Ramayana 8211; The Epic

The real heroes of this film are the hundred-plus technicians who tirelessly and for years helped create and enhance the films frames.

An epic saga dear to every Indian heart,a story that is handed over from generation to generation for centuries not to forget the annual nationwide Ramleelas and since the advent of the movies and television,been retold time and again in every language,has to be narrated with 3-D Animation.

The writers and director decide,wisely enough,to keep the proceedings not only simple but simplistic as well. Targeting largely those young children who may not have been acquainted with it,the script does not get into intricacies and time-consuming details that would increase screen-time.

Of course,there is a flipside to this. The narrative comes across as too clinical,terse and sometimes documentary-like. It is as if a precise exercise has been given on the saga. But the plus aspect is that it becomes a moving-picture comic book of adventure and excitement,with Shaarang Dev Pandits mood-inducing background score enhancing the frames.

Director Chetan Desai and his writers take a few liberties as well to bring identification levels to todays society norms. Lord Ram assures Sita that she will remain his only wife as he is aware of his mothers plight his father has three wives!. Comments are also made on other issues that touch contemporary chords.

Manoj Bajpayee Rams voice makes us squirm when he pronounces stree woman as istree. Also the dialogues use Hindi in the more difficult areas at whim,while simpler Hindi terms like idhar are replaced by the Urdu yahaan,giving an erratic tenor and a lack of authenticity and uniformity to the spoken lines that could have boosted the much-needed awareness of simple Hindi as a language.

An aptly reigned-in Juhi Chawla and Ashutosh Rana score as the voices of Sita and Raavan respectively,and Mukesh Rishi impresses as Hanuman. But Raavans character comes across a tad half-baked and he even looks cute on many occasions!

However,but for this small aberration,the real heroes of this film are the hundred-plus technicians who tirelessly and for years helped create and enhance the films frames and give a world-class look to the film.

Rating:

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Two stars for the technical brilliance. One for the content.