Epic tale, epic disappointment

Nonika Singh

In a country where faith is a driving force, any retelling of the epic Ramayana has to be a sure-shot winner. And if one goes by the opening-day response, National Award-winning director Om Raut, of the ‘Tanhaji’ fame, would once again be hopeful of cracking the box-office code. But is his ‘Adipurush’ based on Ramayana worth a watch?

Clearly, Raut can’t tell you what you already don’t know. Most significant markers of Ramayana are mostly there. So, on that count, Raut can’t and does not offer anything new. But he definitely knows that to re-imagine the Ramayana in the 21st century, he has to think anew and has recast it in a stupendous visual language. But this obsession aided by VFX technology becomes so all-consuming that he forgets to imbue his narrative with any soul. Prabhas as Lord Ram, though he is mostly called Raghav, is a casting coup. Who better than the earnest-looking and talented superstar of the South for the part? But Prabhas remains mostly in the ‘Baahubali’ mode and we see more of him as a warrior than divinity personified.

Fair enough, as each director can look at the epic with innumerable versions and interpretations in his own way. Only at more than one point, Raut seems inspired more by ‘Game of Thrones’ (and other Hollywood biggies) than Ramayana itself. Ravan’s world is more Gothic than the resplendent ‘sone ki Lanka’ as tales we have grown up listening to reinforce. Saif as Lankesh would not have been so miscast had the director and the writers not made him look so caricaturish. Prabhas as Ram, mercifully, is not so much of an archetype. But since more time is spent in accentuating his warrior skills, there isn’t much he can do to lift the film or the audience spirits. Kriti Sanon as Janki (Sita) and Sunny Singh as Shesh (Lakshman) look the part but Sunny does not have enough dialogues and Kriti not enough heft to make any major impact.

Many dialogues are so cheesy that they just do not belong to the milieu, let alone capture the spirit of Ramayana. Sanskrit-heavy dialogues would not have worked with today’s generation, but then lines like ‘Teri bua ka bageecha’ and ‘Kapda tere baap ka, tel tere baap ka, toh jalegi bhi tere baap ki’ are far too irreverent. How are these expected to evoke any reverence for the revered Ramayana and Hanuman (Devdatta Nage) who is saddled with these corny lines? In comparison, Raghav’s sombre address to the vanar sena prior to the war sounds both apt and contemporary. But before we can soak into the real essence of what Ramayana and its true spirit stands for, the war begins and the film gets into an action mode, high on visual effects. Thus the high points and emotive moments like Lakshman moorchha, etc, are diluted in Raut’s overzealous bid to create a visual extravaganza.

What comes as a surprise in the unleashing of the action juggernaut is the story about Indrajit (Vatsal Sheth), Ravan’s son. To be fair, Raut does skip over some of the well-known facts associated with the Ramayana and allows you to dip into your own awareness. Wish he had done more of the same. As things stand, even devout believers are singularly uninspired by ‘Adipurush’. A pity, because with a massive Rs 500-crore budget and fine actors, it could have created cinematic history. With a loud background score and a run time of three hours, the film, instead of being an eternal tale of victory of good over evil, turns out to be more of a cautionary tale of how and why makers should refrain from trifling with religious ethos. Like the self-styled Ram bhakts that we see all around us, this celluloid version of India’s best known epic only skims the surface. Our TV producers, with far lesser budgets and less starry affairs, have done a greater service to our epics.

To put it in one line: epic tale, epic disappointment.