Adipurush

It is a 2023 Indian mythological action film. It is based on the Hindu epic Ramayana. The film is directed & co-written by Om Raut. Produced by T-series. Shot simultaneously in Hindi & Telugu. The film features Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan, Kriti Sanon, Sunny Singh & Devdatta Nage.

It was released in June 2023. Critics criticised screenplay, dialogues & visuals. Made on a budget of est. Rs. 500-700 crores it garnered only about Rs 353- 450 crores. It emerged as a box office bomb.

Om Raut was fascinated by the 1992 Japanese film ‘Ramayana : The Legend of Prince Rama’ & was motivated to adapt the Ramayana into the script amidst Covid-19 lockdown.

Prabhas is enacting Lord Rama whose character name is Raghav, also one of the names Rama is known as. Saif Ali Khan has worked with Raut in ‘Tanhaji’ was a natural choice for Ravana or Lankesh. Later Kriti Sanon as Sita, addressed as Janaki throughout the film. Sunny Singh plays the role of Lord Rama’s younger brother Lakshman. He is addressed as Shesh in the film.

More than the Japanese show, the effects are more akin to the Chinese show ‘Love between devil & the fairy’. Saif Ali’s costume or Raghav’s are akin to the show. Also the vicious bird Ravana flies on is the same. So is Lanka. We have always visualised it as Golden Here it is Black with steel piercing the dark skies.

The black costume of Ravana & the cold environment he lives in is the same of the Demon God. Only he plays Sitar & worships Lord Shiva. His way of massaging with the snakes was just gross.

Actor Arun Mandola is right when he says it is copying from ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Planets of Apes’ & ‘Jungle Book’. Actress Dipika Chikhlia, Sunil Lahiri who were Sita & Lakshman in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan did not approve of the VFX & alterations in the epic.

The dialogues are with the times. The languages jarrs on our ears. The decorum of the story, characters, language is lost in the visuals.

Janaki is in the Ashok van in Lanka. It should be full of greenery & not dark, stark stones with only cherry blossoms. It is again straight out of the Chinese drama where the Fairy lives. You can check it out.

India has a lovely weather. The tourists flock to experience the climate, colourful people, seasons & the forests. It is depicted as deary which it is not! The trio had a hut. They are living in a cave. Two men can . Logically a woman, a princess at that, cannot live like a vanvasi.

If faults are to be seen. Too many. Costumes are good expensive but not to our expectations.

Raut made an expensive, magnum opus, at that ,but not Ramayan. The serene, pious, perfect story is lost in the glamore. Our sentiments , feelings are sincere, there , for years. They are not only our idols but the very air we breathe. We live because of them. Any calamity is not one because of their being.

Have I seen them? No , but the beliefs are so strong that their presence can be felt. Just that. They are our feelings. Our motivation. Everything.