There was a director by name Mani Ratnam who gave wonderful movies with his forte being strong script and story telling. Raavan credit titles shows it is Mani Ratnam movie but the director is completely missing in this movie.
Beera is a fearsome tribal leader liked and equally feared by many. Dev is posted in Lal Maati , the fiefdom of Beera on a mission to finish off Beera. Soon, Beera kidnaps Dev’s wife Ragini. And what follows is a Ramayan with a twist, bad becomes to show traces of good but in end good triumphs over bad cunningly. This is the story in nut shell.
The problem with Raavan is that the simple story is taken in a picturesque location but over-dramatized and scripted badly and painfully told lagging at many times and ending up with yawns in theater. Neither the action scene are compelling nor the acting of the lead characters captivating.
Abhishek tapping his head and uttering bak bak bak as a mannerism fails to impress us and Vikram, a good actor he is in Tamil films, is undermined and looses the command over the character but it can only be blamed on the director. Aishwarya looks hapless and awkward with her dialogues (blame it on the script and not her) Govinda comes as a forest guard who guides Dev and his team through the forests. In his introduction screen, he jumps around like monkey and also manage to meet Ragini at Beer’s den. Hanuman’s inspiration eh? The only character that looks at ease with himself is Ravi Kishan who comes as Abhisheks’ brother.
Another biggest let down comes with A R Rahman’s back ground music. At times , he tries to bring a more dramatization with his music but the end result in screen just does not go well. Maniratnam’s movie boast of good cinematography so does this one too. Santhosh Sivan and Manikandan have handled well their portion but the settings of ancient temple and Vishnu sculpture in river etc deprives the movie of the rustic original charm that movie like Omkara reflected. Maniratnam seems to have fallen into the trap of Bollywood’s glamour and over-doing things where it is not required.
GingerChai verdict: I can’t still believe this is Maniratnam’s movie. Highly disappointing.
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LR, I have been hearing all mix reviews about this movie – all are extreme ones..either people have loved this movie or hated it..I am going on Sunday for it..let’s see
Would love to hear your opinion
Idea is organizing a contest and the winners will have a chance to meet Abhishek Bachchan. Would you like to join the contest?
No comments on the Review However.
GC will run a contest to meet our authors may be AB can join that contest
, sorry but am not interested in meeting him through any contests 
Good one therem, LR!!! :rotfl:
*sighs* I thought the movie will be wonderful :ZZZ:
:silly: even i thought so but then as someone says Raavan is Maniratnam’s Aag
oh my god!! is it that bad? it must be awefully bad to be compared with aag!!
:P
oh! thanks for saving my cash..was planning to go…but now I won’t
)
Wise movie ! You can wait for couple of months it will make a world premier in some channels
oh!! I’ve always wondered why Mani Ratnam cast Aishwarya in the lead!! Is she a good actor? She has good publicists. but acting never touched her genes!!
Ahh… our good old Mani just succumbed to Bollywood’s trap .. that’s all I could say after watching this movie…
I watched this movie 1st show in the morning and have just 1 word for it- POOR!
The word would have been “pathetic” but a comparatively better 2nd half saved it from such rating.
45 minutes into the movie when you start looking at your watch you know something went wrong somewhere.
Though I was expecting a +ve review on your blog as generally my views on a movie are opposite of yours but I completely agree with you on this one.
This is a terrible movie. With come out with a review soon.
My rating- 4/10
I think this movie makes an unanimous rating of Poor in all counts especially when we consider this is Mani ratnam’s movie… The slow motion scenes and the screaming of both the characters in the fight scene all makes it a total disaster :O
This is the second negative review I read today…
I would like to see this one though..all would not be lost when the director is Mani Ratnam….
But then LP this movie is Mani’s waterloo or say Maniratnam ka Aag :silly:
Too bad, was looking forward to this release. After Guru expectations were high.
After reading this review here, I feel happy that I didn’t go and watch this movie! Move over Ravaan, we wanna see Ra.One!!
Well, that is exactly my view…highly disappointed by the movie. Also, a question was Raavan a psycho…then why was abhishek bachchan behaving like one?
Here’s my review – http://theopinion.in/movie-review-raavan-fails-to-deliver/
Its really disappointing to see Raavan from a director who created class like Yuva, Bombay, Roja, Dil se and Guru
I am devastated. What’s with Indian directors getting loonier with age. Then we have on Mr Clint Eastwood who just got better and better, churning out masterpieces. Not one good movie has come out from Bollywood for a longgggggg time. Neither a decent entertainer nor a decent cinema.
Hmm…going to watch the Tamil Version today…Got similar review from others, including news bulletins.
oh i completely agree! This is mani ratnam’s most disappointing movie ever! And it was such a letdown, cos as a concept, it had so much potential!
I was actually yawning at the theater, waiting for something to just *happen* instead of people just showing macro shots of dragonflies and stuff which, while pretty, did nothing as such to the story.
Too bad…after such a long time there was one promising movie and that too failed to deliver