Adipurush

Delving into the VFX first, the makers pushed the release date by six months. For this? Reportedly, Adipurush is one of the most expensive films ever. But the VFX mars the visuals. You see a Ravan landing on a humongous bat at his palace, on a bat-pad. Really? Then you have VFX monkeys residing in a forest, in strapped leather gear. If you also notice the fight scenes cleverly, you’ll notice that it’s never mostly finished. It’s rather covered with dust, smoke or an explosion where your entire screen will be covered by glittery particles during an intense moment. Though we’d give it to director Om Raut for trying to cleverly cut scenes that sparked a meme fest last year, the VFX was still a no-show.

Khan has the most permitted fun in a 179-minute narrative that is far too busy delivering slow-moving, often turgid spectacle to explore the Ramayana’s moral universe. For sheer joy, there’s Ram Mohan’s animated Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama. For a radical interpretation of the epic’s treatment of heroes and villains, there is Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan, which is set in contemporary times and re-imagines its antagonist as a wronged rebel. Any darkness in Adipurush can be found in the underexposed backdrops and Ravana’s black chic. The uni-tonal leads take a backseat to the parade of visual effects, some of which are undoubtedly imaginative.

This version of the Ramayan is not interested in connecting with the feeling of genuine religiosity that any reading of the ‘granth’ arouses, whether it is the most popular Tulsidas version or the Valmiki version. This is a beloved epic turned into an actioner, reminding you of a little of ‘The Lord Of The Rings’ (the poor ‘rakshashas’ guarding Lankapati’s castle look like orcs and trolls, and the building itself a gargoyle with zero provenance), a bit of ‘Game Of Thrones’, and countless films which have computer generated armies going at each other. Despite our 3D glasses, Prabhas (Ram), Sunny Singh (Lakshman), Sita (Kriti Sanon) all appear 2D: the only one who feels somewhat filled out is Hanuman (Devdatta Nage), with his few funny lines.