Do Western reviwers treat BW patronizingly?

In Bollywood’s ‘Raavan,’ Abhishek Bachchan a ‘Ham’
By Tripti Lahiri

Mani Ratnam’s “Raavan,” whose story and characters are inspired by the epic ‘Ramayan,’ opens worldwide today. It centers around the triangle between policeman Dev (Vikram), outlaw Beera Munda (Abhishek Bachchan) and Dev’s wife Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), whom Beera kidnaps.

Early reviews are in and most praise the film for being beautifully shot but are mixed on the acting, particularly Mr. Bachchan’s. American reviewers seem to like the film much more than Indian ones do. A separate Tamil version “”Raavanan” also opened today in which Vikram plays the role of the outlaw opposite Ms. Rai Bachchan. India Real Time presents a round-up:

U.S. entertainment trade publication Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennet describes “Raavan” as a “pan-Indian saga with epic sweep, intense emotion and gorgeous images.”

Cinematographers Manikandan and Santosh Sivan, production designer Samir Chanda and editor A. Sreekar Prasad come in for high praise. THR says they “serve Ratnam superbly with images, settings and vitality that take one’s breath away.”

Both Bachchans do well in their roles, THR says. Mr. Bachchan’s kidnaps the character played by his wife.

“Bachchan has fun with a character who is fierce, passionate and dangerous but also comic in his self-doubt over whether to kill his captive or make love to her,” says Mr. Bennet, describing Ms. Rai Bachchan in this movie as “a force of nature.”

Courtesy of Reliance Big Pictures
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan plays Ragini, a policeman’s wife, in “Raavan” and in “Raavanan.”

In this mini-review, the Guardian’s Cath Clarke, however, finds this a film of “innate sexism” and says Mr. Bachchan hams it up excessively in an “absurdly extravagant melodrama.”

On the web site India.com Mihir Fadnavis says the film is a crushing disappointment and gives it only two thumbs up out of a possible (if anatomically impossible) five thumbs.

“Mani Ratnam’s epic retelling of an ancient tale is amalgamated and cut to create a stylized but characterless piece with some spectacular imagery,” writes Mr. Fadnavis. “The film is too celebratory of Bollywood’s good guy-versus-bad guy, buddy-buddy ethos to rise above the limitations of the genre, and too obsessed with its own seriousness to be a truly ’serious’ film.”

In another mini-review, the Los Angeles Times says “Raavan” belongs to Mr. Bachchan’s “exquisite real-life wife Aishwarya Rai” but laments that “it takes a couple of hours to learn whether Beauty can tame Beast.”

On Indian portal Rediff.com, Raja Sen is unhappy with the way the film draws on the epic, saying Mr. Ratnam is excessively literal in his interpretation at times, and gives the film just two out of five stars.

Mr. Ratnam “takes a big chunk of larger-than-life Indian mythology, sloppily swaps antagonist with protagonist, and ends up giving an earnest Bachchan far too much scenery to chew in far too much spotlight,” says Mr. Sen.

Read more HERE

Raavan release news and your predictions

'Raavan' in 2200 Screens Worldwide Click here to add this article to My Clips

By Taran Adarsh, June 16, 2010 - 16:51 IST

Reliance BIG Pictures and Madras Talkies' forthcoming film RAAVAN will release in approximately 2200 screens worldwide on Friday, June 18, making it the first Indian film to release simultaneously in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions.

The Hindi version of the film RAAVAN is slated to release in 1250 screens in India and 325 screens overseas in over 35 countries, including India, U.S., Canada, U.K., U.A.E., Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, South Africa, Netherlands, France, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc.

The Tamil version RAVANAN will release in 225 screens in India, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka and also in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nasik, Surat, Baroda, Kolkata cities with English subtitles. It will release in 150 screens overseas in Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, U.S., U.K., Middle East Asia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc.

The Telugu dubbed version VILLAIN will release in 215 screens in Andhra Pradesh and in additional 25 screens in U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

LINK

Post your predictions on this thread!

Mine - Opening week 45 crores - end at 75 crores

Raavan promos - Updated!

Two new dialog promos from Raavan.









