Writer: Janak

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Watch this if you liked: "Yuva”, “Guru”, “Epic - Ramayana”

Having filmmaker Mani Ratnam, composer AR Rahman and Bollywood golden couple Abhishek Bachan and Aishwarya Rai Bachan would certainly raise expectations on a movie but sadly "Raavan" is one instance where it largely fails to connect with both the general masses and the art house connoisseurs.

With dreadful pace and a great lack of depth in the story, the film is quite disappointing. If you aren't already familiar, it's a loose retelling of the Indian epic Ramayana, in which Sita, the wife of Lord Rama, was abducted by the demon Rākshasa king of Lanka, Ravana. No doubt all the actors performed superbly. The chemistry between real life Bachan couple deserves a clap. Abhishek as Beera gives everything he has to the role. Aishwarya on the hand, performed better but their presence is perhaps best felt only when they share the same screen space together.

Consolation points include excellent cinematography by Santosh Sivan (locations like the jungles, steep waterfalls and the picturesque villages) while the effects were decent to an extent. Music director AR Rahman provides some memorable tunes, following last year's "Ghajini" and "Blue".

Still, "Raavan" can be said to be this year's biggest letdown, coming off as unbelievably boring. This is worse when you consider that Mani Ratnam is behind many memorable films in Hindi, Tamil and other languages. If you don't like it, perhaps you would want to catch the Tamil version "Raavanan" instead. The main changes are the lead cast - Prithviraj takes over Dev's role while Vikram takes over the villain's role. Aishwarya remains as the soulful Ragini.


Cinema Online, 19 June 2010