Raavan (Movie Review - 2010)

Raavan - Ramayana Revisited



Release Date - June 18, 2010



First we had Raajneeti, which was based on epic Mahabharta and now we have Raavan, which has highlights of epic Ramayana. But does Mani Ratanam presents the modern day epic succesfully as Prakash Jha did with Raajneeti? Well, Yes, but to some extent.



One can easily relate the characters of Ramayana with this movie. To begin with we have SP Dev (played by Vikram) and Ragini (played by Aishwarya) as a happily married couple. They are like Ram-Sita of Ramayana. Then we have Nikhil Dwivedi who plays subordinate to Dev, much like Lakshman. Now, the main character, the Raavana, played by Abhishek as Beera.



The story line is simple and well lift from the epic itself. Beera kidnaps Ragini to take revenge on Dev for the wrong the police department have done with Beera's sister. Dev takes the help of Sanjeevani (played by Govinda) to find Beera. So, Sanjeevani is our Hanuman here. What follows is the grand cinematography by Sivan and Manikandan. The underwater scenes, the forest captures and shots of Aish falling from the cliff and dangling on a treeare just brilliant.



But where Ratnam misses the plot is unnecessary songs and aweful back ground score. The movie also reminds of Naxals and Maoists. The reason behind Beera abducting Ragini is also not well told. Beera kills Policemen brutally, burn them alive, for a reason which is not strong enough. Then over dependence on Ramayana, made movie look predictable. Sanjeevani's meeting with Ragini was exact copy of how Hanuman sat on the tree and dropped Ram's ring towards Sita.



Coming to the performances : -



1. Abhishek Bachchan : - Abhishek as Beera has done well. Somehow he always perform well with Mani Ratnam. But he was far better in Guru and Yuva.



2. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan : - Aish steals the show. Hats off to her for her performance for which she would have gone through physical hell.



3. Vikram: - Vikram acts well, but is overshadowed by larger then life performance of Abhi-Ash.



4. Govinda : - I want to ask a question to Mani. Why GOVINDA???? He could have taken any actor for that role.



On the whole, the movie lacks orginality. The movie lacks good script and the movie lacks good background score. What scores for Raavana is the cinematography. Just like Bose did it for Kites by taking beautiful viusals of Mexico and Vegas, Sivan and Mani have done for Raavan with enthralling visuals from Forests. Music by A R Rehman is a let down. There is only one good song - Behne de.



Still, Raavan can be watched one time for Aish's performance, Abhishek's potray of evil Raavan and brilliant camera work. But this obviously is not the best of Mani Ratnam.



Rating : - 3 out of 5 stars

RAAJNEETI (MOVIE REVIEW)

RAAJNEETI - MAHABHARTA MEETS INDIAN POLITICS

Release date : - June 4, 2010

To start with, all votes to Prakash Jha for ensembling such a great and huge star cast including Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Naseerudin Shah, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal and Manoj Bajpai.

Raajneeti's concept is a straight lift from epic Mahabharta blended in morden day's politics. You can easily corelate the characters of Jha with those in Mahabharta. Like to begin with we have Nana Patekar who's character is taken from Lord Krishna's character. He also gives Geeta Updesh to Ranbir who's character is based on Arjun. The whole lot of characters is divided in two parts as in Mahabharta - Pandavas represented by Ranbir(as Arjun), Arjun (as Yudishthir), Katrina and Kauravas represented by Manoj (as Duryodhan) and Ajay (as Karan). Their respective fathers also represent Pandu and Dhritrashtra of Mahabharta.

Despite having such a huge star cast and subject like Politics, Jha has handled the movie well. But over dependence on Maharbharta's concept has made the movie very predictable. The story is of fueding brothers over cheif minister post. Arjun and Ranbir are real brothers. Manoj is their cousin brother. Ajay is also the son of mother of Arun and Ranbir. See the KARAN connection here. Just like in epic tale, they all fight with each other to win the game of politics.



Lets come to the performances :-



1. AJAY DEVGAN : - Ajay is literally wasted in this movie. Unexpectedly Praksh has not given Ajay enough screen space and not enough good scenes. Though Ajay is at his best.

2. NANA PATEKAR :- Nana is good with his modern day Krishan Avatar.

3. ARJUN RAMPAL : - Arjun doesn't deliver anything stellar.

4. MANOJ BAJPAI : - Manoj is very good. He steals everyone's thunder.

5. RANBIR KAPOOR: -Ranbir has got maximum screen space. He acts ok but he lacks finess to potray such powerful roles. He has a long way to go.

6. KATRINA KAIF : -She has a tiny role and majorly appears near the end of the movie



Rajneeti has its moments and its keeps you rivetted to your seats but the blood bath at the end is a let down because political rivals don't gun each other down so openly, atleast in India. Movie is well made, but very predictble as it is a straight lift from Mahabharta. I would also like to mention that movie has shades from Hollywood movie Godfather.



Direction of Jha is strong. But the story lacks originality. Music is ok withonly one hummable song ''mora piya''. On the whole Rajneeti gets 3 stars from me. I wished to give it more but its story and predictibilty forced me to reduce my ratings. Nevertheless, Raajneeti is must watch for every Indian movie fan.



Rating: - 3 out of 5 stars

KITES (2010) - Movie Review

KITES

Release Date - May 21, 2010

Lead Starcast - Hrithik Roshan, Barbra Mori, Nicholas Brown, Kangna Ranaut

Get ready to feast on Indian curry blended with Spanish Mexian Nachos. Do they really blend well? Well they surely do. Kites touted as Bollywood's first crossover movie soars high in the sky, dips at certain instances and fly high again leaving you riveted to your seats with its heart-wrenching climax.

Kites is a metaphor used for the love story between the lead characters J (played by HR) and Natasha/Linda played by Barbra. For the first time director Anurag Basu has chosen a weak script to work on. He has prior worked on scripts like Gangster and Life in a Metro. Real strength of Kites is not its story, but the way Anurag Basu has presented it on the screen. Its a simple story of two people who do not understand each other's languages, still they fall in love and leave all the riches just for the sake of their love. Amidst all dances, bank robbery, police chases, gansgter fights there is a sweet little love story of J and Linda.

Kites may not go well with regular Indian crowd because of its language usage and Indian movie goers are not habitual of reading the subtitles. That's a bit unlucky for the film because the essence of the movie is how two completely different people who cannot understand each other language, fall in love.

Highlight of the movie is cinematography by Ayananka Bose. Bose's camers has shot every piece of beauty of Vegas and Mexico. The stunts of the movie are fantastic. The chemistry between HR and Barbra is another highlight of the movie. This is probably the best performance by HR till date and Barbra has surprised everyone.

Story :- The weakest link in the movie is its story. Its very simple, nothing exciting or flashy.

Direction: - Hats off to Basu for taking such a simple story and presenting it in such a grand manner.

Performances - HR is at his best - dance, stunts, acting. HR is amazing in his crying scene. You can clearly see the helplessness, pain and angusih on his face. Barbara has given a thumbs up performance. Kangana is wasted though. Nicholas Brown is good too.

Cinematography:- Ayananka Bose should get ready for a Filmfare speach for Kites.

Music :- Music of Kites is breezy. Songs like Zindagi Do pal ki and Dil kyun yeh mera are extremely well composed.

Final Words : - Kites is not a regular bollywood movie, that is why it can dissapoint a normal Indian movie lover. But its an experience. It takes you to ride and at the end you feel sad for J and Linda. Love always don't have happy endings and here lies the practicality of Kites. Kites is worth a watch for its large scale cinematography, chemistry between lead stars and heart felt emotions.

From my side - 4 stars out of 5.