Raavanan - the movie, the way I saw it

 Raavanan – a battle between the good and the bad. Supposedly so. The movie changes your perspective about the two. Lets you wonder who in the movie was portrayed as good and who was portrayed as bad. Atleast to me this was the case.

I did not watch the movie in the shadows of the epic Ramayana at all. I did not read any fancy reviews. I would say I had no prejudice about the movie. I wonder what the director was thinking about the script.

What is the movie about? Its about two men, Veera – a goon that ruled a whole locality and had the love of the people there and Dev Prakash – a Super Intendent of Police that came to wipe out Veera’s empire for all the charges he had against the law. There sure is a background of why there is a battle between the two. Veera abducts Dev’s wife, Raagini and in search of her Dev sets off with a motive to bring Veera down into pieces.

The journey begins for Dev in search of Veera into a dense forest with the help of a Forest officer – Gnyana Prakasam (If am not wrong) who knows the forest in and out. Dev has a whole pack of army officials and police officers to back him up for this operation to put an end to Veera and get Raagini back.

While this is the plot of the script, there is more to the movie in terms of how it is related to the epic, if at all it really is related. Obviously, there is a Raavanan in the movie, a Raam and a Seetha also. Well, there is more I would say, there is a vibheeshana, a Hanuman and a shoorpanaki. There could have been more in the movie which I could just have missed noticing.

Veera : He is called Raavanan in the movie. Well, the director hasn’t shown anything bad about this character. Whatever he does is justified and in a way I started to feel he isn’t bad at all. He develops a liking towards Raagini and expresses it in a very straight, respectful and dignified manner. The director has portrayed Raavanan and his ten heads as ten different voices in Veera’s head. Veera is portrayed as a very crude but loyal and pristine character.

Raagini : She is abducted by Veera and initially comes across as an angry women who is so against Veera’s involving the women in the battle. She calls it cowardice and it sure is pretty convincing. Her opinion about Veera changes over time and she starts to feel the bad is slowly turning out to be good and she in a way is struggling to take a side.

Dev : Dev  is related to Raama in the movie. Its very obvious that Dev is associated to Raama and the reason being Veera is the one who abducts Raagini and she happens to be Dev’s wife, just like in the Raamayana Seetha is abducted by Raavana.  I have to mention, Dev is portrayed as a ruthless, angry Police officer whose only motive is to kill Veera. There is nothing Godly about this character except for his looks.

Now for how I saw these three characters. To me, Raama means good and Raavana means bad. This is very basic. There are always degrees of good and bad anyway. So lets just say Raama is a person who is more good than he is bad and Raavana is a person who is more bad than he is good. Veera is portrayed as a good person and all he does is justified in every possible way. Dev on the other hand is shown as a person who is merciless and cunning and shows no respect to a word he gave to someone. He kills Veera’s younger brother after speaking sweet to him and promising him he wont kill him if he comes in front of him.

I am left with a basic question after watching the movie. Whom did the director try to portray as Raavanan? Dev or Veera? To me it was Dev. I was convinced that he was Raavanan and infact even expected him to die in the hands of Veera. The movie did not end that way but if Raama meant good and a person who treated his men with respect and took care of them, it was Veera to me. If Raavana meant bad and a person whose motive was important to him more than anything else, it was Dev to me.

This could completely be a different way to see it, but if we forget Raavana had ten heads and Raama’s wife was abducted by Raavana, this is how the movie would come across as.