Raavanan - Disappointing

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7/10/2010

After much deliberation we went for this movie. Hardly 20 ppl in the theatre ( I did count). Even though we went without any expectation for this movie, after all the reviews and warnings from friends/blogs, I was still disappointed. I still cant digest the fact that Mani Ratnam has to take a movie mimicking the Ramayana in so many ways and make a buck out of it. Dude people already know your standard and you dont have to prove anybody by taking such movies. Your strong point is to bring forward simple things in life in a beautiful manner - example Mouna Raagam/Alaipayuthey/Roja etc. The basic themes of these movies were love stories but it still made big in audience heart. I can vouch, I can watch these movies zillion times just for the simplicity. But after you started taking movies like Yuva/Guru/Raavanan I am seriously thinking about my loyalty to seeing all your movies and argue that they are totally good and worth the money.

I am sure by now most of you must have heard about the story and I dont want to elaborate on that much. Some of my comments after watching this movie or rather my Report card for the movie as below

Story - sumaar (mattam nnu sollara alavukku illa)
Vikram - was totally wasted in this movie. ( ennala ivaraye rendu mani neram paaka mudiyala, I can imagine how Abhishek would have performed in the Hindi version)
Aish - romba romba kezhavi aayitta (my heart aches when i say this, but that is the truth) or rather I should say she is portrayed older in Mani's movies (Guru and Raavanan)
Prithvi - enna sollaradhu nnu theriyala. I think he was mentally under tremendous pressure since this is his first chance in a Mani Ratnam movie. Raaman role kku ok, but seetha kku thambi madhiri irundhar

Santosh Sivan - superb. Really want to hunt down those places when we go to India. Lovely get aways. Locations kaaga padatha kandippa paakalaam but adhukaaga theatre la 10$ kuduthu kashta pada vendaam, DVD will portray them nicely too

overall direction - I fail to see Mani's touch or mei silirkka veikkum experience. No goose bump scenes

Music: ARR music takes time to catch on. Since I had already listened to the songs before on Raaga, I liked the Usure Pogudhey by Karthik. I could hardly understand the lyrics of the other songs. But none of the numbers made a mark.

Total marks - Just pass (Mani kaaga illa Santosh Sivan Kaaga)

Only thing I wish, let this not be a last Mani's movie. Would like him to end with a better/ handsdown one