The sole solace of Raavanan (Tamil) is that it’s a shade better than the Hindi version starring that Bollywood shaitan Abhishek Bachchan.
Sure, it’s the same stupid, boring, unappealing, shallow story that you see in the Hindi version with nary a difference.
It’s filmed in the same lush jungles too. Hey, that’s no surprise since the two versions were filmed simultaneously.
What’s the Difference?
But the principal difference between the two versions in this modern-day take on the Indian epic Ramayan is that Vikram brought some life to the principal character Veerayya (part Robin Hood and part dangerous criminal) in the Tamil version.
As the whole world knows by now, the lobotomized dodo Abhishek Bachchan butchered his role of Beera in the Hindi version and made him look like a character overdosing on Crack Cocaine.
While Vikram’s performance was welcome relief, it still didn’t do enough to make this movie watchable because the rest of this movie is unadulterated garbage.
Of course, Aishwarya Rai was her usual incompetent self in both versions attesting to the sordid fact that beauty trumps acting skills in the Indian movie business. What a shame!
Prithviraj was hopelessly inadequate as the police officer pursuing Veera, who has kidnapped his wife Ragini in retaliation for the brutal gang-rape (and subsequent suicide) of his step-sister Vennila (Priyamani) by the police.
Priyamani was alright in the Tamil version too and mercifully didn’t pee all over herself as she did in some of her recent Telugu films.
Mani Ratnam, the Villain
Without a shred of doubt, the arch villain of Raavanan is director Mani Ratnam for the shoddy screenplay and poorly fleshed out characters.
Raavanan is infantile, sophomoric stuff and not a movie one expects from a director with more than a quarter-century in the movie business.
For the most part, Indian film-makers are just unable to get their hands on a decent script. The bozos focus too much on hiring the big stars and ignore the basic requirement of a good script.
This leaves the hapless viewer trapped between the Scylla of poor acting and the Charybdis of a shoddy script with little hope of an entertaining 2-hours at the movies.
Raavanan is one of the most extraordinary characters in Indian mythology and to reduce him to such a pitiful caricature is an unpardonable, egregious, heinous sin for which Mani Ratnam will ever bear the guilt.
The dialogs were most banal and the music and picturization of the songs most ordinary.
And to all the idiots getting a hard-on over the photography, we say:
Subscribe to the National Geographic and stay home.
Folks, despite Raavanan being a shade better than Raavan (Hindi) it’s still not worth your time or money.
This movie is trash and worthy of your middle finger.
Do not even consider seeing this wretched garbage.
Related Stories:
Raavan Review – Beastly Nonsense
Raavan Box Office: Disaster, Act of God, Pathetic
Raavanan UK Box Office – Ayyo, Worse than Kuruvi
Raavan UK Box Office – Disaster in UK Too
Raavanan Review – Tamil Shit Better than Hindi Shit added by SearchIndia.com on
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Yay. First comment. 🙂
You know, I think I’ll follow your advice this one time. Mainly because a lot of critics seem to be echoing your views(albeit couched in milder language & with a few more silver linings).
Anyways, looking forward to the 7G review today. Do it soon, lest the dark memories of the Raavan fiasco blot out your 7G experience. Ideally, you should’ve taken up writing the 7G review earlier. “Strike when the iron is hot” I remember you saying a long time back as your motto. I hope you stick to it.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Anyways, looking forward to the 7G review today.
Won’t happen today because we have plans to see a highly acclaimed film (non-Indian, of course) later in the day.
We still have the 7G rental DVD with us. So should the need to refresh our memory arise, we can rewatch some bits.
Everyone agreed on two things.
1) Vikram as Raavanan brought more life to the character than Abhishek and
2) The cinematography was very good.
That isn’t a surprise because most tamil films have poor cinematography and compared to them, Raavanan may be miles ahead.
For once, Prithiviraj disappointed you. Maybe because of his poorly fleshed out character.
Btw, are you going to watch POP?
I can say that it will be a welcome relief to you.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Prince of Persia, maybe not. Will wait for RedBox/Netflix DVD.
But we do plan to watch one or two nice non-Indian movies in the theater today/tomorrow.
We also have the Academy Award winning Mildred Pierce (directed by Michael Curtis of Casablanca fame) DVD waiting for us.
