Raavan – not as expected

When a film comes from Mani Ratnam, it’s natural to expect something outstanding. ‘Raavan’ was a most awaited movie. After two big disasters like ‘Kites’ and ‘Raajneeti’, I was eagerly waiting for Raavan. It’s not that bad but there is something missing, something very important. It doesn’t touch you. It seems Mani sir has lost that edge in his storytelling. I am saying this keeping Guru also in mind. Guru was a one-time watch movie but it was not a story worth a storyteller like Mani Ratnam. When we further go back there is ‘Yuva’, now this is a movie with Mani Ratnam signature. Everything of ‘Yuva’ shows the uniqueness of Mani sir. It touches you deep inside. Be it ‘Roja’, ‘Bombay’ or ‘Dil Se’, all-cause a hook in your heart and that hook is a thing which makes movie-making an art and which is rare nowadays. Now movies are nothing more than popcorn, just a time pass.
Let’s go back to Raavan. The story is inspired by ‘Ramayan’ and starts from the point where Raavan kidnaps Seeta. Here Raavan urf Beera is the leader of a backward cast of a backward area. He is cruel but his anger is against social injustice and there is some softness remaining deep in his heart. Ram urf Dev is a police officer who is new in the area and decides to finish the terror of Beera. In order to do that police brings Beera’s sister to the police station when she was getting married. There all the policemen rape her all night. She tells this story to Beera and commits suicide. This becomes the reason for the kidnap of Dev’s wife Ragini. Beera kidnaps her to kill but during her stay with him she touches his heart and he couldn’t kill her. As I said, Beera is cruel but he does not lose character, he keeps a woman with him but never looks at her with lust. He sees the pure beauty in her. Dev meets Sanjeevani (Hanuman) while searching for his wife who helps him in this task. I won't be a spoilsport by telling the climax for those who want to watch the movie.
Nothing new in the story but then most of the movie stories are like that. The difference lies in the way of telling it, in the emotions it portrays. Here the story is average and emotions too are weak, thanks to poor screenplay and performances. In every Mani Ratnam movie, you will find a thread of some political or social issue that makes you think about it, that is absent in Raavan. Though it mentions something like that but not that strong which can make an impact on your thoughts. Beera represents that exploited class of society but it just mentions this that’s all. Few emotions could have touched your heart if handled well like when Beera starts loving Raagini and Raagini’s changing perception for Beera, We understand all this but don’t feel it. We don’t feel the warmth of that fire that is burning inside Beera or Raagini’s sympathy for Beera doesn’t reach us. This all doesn’t happen because of poor dialogues. Dialogues don’t have that edge that penetrates straight into the heart. Another weak part is acting. No one did a great job, everyone is mediocre. Abhishek was not looking dangerous at all, we don’t feel the terror of beera. He was better in Yuva. When love has been born in the heart there must be a pain too because this love is for a woman who cannot be with him. Abhishek couldn’t express that pain. Aishwarya is as usual not so good not so bad. Her screams irritate. Vikram as Dev doesn’t have much to do. Govinda is a great actor but he has spoiled his life on cheap movies, he has never worked with good filmmakers otherwise we could have seen some great performances. He has done a great job as Hanuman. We hope for some really good performances from him in his second inning. Ravi Kishan is a good actor, he always performs well.
The best part of the movie is the cinematography. Every frame of the movie is immensely beautiful. We see rains, mountains, rivers…nature with all its beauty. Nature is like a character in the movie.
As far as music is concerned writing the name A R Rahman is enough. As usual, his music rises slowly and captures you. Every time you listen to his songs, you find something new, some hidden instrument, some hidden melody…there is one song in the movie which is not on records. ‘Ud ja’ is the title and it is sung by Rahman. Background music is exceptional. Each situation gets a different effect with Rahman’s music. He uses unusual instruments which create a great effect.
Enough said.
All in all, the movie is not that good but it’s one time watch.