I was disappointed to see bad reviews just hours after the movie was released but decided to watch the movie nevertheless. Afterall, it is a Maniratnam film.
Its another successful attempt by the director who earlier elegantly brought on screen a part of "Mahabharatam". As you all already know, this time its "Raamayanam".
How do you relate Raavanan to Raamayanam?Raaman | Prithviraj - Looks stylish |
Raavanan | Vikram - Terrific acting. Not sure how many of you noticed the "Dan dan dan dan danakka" chorus in the veera song. Vikram does this dan dan dan thing now and then in the movie and only he can make it look good. It would have been absolutely hilarious if someone like Simbu had done it. I still haven't seen the hindi version but I am almost sure Mr. Bacchan junior can't even come close. |
Seetha | Aish - I am confused about Aish. She looks breathtakingly beautiful in some scenes and equally scary in some other scenes...may be Mani ratnam would chose someone else for the lead role for his next movie. Tired of seeing Aish |
Hanuman | "Mr. Chandramouli..." Karthik - I thought he went a little overboard with his acting. I didn't like it. May be Mani ratnam wanted to show that he relates Karthik to Hanuman so he needlessly made him jump around trees in his intro...(hoisted with a crane...Mani ratnam could have tried to make it real...) |
Soorpanaga | Priyamani - Nothing much special about Priyamani's acting but she didn't get much scope for acting either so I wouldn't complain. |
Kumbakarnan | Prabhu - Another neat performance. |
Lakshmanan | Hemanth (Don't know his actual name) |
Kumbakarnan's wife | Ranjitha - There was a lot of discussion about Maniratnam being concerned about Ranjitha after the Nithyananda issue but she didn't have any crucial role in the movie. Infact there was not even a single word dialogue for her in the movie (or may be I missed it because I hardly saw her on screen). |
Ayodhya | Tirunelveli |
14 years Vanavaasam (Exile) | 14 hrs extended to 14 days vanavaasam for Aish |
Prince | Police officer |
Raamanyanam in short - The underlined parts can be related to the movie with the above references :)
"Raaman is the prince of Ayodhya. He is married to Seetha. Lakshmanan is the younger brother of Raaman. They (Raaman, Seetha and Lakshmanan) go on Vana vaasam (Exile) for 14 years. While they are in exile, Soorpanaga, the sister of Raavanan tries to seduce Raaman/Lakshmanan. Failing to do so she is trying to kill Seetha when Lakshmanan cuts off her nose. Raavanan kidnaps Seetha to take revenge on the brothers. Raavanan falls in love with Seetha. Raaman kills Raavanan and rescues Seetha."
The story of Raavanan is the same with a little deviation from the epic. Ofcourse the movie name is Raavanan so obviously here Raavanan is the hero and Raaman is the bad guy.... :) How Mani ratnam has made you love Raavanan is sheer excellence.
Needless to say cinematography and music will be at its best in Mani ratnam's movies. The same holds good here too.
Cinematography: The shooting locales are really pleasant. Its raining in most part of the movie and almost every scene is wet. It makes you want to go there. I don't know where it was shot but must be some places in kerala and might also be Mundanthurai/Kalakaadu forest near Ambasamudram. Mani ratnam and his crew has definitely spent a lot of effort for this and it has definitely worked. Music: I wouldn't waste your time talking about Rahman's music. He is a genius. "Usure Pogudhey" song has been wasted in the background. I didn't like some of the dance steps in "Kalvare" song. It didn't gel well with the song. Keda kari song is picturised well. BGM is good. Lot of kutti kutti things in the background is really enjoyable. Rahman (or Rah'GOD' as I saw in some forward mail) has sung "Naan Varuvaen" song for the movie credits. Its awesome. |
I didn't like the dialogues. I expect the dialogues to be as good as the cinematography or music in a Maniratnam film.
It is a no nonsense movie and hats off to Mani ratnam and his crew for giving us a wonderful movie. Give a damn about the bad reviews and go enjoy the movie. May be the person who gave a bad review for this movie was expecting to see something like "Sura". For the records, I didn't watch Sura. I didn't think I could take it and what is even worse?, I am a Vijay fan...!
