Ravana tops this Ramayana

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Om Raut's Adipurush (First Man or Supreme Being), drawn from Valmiki's Ramayana, is Bollywood's latest interpretation of our great epic, now in theatres. It is a mish-mash of such diverse international and Indian film and art influences, I kept wondering what would Raut's (Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior) own visualisation of the Ramayana look like, if he hadn't seen all these other films and images? His vanvas from Ayodhya is a Raja Ravi Varma-style paradise with peacocks and bunny rabbits (OK, this is a 14-year punishment? Can we get lifetime punishment please, aur khane mein kya hai?). Janaki/Sita is standard issue Raja Ravi Varma beauty, fair and lovely, always in a gorgeous sari and pearls, above all, a woman in distress. Lanka is a Gothic grey-black fever dream, with Fritz Lang's Metropolis-style dizzy towers to emphasise swooping depth, and elegant Art Deco architecture. Lankesh/Ravana transports the kidnapped Janaki to Lanka (Sri Lanka) on the back of a flying dragon straight out of How to Train Your Dragon from Viking lore. But full marks for a Mandakini-style shot, as the protagonist emerges in slo-mo from a roaring waterfall, Baahubali-style, as Surpanakha watches, smitten; and there's even a near-Mughal-e-Azam peacock feather moment, but these are gods, so erotica is auto-deleted. Even Ravana never once touches Sita: after kidnapping her via telepathic creepers (don't ask), even when she's imprisoned in Ashok van in Lanka (a Japanese cherry blossom garden in the Gothic gloom), he always chastely talks to her from 20 feet away, even when ardently asking her to marry him. Your 3D glasses are the only reason the characters get any dimension; otherwise they remain bland, anodyne comic book tropes.

The Ramayana and Mahabharata are two of India's great, defining epics. Scholar Arshia Sattar, who has translated the Valmiki Ramayana, has referred to her teacher AK Ramanujan's essay "300 Ramayanas," on the multiple versions of the Ramayana throughout the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia, and the more recent political need to have a single version of the Ramayana, and the creation of a ‘Ram rajya'. However, Om Raut's version is more designed to appeal to cool, new age kids, who are easily impressed by video game-style VFX. The timing of the film, that glorifies a Hindu god - along with right-wing films like The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story - can be seen as bringing film to the service of a larger political agenda, with general elections expected in 2024, especially when its opening credits acknowledge "blessings from Shri Yogi Adityanath".

The film cuts to the chase starting at the 14-year vanvas, idyllic till Lankesh (Ravana, played by Saif Ali Khan) distracts Raghav with a deer (Ram, played by Prabhas, is called Raghav, despite the wall-to-wall Jai Shree Ram chants); kidnaps Janaki (Sita, played by Kriti Sanon) and takes her to Lanka. The rest of the film is about how Raghav gathers his army, including monkeys and bears, builds a bridge to Lanka, wages war and rescues Janaki. It ends with the rescue, with a smug golden sun behind the trio Ram-Sita-Lakshman, with Hanuman kneeling dutifully, whereas the most interesting part of the Ramayana, for me, is what happens to Rama and Sita after the rescue. The screenplay takes a backseat in this VFX-laden actioner, which lasts an interminable nearly 3 hours. The VFX are quite good, but without compelling characters or screenplay - by Om Raut, with dialogues and lyrics by Manoj Muntashir Shukla - the battle of Ram versus Ravana, good versus evil, is reduced to a "Bhala uski VFX meri VFX se safed kaise?" Just as lithography's mass manufacture of images gave Raja Ravi Varma's visualisation of Hindu gods, including Ram and Sita, an all-India appeal; Telugu star Prabhas (Baahubali The Beginning, Baahubali 2 The Conclusion) had a chance to consolidate his all-India appeal and beyond, with this Bollywood vehicle - screened in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and in 3D - but he mostly prefers one calm expression throughout the film. Kriti Sanon as Janaki is another bland character for whom we hardly feel. Saif Ali Khan is the most interesting character - he kidnaps yet never touches Sita; his cool haircut displays two horizontal nicks; he plays the veena and gets writhing pythons to give him a snake massage - oho! Karthik Palani's cinematography is superb, but the editing could have been more taut. Ajay-Atul's music is mainly devotional, bhajan-like. Nachiket Barve's costumes are fascinating (the saffron is muted, and I loved the detailing), and Germany-based action director Ramazan Bulut and colleagues are good. The producers include T-Series and Retrophiles. I couldn't find a single woman heading any key department, tch tch! It is telling that Ravana is the most interesting character in this Ramayana.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com