If you’re looking for a big movie with big themes and epic sweep, Ramayana: Rise of a Legend should fill the bill. Loaded with plot twists, spectacle, and characters, Ramayana has a simple spine that pits good against evil and operates on the cosmic mythic levels. What? You wanted something bigger?
I’ll offer as brief a synopsis as possible. Before Ram (Ranbir Kapoor), the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu, can take over the kingdom of Ayodhya, he's forced into a 14-year exile with his wife Sita (Sai Pallavi) and his loyal brother Lakshman (Ravi Dubey).
Deeper trouble looms. Rama eventually must confront the evil Ravana (a fearsome Yash), an evil ruler who controls the three worlds (earth, heaven, and the underworld) that constitute the movie’s universe. He's nearly indestructible thanks to an intervention by the creator god Brahma.
Don’t let the names throw you. This ancient story functions as one of the foundational texts for Hindus. But it also tells a story that can be seen as a grand adventure that should be no more taxing to viewers than the average Star Wars movie.
Director Nitesh Tiwari has taken on a massive task, creating a three-hour movie (I saw the three-hour version in Hindi with subtitles) that includes gilded sets, elaborate costumes, monsters, lavish weddings, and a flying machine that’s appears during a kidnapping.
Trust me. That's a short list.
Leaning heavily into CGI and digital effects, Tiwari employs a broad approach to storytelling, wooing audiences with spectacle. In the early going, the artifice was so thickly applied, I wondered whether I was watching an animated film.
Put another way, it took me a moment to acclimate to the hyper-vivid visual style of the movie's extended prologue.
Shot through with ideas about fate and personal destiny and, as the screenplay puts it, finding one's dharma, the movie allows for the intermingling of humans and gods and serves as an accessible way to approach an ancient Sanskrit poem.
A musical score by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman alternates between lush melodrama and infectious Indian rhythms, offering echoes of both Hollywood and Bollywood.
Tiwari isn’t going for subtlety; he’s looking for wow factor. More often than not, he finds it, delivering a movie full of operatic emotions.
At three hours long, Ramayana never bored me and left me anticipating the next chapter. Yes, three hours wasn’t enough. Tiwari plans to release the second installment next year.
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