I watched the recently released film 'Adipurush' and loved it. This is an animation-based action film based on the Hindu epic Ramayan. It belongs to a genre which is also called "Superhero movies".
I think there was a huge misunderstanding about this movie on social media and it has resulted in the movie not getting good viewership. First of all, it is important to know that this is not a "remake" of Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana. This is not even a traditional mythological or religious film. This is essentially for target audiences like younger generation and children who love or are used to watching Western animation and superhero films like Marvel's 'The Avengers'. One can find the animation and graphics of this movie in the league of movies like '300', 'Planet of Apes', or many Hollywood war movies. Now, the question is: is it ok to make a "Superhero movie" based on Ramayana? Why not? We have had Ramayana picture cartoons, stage performances and drama, comics, animation films, Japanese anime and what not. If Youtubers say that we can have any other type of movie based on Ramayana but just not "Superhero movie", how absurd is the idea? The beauty of Hinduism is that it allows you freedom, creativity and literary freedom. We should be proud of it.
The makers of this movie need huge applause for raising the bar of Indian movies and making such a world-class film.
The movie starts with a wonderful introduction and a wonderful song. Manoj Muntashir Shukla has written wonderful lyrics for this movie and great dialogues too. Few controversial dialogues quoted on social media have already been removed from the movie.
The movie starts with Sita's abduction and ends with Ram and Sita getting united. This is not the full Ramayana story but it focuses on Sri Ram's conquest of Lanka.
The visual effects and animation in this film are worldclass. The monkeys, apes and other things looks like straight from the Hollywood movies. Everything is very realistic.
I am not a fan of Saif Ali Khan in general, but I find that he has done a really powerful role of Ravana. In fact, based on his powerful acting skills, this can be counted as one of his best performances. With animation and computer graphics, he has been given a larger-than-life character and he has lived up to it. Hats off to Saif.
Prabhas as Shri Ram has also done a great job. I am again not a fan of Prabhas in general, and based on the defamation this movie was subjected to on social media, even I had started feeling that he was not the right fit for the role. But, after watching the movie, all my doubts have vanished. Prabhas has done a great role in this movie and needs huge applause.
Kriti Sanon as Sita has played it very nicely. We get the feelings of purity, piousness and faith from her performance. Sunny Singh as Lakshman has again done a great job.
Another important character was of Hanuman which has been played by Devdatta Nage. Again, pictures of his face and expressions were widely circulated on social media to defame the movie. But after watching the movie, I will give him 10/10. One of his first scenes in this movie is of his meeting with Shri Ram and tears flowed from my eyes during the emotional meeting scene when Shri Ram hugs Hanuman.
Given the time-limit in a movie format, the movie could not possibly show all major events and hence they have focused on a few events to elaborate. For example, there is a touching event of Shabri offering 'ber' fruits to Shri Ram. Hanuman's meeting with Ma Sita and "Lanka dahan" have also been covered well.
Another important aspect which shows wisdom of the movie makers is that they have portrayed Ram as Raghav (his other name), Lakshman as Shesha and Hanuman as Bajrang. Sita is called Janaki here. On the other hand, the Rakshasa characters like Ravana, Indrajit or Ravana got their real name. Why did they do that? I don't know, but perhaps they did it to avoid collecting any sins if they portrayed anything negatively.
I liked the film very much and I would recommend everyone to watch it. Ignore the social media defamation of this movie. Old people, sadhus and saints should give this movie a skip, because this is not a traditional film. But younger people, just ignore the social media trolls and go watch this movie.
Jai Shri Ram!
