Raavanan Tamil Movie
A modern Ramayana, that's what Mani Rathnam's epic movie is all about. Clearly the movie draws inspiration from the popular events of the epic; the great kidnapping of Seetha, Ram preparing army to invade Lanka, Raavanan falling for Seetha, Hanuman acting as the messenger between the troops, finally Ram asking Seetha to enter the fire to prove her chastity. All these scenes are enacted out, but of course, not in the same way.
The story revolves around Veera; wild, untamed, dauntless like the lion of the forest. Incidentally, he is nicknamed Raavanan by the people. No one, especially the police, can enter his territory without paying a great price, i.e., their life. Amongst his own people he is worshipped like a hero, a well wisher for their community. Veera has various police cases against him. Dev, the police officer, who has been specially appointed to capture Veera, shifts to the area where Veera has established his reign. Veera, then kidnaps Ragini, wife of Dev, and there begins the cat and mouse game which bears shades of Ramayana. In the later part of the movie, we get to know that Veera's vengeance against the police is because his sister (played by Priyamani) was raped by some policemen and later drowned herself. Ragini, then, like the Stockholm syndrome, starts to exhibit a soft corner for Veera. Finally the end, is as expectedly unexpected, where the lines between black and white merge into shades of grey, and good or bad is no longer recognizable.
Vikram has played his character Veera with perfection; no hiccups. He takes each scene into his stride depicting ease with the character. Prabhu, who has played the right hand of Veera in the movie, has given a good performance. Prithviraj, Priyamani and Karthik (in a different role after a long time) have given their best; with Prithviraj playing Dev, the 'good' policeman with shades of grey, Karthik, in fact, seems to be the 'Hanumam' character of the movie, and Priyamani expresses with her eyes. So does Aishwarya. Aishwarya is looking refreshingly beautiful in spite of the much publicized 'no makeup' look.
There is a poetic feel in the conversations between Aishwarya and Vikram, and not to mention the same feel in the scenery around them. The abundance, splendor and the grandeur of nature has been captured by cinematographer Santosh Sivam and V Manikandan. The views are breathtaking; most of the scenes are in rain.
A R Rahman's music is, as usual, brilliant. Most of the songs bear a rustic and earthy feel mostly with the help of drums. The songs just merge into the surroundings.
The movie has the stamp of Mani Rathnam's style in the narration, scene execution, but still, one does feel the scenes in the first half of the film do slack a bit, at least in connecting strongly to the characters.
Raavanan is rustic and wild. It is a great watch, just for the brilliant performances and the lush greenery.
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