what we are reading – EightandHalf
It was suppose to be Vikram’s big bollywood debut. But what actually happened? Well, we all know the story. The general feedback was that the Tamil version was better than the Hindi one. In the Tamil version, Vikram played Beera, the same role which was played by Abhishek Bachchan in the Hindi version. And a film buff cut a very cool video – put Vikram in double role. Watch the video.
And he has a cut a new trailer of the film in the same way
FLASHBACK
After Guru released, one morning we woke up to a big shock! Amitabh Bachchan had put a full page ad in all the major national dailies, and had put out all the congratulatory smses that he received for his Beta Bachchan. Private messages meant for him became advertisement! And some of the filmy people of Bollylalaland who send these kind of smses every friday to every filmmaker whose films releases, just to make them happy, were surprised, shocked and embarassed too. They never imagined that it will go to print.
PRESENT
After Raavan has been butchered by critics and its BO fate seems doomed, Beta Bachchan has gone completely silent. Infact he has moved to Football fever! Bet something surely is fishy there because citizens of bollylalaland go on and on and on about their films pre & post-release. Surprisingly, there are no post-release promotional events too!
On the other hand, daddy Amitabh Bachchan is still active on twitter. In reply to Jitesh Pillaai, Editor of FilmUnfare, he has explained why Beera’s Bakbakbak looks so illogical in the film…first the tweets in text form….then the screenshot of the twitter page and a closer look, if you cant read.
@jiteshpillaai Agree, Jitesh ..gather lot of merited film edited out, causing inconsistent performance and narrative,but what presentation !
@jiteshpillaai Yes it was all there, but sadly edited. Abhishek’s erratic behavior was due to symbolic 10 heads visually appearing..contd about 3 hours ago
@jiteshpillaai contd ..and each giving him different attitudes to adopt for a situation, he would then finally shake them off and decide .. about 3 hours ago
@jiteshpillaai ..in the edit all the visual heads got cut and you see a confused Beera expression and wonder why .. it was after he removed about 3 hours ago
@jiteshpillaai .the other head visuals from his thinking.. in the edit you see the after effect of that thinking process, hence inconsistent about 3 hours ago
So, is Mr Sreekar Prasad & Mani Ratnam listening ? As they say, for every successful film, there are million daddies and for every bad one, its a bastard child!
Sigh! Never felt so bad, sad, sleepy and my (single) head spinning at the same time! Blame it on Raavan’s ten heads! But where were they ? Remained all inside Ratnam’s head only.
First a confession – Its not a review. As usual, just some ramblings. Because a movie so bad and that too coming from one of the best filmmakers of our country, am not in my senses yet.
Second confession – Since my nappy days, as long as i remember, have fallen asleep in a movie theatre only thrice. First, it was Haan Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya Hai. Second time, it was Saawariya and third time, its Raavan. Falling asleep during Ratnam film, its blasphemous! I know, guilty as charged! But do watch the film and then, lets talk. Anyway, after coming out of the theatre, i quickly called up a friend to figure out what i missed during those precious minutes, and realised that it was a high point of the film’s (poly)graph!
Am still not sure how and where to start. Yeah, credit roll looks superb. And so do, lot of shots. You can take that as a guarantee for any Ratnam film anyway. And this time he teams up with Santosh Sivan. Has to be magic! But how many picture postcards can you stare at ? Plus, there is distraction by Abhishek Bachchan’s growling (reminded me of Anil Kapoor’s irritating dialogue delivery style in Tashan) and Aishwarya Rai’s shrieks and screams in squeaky voice! And poor Vikram (was expecting so so much), he is just the RayBan guy in slo-mo! Even Govinda and Ravi Kishen have more lines than him and are actually best suited for their roles.
You get to see Raavan’s much hyped ten heads only in the credit roll. After that, its only Rahman’s african sounds main-ghumanjalo-aaa -ghumen-jaloooo or whatever it is. The entire first half is only chase sequence. It starts with a bang, grabs you instantly and then drags on and on and on and on till interval. In between, suddenly there is a flashback sequence in Vikram’s voice and it seems he is narrating his own story to himself. (BTW, has anyone still figured out who was narrating Raajneeti’s flashback sequence and to whom and where he suddenly vanishes! If you know, do enlighten)
Am guessing we all know the basic plot of the film. But the funniest part is the way Raavan falls in love with Sita (or Ragini). Its her free fall from the cliff and he falls in love with her! Never before has “falling in love” being shot so literally.
Have always believed that when it comes to shooting songs in Hindi films, nobody can beat Mani Ratnam. And this time, he proves that theory wrong too. You dont remember a single song after coming out of the theatre. Infact, I was ROFLOL when the romantic number between Vikram & Aishwarya played on screen. He is eating, she is dancing, he is sleeping, she is dancing, he is staring, she is dancing, he is having drinks, she is dancing, he wants breakfast, she is dancing and making it, he wants to make love, she is still dancing. And all in weird poses! This is suppose to be the love quotient of Vikram-Aishwaryaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhh! Give me that Arvind Swamy-Manisha Koirala’s hide & seek dance anyday! A stare here, a peek there – aha, magic!
Coming to Raavan’s politics, this time also Ratnam has played it all safe. The place, setting, language, customs, clothes – its all vague. Where is Laal Maati ? Who are its native people ? Tribals, villagers, naxalites ? Why is Abhishek Bachchan’s name Beera Munda ? Is it a take on the tribal leader Birsa Munda ? Otherwise, who are these Mundas ?
