Movie Review - Ravanan

Last weekend we went to see the much-hyped Ravanan - much-hyped is used perfectly deliberately. Sorry Mr. Maniratnam, but I enjoyed "Roja" much better than this. It is a hash of all the most cliched themes in movie/fiction history including Stockholm syndrome, golden-hearted bandit, sister-raped-by-police sob story and the usual Ramayana stuff. I saw the trap laid for Ravan miles ahead. I just can't see where the "new take" on Ramayana is unless it's in the location. And a fickle and masochistic Sita who falls for a mass-murderer/terrorist just because he happens to fancy her. Seriously, I think the actors are touting the movie only because they had to put in a lot of physical hard work and endure mosquito and leech bites (or did they?) of the forest in order to make the movie. I saw Prithviraj enthuse in one of his publicity interviews that this was the first movie of his that he would show to his grandchildren - one word of advice Prithvi, with all due respect, I am a big fan of your work, please show them "Vellithira" or "Swapnakkoodu" or even "Vaasthavam" - please don't show them this!

The music is just an afterthought and there are no tunes that remain in your mind once you are out of the cinema hall.

The good things - glorious views of the forests, the Athirappally waterfalls, insanely good camera work, beautiful locales and so much water that, ahem, you might wanna visit the loo before you watch the movie. Look out for the eagle's eye view of Ash, and a few such moments.