ADIPURUSH:The Story Of Raghav and Jhanki

Cast: Prabhas (Raghav), Kriti Sanon (Jhanki), Saif Ali Khan (Lankesh), Devdatta Nage (Bajrang), Sunny Singh (Shesh) etc. Director: Om Raut Producer: Om Raut, Bhushan Kumar, