Raavan Movie is based on thousand years old epic Ramayana, and to some extent Mani Ratnam(Director) has been able to revise and depict modern Ramayana in exquisite and picturesque beautiful backgrounds. Beera as Raavan is the main leading role of a protagonist, who not only have a compelling role and image of itself but audience is more mesmerized by a suggesting connection between a villain and heroine and amazing backdrop.
Star Cast:
Abhishek Bachchan as Beera (Vikram In Tamil and Telugu as Veera)
Aishwarya Bachchan as Ragini
Vikram as Dev Pratap Sharma
Govinda as Forest officer
Story: Mani Ratnam
Music: AR Rehman
Director: Mani Ratnam
Last week, Abhishek Bachchan reportedly told that it’s not a story about Ram but about Raavan, thus to be called as “Ravayana”. Abhishek Bachchan is playing the leading role of Beera, Beera is based on Raavan epic character from Ramayana. Beera is a highwayman who abducts Ragini played by Ashwarya Rai Bachchan to dense forest, and her husband who is a cop Dev Pratap Sharma played by Vikram is determined to catch Beera anyhow and rescue his wife. Beera had abducted cop’s wife Ragini just to revenge on his personal grudge.The most interesting part of the story, which is also the part of climax is, when Ragini seems to have sensitive and silent build up bond with Beera, where she found her self in dilemma whether she should be a loyal dogmatic Indian wife or if she should pursue her suppressed fantasy? Whereas Beera is amused by Ragini beauty and find himself in love with her.
Meanwhile, Dev which is based on epic character Ram and Hanuman epic character is played by Govinda as a forest officer, both restlessly chases Beera. Though Beera is a highwayman, but he is also a local Robinhood and no one supports in locality for his imprisonment. Dev character is a movie hero but Beera’s stronger and compelling role overshadows latter.
Raavan movie plot is predictable and also acting is good enough but Mani Ratnam’s Raavan movie scores excellent on fanciful, fantastic and picturesque backgrounds. Waterfalls, slippery slopes, ferns-shrubs, and unending fog gives a sense of nostalgia with nature and audience are only left sighing watching these backgrounds in Raavan movie.Raavan music and song routine, is not in actual sense a routine but a outstanding creation of Oscar-winning-duo AR Rehman and Gulzar. Beera-Beera and Behne De song numbers are instant hit in market. And this time again duo had hit the right tone with amazing concept, backdrop and marvelous composition of Raavan song and music.
Overall, Raavan movie is a must watch even for non-regular movie-goer and recommended with high rating.
_BOTTOM LINE FOR ABHISHEK:- WATCH VIKRAM AND LEARN WATZ ACTING
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There have been expectations galore over Manirathnam’s “Raavanan’ from the day the camera started rolling. Ah! The top starcasts and technical crew, Ranjitha’s controversies and Rahman’s international recognition struck everyone with even more anticipation at global levels.
Regrettably, the film doesn’t exceed your expectation levels as Manirathnam fails terribly to come up with his best efforts. The basic plot itself is weak as the modernized adaptation of “Ramayana’ doesn’t inherit a good narration. The film hardly caters to the tastes of the South Indian audiences particularly due to its nativity factor. Moreover, one wouldn’t have expected such a threadbare story from Manirathnam, who ardently strived to deliver uniquely innovative scripts in his earlier films.
For the better part, Manirathnam keeps the entire narration neat and crisp with a duration of 130mins. Except for the technical team, the film has no reasons to be appreciated at all.
Set in the backdrops of Vikramasingapuram, cops are relentlessly set ablaze and massacred. Doubtlessly, these shocking events are masterminded by none other than the powerful Veeraiyya aka Veera (Vikram), an outlaw not awed by the law-n-order. Seeking revenge for the death of his sister Vennila (Priyamani), Veera kidnaps Raghini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), wife of Deva (Prithviraj) – a dutiful cop.
