Actors: Vikram, Aishwarya, Prithviraj, Karthik, Prabhu
Plot: To be concise, it is Maniratnam’s take on the epic Ramayana from the perspective of Ravanan.
I had a lot of expectations before watching Raavanan, because this was a straight Tamil film by him after “Ayutha Ezhuthu”. The promo also looked good, so I booked the film and was so excited to watch it the first Sunday of the release.
The first half of the film was just ok and the screenplay was also very slow (Maniratnam took quite some time to establish the characters). So I felt the second half will be even more interesting, yes it was interesting and better than the first half. The acting by Aishwarya, Vikram and Prithviraj (though Prithvi looks quite stiff throughout the film) are good. The veterans Prabhu and Karthik have done their part well, although many will feel Karthik’s role was too small for his acting skills and I would have personally loved to see him a little longer on the screen, he is one of the most natural actors that we have got.
I could not understand why Vikram said such weird dialogues once in a while and also the “dan danaka” that he says quite often initially, it seemed so artificial even when performed by Vikram. Priyamani does well in a cameo. The main flaw of the film in my view is that Maniratnam took the entire Ramayana epic and depicted it as it is except that it was shown from Raavanan’s perspective. Even Thalapathi was inspired from Mahabharata (Duryodhana – Karnan’s friendship) but Maniratnam had taken just the base of their friendship but set the backdrop completely differently, which is not in Raavanan’s case.
Vikram is spectacular in his role and has done full justice to it. Aishwarya looks stunning and has emoted well. Aishwarya should be particularly commended for doing such difficult stunts and acting with grace for such an emotionally tough role.
I am personally a die-hard Maniratnam fan, but I felt quite let down after seeing the film. However it should be seen atleast once for the magnificent visuals and the acting, but Maniratnam is famous for his repeat audiences, and his Mouna Raagam, Nayagan, Guru,etc can still be watched any number of times and we do not get bored seeing it again and again, but I cannot say the same for Raavanan.
My rating 2/5 (1 for the visuals and 1 for acting)
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