Post interval, the story moves a little bit taking plot points from Ramayan. Shurpanakha’s naak is pulled and they even try to create a Bivishan. And then all of a sudden, its dhoom-dhaam-dhadaap and i went to sleep….zzzzzzz. Woke up to realise that Ratnam has proved how Ram can be Raavan and Raavan can be Ram. Blame it on the character (poly)graph in the story. The best joke in the film. And as they say, rest is history.
Feeling much bad for the cast and crew. Because you can see the rough terrain in which the film has been shot. Add water to those rough locations, Ratnam-Sivan gets a hard on, making it more strenuous for themselves and everyone else! Its easy to spot that how much effort has gone into it. The bridge scene is one of the best scenes ever shot in a hindi film because its all real location…its takes your breath away. But then, you come back to the BIG picture and it doesn’t make any sense in any way.
Mani Saar – What were you smoking, drinking, doing ? Even if its untrue, please declare it just once that you didn’t direct this film. Put the blame on someone else. Just a fictitious name will also do. Will feel little better and will be able to sleep peacefully tonight. I still can’t believe its you!
(PS – I can bet that the first half of the film has been made on the edit table. Have confirmed it too. There is not a single scene which makes sense. Its only montages, which jumps from one to another, and looks choppy without making sense of any kind of narrative. )
Time to forget the teaser! Now the full trailer is out…almost 2mins long. Check it out! Wanna shout…Go Vikram go, just kill Raavan!
The poster, music, stills, everything is out and now the first promo song of Raavan has been released. The song is behne de. Check it out.
For as long as we can remember, the film has been in the making! And its still making headlines for all the wrong reasons! Incidents, accidents, cast and crew replacements, animal welfare board, notice, arrest, permission issue, rains, schedule getting delayed, health problems – just think of any problem that can happen to a film and Raavan had it!
The recent news is that Bipasha Basu is out of Raavan! For more details click here. First, her casting came as big surprise. From the beginning, it was not mentioned anywhere. And by july-august, the cast and crew members happily announced that the film is almost complete. Suddenly Bipasha’s name pops out! We are sure it must be for an item number. Cant be more than that. And now, she is even out of it!
Before Bipasha, it was DOP Manikandan who left the film and Mani got his good friend Santosh Sivan behind the camera. Recently they had shooting problem because of the heavy rains in the Malshej Ghat area. Before that it was elephant scare, notice from animal welfare board, permission issue in the jungles of kerala and Ratnam’s heart attack.
And Mr Asif, where are you ? Asif, who ? Asif from this post who thought we were putting out fake news! Earlier we had put a post on the rotal mess of the shooting schedule of Raavan. Click here to read our earlier post.
The hindi version of the film has Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Govinda & Vikram. In the tamil version, Vikram potrays Abhishek’s role and has Aishwarya Rai, Prithviraj and Priya Mani in the lead.
If its going like Apocalypse Now, we sincerly hope that it turns out to be one Apocalypse Now! We want to get rid of the memory of his last film corporate film on Reliance which was masked as Guru!
Yes, thats the goss doing the rounds.
Ranbir Kapoor has completed Shimit Amin’s Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year. He has moved on to Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti. And after Rajneeti, its Siddharth Anand’s new film Anjaana Anjaani with Priyanka Chopra. Also, in the pipeline is Mera Jahaan co-starring Deepika Padukone by debutant Vikram Singh.
But here is the most interesting news. According to Filmfare, Ranbir Kapoor is reportedly doing Mani Ratnam’s next film in which he plays a pakistani immigrant in America. The film is not titled yet. What we know is that he was offered a role in Raavan, but he refused.
Mani is currently busy with Raavan and will be be free by next year after the release of the film. By that time, Ranbir will also be done with both Siddharth Anand and Vikram’s films. If it works out, interesting!
One more casting news. It seems Shaadi Ali is set to return with Tevar ( Is this planned as triology..Tashan,Tevar…atleast it sounds so) and most probably Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor will team up again. Shaad is busy assissting Mani on Raavan these days.
UPDATE – According to Mumbai Mirror, the title of the film is Azaan and its a pro-muslim take. The story is about Azaan, the name of the lead character as he will be born during Azan. Click here to read the complete report.
Mani Ratnam’s Raavan has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. And if a lil birdie from Kerala’s jungles is to be believed, the film’s schedule is in a royal mess!
Ratnam has already shot for more than 100 days and when he saw the rushes, believe it or not, it turned out to be only 20% of the film. He chucked the rest. Some 600 cans have already been exposed and with so lil output! Now Ratnam has decided to re-shoot major portions of the film.
Shooting permission issues in Kerala & Ooty, had a heart attack and then he wasn’t happy with Manikandan’s work. Everything went wrong. Manikandan has been replaced with his old favourite Santosh Sivan.
With Reliance’s big money, he surely doesn’t need to worry about the finances but the problem is with the actors’ dates. The hindi version stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Govinda & Vikram. In the tamil version, Vikram potrays Abhishek’s role and has Aishwarya Rai & Prithviraj in the lead. The actors have been asked to give fresh dates.
Ratnam is going back to the jungles of Kerala soon to re-shoot the portions. And after that, there is shooting schedule of more than 180 days to be completed. At this rate, they should rename the film as Such a Long Road to Perdition!
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 