SPOILERS
Mani Ratnam’s ‘Raavan’ is a modern reinterpretation of the ‘Ramayana.’ Ravana is a forest-dwelling Naxalite. Rama is a top cop, Sita his wife. In a fit of inspired casting, Govinda’s Hanuman is a mischievous, drunkard forest guard.
There’s a great scene with intense art direction where Sita earns Ravana’s respect by jumping off a waterfall ‘Fugitive’-style rather than letting him shoot her.
The story flips two big things about the North Indian ‘Ramayana.’ One, Rama is an asshole far beyond the sexist trial by fire, and Ravana is the noble one. Fine, Tamilians and Sri Lankans would and do believe this :) (Hanuman doesn’t burn Lanka here, and the demoness whose nose was cut off is turned into an innocent bride in the movie).
But two, Sita is inexplicably emotionally unfaithful to Rama, falling for Ravana in a sort of Stockholm syndrome and choosing to stay with him. This annoyed me to no end, as Sita is a deep cultural archetype of loyalty.
The weird thing is, Ratnam’s trying to fight sexism with sexism. His Aishwarya-Sita is fairly weak and weepy, he’s bending to the Hindi film market. And Ratnam’s audacious in doing a Hindi version — there are three in different languages — which flips the North Indian myth using two leading Bolly actors. Apparently audiences stayed away this weekend partly over this reversal.
I remember Ratnam being a better filmmaker than this, but he’s fallen to endless 360-degree shots around characters Indian serial-style, and explication for idiots. Lots of howling at the wind, bad depiction of mental illness and such. Supposedly the Tamil version is better. And let’s not talk about Ham, son of Ham. The last flick Abhishek was tolerable in was ‘Guru.’
The Sita twist felt like finding out a childhood confidante was a crack ho. It made me sad, even though both versions are just stories. Still knocks me for a loop when I think about it.
I’m waiting for the ‘Sin City Ramayana’ where Rama swears and Lakshman packs heat :)



Omair Ahmad’s novella The Storyteller’s Tale is a stylish third of a book, a meta-tale about the art of telling tales. A dispossessed storyteller fleeing Ahmad Shah Abdali’s 
