Raavanan - Review

Raavanan is a must see movie simply for the cinematography (Santosh Sivan, Manikandan) and the beautiful locales where the movie has been shot. I did not expect Maniratnam to almost literally rip off the Ramayana.

The story is very simple and straight. Good guy wants to fight the bad guy. Bad Guy kidnaps good guy’s wife to kill her. But her bravery stuns him and he falls for the lady. The captive lady realizes that her husband may not be such a good guy after all and starts falling for the Bad guy. At this point the good guy fights the bad guy and takes his wife back. Watch out for the supposedly twisty ending.

A visually satisfying movie lacks performance from Aishwarya Rai. She is seen screaming most of the time. And the makeup makes her look so plastic. Vikram (Veeraya) has done a brilliant job as the wronged brother, as the man who can sing, dance, attract woman and fight the wrong-doers. He is seen as a demi-god by his people. But I did not understand why he goes bak… bak… bak… when he gets all angry, but he walks away with a good performance.. Prithiviraj hardly has much to do other than give bad ass looks and shouting Veeraya!!! Priyamani’s role though very brief is well done. Vaiyapuri as the eunuch and Ranjitha were two roles which were hardly felt. Karthik as the forest ranger has done a good job and he has done well, though no one knows what happens to him in the end. Prabhu is like a henchman who keeps bringing food to Ragini (aishwarya Rai Bachchan).


Some of the characters lack depth and could have been done better. Go watch it and you would want to live in a Maniratnam movie.