Ramayan – The great Hindu religious epic, that depicts the life of the Lord Ram (who is worshipped and ideologized as “Maryada Purushottam” in not only India, but so many other countries of the world). The religious epic that gives the meaning of the existence and essence of the life to the majority of this nation. The epic that connects with numerous religious sentiments and strong faith of its followers in many parts of this world. The epic that teaches us that how an ideal life should be, and how it should be a clear reflection of love, respect, duty, commitment, loyalty, ethics, culture, religion, values, ordination, dignity and justice.
The words will fall short, but the greatness of the religious epic Ramayan could not be explained.
But unfortunately, we are coming across the terrible screen adaptation of this great epic. Terrible to the extent that words will fall short while explaining the heavy shocks, Adipurush has given us as a viewer. It definitely raises a big question mark on the process of certifying movies by Censor Board.
The film begins with a Disclaimer that says the film is “based” on Ramayan. And then the opening scene shows Raavan (who is renamed as Lankesh and in the get up of Allauddin Khilji)is seeking boon of being immortal from Lord Brahma. After that a scene shows the Lord Ram (who is renamed as Raghav and given a new get up with moustache) meditating under the lake. In the third scene we see Goddess Sita (who is renamed as Jaanki, wearing a half off shoulder blouse) is speaking with Lakshman (renamed as Shesh, again with moustache). Shesh is replying to Jaanki in a casual, rough & stick language (better to call it as ‘Latth Maar bhasha’), as if he is speaking to his childhood buddy. Fourth scene which is a very long one, shows a lot of bats and ghosts like characters attacking all 3, with no relevance, no background and definitely with no reference to the epic Ramayan.
These 4 opening scenes of the film, that captures the initial screen time baffle the viewers, and develops a primary disconnect with this 180-minute-long film. And beyond that, scene after scene, character after character and dialogue after dialogue, everything has been conspired together to tremble the faith of Hindus watching the film.
Lankesh is travelling on a violent giant bat, instead of the beautiful Pushpak Vimaan. This scene is an exact copy of the scene from ‘The Game of Thrones’. Director/ Producer Om Raut’s adaptation of Ramayan is actually the adaptation of various fantasy films, cartoon films and web series of Hollywood such as The Game of Thrones, King Kong, Planet of the Apes, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Porter, Aquaman and the Flash. Despite of the so-called colossal budget of 400-500-600 crores, the makers ended up providing poor-quality Computer-generated imageries and degraded VFX. Even after copying so many good films of Hollywood, makers are failed to deliver graphics that can create lasting memories in the mind of the viewer. It seems Om Raut has been aiming to promote the Hollywood sagas instead of Ramayan. But, it is a complete disaster of Claimed (Ramayan) and unclaimed adaptations (Hollywood movies) both.
Moving forward to the cheap and shabby dialogues of the film, which is having a long list. To mention few-
These cringey dialogues spoken by the characters like Lord Hanuman, Indrajeet, Raavan and Angad. Are the makers of Adipurush trying to promote Ramayan with these road-side slangs? Is this the message they are looking to propel to the new generation?
The originator of these dialogues who thinks himself to be modern Valmiki (Manoj Muntashir) justifies his work by saying that ‘Ram katha’ can be propelled in various ways, methods and languages. The purpose is to spread it to the masses, to the new generations. So Manoj Muntashir should know that the essence of the Ramayan is its values, and these values are supposed to be reaching to the new generation, the way they are. And not with the cheap language, not with the modern significance. The purpose is to make them learn the values of Ramayan and not these road-side dialogues.
Manoj again justifies it by saying that he has deliberately put these dialogues, because he wanted to insult Raavan. Even if we go by this, the matter is not to insult or not insult Raavan, the matter is that Lord Hanuman is speaking such language. Definitely this is not acceptable. If makers were so desperate to put such dialogues, It would have been better if they had made Monkeys from ‘Vaanar Sena’ speaking these dialogues. The image of Lord Hanuman has been so powerful in the mind of his devotees, but in the film Hanuman (who has been renamed as Bajrang)has been showed so weak and emotion less.
