By Taran Adarsh, June 18, 2010 – 08:27 IST

It’s time for the modern-day version of ‘Ramayana’ to unfold this Friday, exactly two weeks after ‘Mahabharata’. The very thought of watching an epic in the present-day milieu only enhances the curiosity for the film. And if the present-day adaptation of ‘Ramayana’ is helmed by a master storyteller [Mani Ratnam], the moviegoer should, and must expect the moon. Nothing less would suffice. After all, a Mani Ratnam film is not merely an experience, it’s an event!

Mani Ratnam, who has penned the screenplay of RAAVAN, models his characters on the lines of ‘Ramayana’:

  • An upright cop, the punisher, the law/Lord Rama [Vikram];
  • His doting wife/Goddess Sita [Aishwarya Rai Bachchan];
  • The lieutenant he befriends in the forest/Hanuman [Govinda];
  • His confidante/Lakshmana [Nikhil Dwivedi];
  • The antagonist’s sister, who triggers off the war/Surpanakha [Priyamani]
  • And, of course, the antagonist, the Robinhood turned Raavan who kidnaps the top cop’s wife and keeps her in his custody, in his Lanka/Raavan [Abhishek Bachchan].
BY BOLLYWOOD HUNGAMA.COM

Mani Ratnam has also included the part where Goddess Sita was banished from the kingdom of Ayodhya due to the gossip of kingdom folk. It was agni pariksha then, but in the film, the husband [Vikram] asks the wife [Aishwarya] for a polygraph test to prove her chastity/fidelity. At the same time, RAAVAN brings back memories of a movie that, coincidentally, had a similar storyline — More >