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How the Ramayana movie should be like
The Hindu epic Ramayana may feature fewer characters with grey shades compared to The Mahabharata, but that is one of its major strengths too. The Ramayana is propelled by a story built on hope, courage and the importance of doing the right thing and staying true to your word. Here is how the upcoming Ramayana movie should feel, so that the essence of the timeless story is conveyed to the masses.
Culture Treasury Staff
7/25/20262 min read
The Ramayana trailer has arrived, and it's got the attention of the people back to one of the cornerstones of Hindu thought and culture--the saga of Rama, prince of Ayodhya and avatar of Lord Vishnu, who journeys across the Indian subcontinent to free his wife Sita from the clutches of the Rakshasa king Ravana. Everyone in India is familiar with the story. It is thousands of years old and has been passed from generation to generation. Now the question here is this: if most people in India are quite familiar with the Ramayana, why would someone want to go and watch the whole story unfold on a theatre screen?
Lord Rama is not just the hero of the story; he is Lord Vishnu's avatar, God-incarnate, one of the major deities in Hinduism who is worshipped by billions. People don't view King Rama as just a noble and just story character; he is their God. That is why faith is a major reason why people would want to go. There are other reasons too. The Ramayana is a source of pride for the Indian people; it lays down ground rules for how human society should conduct itself. It stresses the importance of living one's life ethically and treating everyone with respect and kindness.
Now, how should the Ramayana movie starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and 'Rocking Star' Yash feel like? Crores have been pooled into the production of Ramayana, and we could be almost rest assured that the CGI, wherever it is applied, would be able to create grand battles between the Rama-led army of humans and vanaras and the Rakshasa army of Lanka ruler Ravana. But can we be sure that the movie based on the Hindu epic will do justice to it? We can't. Look at what happened with Prabhas and Kriti Sanon starrer Adipurush.
Ramayana is about the virtues of human beings, of doing the right thing, fighting for the right thing and keeping your word; it is a grand vision of Rama-rajya, a society free of crime and corruption. It gives us an ideal of a society; it makes us hope and dream and, for some of us, work to make that dream a reality, even if on a small scale.
The Ramayana asks men and women to rise to their most beautiful selves. The Ranbir Kapoor film should inspire people not to lose their sense of moral direction in a world filled with hate, rage, corruption and depression. Can it do that? Could it move beyond just grand battle scenes created with the help of modern tech? Will people go to the theatre and come out transformed, having been reminded of the ideals most of them have lost to greed and power? If the film does not spur the person who watches it to live a life of honour and morally correct actions, if it does not give them the deep teachings of the Hindu epic, if it focuses just on recreating grand fighting scenes, then it would fail.
The Ramayana is the ideal. Can this Bollywood rendition of the Hindu epic do justice to the values imparted in the classical text by sage Valmiki? Going by how mainstream Bollywood treats content that has a lot of depth, it seems to be a tall order for the upcoming Bollywood film.