Ok. Here we go. I just watched Raavan today. I must say I wasted a good 13 bucks on the film. Not to mention the whole effort of traveling one hour (one-way) to watch it.
I decided to analyze the torture. You never really know the pain unless you know the cause of it.
Let's begin with the story of Raavan. Ohh wait, I forgot.... it's Ramayan. Well then, that's that! Now let's head to the characters....
Raavan is a story involving a (supposedly) fearful dacoit named Beera (Abhishek Bachchan), a not-even-single-emotion-on-my-face-and-my-loose-attempt-at-spoken-Hindi cop Dev (Vikram) and his 'I must use every excuse in the book to cry and shriek' wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan). The supporting cast is the Beera-clan and the extras as police officials and I-can-monkey-around-and-jump-around-ever-so-dexterously-despite-of-my-obese-body Sanjeevani (Govinda). Ohh and by the way, Sanjeevani is also supposed to provide comic-relief in the otherwise 'serious' plot. We cannot exactly ascertain how and when and where does he learn his 'comic' poetry but it is almost certain he uses it only once during his introduction.
Alrighty then! Let's head to the Ramayan analogy. Raavan : Beera. Ram : Dev. Sita : Ragini. Hanuman : Sanjeevani. Once you fit these in place, the rest of the Ramayan characters fall themselves in place in your head. (Mr. Ramanand Sagar. Please don't mind them. I still remember my Sunday mornings with your version of Ramayan.)
The plot starts with a rather haphazard introduction to 'Who is Beera?' or rather 'What is a Beera?' and we finally land in a lake where Beera kidnaps Ragini. Till now we got no logic in place as to why he does what he does, but never mind. Dev is shaving (apparently) in his tent when he gets the news that Ragini is kidnapped by Beera. Thus starts a unseemingly frantic search for Ragini and an equally unreal manhunt for Beera. Though it seems that the copper is more interested in hunting down Beera than rescuing his wife Ragini. This is not surprising considering the fact that Ragini screams, shrieks and sheds tears at the drop of a hat in the movie that follows. In the meantime, on a high cliff waterfall, Beera has tied-up Ragini and is ready to execute her. But Ragini shows no fear and Beera-dude is thoroughly impressed. Ragini says she would prefer dying by jumping off the cliff than from Beera's bullet (I say DO IT!) And she eventually does. jumping off the cliff and yet miraculously surviving the fall. (Bollywood - Anything's Possible!) It is a few minutes later into the reel that we come to know about the justification of this miraculous escape. Ragini does not fall into the water below but is stuck in a tree after undergoing a 'Rambo: First Blood' like fall. She eventually falls into the river. Thus the Beera+Beera-clan+Ragini entourage wanders thru the jungles showing us a beautiful landscape in India we never knew existed. Along this journey, Ragini continuously maintains her hatred for Beera. However, at this point the audience can really predict that eventually she's gonna have a soft corner for Beera-dude (she HAS to, it's a Bollywood movie!) Together they visit the villages where Beera is the ultimate deity and everybody praises him. Meanwhile, the search for Beera continues with the supercop raiding villages and lining up village folks to individually interview them asking about Beera and his qualities. Apparently, they have all the time in the world to do that cus Mr. Cop is sure his wife ain't dead yet!
The narrative abruptly jumps from the present-day to a bit of a flashback revealing to a yet-wondering audience as to why Beera has kidnapped Ragini. Apparently Beera has a step-sister whose marriage is ruined by the coppers' raid and who loses her life thru an indirect involvement of our ever-so-expressionless Mr. Cop. So the bottomline is plain ol' Bollywood 'ishtyle' revenge. Eye for an eye, chic for a chic.
