I just got out from a very beautiful, visual ,cinematic experience -Raavan. I was one of the lucky few who got to experience Raavan a day earlier before it’s FIRST DAY FIRST SHOW date! And boy was i lucky.
Mani Ratnam always gives you something to think about after watching his films. It’s a beautiful piece of cinema that does not spoon-feed their audience, unlike other hindi films. You fall in love, sing a little whole lot, comes the edge of the seat conflict and than a happy ending. Ravaan does not come near a love story nor a rumored Ramayana epic storyline.
As an audience you got introduced to a “kampong†town, called Lal Maati. A town where the law is not set by a government or a ruler but a tribal named Beera Munda, played by Abhishek Bachchan. Beera is , from the movie, is the protector of the weak, the leader of the opressed people of Lal Maati. He’s a strong rugged, non-conformist man. Dev Pratap Sharma , a righteous and a respectful police officer, who is played by Vikram (on his debut bollywood film) knows that the key to bring order to Lal Maati is to KILL BILL Beera :)
Abhishek Bachchan played the villain/hero in the movie. He stayed true to his character, he didn’t sound like himself and you were drawn by the character’s emotions. The way he walked, spoke, fought- you can feel his burning desire for revenge! Why Revenge ? Dev wants to kill Beera-for peace and equality, but Dev’s police/army have harmed Beera’s sister instead , that lead her to take her own life. Beera was furious and he decided to kidnap Dev’s wife Ragini to the jungle, played by Aishwarya Rai.
(SMALL PLOT- not going to tell you the whole story, you got to watch for yourself)
Aishwarya Rai was pleasant to watch, and to see her dance once again was flawless and beautiful. She was elegant and her facial expressions are getting better. I think the whole lot of training done in the jungle made all of the actors recognize thier own roles and embraced them physically and emotionally. Kudos to Mani Ratnam, in executing the characters very well.
I think the surprise element in this movie was GOVINDA! When you see Govinda, you think less is always more. And that’s what Govinda is! No one have spoken about his character, nor see him making rounds doing promo for the movie. But i can tell you to look out for Govinda in this film! He played the forest guard , who aid Dev to look for Ragini in the jungle.
Although, this i can tell you-i am a little bit dissapointed with the Plot & Vikram Sir.
PLOT- Less is more. But the plot is really really not there ! and i am dissapointed that it was more heavy on the cinematography of the exotic locations rather than telling a story. I thought Mani Ratnam might be a little bit over ambitious to have filmed the movie simultaneously in hindi and tamil. I think he got lost in the plot. The characters were hugely defined but the plot was gone.
Vikram- Yes, it’s he’s debut hindi film. But i was expecting MORE MORE MORE! He was too coy and small for the hindi crowd. He’s always larger than life in tamil films, and i think he was too engrossed in depicting Dev a little smaller for the hindi audience, that he lost the essence of playing DEV, the HERO in the film. So he lost my vote there. I hope that he’ll do a better job in playing Beera in the tamil version.
Overall, I was left with mixed feelings for this film. I hope it will do well, politically speaking and i hope people will not anticipate it too much, because then you’ll end feeling a little bit disappointed ! I give this film 3 1/2 popcorn :)