Isn't Saif Ali Khan's look in Adipurush not 'Raavan' enough? Let's decode

Saif Ali Khan is not Arvind Trivedi And this is not 1987 Agarbatti is no longer used to create a fog scene And cotton neednrsquot be pasted on glass to create a night sky with clouds Why then does an audience expect artistic minds to envision a character just the way it was in the presatellite television era Last week a film received a volley of hate even before it dropped in theatres A teaser of Om Rautrsquos mythological drama Adipurush starring Prabhas as Lord Rama Kriti Sanon as Sita and Saif Ali Khan as Raavan was thrashed online for depicting the Lanka raja in garb that critics say doesnrsquot do justice to the ldquoBrahminrdquo He rides a dragon not the Pushpak Viman his hair is cropped short he sports a beard and the tripun or Shaivite tilak and janeyu or sacred thread is missingBharatiya Janata Party BJP spokesperson Malavika Avinash who tweeted that Khanrsquos character looked like a ldquoTurkish tyrantrdquo had reportedly said ldquoThe Raavan in the photograph that I see floating around is a guy who looks nothing Indian who has blue eye makeup and is wearing leather jacketsrdquo Actor Puneet Issar who played Duryodhana in BR Choprarsquos 1988 tele series Mahabharata agreed ldquoThatrsquos why the anger that people have is not wrongrdquo The Vishva Hindu Parishad has said it ldquoridiculed Hindu societyrdquo On Thursday the priest of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya called for an immediate ban on the movie thatrsquos slated for a January 2023 release He critiqued the portrayal of Hanuman ldquowith beard and no moustacherdquo ldquoIt depicts our deities in completely different form against what we have read and known so farrdquo Das saidAdipurush a mythological film in which Prabhas plays Lord Rama and Kriti Sanon Sita is also the director of National Awardwinning film Tanhaji Dissenters have raised objections about Saif Ali Khanrsquos character looking ldquoless like Ravana and more like Alauddin KhiljirdquoWhile the most accepted wellknown version of the epic poem in India is the Shrimad Valmiki Ramayana which through shlokas in Sanskrit tells the story of virtuous Ayodhya king Rama academicians believe that there could be scores of versions across languages and cultures including its retellings like Tulsidasrsquos Ram Charit Manas and Ramavataram or Kamba Ramayanam the Tamil epic written by the poet Kambar during the 12th century But Thailand Ramakien Burma Hikayat Seri Ram Laos Phra Lak Phra Ram Nepal Sidhi Ramayan Malaysia Hikayat Seri Ram and Cambodia Raemker among other Asian countries have their own versionsCan there ever be one homogenous visual interpretation of RaavanNew Delhi Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi plays Raavan at Luv Kush Ramleela All PicsGetty Images Location Unknown Ram and Lakshman fighting Raavan in a painting by an unknown artist Kolkata Raavan depicted in a Kalighat painting from 19th century in black ink colour and silver paintlsquoEven Hanuman was impressed with Raavanrsquos lookrsquoVidya VencatesanHead Department of French University of Mumbai holder of PhD on comparative study of Valmikirsquos Ramayana and French epic le Cycle de Guillaume drsquoOrange at the University of Sorbonne ParisRaavan was supposed to have come from a place south of Ayodhya He had 10 heads was an accomplished musician was an expert on the Vedas and was a lover of beauty He was learned had an opulent palace and a harem full of beautiful women We get a sense of his appearance when in the segment where he pines for Sita one of his wives Dhanyamala appears before him and says lsquoWhen you have me why are you after this dried up womanrsquo This is the only time she is mentioned in the work Valmikirsquos Ramayana but it establishes that he is good looking and desired In fact when Hanuman first sees Raavan he speaks of his looks and valour and says ldquoOnly if he had dharma on his siderdquo The epics are unique in the fact that they depict even the flawed as larger than lifemdashthere is nothing lowly about the enemy or else what have you won over But yes Raavan was a Brahmin and is hence usually shown wearing the janeyu It is believed that one of Ramarsquos three big sinsmdash along with killing Bali from behind a tree and sending Sita for the agni parikshamdashwas that he killed a BrahminLaos A postage stamp depicting Raavan King of the Red Demons 1955 Kerala A dancer plays the role of Raavan during a performance of classical dance drama Koodiyattam Location Unknown Nineheaded and 18armed Raavan in Pratyalidha Artist unknown 1830 Location Unknown Raavan half Brahminhalf demon ruler of Lanka depicted by Pierre Sonnerat 17481814 a French naturalist and explorer who made several voyages to Southeast Asia and published a twovolume accountlsquoRaavan did not have 10 heads in Jain RamayanarsquoParul Pandya DharProfessor of Art History Department of History University of Delhi Editor of The Multivalence of an Epic Retelling the Ramayana in South India and Southeast Asia Manipal Universal Press 2021There are many versions of the Ramayana and consequently as many visualisations of Raavan across the centuries within India and beyond especially in Southeast Asia There cannot be any fixed image of Raavan in an inclusive pluralistic tradition like India For example in the Jain Ramayana beginning with the Paumacariya Raavan is believed to be a just king and protector of Jain shrines Here his 10 heads are actually just one with the other nine being reflections of his head in a beaded necklace made of nine gems There are also many Islamic Ramayana versions like the Mappila Ramayanam centred in the folk song