Well when most of the Indian film critics are throwing everything they have got @ Raavan the western world has a different take on it....
The Newyork Times has called Raavan as "An Indian Epic With Bollywood Glamour" and has gone ahead and labeled it as "Critics' Pick" now dats great after reading our sleepy critics give it 1-1/2 stars Extracts from NewYork Times MOVIE REVIEW | 'RAAVAN'An Indian Epic With Bollywood Glamour This film has been designated as a Critics' Pick. The low-caste Beera rules the forest in "Raavan," Mani Ratnam's richly atmospheric adaptation of the Indian epic "The Ramayana." Though the film takes place in the present, Mr. Ratnam's forest remains an appropriately primeval place for mythic doings, full of fog and mists and rain and Beera's mud-painted followers (shades of "Apocalypse Now"). Raavan (Ravana in Sanskrit), as every Indian knows, is the demon in "The Ramayana" who kidnaps Sita, the wife of Rama: king, deity and model husband (as Sita is the model wife). Early on in Mr. Ratnam's film the question is asked: Is Beera (a gleefully hammy Abhishek Bachchan) Robin Hood or Raavan? He's both and more a hero in this telling, set on his turf, than is the Rama character, a cop called Dev (Vikram), who matches Beera in brutality and cunning, but not in heart. "Raavan" has Bollywood glamour aplenty, with the lovely if occasionally dramatically challenged Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mr. Bachchan's wife, playing the Sita stand-in. The real star, though, is Mr. Ratnam, a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images. (One, of Ms. Bachchan's falling body landing gracefully on a tree branch, is so good he uses it three times.) Artful but not arty, Mr. Ratnam, whose films include "Dil Se" and "Guru," delivers the goods: There are songs and dances (A. R. Rahman of "Slumdog Millionaire" fame did the excellent score), and an eye-popping climactic battle, between the bad-good Beera and the good-bad Dev, on a teetering suspension bridge. And that, folks, is entertainment. RAAVAN Opens on Friday nationwide. Written and directed by Mani Ratnam; directors of photography, Santosh Sivan and V Manikandan; edited by Sreekar Prasad; music by A. R. Rahman; costumes by Sabyas Achi; produced by Mr. Ratnam and Sharada Trilok; released by Reliance Big Pictures. In Hindi, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 18 minutes. This film is not rated. WITH: Abhishek Bachchan (Beera Munda), Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Ragini Sharma), Vikram (Dev Pratap Sharma) and Govinda (Sanjeevani).RaaBy RACHEL SALTZPublished: June 18, 2010Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/movies/18raavan.html <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/movies/18raavan.html> And some more Positive reports from losAngels times... Bollywood superstar Abishek Bachchan has the title role of the romantic adventure epic "Raavan," but the movie belongs to his exquisite real-life wife Aishwarya Rai. A blue-eyed beauty who resembles Myrna Loy, Rai's Ragini is the wife of Dev (Chiyaan Vikram), a virile police inspector assigned to bring down the wild-eyed Raavan, a bandit holed up with his men in a jungle fortress. Before Dev can plan his maneuvers, Raavan kidnaps Ragini. It takes a couple of hours to learn whether Beauty can tame Beast. Director Mani Ratnam and his colleagues give Bollywood fans full value. Ratnam's pace is steadfastly brisk, and his film is replete with dizzying camerawork, myriad complications, violent mayhem, broad humor, usual musical interludes, a cliffhanging climactic confrontation and a finish that strikes a note of poignancy. There's even a feminist undercurrent: Ragini, played with poise and fortitude by Rai, draws sympathy while Dev emerges as flawed as Raavan is crazed. "Raavan" is overlong and drawn out by Hollywood standards, but is of typical running time for Bollywood. In any event, its cast and crew are to be congratulated for their unflagging stamina and energy. Source : http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-capsules-20100618,0,1210\ 817.story <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-capsules-20100618,0,121\ 0817.story>