The well known Pushpak Vimaan has been replaced by a violent giant bat, the well known Sone ki Lanka (Golden Lanka) of Lankesh has been replaced by a black haunted palace. The soul of Ramayan ‘Jai Shree Ram’ has been replaced by ‘Raghav Jahan Vijay Wahan’, and surprisingly Jai Shree Ram has not been spoken by anyone a single time throughout the film. We only get to listen it in the background chorus. The ‘Kutiya’ of Ram, Lakshman & Sita has been replaced by a ‘Surang’. The beautiful Ashok Vaatika of Lanka has been replaced by a roof top. We get to see Indrajeet with the tattooed body and hair gel. There is a new fictitious character of Vibheeshan’s wife, who has been shown like a Wamp, wearing heavy make-up and off shoulder blouses. She has no name in the film, but she is a Vaidya who gives ‘Sanjeevani Spa’ to unconscious Lakshman.
The film misses on so many milestones episodes of Ramayan, such as Bharat Milaap, Raameshwaram Sthaapna & Pooja, Bharat attacking Hanuman carrying Sanjeevani, to name few. Jatayu and Shabri’s scenes were also not shown with the exact relevance. Even Bajrang carrying Sanjeevani episode has been recontextualized. When Bajrang reaches Sanjeevani, he decides to lift up the whole mountain, not because he is unable to identify the exact Sanjeevani, but because he thinks that more people in their sena will keep getting unconscious with the powerful attacks of Indrajeet, so everyone will be needing Sanjeevani to survive. Vibheeshan’s character has not been depicted with its soul, but presented in a way that he has joined Raghav’s camp, with an intention to become Lanka’s king.
Lankesh sings Shivoham with no emotions of devotion. He walks like ‘Munna Bhai’, speaks like ‘Rowdy Rathore’, and feeds his giant bat with big pieces of red meat as well. He looks like a cartoon character with his 10 heads, and takes body massage from Anacondas. Raghav, who has been ideal for a sizeable people of the world, has been shown being attacked by Lankesh. There is a physical fighting scene between Raghav and Lankesh, where Lankesh was dominating and successfully hitting Raghav and throwing him away. Have we ever read or heard in any Ram Katha, that Raavan had done a physical fight with Ram? The entire film has been forcefully converted into an Action-Adventure-Animation movie, which does not go with the theme of the Ramayan. Sugreev and his Vaanar Sena(replaced by animated Chimpanzees and Monkeys) were shown so weak and helpless in most of the war scenes with Lankesh’sena(replaced by animated ghosts like characters). Above all, Jaanki was watching the war, the fight live from Lanka’s roof top.
The only good part of the film is its music and songs. Ajay-Atul and Sachet-Parampara have done a good job by giving one thing to the film, that can be appreciated. The only reason for which the film deserves ONE STAR as rating.
Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, Prabhas as Raghav, Kriti Sanon as Jaanki, Sunny Singh as Shesh, and DevdattaNage as Bajrang, no one could win viewer’s heart with their any one of the scene or dialogue. Kriti looks a bit good in few scenes only. Prabhas remains with blank face throughout the film. Sunny and Devdatta were the weakest out of all. Saif’s over acting could not save him.
Om Raut’s direction is terrible, and Manoj Muntashir’s dialogues are pathetic. The entire film is made on ‘Dark Theme’, that makes the viewers even more depressed. Even when the makers are compelled to change the few dialogues, it will not be going to make any significant change for the film. Film and its makers have been trolled badly on social media platforms, for making mockery of Ramayan, and their deliberate attempt to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. People went to watch this disaster in theatres for first 3 days, because of advanced bookings, but from the 4th day, the huge drop in business is clearly visible.
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