THIS MOVIE WON`T DO GOOD TO MANI RATNAM SAAB. Review on Raavan

In Raavan, Mani Ratnam turns a significant issue of the day into a handy ploy.He tries to blend (very uneasily) a contemporary Naxalite figure with Robin Hood of the West and Raavan of Indian mythology.

However, the element of subversion, the anti-establishment sensibility, which should have been the key, gets only vaguely heard in Gulzar’s lyrics in ‘Thok de killi’. And the moral ambiguity in the reinterpretation of the Ram-Raavan binary —how good and bad may not be so defined, how the brute might be lurking in the civilised and the wild might have redeeming qualities—does not get portrayed with any sense of profundity or conviction.

Ratnam’s ambitious attempt remains facile, and we are not even coming to the straight, clumsy and laughable nods to the epic, like the lie detector test replacing the agnipariksha.

In fact, Raavan essentially plays out as just another vendetta film with the entire action hinged on the wronged man trying to get back on the one who wronged him personally. So you have the outlaw Beera (Abhishek)—fighting the cops and aiding the locals—who kidnaps Ragini (Aishwarya), the wife of police officer Dev (Vikram), only to find strange emotions developing for his captive.

Ratnam’s magnum opus fails to offer a persuasive portrayal of individuals and relationships, the largely ineffective acting making a further hash of an already tenuous narrative. The edgy Beera might live on the periphery but does he really have to border on the insane? Is the problem here with Ratnam’s conception of the character or Abhishek’s over-the-top interpretation of it or both?

The growing Beera-Ragini relationship is just as tame, lacking any frisson, Ash’s plastic presence only dousing any possible fire and fervour. Her ungainly angrakha costumes and endless close-up shots of eyes with water-proof mascara irritate to the core. As for Dev, Vikram has an electric presence but gets to do little other than knit his brows. The one performance that lingers on is that of Priyamani, Beera’s ill-treated sister. Such a beautiful, fluid face and radiant presence! The film boasts of breath-taking locales. If only some of the passion in the landscape had seeped into the film and its players.