It’s really sad that most Indian movies are garbage. If someone does try to make out of the box films, it flops(mostly). So all film makers churn out the same old garbage to be on the safer side. 🙁
What happened to 13B?
If you do intend to watch it, go for the tamil version.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
13B? Have yet to watch it. Hopefully soon.
Will see the Tamil version.
I’m just hoping you don’t trash it like Paranoraml Activity, which many SI blog readers said was a good movie.
Btw, let me tell u beforehand, this movie just isn’t scary. But good execution.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I’m just hoping you don’t trash it like Paranoraml Activity
We try our best not to see a film with pre-conceived notions, even those featuring stars like Ajith, Abhishek Bachchan, Trisha, Priyanka Chopra et al who have repeatedly proved themselves utterly incompetent.
now a days in bollywoood in the big budget movies they will work more on how differently can they promote the movie than how to prepare the movie.see small budget movies like wednesday,kaminey,aamir, were masterpieces when compared to veer,my name is khan,kites,3 idiots,housefull
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: now a days in bollywoood in the big budget movies they will work more on how differently can they promote the movie than how to prepare the movie.
Very True.
Thanks for saving me money watching this trite.
Mani’s earlier movies like Bombay and Yuva had a pontificating style of preachy clunky film making with an odd dialogue delivery style.
Did he remake the same movie scene for scene in Hindi and Tamil like he did in Yuva?
If so then he’s guilty of lack of trying to be innovative, creative with the different versions.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Did he remake the same movie scene for scene in Hindi and Tamil
Yes, with Vikram playing the outlaw Veera in Tamil and the cop Dev in the Hindi version.
But we suspect some scenes may have been common i.e filmed only once like the collision of boats et al.
BTW, there was also a Telugu dubbed version too.
i saw the tamil version ….decent movie ….visually stunning ….but yes ….not up to the expectations ……….
some positive reviews …..
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/raavan-film-review-1004098976.story
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/movies/18raavan.html?ref=movies
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Yeah, we saw the reviews by the foreign (non-desi) media.
When they praise a Bollywood movie heavily, you know it’s the kiss of death for the movie. 😉
Vikram said in an interview that he expects himself and Mani Ratnam to get National Awards for this film..somehow, i dont see that happening…but who knows, when people like Priyanka Chopra gets them, anything is possible. Or maybe these awards have just lost their values…
also, what did you think of A.R.Rahman’s music? was it another VTV scenario (as in, good music in a crappy film)..
off-topic
i recently caught the trailer of Inception (Christopher Nolan) and it looks bloody amazing. Cant wait till July 16th now…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You Write Above: Vikram said in an interview that he expects himself and Mani Ratnam to get National Awards for this film..
Whoever knew Vikram was hooked on Crack Cocaine. 😉
What world do these people live in. A National Award for this trash? Ha ha ha.
That said, if that worthless actress Priyanka Chopra can get an award in India we suppose any mosquito can.
2. A.R.Rehman’s music was not stunning.
Plus when you watch an Indian movie it’s often hard to separate the music from the movie and with the movie being so disappointing we doubt the music will have enduring appeal.
3. We have seen the Inception trailer in the theaters.
Most likely, when we went to watch Iron Man 2.
All South Indian directors and sadly including Mani tend to be taken away by the thought that we do something stupid with an artist like Vikram like a Veerayya,the fiilm and director get national award…..Sadly the film doesn’t deliver anything meaningful to be worthy of a national award.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
To even think of an award for this shit is ridiculous.
But, hey, in Incredible India the ridiculous is often the reality!
ManiRathnam is Ravanan.
BTW
http://www.indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/97852/67/abhishek-hits-the-road-for-raavan.html
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/mani-ratnam-to-get-2010-filmmaker-award-at-venice/116214-8-66.html?from=rhs
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=79509&n_tit=%22Raavan%22+Opens+to+Rave+Reviews+in+the+US++
hmm … Film Festivals!!.
I may still watch ravanan .. anyway.. do
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Regarding your first link, let’s not forget Mani Ratnam’s films will be shown only in a sidebar to the Venice Film Festival not in the main event.
In our not-so-humble opinion, these sidebars are worth piss. The main competitive event is what matters.
