, resulting in a lack of empathy towards the roles. If that had happened, Ramayan would have become an epic treat.

Despite the lack of emotional depth, we have to say that Ramayan is a sincerely great effort. At least for the sake of visuals, we can watch the film once. At the same time, the makers didn’t let visual effects take the centre stage either. Though the slow narration and the more than 3-hour runtime hit hard sometimes, the Jatayu action sequence has definitely raised expectations about how the Part 2 fight between Rama and Ravana is going to be. After looking at a glimpse of Lord Hanuman’s role, definitely expectations on Part 2 are soaring high. Irrespective of the drawbacks, Ramayana could be watched on the big screen once without any doubts.

PERFORMANCES:

Ranbir Kapoor, who has done a violent role recently in the movie Animal, transformed himself so well to do a devotional character like that of Rama. He proves again how tall a performer he is. His mature acting and peace-like expressions just added a divine touch easily. Coming to Sai Pallavi, while she acted quite well, somehow there’s a missing element in her charisma to portray this role. Her chemistry with Ranbir is also quite mismatched. Yash, however, rocked in the role of Ravana. More than Rama and Sita, this role gets highlighted due to his performance. That royalty in Ravana’s body language is portrayed effectively by Yash. Though his histrionics are overboard sometimes, it clicks well. Ravi Dubey as Lakshmana, Arun Govil as Dasaradha, and Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi have done a fabulous job. Rakul Preet as Surpanaka is just okay, while Kajal’s role as Mandodari is limited. Vivek Oberoi as Vidhyudjeeva is okay.

TECHNICALITIES:

Ramayana Part 1 is technically a wonder, and the visual effects deserve all the praise. The grandeur is visible in every frame, and the action sequences are handled quite superbly. Both Pankaj Kumar and Mahesh Limaye gave terrific visuals for the film, while Hans Zimmer’s background score is also stunning. There’s not even a single known sound to us in the score. But then, AR Rahman’s songs are a big minus, as they are not catchy. We need to appreciate Namit Malhotra for spending so much money to deliver this output. Akella Sivajiprasad’s dubbing dialogues for the film are also very interesting. Director Nitesh Tiwari used technology effectively to bring out a visual wonder, and his honesty should be appreciated. But he should have focused a bit on delivering emotional quotient too, and speeding up the pace of the narrative.

Lastly: Ramayana, limited emotions but peak visuals

Rating: 2.75/5

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