traditions of the Malabar Muslims Hikayat Seri Rama Malay version and Hikayat Maharaja Wana Maya version The sacred thread or janeyu is worn by Raavan as depicted in some ancient sculptures this is symbolic of his partBrahmin lineage But this doesnrsquot hold true for many other ancient and medieval Indian and Southeast Asian sculptures and paintings The mukut or crown is more commonly used when depicting Raavan In fact he is almost represented as a mighty kinglsquoRaavan was a righteous tribal with 20 handsrsquoGondraja Birshah AtramHolder of a PhD in ancient history hails from the royal lineage of Gonds Chandrapur district of MaharashtraAs members of the Gond tribal community who are the moolniwasis indigenous inhabitants of India we pay reverence to all our dead ancestors including Raavan but not as God Raavanrsquos mother is mentioned as a tribal in Hindu scriptures but there is no evidence that she was a Gondi Some tribals therefore feel an attachment to her and Raavan After centuries of subjugation at the hands of Aryan invaders who oppressed Indiarsquos natives when members of the Gondi community began to get educated they found Raavan to be a learned good man who fought to reinstate his sisterrsquos honour and who did not touch another woman Sita He then was viewed as a saviour of women and the ideal manAccording to the Gonds Lanka does not mean Sri Lanka but a forest somewhere in Madhya Pradesh There is a section of tribals who hold a puja for Raavan on Dussehra and the Gond community as a whole does not burn his effigy In Maharashtrarsquos Gadchiroli district a 200yearold idol of Raavan with 10 heads and 20 hands was found a few years back It continues to be paid obeisance to by some tribals We do not consider him a demon but a righteous king who was martyred while safeguarding his sister As an ancestor of the Gonds Raavan is reveredlsquoRaavan looks Pahadi in UttarakhandrsquoProfessor Pushpesh PantPadma Shri Awardee cultural historian with an interest in Hindu mythologyThere cannot be one ideal way to depict Raavan From where I hail in Uttarakhand he looks like a Pahadi This could be different from Varanasirsquos GangaJamuni Doab Raavan Imagery and iconography of the king varies across regions There are thousands of versions of the Ramayana across Southeast Asia In India itself there are dozens of versions including the Tamil Kamam Ramayana and the various versions in Sanskrit but unfortunately we suffer from a homogenizing syndrome some of us take only Tulsidasrsquos version as the one to dictate how Raavan should lookRaavan was the son of Rishi Vishrava who was the son of Rishi Pulastya and was a tall and fair Brahmin In no scripture I know of is he shown as dark ugly or dwarflike In Java where the Ramayana is performed as shadow puppet theatre Raavan is not a demon but a kingThe janeyu is not an essential religious mark for all Hindus Even if he did wear one you canrsquot show it on armour which is the main attire for a warrior on battlefield And a film cannot be the benchmark for the standard image of RaavanWhen Saif Ali Khan plays Langda Tyagi on screen itrsquos ldquoperfectcastingrdquo but he plays Raavan and that sparks controversy Actors play various roles across their life and we cannot make it about religion Raavan is not a deity How can religious sentiments be hurt by different interpretations of mythologyCochin A scene from a wall painting dating back to 17th century in the Rajahrsquos Palace Cochin The central figure could be Raavan Sri Lanka A carving of Raavan from 18th Century Sri LankalsquoArtist painted according to school of paintingrsquoManjusha GokhaleSanskrit scholar Dean of Faculty of Arts and Fine Arts at Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth PuneIf we go by the television show Raavan comes across as a wellbuilt man Valmikirsquos text makes a reference to this But as far as the paintings go there is no real proof Paintings in India were made according to the school of style that the artist belonged to whether say the Madhubani or Mathura school In Maharashtra the accepted image of Raavan is that of what artist Raja Ravi Varma has drawnmdashwellbuilt dark with moustache and flowing hair wearing a janeyu carrying away Sita while fighting Jatayu and cutting off his wingGanesh ShivaswamyAdvocate and founder of Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation author of yet unpublished work on Raja Ravi Varmarsquos representation of the Gods and how this shaped the common manrsquos perception about Hindu deitiesRaja Ravi Varma painted around 24 works in the Ramayana series Of these Rama appears in 22 and Raavan in two We must compare how Raavan and Rama look Varma does multiple versions of Rama his imagery is fluidmdashhe is sometimes shown as fair sometimes as dark even blue But Raavan is the same His impression is based on Valmikirsquos Ramayana So Ravi Varmarsquos Raavan is dark and wellbuilt like a man who exercises Rama is like a young man someone lithe but not with a sculpted body imagine the body of someone who swims or does yoga In both the paintings Raavan is in control of what is going on around himmdashhe has a strong body and mind He is depicted as an imposing figure much more than even RamaQuetta British India A sculpture of the manyheaded Raavan on Dussehra in Quetta on the North West frontier of colonial India in the 1930s Amritsar A craft effigy of Raavan in AmritsarlsquoRaja Ravi Varmarsquos Raavan had a sculpted bodyrsquoJayatu VadhmdashChromolithograph of Raja Ravi Varma from the collection of Ganesh Shivaswamy Bengaluru Ravi VarmaVictory of Indrajitmdash Chromolithograph by Raja Ravi Varma from the collection of Aniruddha Haldipurkar Karwar Ravi Varma Press