Raavanan

Not always you avoid what you want to avoid. Last night was one such occassion. I saw 'Raavanan'. I have enjoyed watcing Mani's movies in the past and movies like Iruvar and Mouna Ragam fascinated me. More than the story, the way he brings it on the screen and narrates made the difference. I am a big fan of good narrators. I wouldn't mind listening to 'Crow' and 'Vada' story thousand times if the narration is different and fascinating each time.


I was itching to watch 'Raavanan' ever since I saw the promos, despite my own apprehensions about recreating Ramayanam. But then reviews dampened my enthusiasm. Slowly I lost interest and even added the movie to my 'Not to watch list'. But as fate would have it, or is it my subconscious, I watched the movie. There is no way I could have said 'No' to my wife, after all my pre-release hype about the movie. So we went, saw, I got bored and returned home.

There are so many reviews of Raavanan, very good ones to bad ones, and they all have listed where Mani went wrong, Vikram failed and Vikram scored. I share most of their views. The screenplay is probably the worst to come from Mani's stable. The story starts with the kidnap, stops after Ragini's jump, goes into a slumber before the flashback unfolds late in the second half. It would be harsh to qualify it as a 'drab' but it nearly is one. Notable failings of the movie, besides screenplay are

*Rahman's Music (BGM)
*Suhasini's Dialogues
*Vikram's poor antics
*Unnecessary, irritating and totally avoidable character that of Karthik, the forest guard

I used to be a big fan of Kamal Hasan, the actor. I still, am, I think. A recollection of his best performances always plays with the background music. I can't disassociate it and perceive the performance alone. Be it in Moondram Pirai (drums in the climax), Nayagan, Mahanadhi (Veena), Virumaandi, Guna (Going around the room scene), Apoorva Sagodharargal or any other brilliant scene / performance, the music always leads us into the scene. It sets the mood, draws and let us travel with the scene. Good music evokes and cause our emotions to rise and fall with the scene. Take Hey Ram for example. The Calcutta riots scene may not have made so much of impact but for Ilayaraja's background score.






And here in 'Ravanan', Rahman is a big let down with his BGM. He has always been an average to, at times, good music director when it comes to background score. What's pathetic is, his poor performance can actually be perceived as you watch it. There are scenes where the music is completely separable from the scene. In a scene where Ragini, in captivity, shouts out to her husband, who is somewhere in the forest, I was wondering about the background score and what was he doing. Two big let downs in that scene. One Aishwarya's horrible performance and Rahman's BGM. Another example is the scene when Veera takes Ragini to a cliff to shoot before she jumps into the deep falls. Brilliantly conceived scene once again let down by Rahman and Aiswayrya (especially the dubbing). Is it time for Mani to look beyond Rahman or is he so dependent on his songs to give us a hit?



Suhasini, makes us realise how badly Mani and we miss the great Sujatha. Hope Suhasini minds her work with Jaya TV in future and not influence her husband and cause us hear her poor dialogues. I wasn't bothered to hear the dialogues, whenever they were not clear. For once I don't lament about not being able to hear dialogues, in a Mani Rathnam movie. Good riddance.

Vikram is probably the saving grace of the movie but then his 'pak pak pak' and 'tun-tanakka-tun' antics are poorly conceived and carried out. I wouldn't tolerate such poor antics even if it is to come from a complete psychopath. They were complete irritants. His characterisation is far from convincing. Mani generally leaves a shade of grey in his characters. But this is just too much and is blinding.

Did Karthik go and beg for a role or did Manirathnam felt obliged to give Karthik a return of sorts? Is it necessary to create a 'Anuman' role, when all he does is jumping around and doles out suggestions to Dev (Prithvi Raj)? Any other police character could have done it. May be Mani could have used Karthik as the DSP and not as Anuman.

There are some unnecessary and irritating scenes like the one where Veera cuts the hands of his brother-in-law. May be Mani wants to show the gory side of Veera to Ragini but it was like water on lotus leaves.

I would have preferred to watch 'Raavanan' on my telly with a remote in my hand. Even then I would have spent only some 15 or 20 minutes in front of the telly. That's how much time 'Raavanan' is worth watching. I never expected such a boring movie from Manirathnam, the one who gave me the joys of watching Iruvar, Mouna ragam, Kannathil Muthamittal, Alaipayuthey, Idhayathai Thirudadhe, Agni Nakshathiram, etc.