New Action Promo

Compare the two :D

Ranjha Ranjha with Abhishek 

Kaattu Sirukki with Vikram

The Making of Raavan Music

Some lovely video footage here! Film is looking more and more interesting.

Katta Katta Bechara Bakra - new Raavan song promo

Abhishek is looking good and Priyamani looks GREAT! Aishwarya is not seen in this one. Promos are getting me more psyched up about Raavan.

Raavan (Trailer) unveiled at Cannes

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.

More HERE

‘Raavanan’, a re-incarnation - Vikram

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In his first interview on the eagerly-awaited Mani Ratnam flick, Vikram speaks about the contrasting roles he plays in the two versions of the film

Raavanan is almost ready and for Vikram it's another dream come true. “You know, I used to think one film each with Mani Ratnam and Shankar and I wouldn't mind retiring in that blaze of glory,” smiles Vikram. Always a picture of effervescence, mention Ratnam and his Raavanan (Raavan in Hindi), and Vikram's energy level revs up further! He plays solid roles in both the Hindi and Tamil versions of the film — Raavanan is being dubbed in Telugu too. “Audiences in Andhra are bound to be floored by the subject,” Vikram's words ooze confidence.

Interestingly, he isn't replicating the Tamil role in Hindi. “Here I'm Veera and in Hindi, Dev,” he smiles and on a serious note adds, “I hear that it's the first time in the world that an actor simultaneously plays two diametrically different roles in two languages of the same film.”

First straight Hindi film

Raavan isn't just Vikram's first project with Ratnam. It is also his first straight Hindi film. That he is being launched by the same reputed maker whom he yearned to work with sometime ago is a bonus! “You said it. Though Aparajith (Anniyan dubbed in Hindi) didn't do too well, it's been telecast over 17 times so far. Yet Raavan is my first Hindi film,” he explains.

Ratnam popped the question to Vikram just when they were about to begin shooting for Raavanan. “I think you can pull it off. Why not give it a shot?” he suggested. “Are you sure,” was Vikram's pithy response. Being in the habit of working on his physique and make-up to suit every part he portrays Vikram was initially apprehensive because both roles were to be shot almost simultaneously. But locations were very remote and sets may not last for more than a month, he was told.

So what did he do? “I've played little tricks with my body language and expressions and they should work,” he smiles cryptically. “I'm like a bull in one version — tough, rugged and a man who lives for the moment. In the other, my character is poetic, philosophical, fun loving… just about everything.”

After the Hindi audio launch in Mumbai, the attention he got from the girls in particular was surprising. “I mean, after all these years…” he laughs gaily.

Has he tried out a new look for Hindi? “Surely not the clean shaven look. I don't intend to look like other heroes. I've plumped for a close hair-cut and moustache. In Hindi my presence has been kept under wraps as of now. I'm the proverbial dark horse,” he chortles.

Not many know that Vikram had earlier screen-tested for Mani Ratnam's Bombay. “But the wait has been worth it. Over the years, I've evolved as an actor. I feel in Raavan Mani has transcended his earlier achievements. The films should hit the bull's eye.”

Working with Ratnam has been an engaging experience for Vikram. “He's open to your inputs. Raavanan And his energy is unbelievable. After a day's work, we would rehearse the scenes to be shot the next morning, costumes et al, before we dispersed. He would mull over them all night and be ready with the changes he wants.” ”

Vikram can't stop talking about the films' locations. “We've shot entirely in India and you can't but say ‘Wow! We didn't know such beautiful places exist here.' We've gone to the unexplored plateaus of the Malshej Ghats, beyond Pune, and to the mist-covered Orccha near Jhansi where we saw clouds just sitting down on the roads through which we walked. Sameer Chanda's sets have blended so well with the milieu that you can't differentiate between the natural landscapes and those created.”

They've also shot in the remote areas of Kolkata and the rarely-visited terrains on the other side of Chalakudi. “Manikandan and Santhosh Sivan have captured them so beautifully on camera,” comments Vikram.
Big ride to scenic spots

The unit was put up in an ashram of sorts on the hills, from where everyday they travelled for about an hour by car, then geared up for a 30-minute jeep ride after which they trekked another 15 minutes to reach the scenic spots!

