Original bilingual journalism · English & తెలుగు
Ramayana: Part 1 reached cinemas on 5 November, in Hindi and in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam versions. In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Dil Raju’s Sri Venkateswara Creations is releasing it. Nitesh Tiwari directs and shares screenplay credit with Shridhar Raghavan, Namit Malhotra produces alongside Yash, and A.R. Rahman and Hans Zimmer split the music between them. Ranbir Kapoor is Rama, Sai Pallavi is Sita, Yash is Ravana and Ravi Dubey is Lakshmana. The censor board passed it with a U certificate and no cuts; the Hindi cut lasts 195 minutes. Our verdict: Indian cinema has never produced anything this grand to look at. Yash and the visuals carry it, while thin emotion and sheer length hold it back.
Story and screenplay
This first instalment is in no hurry to reach the war. It begins in Lanka, charting Ravana’s ascent: years of penance, a boon from Brahma, and the golden city taken from Kubera. The story next moves to Ayodhya. There Rama, eldest son of King Dasharatha, grows up, learns warfare under the sage Vishwamitra and wins Sita at the swayamvar in Mithila. Kaikeyi’s demand for her old boons sends him off to fourteen years in the forest, and Sita and Lakshmana go with him. The film halts at a turning point every reader of the epic knows and saves the great battle for Part 2.
The writing follows Valmiki closely and takes no liberties likely to hurt believers. The trouble is pace of a different kind: it hops from one famous episode to another without letting many of them settle. The pre-interval stretch in Dasharatha’s palace, with Kaikeyi and Rama, carries genuine weight. The bond Rama shares with Sita, though, never goes deep, and the forest chapters after the interval slow down badly. A sharper edit would have helped a film this long.
Direction
Tiwari approaches the epic with reverence and builds a world bigger than anything Indian cinema has tried. Ayodhya, Mithila and golden Lanka each get a distinct look, and the large set pieces, above all Ravana’s arrival and his clash with Jatayu, are handled with real command. What he cannot always do is make the human drama as gripping as the spectacle. At times the film plays like a parade of grand tableaux instead of a story that draws you in.
Performances
Yash is the main reason to buy a ticket. His Ravana has menace, hunger for power and a sharp mind, and the film gives him enough room and backstory that he becomes far more than a villain. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama with calm and restraint. He is dignified and believable, yet some lines come out flat, and the role seldom stirs the awe one expects from a god on screen. Sai Pallavi brings an easy, unforced grace to Sita, but the script gives her too little. Ravi Dubey makes a warm Lakshmana and supplies some welcome lighter moments. Arun Govil as Dasharatha and Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi anchor the Ayodhya drama, Rakul Preet Singh registers strongly as Shurpanakha, and Sunny Deol’s Hanuman is something viewers should discover for themselves.
Visuals, music and the Telugu version
DNEG’s effects work is where the film shines brightest. Creatures, aerial chariots and battle scenes look world-class, and IMAX and 3D screens add to the effect, though a few shots still look plainly computer-made. The music is uneven. Rahman and Zimmer’s background score gives the big moments weight, the Jatayu episode most of all, but none of the songs stays with you, and at times the score sits apart from what the characters feel. The Telugu version is playing across both Telugu states.
Verdict
As a feat of scale and craft, Ramayana: Part 1 marks a milestone and makes a solid start to the saga, though not yet the moving film this epic deserves. Yash, the effects and a handful of grand sequences justify the ticket; the length, a shallow Rama and Sita bond and patchy music keep it from greatness. See it in a theatre, in the grandest format available, and be ready for a long sit.
