Growing up, we have all heard and seen the story of Ramayana and the different reiterations of it quite a number of times. This time around, director Om Raut takes the initiative to present the story of Rama and Sita on the big screen with a bit of modern touch. One of the most awaited and big budget movies of the year, “Adipurush” released in the theaters this weekend. Does it live upto the expectations?
The story begins on the lines of Maharishi Valmiki’s Ramayana and covers the part from Lord Rama’s exile till his return to Ayodhya. The story takes off with a dialogue between Dasharatha and Kaikeyi, leading to the exile of Rama-Sita-Lakshman from their kingdom. Meanwhile, in retaliation for cutting off Surpanakha’s nose, Lankapati Ravana comes to the forest in the form of a sage to abduct Sita and takes her by deceit. Well, the story is hardly unknown to any of us. What we were expecting is how the story is going to be presented in a different way to connect with today’s general movie going audience. Sadly, it comes across as a huge disappointment. And surprisingly, the dodgy CGI is the least bothersome part of this mess of a movie.
Ramayana in itself is an emotion for many Indians, but here the emotion factor is completely missing. Not only the movie fails at making any attempt to appeal to the diverse pan-Indian audience, but in appeasing its core audience, the makers fail to understand the very image of Ramayana that millions of people have grown up with in their hearts. When you pick up a mythological story so widely beloved, by retelling it, you naturally risk delivering on the emotions people have been conditioned with.
However, the dialogues in this never ending film consistently remain poorly written, something that would even offend religion skeptics. For example, when Hanuman returns from Lanka, Rama asks him what happened to which he says – “Bol diya, jo humari beheno ko haath lagayega unki Lanka laga denge”. This remains one of the many instances in which the movie fundamentally waters down the nuances of the period it claims to be set in. Honestly, the script might as well be written by a prompt put together by ChatGPT or Facebook – or in this case, the countless unverified and dubious WhatsApp forwards. The context isn’t far off from the latter, either.
“Adipurush” came into limelight firstly because of its technical aspect – something that instantly made the film rather infamous way before its release. The trailer and teaser faced a lot of criticism due to its poor VFX, following which the makers claimed to make a lot of changes. Well, I struggled to find them. Meanwhile, Sanchit-Ankit’s background score and Ajay-Atul’s music are some of the few redeeming qualities in the film. ‘Ram Siya Ram’ and ‘Tu Hai Sheetal Dhara’ are the standouts.
In terms of performance, Prabhas fails to create the magic. His animated persona comes across as a total misfit. It is Saif Ali Khan who is the real highlight as Ravana; the actor steals most of the attention, and the rest of it goes to the makers turning even moments of genuine tension into a poorly generated video game like scenario. Devdutt Naga as Hanuman is impressive – going to Lanka and setting it on fire. Lifting a mountain for Sanjivani Booti, he looks very real in heavily heightened scenes as well. Kriti Sanon as Janaki is undoubtedly beautiful, but the magical touch that could’ve made Sita’s character much more vibrant and mystical seems missing. Sunny Singh’s work as Laxman is alright. Meanwhile, Vatsal Seth gets a lot of screen space in the role of Indrajit, which he plays beautifully. The overall point is that, Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan has set a standard and the way we were able to connect to those actors “Adipurush” feels nowhere close to it.
“Adipurush” attempts to create the Ramayana of the new age by misplacing its essence in all the awkward places possible. If you really want to experience the story of Ramayana, watch instead the retelling that was made by Ramanand Sagar.
“Adipurush” is now running in theatres near you.