“AB (Abhishek Bachchan) and I have given our interpretations of the roles. But Raavan is more an AB film,” says Vikram. And about working with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, he simply says, “It was nice.”

Now that his aspirations have been realised, what more could he want? “I've recorded a song for G.V. Prakash for Madrasapattinam along with MSV. And I'm waiting for a chance to sing for A.R. Rahman. I love his Raavanan compositions, especially ‘Veera' and ‘Usirae Pogudhae.' Also I want to turn director one day… so there's a lot more left to be done,” he guffaws.

Quick Guns - South side superhunks are making a fresh raid on Bollywood

LINK

At the music launch splash of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan in Mumbai, a low-key, unassuming man in a white jacket tickled everyone’s curiosity. While Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan played to the gallery with their anecdotes and jokes, Vikram John Kennedy Vinod, aka Vikram, floored the crowd with his discreet sense of humour. “Jab main Tamil mein acting karta tha to Hindi ke baare mein nahin sochta tha, aur jab main Hindi mein acting karta tha to sochta hi nahin tha (When I acted in the Tamil version, I never gave the Hindi version a thought, and when I acted in the Hindi version, I didn’t think at all),” he said in a disarming accent, bringing the house down.

Few could have gauged from his genteel demeanour that the Tamil superstar has the most significant and versatile presence in the eagerly awaited Ratnam bilingual. Not only does he act in both versions, he also plays vastly differing characters. In the Tamil film, he essays the brutal outlaw Beera Munda (played by Abhishek in the Hindi version); and in the Hindi film, he is the good cop, Dev. It promises to be a grand entry into Bollywood for a southern star with a successful, two-decade-long career behind him.

Savvy Vikram is just one of a whole new brigade of stars from the south all set to give the Bollywood charge. Another colossal Tamil phenomenon, Suriya—who has arguably the most beautiful eyes in contemporary Indian cinema—is expected to wow the north in Ram Gopal Varma’s Rakta Charitra. And after making a successful debut in the Telugu political drama, Leader, Hyderabad’s newest hunk, Rana Daggubati, now stars in Rohan Sippy’s Dum Maro Dum, a thriller set in drug-infested Goa. “His looks are fresh. And he’s young...but has a mature presence,” raves Sippy. Meanwhile, superstar Chiranjeevi’s son, Ram Charan Teja, who created history with Magadheera, one of the biggest blockbusters ever in Telugu, is reported to have been signed by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment for their forthcoming Hindi film, Haafiz.

This south to north movement is not a new phenomenon. Several southern stars, among them Kamalahaasan, Rajnikant, Venkatesh, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Madhavan and Siddhartha, have made forays into Bollywood. More recently, Kannada star Sudeep registered his presence in RGV’s Phoonk, Rann and Phoonk 2. Traditionally, however, rather than the southern heroes, it is their female counterparts who have scored big in the north, be it Vyjantimala, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi or Asin. While not lacking in talent, the men have, on the whole, not met with as much success. “Perhaps it’s a male territorial issue. They have not been allowed to usurp the ground of the Hindi film hero,” says filmmaker Srinivas Bhashyam.

On a more flippant note, however, some keen watchers of the north-south interface lay the blame squarely on the southern penchant for moustaches; not shared in north India, they point out, which has more often preferred its heroes without facial hair. These taste barriers seem to be breaking down now. Audiences on both sides of the Vindhyas are evolving, and contemporary south Indian heroes are becoming universal, rather than region-specific, in their appeal. In other words, abs, biceps and a raw physicality are speaking louder than moustaches. Suriya, for instance, is a hard-to-resist combination of a toughie with a moonily romantic face. Vikram in a T-shirt and linen pants, lighting his cigarette from a candle in the Khili Re song from Raavan, exudes cool with a capital C. And put Rana in a crumpled kurta pyjama, he could even pull off a Bhojpuri film!

But why would the kings of the south want to court Bollywood, especially when their own film industries are doing as much, if not more exciting work than Bollywood? Suriya is quick to point this out: “We have everything—creativity, concepts and technical expertise. We work better with montages, song sequences, even capture small moments beautifully.” What Bollywood offers him and other southern heroes, however, is reach and roles. It provides them access to a bigger market and a wider audience, and an opportunity to build on their fan base.

