Raavan, Ravana et. al
<<This review has been sitting in my drafts since the day after I watched this movie and I squarely blame it on my super laziness and peanut-sized memory for leaving this unpublished. So if there is any soul out there trying to read this and wondering why a review for this movie is just coming - rest in peace -- yeah yeah... no one reads this crap anyway, let us get on>>
Last time when I met Raj (one of our friends) during one of our socializing events, he said that he is expecting my next blog article very eagerly. I can take it two ways, one is that my current blog is so good, he can't wait to read my next one or the more plausible explanation - let me see at least if I give you another chance, you will write any better. Raj - Whatever the reason might be when you said that, I was thinking within myself - what did I do? Now I have created this expectation, opened the Pandora's box, how am I even going to live up to this expectation.
But life is strange and when you expect the least, situations present themselves in a platter. In this case, our dear Mani Ratnam's much-awaited Raavan/Ravana. I watched it in Tamil on the day of release, that too, a night show after so many years. This is as much privilege I can give to a movie and it better live up to it.
The hype around Ravana was crazy, the dual characterization of Vikram (hunter in Hindi/hunted in Tamil) made front-page news in Tamil Dailies while BP was leaking oil in the Gulf. Jaya Bachan was actually praying to Lord Rama that this movie should be over soon, so that their pyaari bahu can give them the grandkid to play with. 3 Years and 90 Crore Rupees ($20.5 Mil) later, Raavan/Ravana is released and we went on the release day night with our 2-year-old to watch alongside another 50 other souls who except my dear friend Chin, sacrificed their sleep to watch the incredible stuff from Mani Ratnam, which he forgot to pack it in the movie in the first place.
Mani seems to be intently wiring the story with all sorts of correlations with Ramayana, whether it is the suggestion of Priyamani as Surpanaka or the transformation of poor Karthik to Hanuman. Somehow he did not have this urge when writing Thalapathi (apparently suttufied from Mahabharata), where he only links the story in the start and in the end. All through the middle, it was nothing but Gang war stuff. However, in this movie, he has felt the need to remind the poor viewer that he is watching a patched-up work of Ramayana, once every two scenes. Strangely enough, I can relate to how Mani Ratnam would have felt writing his screenplay. It is the exact same feeling that I have when I write the functional specs for my projects (almost on every page trying to go back and reference the requirements somehow as lame as it can be).
However to understand why Raavan/Ravana has turned out to be this way, needs some critical analysis by experienced psychological experts for which I have completely no access to. But that does not mean I will shut up and walk away - I have my own two eyes which see a whole lot. Note the point that Suhasini has convinced Mani to write the dialogues for the Tamil Movie. If someone says that it is to save money - come on! get real! - you can't find another couple of lakhs to find a professional writer when you are spending 90 crores on the movie! BS! It is actually all these years of living with Suhasini that Mani is systematically and completely lobotomized to the extent that not only he did not mind her writing the dialogues but he actually believed 'Bak bak bak bak bak bak' as an intellectually superior piece of dialogue that the audience and critics will find it intriguing. Well, you all thought, it will only happen for mortal folks like us, now even the great Mani Ratnam is completely susceptible.
I say Mani D the B and get a life! What do you say folks?
But life is strange and when you expect the least, situations present themselves in a platter. In this case, our dear Mani Ratnam's much-awaited Raavan/Ravana. I watched it in Tamil on the day of release, that too, a night show after so many years. This is as much privilege I can give to a movie and it better live up to it.
The hype around Ravana was crazy, the dual characterization of Vikram (hunter in Hindi/hunted in Tamil) made front-page news in Tamil Dailies while BP was leaking oil in the Gulf. Jaya Bachan was actually praying to Lord Rama that this movie should be over soon, so that their pyaari bahu can give them the grandkid to play with. 3 Years and 90 Crore Rupees ($20.5 Mil) later, Raavan/Ravana is released and we went on the release day night with our 2-year-old to watch alongside another 50 other souls who except my dear friend Chin, sacrificed their sleep to watch the incredible stuff from Mani Ratnam, which he forgot to pack it in the movie in the first place.
Mani seems to be intently wiring the story with all sorts of correlations with Ramayana, whether it is the suggestion of Priyamani as Surpanaka or the transformation of poor Karthik to Hanuman. Somehow he did not have this urge when writing Thalapathi (apparently suttufied from Mahabharata), where he only links the story in the start and in the end. All through the middle, it was nothing but Gang war stuff. However, in this movie, he has felt the need to remind the poor viewer that he is watching a patched-up work of Ramayana, once every two scenes. Strangely enough, I can relate to how Mani Ratnam would have felt writing his screenplay. It is the exact same feeling that I have when I write the functional specs for my projects (almost on every page trying to go back and reference the requirements somehow as lame as it can be).
However to understand why Raavan/Ravana has turned out to be this way, needs some critical analysis by experienced psychological experts for which I have completely no access to. But that does not mean I will shut up and walk away - I have my own two eyes which see a whole lot. Note the point that Suhasini has convinced Mani to write the dialogues for the Tamil Movie. If someone says that it is to save money - come on! get real! - you can't find another couple of lakhs to find a professional writer when you are spending 90 crores on the movie! BS! It is actually all these years of living with Suhasini that Mani is systematically and completely lobotomized to the extent that not only he did not mind her writing the dialogues but he actually believed 'Bak bak bak bak bak bak' as an intellectually superior piece of dialogue that the audience and critics will find it intriguing. Well, you all thought, it will only happen for mortal folks like us, now even the great Mani Ratnam is completely susceptible.
I say Mani D the B and get a life! What do you say folks?
posted by Saiganesh @ 4:45 PM
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