ராவணன் - ஒரு புது இதிகாசம்

Raavanan - Another one of those less-typical Mani Rathnam movie. The movie starts with tribals attacking, burning and killing policemen followed by a kidnap and loooooooong chase. The first half of the movie will be a little slow but the second half compensates with its pace. Veeraiya (Vikaram) is a local hero but wanted terrorist/criminal. Dev (Prithviraj) is the police superintendent who is assigned with the task to capture Veeraiya. Veeraiya kidnaps Dev's wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai). So Dev goes in to the forest with a task force to find Veeraiya and his wife. The flashback behind all these activities flashes a couple of time in the first half but expanded in the second half. You will remember Veerappan saga during some of the chase sequences. Comedy is not justified well either by Karthik is coming back after a very long break or by Vaiyapuri just comes flashing in only a couple of scene.

During this plot a subtle love triangle emerges which gives a great platform the lead actors to show their best performances. Mani Rathanam gets the best out of everyone through his talent. For namesake the plot was aligned with the epic Ramayanam. Suhasini Maniratnam did the dialogues for this movie. She tried to convey some message deep down through her dialogues but it is not very clear either because of her hesitation or because of the sensor board's furious cuttings. You can relate some scenes to Mani Rathnam's earlier movie Roja. It might make you wonder whether it is sentimental or his deep down taste. Vikram has done excellent justice for the title role and proved his fabulous acting yet another time combined with Mani Ratnam. Even though A.R.Rehman is not winning your hearts much with songs he certainly does with re-recordings. Mani Rathnam struggled a lot of keep Ranjitha's scenes to a very minimal to avoid getting adversely hit by her recent negative popularity. Excellent locations and sets all through the movie. Most of the movie was shot in the tropical rainy forests or alike sets. You can feel that the camera also acted its role and standing out. The cinematography did a major contribution to this movie.

This will be a feast to tamil audience in the following ways:

• Mani Rathnam's movie releasing after 3 long years  
• Another of those Vikram's & Aishwarya's best performance  
• Unseen forest and tribal locations in and around Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharastra etc.
• Excellent cinematography by Santosh Sivam with V. Manikandan  
• Multi-starrer - Vikram, Aishwarya Rai, Prithviraj (Mozhi fame), Camera (!), Karthik, Prabhu, Priyamani  
• A.R.Rehman's music composition

Multi-starer is a healthy trend that should come to Tamil film industry. Raavanan is a plot with many subjects twisted together. If you are a hardcore Mani Rathnam fan you might get a little disappointed and might feel that he could have done better. But like all other Mani Rathnam's movies this one is also a theater material which you can watch once for the above listed reasons. கொஞ்சம் ராமாயணம், கொஞ்சம் வீரப்பன், கொஞ்சம் ரோஜா, கொஞ்சம் காதல், கொஞ்சம் வஞ்சம், கொஞ்சம் மழை, கொஞ்சம் ஓட்டம், கொஞ்சம் இசை.... இவை எல்லாம் சேற்று பிசைந்து செய்த படம் ராவணன் !