“I can’t do routine roles, and am always looking for well-defined characters,” says Vikram. As he sees it, Hindi cinema has grown by leaps and bounds. “There are fantastic, out-of-the-box roles in films like Chak De, Omkara, Dil Chahta Hai, Paa and Cheeni Kum. These characters can’t be done in the south. A Rang de Basanti or Chak De won’t gel well there,” he says. So he jumped at the challenge that Raavan offered. With both versions being shot simultaneously, he had to constantly switch between two completely different characters, verbal and body languages and get-ups. So he’s simple, slick and stylish in one role, and rustic, rugged and brutish in the other. “The contrast was stark. It was as though I was in an acting workshop,” he laughs.

Clearly, the move to Bollywood is fuelled by a need on the part of these stars to reinvent themselves. “It’s a creative thing. They are constantly raising the bar for themselves,” says Sippy. For Suriya, like Vikram, playing the “standout, flawlessly written character, who is not the normal hero” is important. His persona in Rakta Charitra is that of an ordinary man caught in an extraordinary situation and required a complex, psychological interpretation. “It’s a challenge to do something with a completely different sensibility...in a place and language I don’t belong to,” he says.

The last bit, mastering Hindi, has been a big challenge. Rana, who has had a relatively cosmopolitan upbringing, is comfortable with the language, but Suriya and Vikram have had to learn it afresh (and have practised hard in order dub their own lines). “I needed to put in extra effort to connect with the words and to get the emotions, modulation, expressions right,” says Suriya.

Rana went one further in shedding his roots, since he had to look Goan and learn Konkani for the character he plays in DMD. “In Hindi, you don’t have regional barriers, the plate of characters is more wholesome and wide-ranging. I couldn’t have played a Goan in a Telugu film,” he says. Suriya feels that conservative Tamil Nadu does not allow for liberal and modern themes in the movies. “Some 60 per cent of the audience is based in rural areas, multiplexes are fewer. Chennai itself hardly has five per cent of the night life of Bombay,” he says. So Bollywood offers him a cosmopolitanism he is eager to embrace.

“There is no barrier to anything in cinema. I could be doing a film in French next,” says Rana. “It’s an ocean out there and we are ready to leap,” says Vikram. That said, they’re not abandoning their regional ships entirely just yet. The idea is to accommodate both, by working on Bollywood projects that are wrapped up fast, while continuing to honour commitments in the south. “I am not moving to Bombay, I’ll come and go,” clarifies Vikram. Like the other southern heroes, he is unwilling to give up everything he has struggled so hard for. “It would be like starting way down the order to work your way up all over again. Why would I want to compete with an SRK or Salman?” asks Vikram.

So, after Raavan, he’s doing a Tamil psycho-thriller directed by Selvaraghavan where he plays three different characters. Suriya’s next is a film by A.R. Murugadoss (of Ghajini fame) and Rana is, again, working with Selvaraghavan. Bollywood offers are on the horizon but they are choosing with care, hoping to ensure they break that long-standing jinx. Of course, for viewers it’s another reason to celebrate.

Vikram’s unique Bollywood debut

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It is known that Mani Ratnam’s ‘Raavan’ starring Vikram, Aishwarya Rai and Prithviraj will be released in Tamil and Telugu. Vikram also stars in the Hindi version of ‘Raavan’ with Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. Mani Ratnam who feels Vikram will be the next best thing happening to Bollywood from south has created a special trailer to introduce the national award winning actor to Bollywood in style. The special trailer will be a curtain raiser showcasing Vikram’s style and substance using scenes from his earlier movies. Amitabh Bachchan is expected to release this special curtain raiser in March.  So expecting Vikram to make it big in Bollywood after ‘Raavan’, Vikram’s current producers are getting ready to cash in. Mohan Natrajan who is doing a film with Vikram under Boopathy Pandian is all set to dub it in Hindi also. Ileana opposite Vikram will make it easy for Telugu dubbing. Vikram plays a police officer after ‘Samy’ in this untitled film. Brahmanandam will tickle the funny bones. Devi Sri Prasad will do the music instead of previously reported Mani Sharma.