In tinsel town, one of the more relevant pithy is “Expectation is a double edged sword”. At the end of the day , Raavan might be facing the sharper edges from the audience, but no one can deny the class which the movie oozes. Mani Ratnam bears the brunt of being one of India’s most gifted directors. The expectations seem to have burdened him in Madras Talkies’ “Raavan”.
The screen opens with Abhishek Bachchan standing atop of a mountain , kicking a small stone that surges downward into a river. Santosh Sivan announces his arrival in style. What follows is a normal kidnapping plot , with a Mani Ratnam touch and a Ramayana essence to it. Beera(Abhishek Bachchan) , a reckless outlaw according to the cops and a Robinhood for villagers abducts Raagini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) , to avenge the killing of his sister(Priyamani). Beera stunned by the fact that Raagini doesn’t fear death , spares her and slowly falls in love with her. What ensues is Dev’s(Vikram) chase to secure Raagini from the hands of Beera with the help of forest guard Sanjeevani (Govinda) and the cops . Does Raam slay Raavan? Or is there an audacious twist to it ? ,forms the rest of the storyline.
The screenplay seems to have dampened along with the locales where the movie has been shot. There are instances when there is absolute chaos and a lack of definitive presentation. Mani Ratnam who has given has legendary movies like ‘Nayagan’ , ‘Anjali ‘ seems to have missed the trick with Raavan. Or probably the fact that he is tampering with a tale that is a mythology must have made him conscious of his limits. Abhishek Bachchan’s portrayal of Beera, a complicated character who is calculative yet naïve is good, but could have been better. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Raagini is back to what she does best. Acting. In a wonderful ,bedraggled portrayal Aishwarya Rai excels in every scene. Emotions have been brought out brilliantly and she overshadows her better-half on occasions. The role is challenging enough to be done once , and to have done it twice (in Raavaan) speaks volumes of her tenacity to perform. Vikram as Dev is clinical in his first major hindi movie ,but needs to work on his accent. Govinda as Sanjeevani is apt. After a lot of woeful performances , he can be proud of this one. Priyamani echoes ‘Paruthiveeran’ all over. In a strikingly similar finish to her role, Priyamani would have had a cakewalk.
Raavan’s backbone is its stunning visuals. Shot in the exotic locales of Kerala , Santosh Sivan , has matched his “ Before the Rains “ with one during the rains. He has delineated ’ Raavan’ frame by frame and the camera angles on occasions leave the viewers spell bound. A.R.Rahman’s music, which has been so pivotal in earlier Mani movies continues to stun the audience. His background score is brilliant, especially in the climax sequence where he has unleashed a magical number ‘ Jaa re ‘ .
Mani Ratnam on occasions makes special effort to imply the Ramayana analogy, particularly with Nikhil Dwivedi(Lakshman?) threatening Priyamani that he will chop her nose off , and Govinda jumping around the trees in his introduction, the 14 day plot and so on. Some of these allusions were incongruous to say the least.
On the whole, deeming Raavan a bad movie will be blasphemous . It will definitely evoke mixed reactions. Mani’s Raavan is by no means a trend setter or a cult classic, but will definitely make you sit up and take notice.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
