The makers have spent over Rs. 4000 crore on the two-part production of Namit Malhotra’s Ramayana. However, diving into this Ramayana trailer review, the immediate feeling is cognitive dissonance. Your mind knows you are watching the Ramayana, but your eyes tell you it’s a mashup of movies like “Gods of Egypt,” “The Lord of the Rings,” and “Game of Thrones.”
A Detailed Ramayana Trailer Review & Analysis
Instead of the Indian Hindu culture, this movie feels like a promotion of Roman culture and architecture, which is ironic because the Ramayana took place thousands of years before the birth of the Roman Empire. Let’s start with the positive aspects of the Ramayana trailer.
The Positives: Impressive CGI & Massive Scale
Pushpak Viman’s scenes, the flying elephant scene, and Ram aiming an arrow in the sky—these scenes feel pretty solid on a technical level of filmmaking. We can even say that they compete directly with top-tier movies like Avatar when it comes to CGI and scale.
It feels as if the filmmakers have made a perfect blend of Hollywood movies like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, along with including Roman architecture and the Hindu culture of India. The blend was created in such a way that the Western audience can relate to this movie, even though it’s a movie about Eastern culture. The filmmakers have not hidden their intention to make this movie a success in the Western world, as if the Western world is their primary focus instead of India.
The Negatives: Soulless Music & Westernized Vision
After spending Rs. 4000 crore, it feels like the makers have handed us a world where Lord Ram is on a path of conquering Asgard (from the Thor movie) instead of Ayodhya after his 14 years of vanvaas (exile).
Now, according to the Hindustan Times, T-Series has scored the music rights for both films of Ramayana with a reported advance of Rs 75 crore, which is considered to be one of the biggest music deals of the Hindi film industry. Yet, in the Ramayana trailer, Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman’s music feels like a cold dish being served to us. It lacks soul and its Indian identity.
The “RAMbir” PR Stunt
A PR-driven hashtag, “RAMbir,” was pushed on social media instantly after the release of the Ramayana movie trailer. This hashtag is a blend of Lord Ram and Ranbir’s names, as if the makers want us to perceive that Ranbir has Lord Ram’s personality, which is ironic, as Ranbir Kapoor has a history of never identifying himself as a Hindu and doing anti-Hindu movie roles. Ranbir Kapoor also proudly claims that his favorite dish is beef and calls himself a “big beef guy.”
The PR machinery is doing everything possible to portray this artificial hype as real organic buzz on social media. The end goal is to create the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) among the masses, and honestly, they seem to be succeeding in their goal.
The audience also has mixed feelings about the casting choice for the lead role of Mata Sita in this movie. This role was given to the actress Sai Pallavi. A section of the audience is unhappy because of Sai Pallavi’s past political and religious stances.
Related article: Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor Movies List
Replicating Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan
Under the direction of Nitesh Tiwari, the makers have tried their best to replicate the smile and calmness of Lord Ram from the legendary TV show of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan (1987 TV Show) into Ranbir Kapoor’s character. However, it looks a bit unnatural on Ranbir’s face, especially in scenes where it has no value or reason to be there. It seems as if Ranbir Kapoor is pretending to smile at an unfunny joke told by his best friend, and he feels as if he has no choice but to laugh at it.
Ranbir Kapoor is also shown with a calm and collected facial expression in the trailer, the same as Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan. But this does not seem like the natural calmness that suited the great 1987 Ramayana. This feels like a well-put-together defense mechanism that has a sole purpose of dodging the massive backlash that Adipurush faced.
Please note that this is not a judgement passed on Ranbir’s acting, as we all know that he is a great actor. He was just not well suited for this role.
Glorification of Adharma: The Yash/Ravan Problem
Ravan is shown in this movie trailer as if he is a superhero with an overwhelming aura. Instead of portraying Ravan as an evil personality, this movie seems to be hell-bent on depicting Ravan as a “misunderstood” and “complex” anti-hero personality. Ravan’s role is played by Yash, who has a massive pan-India fan following. He is the right person to help the makers in catering to the South Indian demographic.
AI Darkness Cover-Up
When you do a quick frame-by-frame breakdown of this trailer, you will notice that some scenes are toned down, darkened, and heavily color-graded. This is done on purpose, as it’s a very old trick in film editing to hide the cheap or AI-generated VFX. When the screen is darkened, you will notice these mistakes less, which is the main intention of the makers here. This feels like a darker DC universe movie, instead of a story full of hope and courage, which was told to us by our parents and grandparents.
Final Verdict
As we conclude this Ramayana trailer review, you have to understand the intention of these filmmakers who made the Ramayana movie. They wanted to focus mainly on the international market, as confessed by them in multiple interviews and forums. They seem to have manufactured a $500 million corporate project that aims to capture the global market by just wrapping itself in the cover of our sacred epic, the Ramayana.