Where is the REAL VAALMIKI?

Raavanan falls for Sita and probably a kind of vice versa as well which makes Raavan, an unexpected love triangle. Well, there must be various country dependant factors in MR’s(Mani Ratnam) mind to carefully adapt Ramayan. But the man who made Dalapathi which is a clear inspiration of Mahabharath, the Karnan episode fails to render something which is of Mani’s standard. Focus is given more on the making rather than the film making, the STORY!

Fresh time, an antagonist is being given a heroism opening which indirectly MR tries to convey the hero of the movie or rather, the mould that he has deliberately done to the epic which is a MYTH. Ramayan as everyone knows is a battle between Rama and Raavana and here MR has tries to portray the other side of Raavan or probably the actual nature of Raavan. One myth or truth which I heard from my grand parents is Raavan was a perfect man and never harass women. Throughout the movie Veera, the Raavanan character never touches the Sita, Raagini. This piece of screenplay I expected it from the beginning and MR does justice to it. So what were the aspects that stopped or interrupted MR’s freedom in film making? I feel MR tried to show the vice versa part which I have explained earlier but you know the freedom struggle to showcase the myth in INDIA J

Where and all I have seen MR’s touch in the movie? First scene that I can remember is the conversation between Aish and Vikram in front of Lord Vishnu who is also an avatar of Lord Venkatesh according to the Hindu mythology. The dialogues were brilliant in that scene and perhaps the only scene where I felt MR’s trademark in dialogues. The person who claimed credits for a master class dialogues in probably the best of MR’s movie failed here with HER sluggish dialogues and unwanted poem in interesting places. Another piece of interesting narrative in a MR’s movie from the others is the scenes that speak for themselves. When we see Vikram with a plaster in his neck, there isn’t a voiceover on the whereabouts of the wound. But with a flashback sequence, MR let the audience to connect the screenplay. The voiceover or the introduction given to Veera is probably what the director wants to mould the actual myth. He desperately wants to portray Raavanan as a good humble and honest person and Raam, has been shown as a clever and cunning person with his own Male Chauvinistic character as that to the actual myth. Here in Raavanan, MR has adapted the play Ramayan with clever spots. The exile of 14 days in the forest, the forest itself, the Bridge connects Raam and Raavanan, Soorpanaka being threatened by the cops that her nose will be cut and the Hanuman character played by Karthik with clear or rather annoying experience of jumping from trees to vehicle and what not?

But why would he want to show the character Raam has too badly? I agree he has a mindset to showcase something contradictory, but shouldn’t they follow with some acceptable evidences? We saw MR in Iruvar, though there was a slight corner favoring MGR, it still remains a cult classic under MR’s cap. The reason behind killing Raavanan’s brother who has come to talk for peace and the torture done by him to a guy who has already lost his arm is seriously sick!

It’s quite usual to make people talk about the cinematography when it has some breathtaking visuals and never seen or impossible to shoot scenes. But I am not saying those weren’t shot poor! Many forget to think the composition of the shots being used. Whenever Raavanan is shot, the shot is made jarring or shaky indicating how mad he is! And also the conversation between two persons was shot in a rotary motion capture just to indicate the raise over. Of course the shots in the initial and the final sequences of the movie were seriously breathtaking visuals and make everyone to talk more on cinematography. Also cinematography talks on the lights as well. From the usual Tamil cinema trend, MR chooses a different track but he has got his own trend to follow which I feel he never comes out of it. MR showed dark light for an introduction of an antagonist and the kidnap is done on a day light! Also MR has done neat justice on the costume as well. Throughout the movie, you could see the black shade in Raavanan’s character and white shade in Vikram’s character. But these costumes explicit their character to the outer nature but signifies indirectly as the narrative goes.

ARR for any movie is a big plus, but the songs were placed in some positions that caused an obstacle to the pace of the movie. They literally acted as a speed breakers as I witnessed a series of speed breakers as if I am traveling in a road where you have 4 schools. I could see 3 songs in a span of 14 minutes. The background score had it bits and pieces from various historic movies from Hollywood but they were still good for the movie.

Though the movie had many interesting parts, I feel that Mani should have either gone for an Iruvar Style or a totally different adoption! This half baked product is something no one will expect from Mani’s caliber. There were many open ended questions about the logical connection in the movie on how Karthik was able to find Sita’s place. Also he could have shown his trademark stress on the screenplay. We needn’t be taught more on Karthik’s character by jumping in every scene and the way he sits. We needn’t be taught on Soorpanaka in the form of Priyamani to be stressed on cutting her nose.

Verdict : Making speaks more than the screenplay! Mani, is it seriously under you belt?

Review posted at www.clapsandboos.com