Raavanan In my view!!!!

“Raavanan” is a modern-day replication of the mythological epic Ramayana. Director Mani Ratnam has beautified the character of Raavana from Ramayana and illustrated his personality from a different angle. Though Beera (Vikram) is depicted as Raavan who is expected to be the villain of the story but, effort has been made to show a different image of the Raavan. While hubby Vikram plays the Raavan, Aishwarya Rai plays the beautiful Sita with Prithviraj as the good soul Sri Ram.

Veera (Vikram) is a criminal who hides in thick forests of a South Village (thats what they are telling.. But locations are entirely different)from where he executes his criminal activities. He is a menace to the police and he has thorough knowledge of the jungle with hunting skills and he kills policemen and seizes all their weapons. Everybody is scared of him except SP Dev (Prithvi) who is the husband of Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan).

Veera kidnapped his pretty wife Ragini to revenge Dev’s dare and to settle his enmity with him. During Dev’s fight to get back his wife, he meets a forest guard (Kathick) who helps him in his search for Beera. Karthik is depicted as a modern-day, Hanumaan though he is not able to do justice to his role. Ragini is a brave girl who is not scared of Veera but, tries her best to escape.

Dev who couldn’t trust Raavan after Sita’s abduction and so demands an Agni-pariksha of Ragini in the form of a polygraph test. There comes a twist in the plot, Ragini is a modern woman and he could accept her husband’s distrust on her and falls for the goodness in Raavan whom she previously hates and loathes. She realizes the good side of the bad man and vice-versa.

The first one hour of the movie is quite slow which would in one way test the patience of the audience. However, Ash was just too good in her facial expressions which reflected her fortitude and determination in the various attempts she makes to run away. Mani Ratnam has tactfully humanized Raavan and showed the demon in otherwise good guy, Ram. Veera, although plays a negative role but he is not heartless like Dev. Veera never misbehaves with captive Ragini.

The movie has a simple plot but what makes the movie beautiful is the acting of the crew and their expressions. Excellent photography by Santosh Sivan gives the movie a special touch and feel. He has captured the beauty of the forests, springs and the mountains. The songs of the movie are by AR Rahman and it’s very rhythmic as expected. Though, it is nothing exceptional.

The acting of all the main characters is worth mentioning, Vikram has effectively brought live to his character and from a villain becomes the hero of the movie. Ash is looking very beautiful with minimum or no makeup. Prithviraj is also quite good with more actions and less dialogues (Negative shades). Another important character is Priyamani (as sister of Veera) had done her part well!!! (she comes only less than 15 mins :-(( .. ) .Other characters like Prabhu, Munna..etc have doesnt have much to do but they have done their parts fairly.

Particularly i didnt like the climax. Mani could have shown only vikram with negative shades but he also shown Prithvi as a negative role which makes the main story less effective one. Screenplay is also not upto the mark and hence movie slows down in between. But the song at the end (very short song) by Rahman is really good and made me feel something sad for the hero(veera) !!! thats shows he talent/success of the singer (Rahman himself)!

Overall the movie is not so much bad !! One time watchable movie that too particularly for Santhosh Sivan's Photography and also Vikram's superb acting( Pity on him bcoz he is acting one movie for 2 yrs with much efforts but movie becomes flop due to other reasons ... 3rd in a row .. Bheema ( 2yrs), Kandhaswamy (nearly 2 yrs) and now again)...

2.75 out of 5 Stars ......

Note : I saw the movie last week itself but not able to write the review due to busy work scedule. Also I tried to watch the movie in Hindi 2 days back in my laptop but not able to the find the same feel as in Tamil. Thatz mainly bcoz some movies are good only when we watch it in theatre (or theatre effect :-) ). This movie is watchable only in theatres... You wont like the movie If you watch it in online or in system after downloading ....

Short Moral Stories

Hi Friends,
Just thought of sharing some short moral stories every week which are very inspirational.
Though it may look silly and childish the real theme behind the story is for all ppl.

Hard Work Brings Success:
There once lived a rich businessman who had a lazy and fun loving son. The businessman wanted his son to be hard-working and responsible. He wanted him to realize the value of labour. One day he summoned his son and said: "Today, I want you to go out and earn something, failing which you won't have your meals tonight."

The boy was callous and not used to any kind of work. This demand by his father scared him and he went crying straight to his mother. Her heart melted at the sight of tears in her son's eyes. She grew restless. In a bid to help him she gave him a gold coin. In the evening when the father asked his son what he had earned, the son promptly presented him the gold coin. The father then asked him to throw it into a well. The son did as he was told.

