Mukesh Khanna tears into Adipurush, accuses makers of ‘disrespecting Ramayana’

In a video that he posted on his YouTube channel Bheeshm International, Khanna said, “There is no bigger disrespect to Ramayana than Adipurush. Om Raut seems to have no knowledge of Ramayana and on top of that, we have the great buddhijeevi writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla, who has turned our Ramayana into Kalyug. His nonsensical dialogues and sleep-inducing screenplay has created a film that can make even sleeping pills blush. This film has no relation to any of the Ramayanas ever written.”

Asserting that history will never forgive the makers of Adipurush for writing such terrible dialogues and for humiliating Lord Hanuman, the actor stated, “It’s clear after watching the film that Raut is influenced by Hollywood filmmaking and inspired by that, he has stuffed this Ramayana with nuisance. If you wanted to take cinematic liberties, you could have made a fictional film. But, you played with the images of gods and hence, Adipurush is a ‘bhayanak mazaak‘ (a dangerous joke) with Ramayana.”

He further noted, “Meghnath is reduced to look like a cheap WWE wrestler with tattoos all over his body and made to mouth ‘chindi‘ dialogues. “Beta teri jali”, how can these words ever fit Ramayana? Was he a tapori character? Simultaneously, I don’t think that Raavan was scary. He was a pandit. But, even if we assume that one has to show him as scary, then show that and not in the way that he has been shown in this film. You will wonder who designed him like that and who had the guts to do it.”

Stating that Prabhas is a good human and a good actor, Khanna said, “But this was a different film. You have to imbibe Ram and let him enter your heart to play him on-screen. Showing off their body won’t make anyone Lord Ram. If you wanted inspiration, you could have looked up Arun Govil’s performance. You have no right to change the characterisation of our epics. They made Raavan do comedy. He was not a comedy character. He looks more like a ‘sasta‘ (cheap) smuggler here.”

Mukesh Khanna also criticised the way the “golden land” of Lanka was portrayed in the film and wondered why it was shown with shades of black extensively.

“Even an average child would know Ramayana more than the makers of this film. We all learnt Ramayana through various ways, including Ramanand Sagar’s epic serial. If any of you are planning to watch this movie (Adipurush), I request you to keep your brains at home before stepping inside the theatre,” Khanna added.

“If Hanuman ji saw his getup in this movie, he would pick a mountain and throw it on the makers of this film,” the Shaktimaan actor said adding, “Some people ask me, if the Censor Board has approved of a film, then what my issue is… I want to respond to them by saying Censor Board is not Supreme Court. If the Censor Board has forgotten our values, we will teach them. But I wonder how the Board gave approval to such films. I don’t understand how all of this cost them Rs 600 crore.”

In her review of the film, The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta noted: “This version of the Ramayan is not interested in connecting with the feeling of genuine religiosity that any reading of the ‘granth’ arouses, whether it is the most popular Tulsidas version or the Valmiki version.” Gupta also criticised the film for its clunky computer graphics.

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