You can rely on Raja Sen for sure, but take it 180 degrees around... that worked for me almost 99.99% of the time
On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Vinod R Iyer <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Raja Sen .... This guy cracks me up, everytime !! :) :) .. Some useless > reviews he provides. > > Go watch the movie(s) guys .. It's brilliant ! > > On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Karthik Subramaniam < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> *Raavan* is unforgivably boring >> June 18, 2010 11:02 IST >> *Tags: >> *Raavan<http://search.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=Raavan&search=site>, >> Ratnam<http://search.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=Ratnam&search=site>, >> Ram Gopal >> Varma<http://search.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=Ram+Gopal+Varma&search=site>, >> Bachchan<http://search.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=Bachchan&search=site>, >> Ragini<http://search.rediff.com/dirsrch/default.asp?MT=Ragini&search=site> >> Share >> this >> Ask >> Users >> >> <http://mypage.rediff.com/qna?article_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmovies.rediff.com%2Freport%2F2010%2Fjun%2F18%2Fraja-sen-reviews-raavan.htm&article_title=Raja%20Sen%3A%20Raavan%20is%20unforgivably%20boring> >> Write a >> Comment >> >> <http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/18/raja-sen-reviews-raavan.htm#write> >> *Raja Sen reviews Raavan*. >> >> It's eerie how two very different directors with very distinct styles can >> gradually start mirroring each other's work. >> >> Mani Ratnam makes a film every few years, with the slow deliberation of >> one obsessed with every detail. >> >> The alarmingly prolific Ram Gopal Varma [ >> Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=ram+gopal+varma>] >> meanwhile seems to follow impulse ahead of scheme. Their diametrically >> opposed creative paths crossed in the early 1990s as the two got together >> and each is credited for writing the other's 1993 film -- RGV's *Gaayam*and >> Mani's >> *Thiruda Thiruda* -- even though Ramu assures that screen-credit >> notwithstanding, each man made very much his own film. >> >> And yet, today one seems very much in on-screen pursuit of the other, even >> if not blatantly so. Ratnam's last film >> *Guru*<http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/jan/12guru.htm>ends up in a way >> rather like Varma's >> *Sarkar* <http://www.rediff.com/movies/2005/jun/30sarkar.htm>, both >> barely-veiled biopics of popular, powerful Indian icons, films that chose >> safety over provocation and ended up tame hagiographies. Massively >> successful films, naturally. >> >> This time, Ratnam's latest takes a big chunk of larger-than-life Indian >> mythology, sloppily swaps antagonist with protagonist, and ends up giving an >> earnest Bachchan far too much scenery to chew in far too much spotlight. Oh >> yeah, this new *Raavan* is clearly *Mani Ratnam Ki >> Aag<http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/aug/31aag.htm> >> *. >> >> Not that *Raavan*, starring ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan, is bad to >> look at. Not at all, and there are some frames that positively glisten. It's >> just ill-conceived, amateurishly adapted, and often too lamentably literal >> in its desperate attempts to reference the epic, trying recklessly but >> daftly to be contrary for the heck of it. >> >> It's one thing to mask familiar characters with grimy grey, evoking >> empathy for the villain and giving the hero some flawed ambiguity, but here >> Ratnam falls prey to sensationalism and turns *Raavan* into a >> schizophrenic *Robin Hood*, and Ram into a bloodthirsty, consistently >> amoral cop. >> >> The result is painfully one-dimensional, a revenge story devoid of meat, >> conflict or, really, surprise: I doubt giving away plot details from the >> Ramayana [ Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=ramayana>] >> counts as a spoiler. If you think it does, turn away now. >> >> Tough cop Dev (Vikram) discovers that his wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai [ >> Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=aishwarya+rai> ]) >> has been abducted by feared outlaw Beera (Abhishek Bachchan [ >> Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=abhishek+bachchan>]). >> He sets out to get her back, cutting a bloody trail through the jungle >> even as the violent, loony Beera refrains from besmirching Ragini's honour. >> >> It is a concept with fascinating adaptive possibilities, its potential >> showing through in stray bursts, like Raavan's sister's wedding brutalised >> by the cops to give the film's anti-hero his motive for the kidnap. >> >> That very potential, however, is squandered in the next scene when a young >> cop inexplicably grabs the almost-bride by her nose, to underline how >> obviously the poor girl is Surpanakha. >> >> In another unimaginable moment nearing the end of the film, the cop asks >> his rescued bride if Raavan 'did anything' to her. It's a scene dripping >> with awkwardness and hesitation and misunderstanding, and could have been >> impactful in a million ways, except the way this film plays it: With the cop >> asking his wife to take a polygraph test. I'm not making that up, so >> laughably textbook are the script's attempts at metamorphosis. >> >> The dialogue doesn't help things, the film's characters speaking in the >> oddly theatrical, surreally simplistic Hindi that can only these days be >> described as Priyadarshanese. >> >> A few characters get a chance to break away, like Ravi Kissen [ >> Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=ravi+kissen>] and >> Govinda [ >> Images <http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=govinda> ], who >> grab it with both hands and emerge as the best things in the film, by far, >> while Abhishek Bachchan speaks any which way he chooses, especially when >> slapping himself. There is one scene when Bachchan, speaking of burning with >> envy, transcends this poor picture and shines on his own, but outside of >> that this is a squandered vanity project for the actor. >> >> Aishwarya Rai -- her alabaster skin muddied and bruised, her eye makeup >> crucially immaculate -- screeches her way through the proceedings, >> contorting her face as if to convince us it has something to do with >> histrionics. >> >> Unfortunately, both that and the aforementioned squealing have more to do >> with tortured balloon animals, and there are several ear-splitting occasions >> when one wishes Mani'd dispense with the school-level allegory and let that >> pretty balloon abruptly pop. >> >> As for Vikram, the National Award-winning actor we all expected great >> things from, he gets the rawest deal of the lot, a cardboard cop who scowls, >> runs in slow-mo, and models Aviator sunglasses. >> >> The film's first half is choppy and bewildering but tight, while the >> second sprawls all over the place, overlong and exhausting. Sivan's frames >> are indeed grand, but there isn't *one* great shot to take away from the >> film. Even the world-conquering A R Rahman [ >> Images<http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=a+r+rahman>] can't >> save the day, and it's heartbreaking to see the legendary >> cinematographer-director-composer trio give us such forgettable song >> sequences. >> >> *Raavan*'s deadliest sin, however, isn't in the clumsy dialogue, hammy >> acting or lame, oversimplified adaptation. All of that can be forgiven if >> the tale engages us, and we never watched Ramanand Sagar's endless >> television show for its subtlety. Where *Raavan* truly and tragically >> fails us is in taking one of our greatest epics, and making it unforgivably >> boring. >> >> It's profoundly sad to see a filmmaker of Ratnam's calibre reduced to >> this. Yet hope beats immortal. Perhaps we should just wait till he takes on >> Shiva. >> >> *Also Read: New Yorker Aseem Chhabra's very different >> review*<http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/18/aseem-chhabra-reviews-raavan.htm> >> >> Rediff Rating: >> >> > > > -- > Have Fun, > Vinod > > http://the-other-side-of-mirror.blogspot.com > http://myworldofmnm.wordpress.com > > >
