A Bold Effort - Ramayana - Part 1

 

This movie is based on an epic which is the common heritage of us all. Hence, like everyone else, I feel entitled to put forth my thoughts on this lavish offering. 

To begin with, many things went adverse. Important meetings overshot their time bounds, leading to cancellation of tickets (at a considerable haircut) for the (much better) Inox, leading to the dilemma of choosing between waiting for the 1030 show at the Inox, or going for an 815 show at a ghostly mall outside the city. The generous 3 hr plus runtime of the movie made us decide in favour of the ghostly mall - with recliners that reeked and positively refused to recline, and a projection lamp so feeble one had to really had to keep the eyes peeled to watch. On top of that, contrary to our expectations, the show timings here conveyed the actual movie start time, not the timing of preliminary random reels of smokers who got lung diseases - so we ended up missing some of the beginning.

In such adverse settings, it would be very difficult for a movie to make a good impression, especially if it is to be judged against the hype it  has built up for itself as a 40 billion rupees effort. However, despite all these factors and constraints, I felt that the movie was very good.

First, let me get out the negatives. The CGI rakshasas, who were part of the action sequences, were not convincing. Live human actors would have been much better. It would also have helped avoid the unexplained dichotomy between obviously anthropoid rakshasas of Ravana's family, and the grotesque computer generated ones that fought the divine trio in the jungles. 

The scene of Sita-haran was also surprisingly devoid of action. The exact moment was not a part of the movie, and the subsequent transportation aboard the Pushpak (which does look like a pushpa) is very undramatic. No version of the lore presents Sita staying quiet and submissive during the flight - most versions have her calling out to her Husband, to the nature, to anyone who would listen, and scattering pieces of adornment. The Jatayu - Ravana battle is built up as this part's climax, but sans the cries for help, his appearance on the scene itself is not reasoned out!

Much has been said about the (mis)casting. To my eyes, all those who were unfamiliar, appeared divine. The actors who played Lakshman, or the two Queens other than Kaikeyi, would fall into that category. Then, since I am not that big a watcher of Southern dubbed movies, even Ravana and Sita were also much easier to accept. Watching Raja Dashrath passing on the crown of Ayodhya to the next king had a deep meta significance, given the fact his character was played by the one who played Shri Ram almost forty years ago - it was as if the onerous responsibility of playing the character of Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram was being passed in that scene. Ranbir Kapoor is one of the greatest actors of our times. Too frequently he relapses into roles of the lost kid who needs to find himself, but whenever he has played something different, he has nailed it - Rocket Singh, Rajneeti, Jagga Jasoos, Animal - to recall a few. Whatever his personal deviations from Sattvik might be (and it may be up for a debate whether Sattvik or Rajasik would be a better standard for the case), as an actor, he has performed very well in this role - the serene demeanour, the gravitas, the expressions befitting the role. Still, being as familiar as he is to our eyes, it is hard to unsee "Ranbir" to see Shri Ram. Somewhat the way regular Hollywood audience had difficulty accepting Brad Pitt as Achilles. For someone like me who had hardly watched Hollywood before, Brad Pitt is Achilles and Eric Bana is Hector, no doubt. Similarly, international audience would have no difficulty accepting the lead actor as the protagonist of the epic.

This brings me to the criticism about the movie being aimed at International audience. Well, for an epic like Ramayana, which has been adapted in visual spectrum ranging from village Ram-leelas, through the 1961 Sampoorn Ramayan and the much revered 1987 TV serial Ramayan, to the gigantic yet disastrous Adipurush recently, there is no need for its introduction in Indian audience. In addition to being revered religious texts, our Epics carry the imprint of our culture, and hence, if exerting our cultural imprint is a noble goal, then customizing the presentation towards an international audience is in itself not a wrong. Debasing anything in the Epic to appease an international audience would certainly be so. There are some issues with the creative liberties taken - but these deviations, like the victimhood narrative behind the villainy of Ravana, the socialist apologism of Ravana's power grab, and the feminist apologism of the shenanigans of Surpanakha by Sita (to name a few) reflect more on the current social zeitgeist, within the country itself as well as the world at large. When victimhood narrative and social-nonconformism is rewarded in the social and political life, art cannot immune from the same. To be truthful, these formed the surprising bits in a lore as old as time itself, and made for an interesting watch, if not strictly canon.

Ultimately, the test of a good movie lies in keeping one spellbound and entertained. With all the physical impediments to a good viewing, as I described earlier, the movie succeeded in making us lose track of time. I was surprised when the interval came in, nearly two hours into the show. This was a story which we all knew, but still, the movie compelled us to keep watching. The music kept up the pace, the cast kept up the story. It is indeed an ambitious endeavour to tell the world about a tale which lies enmeshed in this civilization's soul, and, even with and despite all its peccadillos, it appears worthy of our appreciation.