First things first. Teasers and trailers can indeed be misleading. What I saw last month seemed to be a wannabe-global-audience-tempting extravaganza of action, VFX and more. It seemed that we were watching Hollywood’s grand and state-of-the-art historical spectacles, like the recent The Odyssey for example, with Indian characters and background.
I could not have been more wrong! And I offer my unlimited apologies to a master of his craft—I don’t think anyone else could have handled this epic on this scale better—named Nitesh Tiwari.
For Ramayana Part 1 is no technological wonder. Correction: It is a technological landmark. But technology dominates only audio-visually. The core of an Indian film—the emotional quotient—outshines and even dwarfs the unparalleled (for Indian cinema) magic of the planned and executed VFX, prosthetics, and the opulence.
Tiwari’s mastery lies in his splendiferous blend of desi and global preferences. And clean casting is a vital part of this. Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Ravie Dubey as Lakshman, Yash as Raavan, Arun Govil as Dasharath, Anupam Kher (Jatayu’s voiceover) and Sunny Deol (as Hanuman in the next installment) are names that have no associated negativity or controversial working images. Their performances here also traverse beyond impressive or merely excellent—each one (even Kher’s vocals) is phenomenal. Ramayana is sacred to Indians and any miscasting would never have been forgiven by the audience.
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Lara Dutta’s transition from a loving stepmother to a venomous woman, Sheeba Chaddha (as always phenomenal, this time as the scheming Manthara), Rakul Preet Singh as Surpanakha, Ayrton Malhotra as Dashanand and Ajinkya Deo as Vishwamitra are outstanding.
Addinath Kothare as Bharat, Saurabh Sachdeva as Maarich and Shishir Sharma as Vashist are also effective, as are the lesser names. The only ones who tend to ham are Vivek Oberoi as Vidyutjeev and (shockingly) the hugely-talented Shobhana as Kaikasi, Raavan’s mother. I wonder why they were made to be so unidimensional.
The script by Tiwari with Shridhar Raghavan of C.I.D-Aahat-Khakee (the film) fame, is a masterclass in screenwriting. There are sudden flashes of humor, with one or two being classic Hindi film-like one-liners in conception. We see underplayed intensity (Govil is especially brilliant here—again a great piece of casting as he played Lord Ram in the original 1986 TV epic), restrained emotions and subtle romance between Ram and Sita.
The dialogues (Nitesh Tiwari and Shreyas Jain) are fabulous. In the beginning of the film comes a disclaimer that the saga is coined from multiple sources including the original Valmiki text, and we are made aware of even small aspects that we never knew through earlier visits to the story in book, theater or cinematic form or even through narrations by elders. Or maybe they are smart dramatizations—it does not matter.
As for the technical aspects, it is a no-brainer that Indian cinema has never seen magnificence of this level. And for that, besides the helmsman Tiwari, plaudits unfiltered must be awarded to cinematographers Pankaj Kumar and Mahesh Limaye, production designers Ravi Bansal and Ramsey Avery with Amit Ray, Subrata Chakraborty and Sayali Naikwadi, VFX producers Merzin Tavaria and Rohan Desai and VFX supervisors Dan Glass, Andy Lockley, Chas Jarrett and Aleks Pejic and teams, action directors Guy Norris and Terry Notray, costume designers, make-up artistes and everyone else.
Binding all this together is Nitesh Tiwari’s superlative vision, finally shaped by Huzefa Lokhandwala’s sharp editing. At 195 minutes, we do not find this legendary tale dragging even for a minute.
The background score (Hans Zimmer with A.R. Rahman) is seamless but if there is one aspect of the film that disappoints, it is the lackluster songs. Rahman may claim to have worked on the score for over three years, but this subject needed a dedicated composer who had more passion, a missionary zeal to do justice to the colossal subject and sensibilities facilitating the greatness associated with Hindi / bi-lingual musical period dramas from time immemorial (Recent examples? The Bahubali franchise, RRR). Great music needs proper orientation and ambition more than time. Still, I will not consider this weak spot as a deterrent to give this monumental movie the grade it deserves.
Rating: *****
Prime Focus Studios, Monster Mind Creations & DNEG present Ramayana Part 1 Produced by: Namit Malhotra & Yash Directed by: Nitesh Tiwari Written by: Shridhar Raghavan, Nitesh Tiwari & Shreyas Jain Music: Hans Zimmer & A.R. Rahman Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Ravie Dubey, Yash, Arun Govil, Lara Dutta, Rakul Preet Singh, Vivek Oberoi, Kunal Kapoor, Saurabh Sachdeva, Shobhana, Ayrton Malhotra, Ajinkya Deo, Indira Krishnan, Sonal Jha, Rajiv Kumar, Addinath Kothare, Nitish Sharma, Kajal Aggarwal, Dishita Sehgal, Harish Uthaman, Shishir Sharma, Sheeba Chaddha, Faisal Malik & others
