Honestly speaking I have never been this much confused while writing a movie review. The reason for this is that I have never felt like this for any movie in the past. The feeling is a bit strange…there are aspects of the movie which I fell in love with and there are other aspects of the film which I literally hated.
To be precise, I loved the cinematography, I loved the direction, I loved performance by Aishwarya Rai and I loved the soundtrack and the background music. On the other hand, I hated Govinda’s Character, I hated the story, I hated the “JIGH JIGH JIGH†and “BAK BAK BAKWAS†chants by Abhishek and I hated the fact that in spite of so many such issues, yet there was something in the film which didn’t let me hate it as much.
While I hate and I love some particular dimensions, there is one particular aspect which has confused me more than any other. And that aspect is the performance of Abhishek. He is really good in some scenes (specially the ones where he speaks in low tones), he is good with his expressions, but he becomes extremely annoying when making those horrible faces while uttering those silly voices. It was like watching two different actors with the same face performing.
Coming towards the positives, the cinematography is simply awesome. At least I have never seen such aesthetically shot Bollywood movie before. Only due to this cinematography, the movie should be watched in the cinema rather than a smaller screen.
Another big positive is the direction of Mani Ratnam. Considering the fact that he had a very weak script to work on, his direction is really commendable. We have seen similar stories taken up as the subject of various movies, but the treatment that Mani has given to this film is entirely new and I must say is highly attractive. If the direction wouldn’t have been this strong … the movie would’ve fallen straight on its face.
Background music and the soundtrack by A.R. Rehman is another big plus. All the songs are brilliantly composed. I do feel though that the best song of the album (ranjha ranjha) was not given due importance in the movie.
In addition to the negatives I have mentioned above, a big negative for this film is lack of character development. Characters of Govinda and Ravi Kishan are totally weightless. Vikram’s character also misses the required dynamic development. So much so that the character of Abishek is also not very well established within the run time of the movie.
On the whole Raavan is not as bad as it is being thrashed, but when considering the fact that it is coming from the best director of the country who has made masterpieces like Dil Se and Guru. It might’ve been acceptable if coming from a lesser director.
Anyways the tone of the movie is not very likely to fetch positive response from the masses, and with such huge budget, it seems a uphill task to become a success.
