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Other Critic Reviews
'Raavan' a feast for the senses
By Subhash K. Jha  3 Stars
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1.5 stars Having watched and admired Mani Ratnam's work over the last several decades, I have to say, Raavan, his most ambitious film to date, is very sadly his weakest. Frankly, nothing works. Very Disappointing. - Ashok Nayak    Fri, 18 Jun 2010
Raavan directed by Mani Ratnam is a film centered on the antagonist of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. In the film, Beera is Ravana (Abhishek Bachchan), Ragini is Sita (Aishwarya Rai), Dev Pratap Singh is Ram (Vikram), Sanjeevani Kumar is Hanuman (Govinda), Laxmana Pratap Singh is Laxmana (Nikhil Diwedi) and Serena is Surpanakha (Priyamani).

Beera has abducted Ragini, wife of a police officer Dev Pratap Singh and kept her hidden deep inside a forest. The reason? The rape of Beera's sister Serena. Dev in search of Ragini takes the help of Sanjeevani Kumar, a forest police officer, who has Hanuman like qualities. The rest of the film is all about revenge, from both sides.

Raavan is a confusing watch. For one, the script is filled with several flaws. Two, the antagonist is portrayed as a protagonist, due to which you neither hate him nor like him. Three, some of the events that take place in the film are hard to digest, for example the polygraph test, to ascertain if Ragini is 'pure'. What were the writers thinking?

Having watched and admired Mani Ratnam's work over the last several decades, Raavan, his most ambitious film to date, is also very sadly his weakest. Frankly, nothing works. The pace is sluggish, Rahman's music apart from Beera track isn't up to his usual standards, the performances are below average, Vikram has nothing to offer and Abhishek's makeup is awful.

Aishwarya Rai's performance and beauty, Santosh Sivan's cinematography and the crisp to-the-point dialogues act as the only saving graces of this Mani Ratnam film.

Abhishek Bachchan apart from a scene or two, hams. Present in every frame, the film was entirely dependent on his performance, unfortunately he disappoints big time. I, like many, expected much more screen time for Vikram, but strangely he has a very short role. Govinda and Nikhil Diwedi are good. Aishwarya Rai looks ethereally beautiful and performs her role well.

To sum things up, Raavan's weakest link apart from Abhishek Bachchan's performance is Mani Ratnam himself. Very Disappointing.


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