Coming back to present-day, somehow our Sanjeevani jester-dude convinces Mr. Cop that he can reach to Beera where a battery of trained cops fail. And he lands up on a tree above where Ragini is sitting and gives her the message that Mr. Cop is just around the corner waiting to rescue her. And he gets caught (probably one of the few pleasant surprises in the movie) by Beera-clan. Sanjeevani convinces Beera not to kill him and Beera promptly obliges and sends his brother for a peace proposition with Mr. Cop. Mr. Cop kills him leading to an enraged Beera (yet another pleasant surprise in the movie, considering the other times Beera-dude tries to act grim and ferocious but ends up giving a distinct comic over-act). This leads us into the climax (Part 1 of 2) of the movie .... Finally! Phew! The climax is one of the fewer scenes which looks a bit realistic. Beera kills every copper except Dev and Dev returns the favor by killing all the clan-members except Beera and they proceed to a bridge to pursue the remainder of the dhishoom-dhishooms. While Ragini is tied to a tree at one end of the bridge, Beera-dude and Mr. Cop battle it out the Last-Man-Standing way, eventually leading to a short-lived enthusiasm among the audience with both men surviving. The bridge breaks causing a swing to one mountain with the audience clearly able to make out the dummies for Beera and Dev. Beera climbs up and releases Ragini (what can he do? finally he gives in to her constant crying and shrieking which is describes as "chik-chik-chik-chik" and "bak-bak-bak-bak" ... WTF!?) Mr. Cop reaches to Ragini and they end up in a much-cliched Bollywood Re-union embrace, with Ragini saying a meaningless, irrelevant and misfitted dialogue "Dev 14 din baad aye ho lene, 14 minute mein kyun nahi?" Dev, on the other hand, enquires more about Beera than the well-being on Ragini. Whatever. The point is that the audience until now was in a sweet misconception that it's finally time for the end credits.
Dev and Ragini travel back in train (Jai Indian Railways!) when Dev doubts Ragini of her purity. Unless I am unaware of a scientific breakthrough, Dev asks of Ragini to take a polygraph test to verify whether she's telling the truth about Beera/Ragini love-saga. Ragini pulls the chain (I guess, after promptly seeing the notice 'To Stop Train, Pull The Chain') and walks off landing straight back into Beera's lair. Beera-dude is happy to see she returns back (cus even if it is not evident enough throughout the movie, Beera falls for Ragini and asks her to desert Mr. Cop and live with him), only to misconceive that Ragini has led back Mr. Cop and his army to Beera's lair. Ragini tries to convince Dev not to kill Beera but in vain. Beera is gunned down to death. Apparently, according to this movie it takes endless rounds of bullets to kill one man.,... and he falls off a cliff (which I may add, he is shown doing it more than once). A fitting end to a cliff-lover.
Apart from the step-sister's role played by Priyamani, clan-member and Beera's brother played by Ravi Kishen (who, by the way, provides more comic-relief than an overweight Govinda), none of the supporting cast is worth a praise. Abhishek in his Beera-dude role .... at this point, I should probably explain why I keep calling him that. He seems to find an unlimited access to hair-styling gels and mousse in the jungles and remote villages throughout the movie, be it rain or be it dusty. Cus his hair never loses its style! So.. anyways Abhishek has failed to deliver to the audience a ferocious and merciless dacoit. For most of the movie, the audience is clueless whether to love him or hate him. So, to compensate, they just LOL at his facial expressions and grunts, shouts and howls. Aishwarya is probably a bit of a saving grace but for her constant and overtly-done melodramatic character. Vikram .... well... no comments! Govinda in his role of Sanjeevani a.k.a. Hanuman is ... can we end this please?
The film tries to portray the underlying message of the original epic, i.e. Good and Evil and the victory of Good over Evil. Sometimes it gets lost in the purpose, while sometimes it exaggerates. For instance, in the climax, when Beera fights Dev, Beera wears a typically symbolic black while Dev dons a white T-Shirt. And what's with the OD of 'Multani Mitti' by AB Jr.?????
Rehman's music is good, but only for the auditory senses. The songs appear in the movie completely irrelevant to the situations. Probably the real saving grace is Mani Ratnam's choice of scenic locations and Santosh Sivan's amazing camera work to make those locations even more heavenly.
FINAL VERDICT: Avoid it. Rather reminisce the fact that Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan had a cult following and was a massive hit in its times!
MY RATING: 2/5 (1 for the locations, 1 for Mr. Santosh Sivan)
PLEASE NOTE: The post is strictly based on my own interpretation of THIS movie. Please bear in mind that while writing this review, I have neither discounted the previous successes/masterpieces from the allied/individual efforts of the acting/production crew nor am I speculating the future for them.
Peace,
*Boink*
