Mani's Ramayana

"Has Maniratnam lost his marbles?" asked a friend, after watching his latest Raavan, in Hindi, starring Abhishek, Aishwarya and Vikram.
For the first time after watching a Maniratnam film, have I felt so ambivalent. The story, as the name suggests, is loosely based on the Ramayana. As one popular version of the legend goes, Ravana kidnaps Sita to avenge the humiliation suffered by his sister Shoorpanaka, by Rama's brother Lakshmana. Then Rama, with the help of all good forces, launches a battle against the demon king, good triumphs over evil. And...wait...before he accepts Sita back, she goes through an Agni Pariksha to prove her chastisty. End of story. This is the Ramayana we all know.

Now replace Rama with Dev, a cop played by Vikram, Aishwarya plays his wife, Ragini. And then, there is Bira played by Abhishek, who is the anti-god, the antagonist Raavana, who kidnaps Raagini, and falls in love with her. Bira, is a tribal leader, who the State is after. His sister is dragged out of her wedding by cops and ends up being a victim of custodial rape. This explains Bira's motivation to kidnap Ragini. So it is a pretty simple straightforward story, which you could argue, Mani does not attempt explaining in great detail. But then, why should he? The Ramayana, is pretty much part of our collective conscious. There is no needless banter to even an attempt to create a context or build character.

Instead, Mani employs the visual medium as the narrative. Many of his earlier films such as Roja or even Kannthil, had beautiful imagery or interesting frames as tools to create the intangible flavour of a Mani film. In Ravana, the medium is the message. The visual is the screenplay.
The breathtaking locales and the Santosh Sivan's brilliance leave you spellbound. The cinema of Raavana is so powerful that you cannot be a part of its cast and not get noticed . C'mon, how can you be a Ravana or even a Hanuman in anyone's Ramayana and not get noticed.

This treatment of Ramayana needed the actors to perform as if they were on stage, or maybe in a musical or a pantomime. The challenge, therfore, was to match the visual brilliance with the power of performance. No room for subtlety....you had to be loud. Which brings me to Bira and Abhishek Bacchan. What I felt the most about Ravan was that I did not feel anything for Bira. I was neither angry with him nor did I feel pity. Abhishek does very little to explain why the anti-hero deserves to be loved. The problem with Abhishek has been his inability to understand Ravana's pain or dilemma. His facial expressions make an attempt to reveal Ravana's neurosis and his self-destructive jealousy, but his body language is too much of lanky city-bred hip-hopper, whose pedicured nails, are out of sync with the anger that his eyes try to convey. The physical challenge that Abhishek, Vikram and Aishwarya have had to go through as Bira, Dev and Raagini is what makes this film, Mani's Ramayana. Abhishek unfortunately makes a feeble attempt at Bira. Vikram, on the other hand, is compelling, and makes me want to watch the Tamil version of the film where he plays Ravanan. Aishwarya is beautiful and refreshingly not affected.

This Ramayana needs to understood in many layers. It is a state versus renegade battle - so topical as the Govt of India is currently trying to crush the naxal movement across many parts of the country. It also reminds me in parts of the story of the forest brigand Veerapan. Perhaps why, the antagonist was named Bira.

So, in the final analysis, I dont think Mani has lost his marbles at all. This baby from Madras Talkies is different. Very different from what we have seen so far from his stable. To me, it is sheer poetry in celluloid. Watch it without comparing it to his previous works. The only point of reference is Valmiki's Ramayana.