Kinda like Ajith’s fans jumping that Billa was going to Cannes. Ha ha ha.
I was being sarcastic. the articles had a oh.. so big. tone.
check this out.. free movies.
http://www.mybigflix.com/home/movies/free,
got some good movies for free
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Will check out the bigflix site later today. We recently purchased an Aspire Revo PC (cheap stuff, about $300) and can now directly stream movies to TV via HDMI.
Raavanan was ok.
As you say Vikram Fares better than Abhishek”Jackass” Bachchan.
But anyway a shit is a shit and it doesn’t matter which shit is better. Both are gonna go down.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You Write Above: Both are gonna go down.
They deserve to.
@Harish
No man(or whatever). There are differences between shits. Lets consider two scenarios…
1. You stamp on the cow’s shit (dung) while walking on the road
You get water from the nearby shop and clean ur shoes and continue walking….
2. In the next turn, you trip over a stone and about to fall on the ground…and quickly land your hand on ground for support. Unfortunately, just before few mins a child (note Child – just for you) defecated exactly the same place where your palms landed.
Now tell – still you stick your “shit is a shit” philosophy?
Thats the difference SI pointed between Tamil and Hindi version. SI – What say?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Both versions are not worth seeing.
The stench from the Tamil version is less offensive.
I meant the two Raavans were totally not Mani Ratnam’s Films.of a man who directed Bombay, Dil Se,Alaipayuthe and who can forget Nayagan? Mani is the Raavan of both the versions to say the least. Bollywood is calling it a flop already….
@STG: BTW i dont understand what you meant when you started your reply like “No man (or whatever)”. Hey easy there….
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. As we’ve said countless times, Indians (with few exceptions) can’t make movies.
Nobody but Indians will watch the shit produced by Bollywood, Kollywood, Tollywood et al. Amateur shit.
2. You write: I meant the two Raavans were totally not Mani Ratnam’s Films.of a man who directed Bombay…who can forget Nayagan
Here’s what we wrote a few years back (pre-SI Blog):
3. STG will likely respond to your “No man (or whatever)” point later.
SI, Why didn’t you review The Godfather?
I have only seen some scenes from the movie. The dialogs were so powerful and the acting, awesome.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Will do. Seen it a couple of times.
Thanks to you. Was about to go for Raavanan, but went to Vedam instead. It was good.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Vedam is far better than Raavan.
Watched Vedam here a couple of weeks ago.
2. BTW, Bachchan Senior is blaming Bachchan Junior’s confused looks in Raavan on the Editing. Source: http://twitter.com/srbachchan
He cannot accept that Bachchan Jr is completely incapable of acting. Lame excuse.
Btw liked Anuska in Vedam – showed some acting talent also. She was really looking like a whore.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You Write Above: She was really looking like a whore.
We liked her too in that Yellow Saree and that thing vaguely resembling a blouse. 😉
funny, sr bachcha seems to be a bigger clown that T. Rajendar himself… that’s only until TR discovers this twitter thingy.. in his own brand of English and slew of pseudo-sycophants.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The only hope for Abhishek is a brain-transplant.
SR Bachcha whines the media is against them.
Obviously, introspection is a word not found in his lexicon.
hmm, I used to watch all Mani’s movies once.. not because I like them.. but so much hype created while shooting. I found all of them equally crappy. All he tries is to do is to make the film look ‘different’ and eye catching. I have always found numerous errors in his movie which are so blatant. I used to wonder why many calling him as genius. He overkills all characters usually, like what he did with ‘Anjali’, though the story was good, the characterizations and dialogues were below average. All his movies are sophomoric and monotonous. No wonder why Ravan was like that, I am not going to watch it any way. One good news for you, Mani has announced his retirement. Ravan is is last flick.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You Write Above: but so much hype created while shooting.
The hype reached its acme with Raavan.
Good that Mani is retiring.
Can’t wait to hear of Abhishek’s ‘compulsory retirement‘ (they used to have that in Indian public sector companies many years back).
Thanks. Since you said that the Movie sucks…I backed off watching it.
Guess what? I ended up watch three movies – Wall – E, Match Point and Catch me if you can in this weekend which is to me is a record. All three were compelling, visually stunning and especially kept me engrossed throughout.
