There was lot of expectations from Raavan. After a long tiring morning, I prayed that the matinee would finally pay off the sweat that I egested on this hot summer's day. But sadly, The beginning was very poorly narrated and improperly woven. It did break my heart...but I had enough faith on Mani Ratnam's vision. And you know what, as the story progressed, things took off pretty awesomely, especially after the interval. It's a strange thing, but normally our bollywood and other Indian movies have an awesome first half but the second half is usually long and boring. Here, it's a different scenario. The first 15 minutes was pathetic....soon it was SO-SO.....and towards the interval the story had started narrating itself properly. But after the interval, every frame, every scene was a speckle of Brilliance.
The story revolves around Beera played by Abhishek who is supported by his two brothers Mangal and Hariya. They kidnap the SP's (Vikram) wife Ragini (Aishwarya) to avenge the suicide of his sister Jamunia. While the SP DP Sharma vociferously tries to track down Beera and the gang with the help of his loyal officers and a drunkard forest officer, Sanjivani (Govinda). In the first half Beera is portrayed as the antagonist, but a hero for the tribals who also is the messenger of death for his foes. But in second half, the transformation of Evil is shown and the mapping of Good into cunningness forms the end of the story. No more details about the story...coz I dont want any of u freebies [=P] to miss it.
The Music has been awesome..coz...of course..its by his highness AR Rahman...and I dont have to say anything more about it.Rahman's name in itself is worth a million praises. The cinematography has been breath taking, especially the action sequences and the night sequences. The one's in the Athirapally Waterfalls (Kerala) have been shot with excellent precision. HATS OFF!
Now the performance....let me start with Aishwarya...well..she's done it before...she's done it again. she looks sexy hot in this..although there were a few scenes where I couldn't notice her expressions coz my eyes would keep sliping down her BOSOMS..[=D]. Vikram as the ruff n tuff officer has done a good job in the acting department, but his dialog delivery sounded as if he was reading out from the script's copy directly. Govinda has a short and unimportant role..he fills in with a occasional humour as he replicates Hanuman from Ramayana while Nikhil Dwivedi replicates Lakshman. He has done a great job as the loyal to Vikram's plans. Priyamani had a very short role, but very important nevertheless as she is the sole string that ties the story together. her acting as well dialogues has been excellent, inspite of it being her first attempt in hindi cinema...many of us know how well she has done in her Tamil & Malayalam films. She was better than Vikram in this department. Abhishek as Beera was pretty over aggressive. There were many scenes where he has done well and man where he has overacted himself! Maybe it was too much of an ask for him. But overall he did do a commendable job, but not as good as GURU. Now, one man, who did exceptionally well, is the man from Bhojpuri cinema.....RAVI KISSEN...ya he's the stand out performer of this movie. The role had his name written all over it.....The sadistic side kick of the antagonist....he's done it superbly ....His smile was diabolical enough to scare any damsel away....
That's the performance..now overall this movie does love upto the expectations that it had created....just make sure you don't get out of the theatre after watching the first 15 minutes,,,coz that's really boring and confusing....be patient...coz Mani's movies always are impressive...have faith in him.
Although it didn't have the effect which GURU created in my mind...but yet...this movie's gonna be one of my favourites for a long time...especially for it's excellent cinematography...although editing could have been better.
MY VERDICT - must see...............3.5/5
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