Raavan

Raavan
Mani Ratnam is always known for his hatke take on absolutely normal topics and spin a magnificent visual around it with the music of A R Rahman. From the likes of Roja, Dil Se, Alaipayuthey, Thiruda Thiruda,Guru etc he has now given us Raavan.
Raavan stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Ragini – Sita), Vikram (Dev – Ram), Abhishek Bachchan(Beera – Raavan), Govinda (Sanjeevani – Hanuman) , Priyamani (Jamunia – Soorpanakha) and of course Nikhil Dwivedi and Ravi Kissen.

The movie starts with a visual of Hogenakkal falls and Beera contemplating a jump. And in the next scene, shows Ragini taking a leisurely boat ride, complete with a music player, taking in the scenery. She then gets kidnapped and the next thing she is aware of is she is in the clutches of Beera. Here starts the agony of a ardent Mani Rathnam follower… for a while all that happens is she struggles to escape, slips, gets bruised and challenges Beera into killing her. Random songs, which are uninspiring, which made me think if Rahman was in a coma while composing music for this movie. Dev starts his search and encounters Sanjeevani (the multiple times suspended specialist Forest Guard who really has taken his Hanuman role too seriously). Reluctantly, Dev allows him to accompany the search for Ragini, since he alone knows the way of the jungle.
Few encounters later, the first half of the movie is suddenly over and it is time for the best thing in a movie – popcorn and a soft drink. The 2nd half takes us deeper into the search for the elusive Beera and eventually Ragini. Then the motive of her kidnapping is revealed (thankfully, or the movie would have looked like a rain forest documentary). Since violence is not the solution to any problem, a peacemaker is sent from Beera to Dev, whom Dev promptly kills. This results in a blood bath and a breathtaking, gravity defying one-on-one fight sequence later, Ragini is rescued and reunited with Dev.
But Dev doesn’t seem all excited about seeing Ragini again and suspects her of infidelity. Asks her to go through an Agni Pareeksha – polygraph test. Ragini is shocked at the allegation and decides to leave him. For the ending, you will have to see the movie, but am not sure if you think it is worth the effort.
The only good part of the movie was the location. It was breathtaking, thanks to Santosh Sivan’s cinematography.
Ash was looking very bored most of the time and she’s anyways not on my list of fave actors.
Abhishek used the make-up budget that would normally be used on Ash. He would have amazing skin in his forthcoming releases, thanks to all the Multani Mitti that he had to use. He plays the Raavan with a half his heart in gold, which longs for Ragini. And when he does not how to express himself , he does a “jhig-jhig-jhig-jhig” or “ bak-bak-bak”. Since when did the world know men to be very expressive
Vikram’s role was a very sporadic one. He is Raam with a lil bit of Raavan in him
Govinda did complete justification to his role and whatever screen presence he was given.
Story and music was a huge disappointment
Only 3 songs I could remember and that too not something I would recall quickly & completely like I usually do – Behne de, Ranjha Ranjha and Beera (still didn’t understand the situation of the song)
Agree with Rajeev Masand’s verdict on this movie - 1.5/5