Even though the scenes where Wall-E tries to woo Even looked somewhat odd, the second-half clashes between the Auto-pilot and Captain & Co worked out very well.
Match point is a kind of movie which needs your involvement to feel its ectasy.
Catch me if you can – what to say about this movie? sizzling performance of Di Caprio and Tom Hanks would surely make your day.
I have kept Forrest Gump and Twilight ready for this weekend.
Do you have any suggestions for drama/thriller kind of movies? (I am not much into sci-fi/hi-fi/action movies with loud noise)…I might beat up my friend to send them once he returns.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Do you have any suggestions for drama…kind of movies?
Have you seen Johnny Depp’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street?
Read your review and wiki…sounds interesting. Added to my list.
Btw..only one 🙁 ?
I was thinking of attacking my friend’s wallet heavily (man…he earns in lakhs)
Was expecting a list from a movie-crave like you 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You might also want to watch Blame it on Fidel.
We’re trying to give you suggestions of only movies that you’ll find hard to access in your country.
The White Ribbon is another fine movie.
We suggest you also take a look at our Foreign Movies section.
Thanks for your time. Added these to my Q.
I remember you suggesting a list of movies to someone while back. I just need to find that post.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Sorry, there are thousands of comments. Impossible to remember. 🙂
My hands are roots…can pass through anything…I got it…I got it…
http://searchindia.com/2010/04/09/prince-review-desi-gaand-identity-not-junk/
Third comment in this post 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Good.
You can add 13 Tzameti to the list.
Recently watched Sweeney Todd gud movie…but the way Johnny Depp kills his is pretty gory.
SI, do movies run for 100 days or 200 days in America like in India.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Generally, movies run for a few weeks in theaters. After which the DVD comes out, at which point you can watch it for $1 by renting it from kiosks like RedBox.
Believe it or not, Avatar mania still hasn’t died out. Still running in a popular complex here.
BTW, is Vikram’s performance better only when compared to Abhishek Bachchan or has he really worked hard to bring Veera to life?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. We wanted to see Avatar at the Atlantic City IMAX but never got around to it.
2. BTW, is Vikram’s performance better only when compared to Abhishek Bachchan or has he really worked hard to bring Veera to life?
Hard question.
Compared to Abhishek – Definitely.
Was Vikram’s a superlative, memorable performance? We would have to say –No.
I havent seen Raavan(an) yet, but everyone’s been saying Vikram’s done justice to the role of Veera, but not Dev. How was his performance in the Hindi one? i mean, my friends told me that he sounded funny when he spoke Hindi. Did he have a thick tamil accent or something?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Vikram in the Hindi version was ho-hum. Unimpressive.
As everyone knows, Vikram played Dev in Hindi and Prithivi in tamil.
Both are good actors. I don’t know about Vikram’s performance in Ravan but Prithiviraj’s performance in Raavanan was OK. It was not his best though.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Why are you repeating that bit about Prithviraj being OK in Raavanan? 🙁
You already said that in your previous comment.
SI,
Have you seen any of Guy Ritchie’s movies ?If not I recommend snatch
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Seen Sherlock Holmes, Snatch et al.
Saw Raavanan today.
Oh, I was really disappointed with one thing. There was very little action. The fight between Ram(Dev) and Raavan(Veera) was too short. The only thing pleasing was the song “Usure pogudhe”, the cinematography and Vikram’s acting.
Btw, I didn’t think Prithivi totally messed up his role. He was quite OK. An OK Prithiviraj is definitely many times better than Ajith, Abhishek and others.
Aishwarya Rai looked all at sea. At times her facial expressions were totally funny.
Priyamani was really good as Veera’s sister.
On the whole, I’ll give it 2.5 out of 5.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You Write Above: An OK Prithiviraj is definitely many times better than Ajith, Abhishek and others
True.
2. You Write Above: Aishwarya Rai looked all at sea. At times her facial expressions were totally funny.
Ash is a mediocre actress coasting along on her looks. Wonder how long her show will last.
What happened to 7G review and 13 B?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Will come.
Been busy with newer films.
Not watching Madarasapattinam?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
No.
Have you watched the movie Kalavani.
I am hearing wonderful reviews for the movie.
I would appreciate if you review.
