What is bothering is that he seems absolutely trigger happy to label the movie "boring". Seems like he was looking for reasons to do it.....
________________________________ From: Sai Theodore <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, June 18, 2010 7:05:58 AM Subject: Re: [arr] Raja Sen's Raavan review- Unforgivably boring 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, Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma, Bachchan, Ragini >>Share >>thisAsk >>UsersWrite a >>Comment >>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 ] 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 ends up in a way rather like >>Varma's Sarkar, 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. >>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 ] counts as a spoiler. If you think it does, turn away now. >>Tough cop Dev (Vikram) discovers that his wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai [ Images >>]) has been abducted by feared outlaw Beera (Abhishek Bachchan [ Images ]). >>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 ] and >>Govinda [ Images ], 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 ] 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 >>Rediff Rating: > > >-- >Have Fun, >Vinod > >http://the-other-side-of-mirror.blogspot.com/ >http://myworldofmnm.wordpress.com/ >
