Raavan reminds me of Kamal Hassan's 'Guna'

After my experience of 'Raavan', I was wondering what Maniratnam possibly could have attempted before ending up with this product. It is not unusual for serious filmmakers to envision something on paper and end up failing to convey the same on the celluloid. But as far as I know, this is first such case for MR. After all he is supposed to be a dictator on the sets while shooting who wouldn't just let unless he gets the desired sequence and frame to the T. So what possibly did MR attempt?

I am now reminded about the yesteryear Kamal Hassan starred 'Guna' in a odd way. The protagonist there was mentally unsound. He kidnaps a lady to the hills of Kodaikanal and the lady who initially finds him repelling later knowing him changes and even gets married to him. The police who were in search of the lady with all their good intentions play spoiler for the couple and end up harming them. I still remember watching that movie and in the end feeling something deep inside. An irony that a socially unacceptable guy melts our hearts with his emotions while the police with their brute power and our mandate are unfit to comprehend the emotions and play anti-hero. This concept I guess served as a sub-plot in quite a few movies. Here, I guess MR planned to make something like this a main plot on a lavish scale with the Bachchans, AR Rahman's score.

As said in my previous post, I thought MR started with a backdrop of anti-government forces like the so-called Maoists in the the jungles. He could have possibly thought of personifying the deep jungles and its Beera analogically with Lanka and Raavan of the mythology. Beera was supposed to evoke fear. AB Jr didn't.

The Ram-like character Dev is supposed to be strict law-enforcing officer. His uniform itself was supposed to imply his Ram-like characteristics and his actions are supposed to add grey shades. But this didn't translate and he ended up a card board character in RayBans.

Raavan is a very ambitious project and it is such a tragedy that it does not even remotely look like one now. This is in the series of project like Kannathil Muthamittal, Ayutha Ezuthu, Guru and as an idea clearly reflected Maniratnam's ambition. This is what I think is Maniratnam's second innings and I am yet to see him score.

Raavan: Maniratnam's most uninspiring work

For someone who grew up watching and enjoying Maniratnam's movies, it is difficult to like his latest - 'Raavan'. Steadily over the years, the nuances and silences of his Tamil movies disappeared to make way for painstaking Hindi dialogue and loud background scores. And gone with them are the fleshed out characters and we now see the cardboarded ones in 'Raavan'. For an analogy, Raavan is far too simplistic. Ironically, the Ram like character of Vikram shows little benevolence while the Bachchan Jr.'s Raavan has little if not no evil. The movies does not explain why the 'Raavan' is a feared lot and what drives him. Instead the character dishes silly antics, as sillier as most of the dialogues in the movie.

In fact the movie would have made more sense if it stressed on the conflict between forces of establishment and anti-establishment and how the lines between good and evil blur. The movie's excellent camerawork in the hinterlands would have wonderfully reflected the turf war between these forces as does the background score. But all the technical work has been wasted on a confused plot. The award winning editor Sreekar Prasad looks completely uninspired in the first half. He just let the boat sail. I really hope this is Mani's last work with AB Jr. It was a pain watching him in almost every frame in the first half, trying to interpret his character and act. This is a casting blunder. I understand that the Bachchan brand is the only factor in Maniratnam repeating AB Jr. for marketing his movies. This is turning as nightmarish as RGV' stint with Big B.

I hope Vikram did a better job in the Tamil version as 'Raavanan'. Would like to catch up with that sometime and see if Maniratnam indeed had a plot which could have been lost in translation from Tamil to Hindi!

I seriously think Hindi movies are weighing down Maniratnam as his style of making changed adversely in this transition. His movies have now become dialogue driven in Hindi, a language he is not too comfortable with. Maybe his ideas does not quite translate coherently in this scenario and so we get to see a mishmash. Compare the character graphs of Sooriya in 'Ayutha Ezhuthu' (Yuva in Telugu) and Ajay Devgan's in 'Yuva' and you will understand my point. I just wish Mani takes a break now as he did after 'Dil Se' to make a Tamil movie like 'Alaipayuthey' and get his bearings right before he ties himself into another Hindi movie project. This is from an admirer of his.