There is second version of review also..that's why I don't respect 'Rediff'..they baffle people and play safe side! How can anybody agree upon this - "Even the world-conquering A R Rahman can't save the day, and it's heartbreaking to see the legendary cinematographer-director-composer trio give us such forgettable song sequences."
Regards Yogesh --- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, "Gopal Srinivasan" <catchg...@...> wrote: > > Raavan is Mani, Abhi, Ash's best work > > Tags : Raavan , Mani Ratnam , Ragini , Beera , Vikram > > June 18, 2010 > > Mani Ratnam's Raavan is an overwhelming film. At times a tad bit > overproduced, the film is an onslaught of brilliant use of technology on the > viewer's senses -- stunning cinematography, the fluidity of the camera, quick > edits, loud soaring music, with the actors thrown into wild nature. > > Ratnam working with his regular cinematographer Santosh Sivan and also V > Manikandan, and editor A Sreekar Prasad, gives us a hellish vision -- an > innocent woman Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan [ Images ]), kidnapped by a > Veerappan-like outlaw, Beera (Abhishek Bachchan [ Images ]). > > Much of the film is the cat and mouse game -- Beera and his gang, in harmony > with the forests, rain, rivers, cliffs, mountains and a lot of mud, always a > few steps ahead of the police force led by an officer Dev Sharma (Vikram), > who also happens to be Ragini's husband. > > Ratnam is one of the most remarkable filmmakers in India [ Images ], taking > unique story ideas -- although some with muddled political messages, working > within the framework of popular cinema, and yet creating memorable films in > Tamil, Hindi and other languages. > > From the days when he used to shoot his films in one language (Roja [ Images > ], Bombay and Dil Se) and then dub them for other markets, he has now moved > to working simultaneously on two parallel productions. > > This time he shot Raavan in Hindi and Raavanan in Tamil -- shooting each > scene back-to-back, with at least one actor interchanging roles. Vikram plays > Dev in Raavan and then Veeraiya (Beera) in Raavanan, while Ash appears as > Ragini in both films. He also has a third version -- Villain dubbed in Telugu. > > That is a lot of ambition for a soft-spoken 54-year-old man, who first > attended business school before becoming a filmmaker. There is ambition > written all over Raavan and at most times it succeeds. > > But it all happens at such speed that it takes a while to absorb the pace of > Raavan. The film needs to be digested, absorbed and mulled over. The visual > images are often so powerful and strong, each shot packed with so much > activity -- rain, mud, trees, cliffs, and, of course, the actors, that many > filmgoers will miss out on all that they see on the screen. > > I tried to get ahead of Ratnam and started counting the number of edit cuts > during the grand dance performance to the song Thok di Killi, but soon I felt > I was on a roller coaster ride, and had to stop to breathe. > > Raavan is Ratnam's interpretation of the Ramayana [ Images ] (yes, the > rumours and speculations are true), with Bachchan, Ash and Vikram playing the > roles of Ravana, Sita and Rama, respectively. And in one of the most > brilliant strokes of casting, a delightful Govinda [ Images ] plays > Sanjeevani -- a modern day Hanuman [ Images ], playfully hopping from one > spot to another as he joins Dev's mission to search for his wife. > > The film is replete with references to the Ramayana -- from the 14 days it > takes Dev to rescue his wife, to a disturbing take on the Soorpanaka story, > which becomes the justification to the kidnapping of Ragini. > > But Ratnam takes Raavan beyond the Ramayana. I am not giving away the > ending, but I wonder what the purists and Hindu fundamentalists will think > about the departures of the film from the religious text. > > Ratnam gives us all shades of the three main characters. Beera is not always > as evil as Ravana is often portrayed; Ragini's Sita has a strong inner core, > and while she starts with hating Beera, she is sometimes in awe of his sudden > spouts of gentleness; and Dev turns out to be the not so perfect Rama. > > I wish the script and the film in general, had not spent so much time in its > technological grandeur, because the real crucial conversation around the > Ramayana starts to happen near the end of the film. By this time Beera, > Ragini and Dev have stopped being the traditional Ravana, Sita and Rama. > > That transition makes Raavan a significant milestone for modern India to move > beyond the Ramayana as just a religious text. And so Raavan is perhaps > Ratnam's most definite political film. > > Bachchan's best work to date has been with Ratnam in Yuva [ Images ] and > Guru. But here the actor goes beyond anything he could have imagined he was > capable of doing. Through the film he stands tall, observing his landscape, > his face twitching with myriads of thoughts and his menacing smile unnerving > all those who come in contact with him. Bachchan has never worked this hard > in a film and it shows in his performance. > > Like him, his wife Ash also gives one of the strongest performances of her > career. Few directors have succeeded in making us look beyond her beauty and > see the actor in her. Rituparno Ghosh worked wonders with her in the > under-appreciated Raincoat and Ratnam did that in Guru and now here in Raavan. > > Vikram, a star in Tamil films, is a real find for the Bollywood industry. > > The fate of Raavan and its Tamil and Telugu versions will be judged in the > next few days by audiences across India and abroad. But this much is clear -- > Ratnam, the quiet master, is in top form here. It will be a challenge for him > to outdo himself > > 4/5 > Sent via BlackBerry >
