Raavanan - My 2 Cents

It it so sad that I have not posted anything on my wall since my last review of AO and current post is also about a movie. I think my blog needs flavor. I swear, after this post, I am staying away from movie review (or ranting in my case) for a while.

A lot has happened in my life since my last post, but in the movie world hyped-movie-crapping-out has remained the same. As one of my buddies would comment, so sad.

I had to see Raavanan, just for the hype created and for all the negative reviews I read about it. Succinctly, the movie is about exploring the concept "There is a good side within a bad man, and a bad side within a good man". This concept has been explored from the perspective of the lead lady character. For this purpose, Maniratnam has used Raamayanam as the backdrop. A brave and bold experiment in deed. However, it fails magnificently in not expressing the thought process through screen play.

While the director has put in enough thought about the locales, I fear the same cannot be said for character definition and narration . Veera (aka Raavanan) character is given lots of screen presence in the movie. We get to see the trials and tribulations he goes through with good and evil, but the same cannot be said for Dev (aka Ram's) character. While it was shown that Dev is a cop and he was part of a botched up plan to finish off Veera that ends up in Veera's sister getting raped, it is never known whether he was part of the group of people who raped that girl. Without any proper scenes, the director has tried to bring out the point that Dev has the bad side too. Plus, as the movie progresses we get to see that Raagini (aka Sita) emotionally/romantically inclines towards Veera (even though she was married to Dev), but such a transformation lacked conviction. Why does she change her mind? What has Dev done which is bad and makes him pale in comparison to Veera?

Additionally, the movie also has lots of characters that are wasted and every effort is made to make the movie similar to Raamayana. Characters of Forest Guard (aka Hanuman) and Vanilla (aka Surpanaka) are built and wasted. If you read through Vaalmiki's Sundara Kaandam, you get to see how Vaalmiki has used each and every character to build the case for the anxious Sita, idiotic Raavana and righteous Raama. Mani, being a great director he is, has lacked conviction in this movie. If you want a successful similar effort, read Shashi Tharoor's "A Great Indian Novel" and I am told Raajneeti, for adaptation of Mahabharatha, a similar epic.

Ufff, another great movie that went south without even a limp. Now, I am looking forward to Endhiran and see if Shankar has done justice to Sujatha's "En Eniya Iyandhira". When "En Eniya Iyandhira" was published in Anandha Vikatan and was dramatized by a series in DD, it was out of the world. It was pioneering in Tamil Sci-Fi and rocked in depicting human emotions through an inanimate Robot. Given the handicap that Shankar has now with Sujatha not being alive, I hope he would have used his protege`s like Era Murukan to bring out a taut screen play and a good adaptation of the novel.

Aayirathil Oruvan

That is it for me. I am not going to see movies of most of the established Tam directors, that too in theater. The one time I decide to see a Tam movie in theater here in US, spending $12 bucks, has turned out to a thought process altering event for me. Bloody POS.

What was Selvaraghavan thinking when he took this movie? Dai, unaku masaatchiye ellaya da? How the f$%^ you can take this movie, go on the air stating that this movie is of the class of Hollywood movies and Tam audience have to uplift their viewing standards to enjoy his movie? Bloody narcissist. All the movies you have copied from (read Mummy, Lord of the Rings, King Kong) all had a story and a good production value to complement that. Your movie does not have any of the said things. You relied totally on gory scenes, unnecessary usage of archaic Tamil and perverted scenes to roll through the movie. Coming to perverted scenes like (women squirting blood from her boobs, group of women cleaning the King using their nude body), please understand that those are written in old stories to bring a theatrical and poetic touch. You just had your brain in your arse to not understand that. Selva, as my friend Arun stated in his blog, you are perverted to the core and trying really hard to masquerade it. Every great director/artist including Vinci, Picasso, KB, Balakumaran, Saytajit Ray had some perversion thoughts, but they kept that in the periphery, than you. Please dont go around saying you have uplifted the quality of Tamil cinema. Please go and see movies of Sasikumar or the director who took Renigunta. You are not even close to their efforts. IMHO.