The father was a man of wisdom and experience and guessed that the source of the gold coin was the boy's mother. The next day he sent his wife to her parent's town and asked his son to go and earn something with the threat of being denied the night meals if he failed. This time he went crying to his sister who sympathized with him and gave him a rupee coin out of her own savings. When his father asked him what he had earned the boy tossed the rupee coin at him. The father again asked him to throw it in a well. The son did it quite readily. Again the father's wisdom told him that the rupee coin was not earned by his son. He then sent his daughter to her in-laws' house. He again asked his son to go out and earn with the threat that he shall not have anything for dinner that night.

This time since there was no one to help him out; the son was forced to go to the market in search of work. One of the shopkeepers there told him that he would pay him two rupees if he carried his trunk to his house. The rich man's son could not refuse and was drenched in sweat by the time he finished the job. His feet were trembling and his neck and back were aching. There were rashes on his back. As he returned home and produced the two rupee note before his father and was asked to throw it into the well, the horrified son almost cried out. He could not imagine throwing his hard-earned money like this. He said amid sobbing: "Father! My entire body is aching. My back has rashes and you are asking me to throw the money into the well."

At this the businessman smiled. He told him that one feels the pain only when the fruits of hard labour are wasted. On earlier two occasions he was helped by his mother and sister and therefore had no pain in throwing the coins into the well. The son had now realized the value of hard work. He vowed never to be lazy and safe keep the father's wealth. The father handed over the keys of his shop to the son and promised to guide him through the rest of the life.

Moral of the Story: Some of the life's best lessons come from the hardest situations. Nothing comes without pain. Things which are got without hard work wont stay long. So never be lazy and never hesitate to work hard.
Have a nice day and weekend!!!

Regards,
Harish Kumar P R

As It Happened!! (19-6-10)

Hi All,

Back after 2 weeks gap !! As expected climate has a complete turnover when compared last 2 months !! Its started brizzling daily and climate is very chill here !!

I have successfully completed 6th Sem of my M.S course last week. Its been a terrible experience for past 3 yrs while preparing for the Final exam of each semester which is a Open book exam. Why because though i heard of this open book scheme i had never experienced/realizied the scenario before. Always in a dilemma whether to just browse the topics or to read n cover(understand) topics as much as possible. I was doing the 2nd thing for the first 2 sem but later i come to know though we put effort like that there will be not much difference between a hard studier and a normal reader guy. It depends more on the effort put on the exam days. Forutnately this time all went Well !! Im quite happy about the exams !! Lets see how the outcome is.

New Buddies:

Im really very happy that my blog has been an inspiration for 2 of my collegues and friends ..
http://www.abhishejoyappa.blogspot.com/ is my friend Abhishek's blogpage. Expecting more quality articles from him !!
http://www.feroz-catchmeifyoucan.blogspot.com/ is the address of another friend firoz's blog. He always do things diffferently. Lets see how he makes difference in his blogs.

Welcome ABHISHEK and FEROZ !!!!

Sports Bits:

Tennis: As expected Nadal easily sailed thru and beat all opponens in straight sets in Rolland Garros. He had regained his world no:1 status and also his French open title. But now the real test is how he is going to perform in Wimledon the most previliged Grandslam which starts June 21st ! With Fedrer struggling the competition become much open now !! My favourite picks are Nadal, Roddick,Fedrer and Hewitt (Suprised ? he is in good form now) ....

Football: At the end of first week of the World cup matches we had only few excitinng moments in the matches. Mostly all the matches are sloppy and provided no fun with few expectations!! I'm terribly disappointed with performance of England !! Now i can say for sure they wont even reach semi finals (may be not even second round !) Another disappointment is France ! (Not even scored a goal till now) ! They are repeating the 2002 feat i think Spain also suffereda shock defeat to Swiss. But i think they will bounce back !! Argentina is through to Round 16 which is the only good sign till now. Messi is only star footballer who shined well till now according to me. Lets see how it progresses in the coming days .. I still support brazil ! and now argentina had joined in that list.

Cricket: After a terrible(!!!) Performance by inexperienced Indian team now they are ready for battle in Asia Cup. With FIFA world cup fever is on, there is no much interest in this tournament(Also Sachin is not there) !! 3 teams eying for 2 places in finals !! I think Sri lanka will assure their place in finals .. its fight between rivalaries India and pakistan for another place !

Raavan Buzz: With much hype Raavan had released in 3 languages worldwide in 1500 centres yesterday! All tickets were sold out in morning itself here for first day shows in Mysore! With the mixed reviews about the film the success lies in collections and public opinions after first 3 days !! Will try to watch this movie this weekend and let you know abt the movie !! Till Then Bye Guys !!

Have a nice day ahead !!

With Regards,

Harish Kumar P R