Thanks
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Have you watched the movie Kalavani.
No.
We don’t recollect Kalavani releasing anywhere around here.
off topic:
Why everyone keep suggesting to watch films they like. I have searched the whole blog couldn’t see any post like you request the visitors to suggest films so that you can watch and review.
Why almost every visitor come up to you with a list of films, either they watched or heard it to be good, and force you to watch? do you encourage it by any means? but I have seen some reviews with the tags like “for readers kai ppulla007, nan_oru_eduppu, thuduppu, allakkai44” et al.
While back it used to be rare but now it become common. If you post a review on Inception, a group of readers jump on the table and scream “what happen to 7g? what happen to 40C? what happen to 34B? (no…not the one you think of 😉 )”. It looks rather silly to me.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: If you post a review on Inception, a group of readers jump on the table and scream “what happen to 7g? what happen to 40C? what happen to 34B?
Wins the Comment of July award. 😉
2. You write: Why everyone keep suggesting to watch films they like. I have searched the whole blog couldn’t see any post like you request the visitors to suggest films so that you can watch and review.
In some instances, we suspect there are vested interests at play.
In others, it’s a case of readers genuinely desiring to see reviews of movies they passionately love. They want the word to spread about their favorite films and hopefully get other readers also to watch them.
In a few instances, some of our readers who have limited resources and who also tend to identify with our views solicit our reviews so that they don’t squander their hard-earned money on trash.
Finally, in some situations (like with films featuring Ajith, Abhishek, Surya, Vijay, Trisha, Nayantara et al), readers just want to have fun. They derive vicarious joy from seeing their not-so-favorite stars at the receiving end.
We try and accommodate all of these constituencies as much as we can.
you say…In a few instances, some of our readers who have limited resources and who also tend to identify with our views solicit our reviews so that they don’t squander their hard-earned money on trash.
Aah…Ahem…sometimes you tend to find the reason on the flow that’s why I keep visiting your blog often when a film has wide-release… 😉
It’s sad that all the films do not make to your shore or I could save more money by skipping trash films.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not to worry.
Now that Anil Ambani has opened several theaters in the U.S. we expect lots of regional films will be exhibited here.
After all, the man’s got to show something on all those screens, right.
But Ambani’s two New Jersey theaters (in Edison and North Bergen) are horrible. The theaters stink, seating structure is lousy, toilets are in terrible shape and they don’t switch on the AC. Sick.
you say…The theaters stink, toilets are in terrible shape and they don’t switch on the AC.
Theatres are meant for entertainment and fun…cant spare if they cant even afford clean toilet and better air conditioning.
Our only destination for movies till last month was Abirami Mega Mall which is around 8KM away. The advantage of visiting there is the food court and other funs including Kissing cars/Snow world/Aquariums, etc. So we use to finish the lunch/dinner based on the showtime. Out of 5 theatres (not screens, its a conventional Multiplex), only two would be good. However only garbage films or movies shifted from other three theatres after a considerable run will be playing in these two theatres. So we were having hard time.
Like an answer to all our prayers, a new stylish Multiplex by AGS Entertainment (producers of movies like Santhosh Subramaniam, Madarasapattinam, etc) was launched last month (co-inciding with Raavanan release) with 5 Screens in the area where we live. We can just walk and reach in 10 mins (of course we aint do that 😉 ).
Watched Kalavaani, Ananthapurathu Veedu and Inception last three weekends – a hatrick.
Our love is growing over that multiplex on every visit. Its new with good ambience and a very strict security (metal detector checking everytime you get in – my bf was asked to spit the gum he had in his mouth).
The only disadvantage is there is no food court. We are skeptical that soon there will be one inside since there are no good restaurants nearby.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Bollywood movies release in decent mainstream American theaters like Regal, AMC et al.
It’s only with Indian regional movies that we have a hard time in NJ.
In context with one of your responses to STG “We try and accommodate all of these constituencies as much as we can”., it’s a case of readers genuinely desiring to see reviews of movies they passionately love
and you reciprocate by watching the movie and reviewing it by the way not disappointing them…
I remember a song from Chinna Gounder a vijayakanth movie that is dedicated to you…
“Andha vaanatha pola manam padacha mannavane”
SearchIndia.com Responds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLFzNGc6D-A