Jun 20, 2010 09:03 AM
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(Updated Jun 20, 2010 09:16 AM)
Raavanan - Flare of the filmmaking, Stellar cast with dizzying camerawork, myriad complications, violent mayhem, broad humor, usual musical interludes, a cliffhanging climactic confrontation and a finish that strikes a note of poignancy.
The talented and gifted visual story teller entwines the classically themed mythology of Indian culture with a flair of Kollywood flourish.
Set at the backgrounds of Chalakudy, Kerala and Ooty, this film gets to the core of visual treat with heavy screenplay.
Following the crux of epic Ramayana, a hardnosed police officer's chase to get back his wife from the local tribal's figurehead and a lawbreaker, who has kidnapped his wife for the retribution on the death of his sister, coz of police custodial torture and brutal rape.
With the storyline primed, the film explores the edgy emotions of the three protaganists (literally Rama, Raavana and Sita) experience with each other, leading to a riveting climax, situated in the jungle.
Of the cast- Veeraiyya (Vikram) who runs a parallel govt in the areas near thirunalveli forests with brothers- Singarasan (Prabhu) and Sakkarai (Munna) is respected by several people, but is also considered a terrorist by the local police has done justice to the character with varying emotions and his usual gleamy acting.
Karthik Muthuraman, a multitalented induvidual who was portrayed luminous in Mani rathnam's Mouna Ragam just chains way to the other characters performance. Prithviraj fails to add value to the emotionally powerful character. Priyamani and Prabhu exceeds the directors vision and contributes effectively to screenplay. The film sees Prabhu Ganesan and Karthik Muthuraman act together in a Ratnam film for the second time after 1988 film, Agni Nakshatram.
Mani's work usually appretiated for the crisp and powerful dialogues by the versatile writer Sujatha has now taken a bad troll with the dialogues by his wife Suhashini which fails to support the screenplay-Scene-Dialogue relation and proves to be just a pedestrian dialogue. Music flabbergasts from the Academy winner- A R Rahman as he does usually for Mani Rathnam films.
Inspite of the lengthy screenplay, the climax becomes the visual treat with endowment from Sreekar Prasad editing and cinematography by Santosh Sivan with the beauty of backdrops.
Bollywood glamour aplenty, with the lovely if occasionally dramatically challenged Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, playing the Sita stand-in, The real star, though, is Ratnam, a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images
There is still a doubt on general crowd to like this masterpiece.
Strictly for Mani Rathnam fans and a chicken soup for not the soul but for visual senses!
