Raavan Review

Raavan is the modern story of the great Indian epic, Ramayan. Raavan is a demon who becomes so powerful through meditation, that are equal to God. So God decides to incarnate Himself in Lord Rama and then descends the earth with the prime motto to kill Raavan.

The movie is a fantastic piece of art and aesthetics. In this movie, each of the character either, Beera, Mangal, Ragini, Dev, or any other minor character is detailed out in an artistic way. Each of the characters here have their own pros and cons. Beera is an ordinary, uneducated man who ends up becoming a fierce enemy of the police because his sister is raped by the policemen on her wedding day. Ragini is the wife of the Superintendent of police, Dev Pratap Sharma, who is kidnapped by Beera on her picnic. She is fearless and has her own mind and speaks it too. Jay Pratap Sharma is the suprintendant of Police whose aim is to finish Beera by hook or by crook. Sanjeevani is the man who is on the both sides of Beera and Dev Pratap. He is man who is convinced by both, Beera and Jay’s way of fighting injustice.

The way, the main character of Raavan has been brought about by giving him less dialogues but more of words or sounds that clearly depicts his mood and his unpredictable nature of acting suddenly or landing up in a fight or ending up dancing in his sister’s marriage is uniquely and artistically crafted to perfection.

The character of Ragini in the movie is also artistically and aesthetically so well crafted that her fearless nature towards her own death and her strong will to fight against Beera and go bak to Jay is minutely detailed out to perfection that when served with such good cinematography and background music, the audience is awed by such a character.

Overall even side characters like Sanjeevani, Magal and few of the main men in Beera’s gang have been so much detailed out to the core of the theme that only our five senses can appreciate them better than any words can describe. The second point appreciable is the totally unpredictability of each and every main characters action. It ended like Ramayan wherein Lord Rama is suspious about the piety and fidelity of Sita. That point makes Ragini run to Beera and fall in love with Beera. This is the point wherein sometimes one thinks that a demon is much better than God himself. How can one think of his own wife having an affair with a married, uneducated, wrong doing man.

This is the point every Indian man fails to understand in his marriage despite the fact that his wife cannot think of having an affair with some other man. In the end, Ragini falls in love with Beera on his death bed!!

On the whole, the movie is quiet an artistic piece of work since it is directed by Mani Ratnam, and music director A.R. Rehman.

May it be the selection of the shoot out sites, Tumkur in Karnataka or the great waterfalls in Kerela, Ooty, Jhaansi, Mahabaleshwar or Malshej fails in Maharashtra or the shooting of some of the shots. Like Ragini falling from a tree branch into the river, or Dev Pratap symbolically killing Beera in the newspaper with his cigarette, Beera tracing a pinch of fear in Ragini’s eyes for not killing her or Beera and Ragini having a conversation in front of the Great Statue of Lord Shiva.

The reason why both Mani Ratnam and A. R. Rehman’s collective work is a perfect piee of art is that whateer situation either of the duo gives the other, they search it out, work on itxs implementation and finally cater us the music and the dance clip keeping the theme a raqging force behing each and every sound or the soundtrack that Mani Ratnam has directed the story about. This implies that the story strongly governs the music of the movie in order to make it a perfect piece of art and aesthetics.

A.R. Rehman has given such music background at the time when Ragini is all alone captured and left alone in the pit in the ground or may it be the soundtrack of Beera wherein Mani ratnam wanted A. R. Rehman to introduce Beera as an jungle, unpadh, gawaar tytpe of man whose logical skills have successfully turned him into a protector of his own men. Whereas the soundtrack of Kata Kata is to show a rural wedding. So the music and the lyrics and the choice of singers also plays a very important role. Specially Ila Arun’s voice is a folklore voice which is taken best advantage of. Here again Mani Ratnam has shown a typical rural house, its entrance opening to a large courtyard and the mud house within with chaqrpoi in the middle. Outside the house there is a tree with built in sitting space around; the small things that make a rural image. And the way the whole procession goes to a nearby temple to get the groom and the bride married. And to feel that in our minds Mr. A. R. Rehman has given classic music using a fusion of folk music and semi classical touch.

Personally speaking, such a piece of art wrok finds its own way out to the its appropriate art appreciaters. Like a Heere ki keemat ek zohri hi kar sakta hai. Heera zohri ko aur zohri here ko dhund hi nikaalta hai at the end of the day.