Writer ~ Rajeev Mishra
* Last post, on its content and narrative *
♂÷The story of the film touches only this part of Ramkatha… Shriram, Laxman and Sita went to the forest for exile. There a demon Ravana kidnapped Sita and took her to Lanka. Shriram met monkey king Sugriva and attacked Lanka with his monkey army. He freed Sita by killing Ravana.
To whom can the story of Ram be narrated in such a brief manner? To children of 5-10 years. So this much story has been told and shown with the help of animation and VFX which seems to suit the mental level of 5-10 year old children. Further details in it are childish and deviate a lot from the details of the original story, but the original story does not deviate. The basic appearance of the characters does not deviate, but their outer appearance is similar to the characters of children’s comics.
Does this treatment do justice to Ramkatha? It doesn’t at all… Any philosophical aspect of the story of Ramayana has not even been touched anywhere in the whole story. Why this story should be heard somewhere else, this thought has not even been given. The soul of Ramkatha is missing from the film. A very complex story has been told in an overly simplistic way, without all its nuances. Too much liberty has been taken in the detailing, which is not only unnecessary but also meaningless.
But did I see lack of reverence for the character of Shri Ram in this? I would say no! No matter how simplistic the story is told, the basic idea of devotion towards Shriram, hero worship remained the same. Shri Ram appeared to be mighty, powerful and just with a bright character, and Ravana was seen to be an arrogant, unjust and mean character. The earthquake of devotion that has come on Facebook nowadays, it seems that two to four devotees must have cut off their right hand everyday and offered it to Lord Shiva and it would have grown back the next day… and Indra’s throne earthquake of 7.5 Richter scale It must have kept on shaking. The film does not live up to the standards of such intense devotion, but by the standards of ordinary mortals of the mortal world, there was no disrespect towards religion.
There is no vocal content in this movie. Ramkatha has been tainted by the leftists with all the controversial topics in the past, whether it is the narrative of feminism, whether it is the Arya-Dravidian conflict theory, whether it is caste discussion or attempts to make Ravana a victim or whitewash his character, All of them have been completely rejected by this film. In today’s date, if there is no vocal content in a film, I just give it pass marks. This is bad film making but I did not see any intention of insulting Shri Ram. And if bad film making was a crime then Bollywood should have been shifted to Tihar forever.
Maybe a better filmmaker could have tried better, but would he? Some Vishal Bhardwaj or some Anurag Kashyap may be a better filmmaker than Om Raut, but he is a leftist. He may have done better filming of scenes, or made better costumes, but he would have polluted Ramkatha with his vocal narrative. He would have shown Ravana as good and a victim, or Sita would have shown her attraction towards Ravana. This film was free from such tainted views. Protest and boycott should be of bad attitude and not of bad film making.
Rather, the liberty taken in the visualization of the film at two places is only in accordance with the dignity of Ramkatha. In the scene of Sita Haran, Ravana is shown carrying Sita by tying her in a noose and not physically lifting her, which in a way has kept Sita’s dignity in an unpleasant incident and Ravana is not shown touching her. In another scene, Sita asks Shriram to bring the golden deer alive so that it can be taken to Ayodhya, and Shriram did not go to hunt the deer but to capture it. I found both these scenes written taking special care of the sensitivity of the audience.
Yes, when a film is being made on Ramkatha with so much expenditure, then this was an opportunity to bring out the most beautiful form of this story. The makers missed this opportunity. This film neither kept loyalty to the format available till now, nor gave any new intellectual input that could present any part of this story with any new or specific meaning. This film neither deserves any fierce protest nor active promotion. Bad films don’t get audiences and this is a valid feedback that no filmmaker can ignore.
It is a missed opportunity, a failed attempt. The cinematic treatment of Ramkatha requires more seriousness than this. I consider it a lousy film like other lousy Bollywood movies. But I consider Taliban voices to boycott it, ban it, jail its makers as a bigger threat than a bad film. Because a bad film can be replaced by a good film tomorrow, but a dead and inert society cannot be replaced by a vibrant and free society.
÷The author is a doctor based in London÷
