Critic's reviews

• Taran Adarsh - Bollywood Hungama

  You've come to expect scintillating visuals in the master film-maker's films and RAAVAN is no exception. But RAAVAN falters in narrating the story with dexterity. In fact, this one's a game of see-saw, with a dull and lifeless first hour, an absorbing sec

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• Aniruddha Guha - DNA

  Mani Ratnam's take on the epic, in fact, is not just courageous, but interesting too. An adaptation is always more enjoyable when a maker gives an oft-repeated story a novel spin, and in that respect Mani Ratnam has taken an initiative worth lauding.The f

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• Mayank Shekar - Hindustan Times

  for a film centred and named after the villain itself. There's nothing that you eventually learn or realise. Allegory 'n' all is fine. Lonely conjectures can take you only that far, when an entire movie's merely in the moviemaker's mind, and a plot so thi

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• Rajeev Masand - IBN Live

  Alas, "Raavan" - despite a relatively modest running time of 2 hours and 10 minutes - is a crushing bore of a film, a disappointment on virtually every count. As it currently stands, "Raavan" is a predictable revenge drama that stays too safe to ever surp

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• Shubhra Gupta - Indian Express

  Ratnam takes his time with his desultory first half, creating stunning scenery but listless characters.It's only well into the second half that Ratnam breaks out of his stupor, and starts giving us a film. This is when the cast is allowed to play on a lev

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• Gaurav Malani - India Times

  Mani Ratnam's modern adaptation of Hindu mythological epic Ramayana with a twist, is a film made with good intention, beautiful music and mind blowing cinematography but unfortunately lacking everything else!.To start with, the story of the film as if on

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• Komal Nahata - Koi Moi

  The first half is very slow and boring after the initial couple of reels. Revealing the reasons for Beera's revenge in flashbacks after interval may add to the intrigue value of the drama but it would also put off a section of the audience as it, in a way

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• Khalid Mohammed - Passion for Cinema

  Ratnam's modern take on mythology dares to be politically incorrect. Mercifully, he doesn't opt for a traditional, marshmallow denouement. Now revealing the finale would be that classic spoiler. To avoid the alert suffice it to say, that the mythology doe

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• Raja Sen - Rediff

  The film's first half is choppy and bewildering but tight, while the second sprawls all over the place, overlong and exhausting. Sivan's frames are indeed grand, but there isn't one great shot to take away from the film. Even the world-conquering A R Rahm

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• Nikhat Kazmi - Times of India

  The high point of Mani Ratnam's film is primarily its visual opulence.It's revisionist tale of a Sita-like heroine flipping for a Raavan-like anti-hero, even as the traditional hero gets imbued in grey tones.... The anti-hero has always remained an alluri

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