A trailer of Mani Ratnam’s bilingual Raavan/Raavanan was screened to the media here today. Timed to coincide with the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, when journalists from the world over assemble here, the event was attended by the lead stars of the movie, Vikram, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.
Amit Khanna of Reliance Big Pictures, which has produced the films, described Mani Ratnam as arguably the best Indian director living today, and said that he and the rest believed in taking such rare movies as Raavan/Raavanan across the globe. Both the Hindi and Tamil versions will open in 58 countries in mid-June. He hoped that this world would help transcend barriers.
Suhasini, Mani Ratnam’s wife and the film’s co-producer and dialogue writer for the Tamil edition, said that it would help “us understand the grey parts that all of us have in us…None of us is completely white or black”. She was all praise for A.R. Rahman’s music, and said that it merged beautifully with the story. In fact, the music accentuated picture. Songs have a great role to play. They do take the plot forward.
Most Indian movies and stories can trace their origins to the two great epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and Raavan/Raavanan was not different. It has been inspired by the Ramayana, though it really is not a take-off on that.
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Raavan/Ravanan is the story of Dev and his wife, Ragini, a classical dancer, whose trials begin when he takes up a new posting in a small north Indian town. There the police do not execute the law, but Beera, who has changed the power equation.
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