Raavan : by Mani Ratnam

Raavan brings back the quintessential Aishwarya , Abhishek , Mani Ratnam trio with a permanent AR Rahman stamp.....

Mani Ratnam has been one of the sought after director's of Indian Cinema , and has the up most respect as filmmaker through his visionary films like Roja , Bombay , Yuva to name a few...

Raavan seemed to be in flavour of Ratnam's style of complex human relationships with a backdrop of struggle , hardship , emotions and bonding.

This film has taken its elements from Indian Mythological Epic Ramayana with the Good vs Evil theme as the morality behind it.

Abhishek plays the title role , Beera  who is the most revered yet feared local hero in the village. 

His mission is to avenge the death of his sister , and he does that by kidnapping Ragini played by Aishwarya.

Ragini is wife of police inspector , Dev who had led an encounter to capture Beera in midst of his sister's wedding and eventually tortured her to death.

So the premises of the film is mainly how Dev rescues Ragini and the triumph of the Good over Evil.

There are many references to the Ramayana including the characters Hanuman played by Govinda who helps Dev reach his goal , or the indirect innuendo to Surpnakaha , Ravan's sister.

The film has nothing going for it at all in the initial half of the reel , the story is such a drag , that the cine goer will find himself in a spot whether to see through it or not ?!?

The performances of the character artists like Ravi Kishen and Govinda are far better than the main protagonists , Abhishek is neither spine-chilling nor eccentric.

Aishwarya has nothing much to do , but to screech and look good , Vikram does his part well.

AR Rahman's music fails for the first time to lift the film and is mediocre as compared to his benchmark.

Pluses :

Direction of Photography is par excellence , the natural beauty of the forest is captured magnificently.

Minues : 

Far too many .. 

Avoid it if you can , watch it strictly for the respect of a gr8 film-maker , who has goofed up!

Rating : 1.5 / 5.0