Oh boy!! FINALLY get to see a Bollywood film in a theater and THIS is the one it turns out to be! What a disappointment, but then I've never had good luck when it comes to Abhishek Bachchan's films and I'm beginning to understand why so many people complain about him being both stiff and hammy at the same time. (I used to think that those two things were mutually exclusive.) The acting is barely adequate and there is virtually no chemistry between Bachchan and his beautiful co-star Aishwarya Rai, which is strange since they are married to each other in real life. This is the 4th film of Bachchan's films that I've seen and with each one I like him less and less. To be honest, the only time I've enjoyed seeing him on film at all was a cameo in OM SHANTI OM in which he played a caricature of himself.
The film was disappointing on almost every other level as well. From the title RAAVAN I was expecting a film that was in some way a retelling of the Ramayana and that is sort of what I got, but I was hoping for more of a period piece because I'm a sucker for costume flix. No dice, this one is definitely contemporary with Vikram playing a cop (the Ram character) out to rescue his wife in this version played by Aishwarya Rai who has been kidnapped by Raavan, Bachchan of course. The script seemed weak and undeveloped considering the rich source material it had to draw from, and the direction was uninspired. The worst part for me was that the music (always a prime concern in Bollywood films) wasn't given a fair shake. In fact the best song was over almost before it had begun which was extremely disheartening. On the plus side there is some beautiful scenery and the cinematographic does an excellent job of capturing it. If it hadn't been for the scenery I might very well have given this film 2 stars.
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AdriannaNovember 15, 2010
Too bad the film didn't live up to expectations. I agree with Sean, though. They have a great film poster.
QUEENBFLIXNovember 18, 2010
One of the sad truths in life is the better the poster the worse the movie.
Sounds like I may skip this one, and the other 3 films you have seen of his. Great review as always.
QUEENBFLIXNovember 12, 2010
I may finally have seen one of his that I liked though--or at least I saw the first half hour and the last half hour. The rest was screwed up by the station broadcasting it so I'm going to have to get it from NetFlix.
Cool! I don't think I've ever seen a Bollywood film in the States before. Great review, Karen! And I'm glad you were able to share it ;)
QUEENBFLIXNovember 11, 2010
It was nice to finally be able to bring it over and rewrite it. I'll have to check the movie listings every week now that I know they're booking Bollywood films in my area. We do have a large Indian population here. Plus I found a public acess station that broadcast a Bwood flick every Saturday night at 9 p.m. Things tend to go wrong a lot though and they don't always show the whole film.
Ok, seeing as how I am not well-versed with Bollywood, I think I'll stay away from this. I'll stick to ASOKA and HEY RAM. Hey, Karen, someone recommended DHOOM 1 and 2 to me... Bollywood films....any good? heard of them? nice review!!
QUEENBFLIXNovember 10, 2010
The first DHOOM is a Bachchan film that has been recommended to me but I haven't seen it yet. I can't speak for the second one. In OM SHANTI OM the Bachchan joke is that he ISN'T being nominated for best actor for DHOOM 5 because he isn't in it--which surprises him.
QUEENBFLIXNovember 10, 2010
A quick check shows that DHOOM 2 has Hrithik Roshan getting top billing but it also starts Bachchan and Aish Rai.