Raavanan - review

Time for another update.. this time on Raavanan… Saw the movie, managed to get tickets for ‘first day, first show’ at PVR, Goregaon. The best part was the movie, the not so good part was the before and after efforts to go through the tedious process of getting up at 8 am for a 9.30 am show.. we managed to get in about 5 minutes late, but still awake and curious. and now the rest of the day is like being in zombieville.


The movie’s first half was an attempt to keep the viewers guessing, with deliberate curiosity created at times, with bits and pieces of information. The overall story as such reminded me of Raavana Prabhu (Mohanlal), which was also based on the same theme – I guess every movie made of guy kidnapping girl and trying to woo her in his roguish way, could be categorized as such….. Ravanan! Anyways, the plot of it was rather predictable, so the surprise value had to be in terms of the visuals and the modern day adaptation of it. The characterization of Vikram/AB Jr., I believe is loosely based on the Naxal type of an anti-hero. Whatever it is, it touches briefly on the issue itself, but rather uses the character to narrate the story.

Second half is where the story picks up. There are episodes of sheer technical brilliance in the movie which also helps move the film forward. Apart from that, Vikram as Raavanan is great, but I chose to watch this version first so that I can understand most of what would go on at the Hindi version. Though the tamil version sure looked like it was not their original choice of medium (it released here with hilarious subtitles) the cast was weak (in Tamil), and the dialogues could have been much better written and spoken. Some clear areas where the spirit of the movie was maintained (& sometimes lifted) were in the music dept, the cinematography, Vikram – absolutely brilliant (I’m a bit biased since I watched most of his movies), and Mani himself – the thoughts behind creating and narrating a story which connects and portrays such a story without visibly compromising on the tempo, or plot must surely be a work of a genius. The efforts and hard work of the filmmaker also stands out. I want to watch the hindi version and I hope overall verdict should be good for the efforts – it sure wasn’t a let down for me.

Initial reviews suggest that its all style and no substance… to all those ‘critics’ and film reviewers, just one thing to say… get off the arm chair commentary and try imagining or creating these sequences. The movie hits me hard because of its bewitching beauty, style, and also the simple way of weaving a story without stretching itself. Somewhere you’ve got to draw a line at how far you are willing to go to narrate and just let the visuals express them and hope the audience appreciates the lack of a forced narration. I think in that aspect this movie deserves better than what the initial ‘critics’ judge it to be worth.