Ravings / Rants regarding Raavan!

I saw Mani Ratnam's Raavan. Here are my impressions:
(Spoilers ahead!)

I wasn't really interested initially as the promos didn't look exciting enough (they promoed only the songs initially, not the movie scenes). The incessant jungle scenes looked nice but it wasn't anything new as a setting. Mani Ratnam, as I know, is a respected filmmaker but personally I am indifferent towards his work. 'Dil Se' was a borefest, 'Yuva' was a mess and 'Guru' was a commercial potboiler with no remarkable quality to speak of. So naturally, Raavan couldn't excite me even if it was a *Mani Ratnam* movie, notwithstanding aforementioned reasons..(yes I haven't mentioned his other films, coz I know him mainly from his Hindi outings)

The first half of the movie is boring, inconsistent and contains too many 'wth' moments. The background score is stupid and out of place for most of the times. For instance, the inclusion of 'Raanza Raanza' recitation as background 'music' during one particular scene is as senseless as it can get. It didn't AT ALL relate to what was going on the screen and even the "singer" had atrocious voice as she was apparently instructed to sing "slowly". Uh. And oh, the actual 'Raanza Raanza' song is picturized on secondary characters..such a letdown.

Post-interval, especially during the last 20 mins or so, the movie picks up considerably. Its as if Mani suddenly remembered that he had a story to wrap up! Things happen quite fast, and predictably, you are hooked to the screen. I will try to analyze the psychology of lead characters from the concluding scenes..which is what, I think, the only mildly interesting part of the film for me.

(For better understanding, consider Raavan: Abhishek, Ram: Vikram, Sita: Aishwarya)

So yes, Raavan tells Sita how he was wronged and how he is in fact correct to take revenge on Ram by abducting Sita. Sita seems to get convinced..so far so good. But what about Ram? Just coz the title of the film is Raavan, Mani chooses a convenient ploy to gather sympathy for the 'villain', who in the end still promptly gets killed! This was to avoid any backlash from Hindu religious zealots..Ram *has* to triumph no matter what, yes? Mani plays super safe. No problem in that, but give logical motivations and characterization to other players of the plot as well, ya? Showing Ram in tight close ups and running thru jungles is all that we see of him. His love for his wife never comes on the surface. Sita is shown strong initially but gets VERY inconsistent later on. Her sympathy for Raavan is although understandable, is left to imagination whether has any romantic angle associated with it. The film only hints mildly at that. Again, playing safe, no doubt.

Ram doubts Sita's charitra (character) as she was with Raavan for 14 days (and 14 nights! in Ram's words!!). He asks her to undergo PolyGraph test to prove that she is not lying when she says she was untouched by Raavan. Sita leaves Ram in disgust and goes straight to Raavan to ask whether he has poisoned Ram's mind. And Ram follows her to track Raavan!

1. Was Ram's doubting on Sita intentional? Did he speculate that she will lead him to Raavan in this way? Or was he genuinely doubting his wife? Its left for interpretation, which I liked..
2. Sita's sympathy for Raavan is again left ambiguous..was she attracted towards him or she simply (and selfishly) wanted to clear her name using Raavan's goodwill for her?? 

I think Mani could have played on these and other moral dilemmas in a detailed manner instead of dragging the movie with endless jungle shots, fight sequences, out-of-place songs and needless subplots. There is so much food for thought, moral ambiguity and questionable motives of main characters in Ramayana, I wonder why NOTHING was used which could have elevated this movie to respectable heights..*sigh*  

Couple more oddities:

* who is this Beera (Raavan's screen name) character after all? what has he done for the villagers that most of them think he has a 'heart of gold'?? Not even a *single* scene depicts his benevolence by proper example..only rushed narrative in the beginning which creates zero impact
* why does Beera talks in nonsensical way even with his sister? and even she with him, for that matter? Taunting for fun is okay, which runs throughout the film amongst them..but even during the BIDAAI scene?!?! Is it that difficult for 'tribal' people to speak normally??
* how come Hanuman (Govinda) suddenly finds Sita's location, without any kind of clue and without any resistance from Raavan's gang?..in the initial half, the film tracks Ram's progress from basti to basti..resulting in losses and failure, and then post interval, almost out-of-the-blue Hanuman talks to Sita as if Mani was waiting for the moment when he could show this interaction to viewers but the scenes leading to this event got chopped off..('coz he had a story to wind up, you see!)
* where does Hanuman disappear after urging Ram to negotiate with Raavan's henchman?
* so Ram kills Raavan so swifty..where has Raavan's sena gone?..they employed guerilla tactics in the initial reels of the film, making hell of life for Ram's police forces..and then in the end, Ram just comes with his own force and kills Raavan with zero resistance?????? WTH...and even Ravi Kishen, Raavan's right hand, is nowhere to be seen to protect him?? (and he was there just 2 scenes back!) 

Gosh, so many flaws..what was Mani Ratnam thinking?! how can things go so horribly wrong...some critics are already calling it Mani Ratnam's AAG!! :) See it if you wish a visual trip to the Jungles, but alternatively, you can just turn on the National Geographics channel!