By far, Abhishek is a proven hell of an actor. Mani Ratnam sticks to him just he is ABs' son. This is cheap. Abhishek has not done any single thing with dedication in this movie. All of his moves look so much artificial. Seems like he's following the same style as the one he did in Yuva. Ash is not bright either. Just because they bot are married, it cannot be a point to hire them for movies. Vikram, on the other side has taken much efforts to do justice for his role in hindi, but due to improper dialogues, he fails to lift his character. Music is good. Not as best as it's Tamil counterpart. Govinda is wasted. He has way better skills than any other actor in the movie, but became a let down just because of the director's faults.
Overall Ravan in hindi is not suitable to be admired. The quality of the actors' performances, being the biggest reason for the film to sink. It's not even close to it's Tamil counterpart. Here's why
Raavanan [Tamil] First of all congrats to Mani Ratnam for his decision to make the film in two languages. Just because Tamil version is way better than the hindi one. All actors except ash are utilized to the fullest & actors too, have given enough justice for their roles. Ash's dubbed voice is disappointing [Her original voice doesn't create magic either]. Music is great. Vikram is best contender fot Ravan's character & he has shown it. No punchy dialogues. Prabhu Ganesan is as best as always. Great mov
Its a sensitive story line. Screen play is worse compare to mani's standards. Dialogues are so weak (Suhasini Maniratnam). Ash is not suitable in tamil as she looked very much older,but she has exposed a lot just replaced namitha :-). Vikram and Prithviraj has done better (but dialogues worsened the puch of their characters). Nice cinematography. Good songs with beautiful lyrics. But background score is not upto the Level.
Raavan(Hindi)
Abhishek is not a bad actor,but some other good actor would have made justice to it. Ash the same as Tamil (Better let them Divorce instead acting in the same movie, don't make it a Family movie). Screen play worst. Vikram's Dev is not good, any other bollywood actor would be better for that.(my vote Akshay Kumar). Songs are good but lyrics not that good so it become better songs. Dialogues are OK kind.
Overall Review: Mani you have standards you can show that instead making a star studded movie. I recommend you to choose some other actors in hindi instead this Ash and Abhi. Let them be Husband and Wife in Real life.I don't like them in Onscreen. AB is a best Reviewer. Hats Off AB Sir.
Your review is quite sound. I agreed with most it. Yes, Vikram's Veera was better than Abhishek's Beera. But Vikram is a more experienced actor than Abhishek. Now, Vikram doesn't exactly have a wide range either but he still is the better actor of the two. The role of Veera appears to be tailor made for Vikram, who is at ease with playing deranged alpha male. Yes, Prithviraj's Dev was better than Vikram's Dev. Pritvi's Dev, while appearing to be fair and handsome, still made me uncomfortable from the beginning. There was something in his smirk, a glint in his eye that gave you the idea that he's not as heroic and noble as he appears. While Vikram's Dev was more generic. This is not to say that one actor is better than the other, in both cases, just that Prithvi played his role better than Vikram and Vikram played his role better than Abhishek. Where I disagree with your review is your praise for Aishwarya Rai. As usual, she plays the damsel in distress and as usual there wasn't much range in her acting. Like more actresses of her generation, she is limited. Every take, every frame is played up to the fore. She postures to the camera, which I hate in actors and one of the reasons why I think she can't make it in Hollywood. Acting calls for subtlety in emotions, and if there's one thing Ash does do well, it is in being dramatic, almost to the point of melodrama. If you are looking for "mindblowing talent" look at Priyamani. Now
Your review is quite sound. I agreed with most it. Yes, Vikram's Veera was better than Abhishek's Beera. But Vikram is a more experienced actor than Abhishek. Now, Vikram doesn't exactly have a wide range either but he still is the better actor of the two. The role of Veera appears to be tailor made for Vikram, who is at ease with playing deranged alpha male. Yes, Prithviraj's Dev was better than Vikram's Dev. Pritvi's Dev, while appearing to be fair and handsome, still made me uncomfortable from the beginning. There was something in his smirk, a glint in his eye that gave you the idea that he's not as heroic and noble as he appears. While Vikram's Dev was more generic. This is not to say that one actor is better than the other, in both cases, just that Prithvi played his role better than Vikram and Vikram played his role better than Abhishek. Where I disagree with your review is your praise for Aishwarya Rai. As usual, she plays the damsel in distress and as usual there wasn't much range in her acting. Like more actresses of her generation, she is limited. Every take, every frame is played up to the fore. She postures to the camera, which I hate in actors and one of the reasons why I think she can't make it in Hollywood. Acting calls for subtlety in emotions, and if there's one thing Ash does do well, it is in being dramatic, almost to the point of melodrama. If you are looking for "mindblowing talent" look at Priyamani. Now
This is a worst put together movie in tamil. 1. No clear story line 2. Ash's voice in tamil is a let down 3. Lack of fierce dialogues ( missing Sujatha?) 4. No strong backup of why police officer shoots vikram in the first place 5. wasted characterisation ( many incl. several good actors around vikram) 6. donot fit to tamilnadu audience as like "Unnai pol oruvan", as there are no known incidence of tribes within Tamilnadu and many more...
Maniratnam tried hard to prove that raavanan is the hero....now i realise that maniratnam is like a frog in the well who thinks whatever happens in the well is the world....
Manirathnam Sir tasted success earlier with his interpretation of epic characters in Thalapathi and even as a whole movie as it was good in all aspects like casting,music and cinematography. But this time he has failed and cinematography only stands out,Rai dose not fit in the tamil version,may be she would the hindi version.
Vikram's performance is way way ahead of Abhishek. There is absolutely no room even for comparision. The only actors who could have done justice to the role in Hindi are Manoj Bajpai or Ajay Devgan.
I wish its high time censor board realizes that they have to become sensible in their job. For many decades are the directors going to rely on Rape concept for revenge.. why hurt woman sentiments? Even if we can't abolish Rape in reality, I wish we can atleast ban it from appearing it in movies. Let us remove it from our thoughts. my sincere request to censor board ... please atleast for the sake of woman , please grow up...