What unfolds next, is a series of conflicts between these two characters as forests and rivers become battle grounds.Aishwarya Rai’s performance is pretty good, but she looks aged. Blame her make-up artist for it. Portraying her as an estranged hostage for two weeks, doesn’t mean that she has to look pale right on the first day itself. Actress Rohini’s voice sounds apt for her just as it was in he Tamil version of Guru. During most of the situations, Vikram’s performance is just a caricature of a psychotically disturbed personality. If he’s an outcast fighting for a good cause, Manirathnam should have established the basic backdrops, which isn’t present here. Prithviraj looks nervous all throughout the film and lacks to bring out any chemistry with Aishwarya Rai.
Nonetheless, Vikram outperforms during the climax (in comparison, Abhishek Bachchan overshadows Vikram at this point). Again, Manirathnam should have closed the frame either after the final fight at the bridge or exactly when Prithviraj says – “I’ll come back for you Veera’. This could have been a fantastic ending. But the extended climax is completely dissatisfactory as Aishwarya Rai’s character is incomplete. Priyamani’s complete role looks like a replication of her “Paruthiveeran’. Karthik’s performance is extraordinary and don’t miss his conversation with Vikram and Prabhu during penultimate sequence. Prabhu gets more footage as the elder brother of Vikram while Munna scores best with his performance. His pathetic culmination is sure to bring a tear to your eyes.
After a very long time, we get to listen to some of the best background scores from A.R. Rahman. He has never been as amazing even with his academy award winning film “Slumdog Millionaire’. Just heed the score when sugar is poured into the petrol tank, it has a powerful musical touch. The songs are perfect and fantastic. A special mention for the choreographers of “Kodu Potta’ and “Kedakadari’ is necessary. Santhosh Sivan and Manikandan offer a delicious visual treat with their eye-catching visuals. Especially the songs “Usure Pogudhu’ and “Kodu Potta’ (Over a single shot, the camera keeps panning all the characters dancing below the shower) are mind-boggling.On the whole, “Raavanan’ is a visual treat, but has an extremely plain script and screenplay. The dragging first hour makes the audience restless. The second half (couple of songs, emotional flashback, stunts over the bridge) is more interesting, thanks to Mani.The film will have a grand opening in the first week throughout all major cities while in town and suburbs, the results wouldn’t be favorable.
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Villain, Dubbed version of Maniratnam’s tamil movie Raavanan staring Vikram, Aishwarya Rai, Priyamani etc in lead roles, is all set to hit the screens of Andra Pradesh with 125 Prints in 215 Theaters. Telugu version is also releasing in US Australia and NZ in 25 screens. Reliance big screen and madras talkies releasing this movie.
Writer : Rensil D Silva
When it’s a Mani Ratnam film you don’t have to tell in particular about the visuals or the music or the costumes or the ‘thats’ and the ‘thises’. Then again, you just cannot stop thinking about the visuals the film had to offer. They were such a treat that watching the film in mute shouldn’t be a bother. But, what’s new in this film is the touch of the abstract. Whenever Veera is thinking of something, a series of quick cuts from various angles and moods are shown. This is a brilliant reference to the ten headed thought process of Raavana (bak bak baka bak). And also the simplicity and yet a complex aura the screenplay creates.
The only draw back of the film is the unimpressive dialogues and songs. Though versatile writer, the late Veturi penned the songs, none of them are impressive. Likewise, dialogues by Sriramakrishna were also pale and lacked any punch. The dialogues appeared artificial and gives you the feeling of watching a dubbing film.
Aishwarya’s age is shown on her face and body. She is not that gracious looking young lady anymore. She looked like a middle aged woman in this film. Her performance is OK in some scenes and good in parts. Prithviraj’s role is very brief and he lived up to the expectations of the director. Karthik’s role resembles Anjaneya in Ramayana. However, he has nothing to do in this film. His overall show is average. Maniratnam might have roped in Prabhu to do the role of Vikram’s brother keeping Kumbhakarna in his mind. Prabhu is good as usual. Priyamani played a guest role (Surphanaka who triggered the war between Rama and Ravana) and made her presence felt with her top notch performance.Mani Ratnam’s “Villain” raises questions like – “what happens when hate turns to love. Though like every other film- “Villain” has its slight flaws and loose ends here and there, but it is negligible.
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