Saturday, June 19, 2010

Raavanan

This review is in reference to Raavanan and not Ravan.

If you are a Mani Ratnam fan and you step in to the movie theatre with that notion, you'll certainly not be disappointed. Though the movie begins slowly leaving the viewer not much of a choice but to wonder what the heck is going on, it picks up pace and before you realize, you reach the intermission. Then comes the real treat.

I liked the second half much much better than the first half. All references to Ramayana (either direct or indirect) make one realize only Maniratnam can pull such things off with his well thought out story line. I loved the way how the story showcases the incidents from Ramayana such as Surpanaga (Ravana's sister and as to how the whole story erupts from her incident), Vibheeshana being a slightly good/smarter guy in an otherwise 'Arakkar' clan, the 'hide and kill' Vaali episode (though indirect), most of the actions of Hanuman and of course the 'lie detector' usage against Sita.

Some of these references while being direct, some of the others were dragged into the story, but never did I think it did not make sense at any point. Though the story itself is a major success for the movie, the best part according to me is the location and the camera work. The amount of diligent thought and hard work that has gone into researching the location for every single scene becomes evident as one watches the movie.

The 'bridge' fight towards the end of the movie was breathtaking. I couldn't say if any technical assistance/graphics went into the contribution of the fight sequence here, but my eyes could detect none. I would rate that as one of the best fighting sequences made in any tamil movie (though not long enough!). Music by thala A R Rahman was pretty decent (I refer to BGM and not songs here).

Climax is a very important part of any movie as it creates the final impression with which the viewer walks out of the movie hall and just as in every one of his movies, Mani has created a climax that can't be more fitting than this. Though I could think of 3 to 4 different ways this movie could have ended, Mani definitely steered the movie to the best climax one could think of! I liked this movie more because of the climax than all the other aspects put together.

Through out the movie, there are multiple times when you think Prithviraj as the hero and Vikram as the villain and that sort of keeps alternating. The whole flow of emotions in the viewer's mind is well perceived by Mani. The topic of who ends up as the hero/villain is indeed debatable and as I walked out the theatre, I felt neither of them can be called as the hero nor the villain. I felt the characters had their own reasoning.

I give pretty much all the credit to Mani, but to be fair, Vikram, Prithviraj and Aiswarya have all done their role very well. Prabhu, Karthik and Priyamani were so-so (not that they had a strong role anyways!)

This movie simplistically explains how an epic can be delineated in today's world, that too in a different style. Overall, this movie is a definite watch once at least, if not more than once!

9 comments:

Jayaprakash said...

A good movie after a while in tamil.Camera and locations are indeed the best.Technically a masterpiece.But somehow the overall effect of the movie is lesser than the excellence of individual parts.

Unknown said...

I agree Arun. I watched the movie twice. It is quite a treat

Unknown said...

seems u had quite a treat... In fact I did watch the 'making' of the movie.. and the bridge fight was original.. and tech assistance was in at a minimum... the artists were suspended thro harnesses which were erased at the print.. the locations were Kerala & sri lanka - FYI

Bala said...

machi... infact waiting for you to post the review.
To me, It was not an usual movie from maniratnam. His movies will always have a story (atleast an one-liner as in thiruda-thiruda). But in this I could not sense one.
From your review, I could sense how much biased one could be :-)
If Vijay(its not that as a vijay fan I put forth this question) jumps from a top, you consider it as a spoof, whereas the same when done in a maniratnam's movie by aishwarya rai it becomes a stunning visual..how come :-)

Only delight to watch was vikram. If you say about visuals or BGM.. I would rather watch NGC or animal planet :-O)

Anyways according to me the disaster continues for vikram... its hatrick .. bheema, kandasamy and now raavanan...
Waiting for kenny's with selva raghavan....

I said...

Kilinjidhu po. Mani is officially jaded from this movie on.

Arun Sundar said...

Jp,
I agree, some of the areas could be improved, but I enjoyed every bit of the movir, guess that's what matters!

Archie,
Yup!!

Narayan,
Hmmm...Kerala and Srilanka, eh? Looks like I should add 'Sri Lanka' to the 'must visit' places...

Bala,
What new story do you expect from an epic like Ramayana unless you don't like Ramayana in the first place?! If one can narrate Ramayana is today's world, the story can't get better than this. And Vijay is your defense? seriously?! :)

I,
Ugh! Donkey doesn't know camphor smell'nu periyavanga summa'va sonnaanga!

I said...

Heh really, only Mani fan boys will give this film more than a D.

It had humans in them instead of computer programs, unlike some other celebrated movies. That's a good start but it was floundered.

Bala said...

Nanba
"Call spade, a spade".

I cannot accept that the epic(ramayanam) is taken well.
In thalapathi, he sketched the character of Karna(taken from mahabhartham) and it could not be better than that... But in Raavanan he is totally out of sorts..
For example, Introduction of karthik... I felt as if watching movie directed by perarasu... (lol!!!)
You mean to say that the imagination of rama's men raping soorpanaka is interesting... Then that could be the best ill treat done by the master director to the great epic.
And regarding vijay, i am not defending vijay here... I meant to say if something done by a person is lousy, then it remains lousy when done by anybody.....

Sundar said...

i WATCH THE MOVIE WITH AMMA
BUT AMMA NOT SO HAPPY,IAM HAPPY WITH CAMARA AND LOCATIONS.
APPA
SUNDAR