Raavanan 2010

 Mani Ratnam's latest promises a lot and delivers nothing. Touted to be a "different take" on the Ramayana, it just ends up being half baked idea of a movie that could have been much more. Take away the breathtaking cinematography, the soulful Rahman music and all you will be left with are stilted dialogues, some constipated acting by Aishwarya Rai (now with a famous add on - Bachan) and a whole host of talented actors looking lost because they don't have enough material to work with. The storyline is non existent, most characters appear out of nowhere and then disappear, even the main characters are not fleshed out. They just do certain things without motivation or a background explanation. Ramayana is a complex story with so much scope to work on, Mani just skimmed over it superficially and made a humongous mess. [spoiler alert]Veera's sister is raped and tortured by the cops. What has Veera done? We don't have a clue apart from the introduction voice over saying that Veera helps those that need it. He then kidnaps the SP's (A surprisingly good Prithviraj) wife (Aishwarya) and then can't kill her because she is brave. (I have no other way of explaining it. This is how it was clumsily explained in the movie) A few more gorgeous but empty scenes later, the husband - a trigger happy cop is introduced. Now we cannot have Ramayan without Hanuman, so Karthik is wasted in a 2 min role that looks like patchwork. Prabhu is also wasted in a side role that requires so little work, its almost an insult. And not to forget the talk of the moment - Ranjeetha in a non speaking, sidelined, what the hell is she required for role. Btw she appeared on screen and the crowd burst out into claps and whistles for the first and last time.

Mani has tried the non linear narrative to disastrous effect. It was like he watched a few brilliant non linear narrative foreign movies on UTV and then decided he had to do it - after he shot the movie. The editing is horrible. There is no other way to describe it. Amitabh Bachan was right for once in his famous assessment. Mani Ratnam took too much on himself, shooting two languages simultaneously and it shows. Vikram is the only one who comes out looking relatively ok, he does his best with whatever little was on offer.
Mani the story teller has failed miserably this time.
4/10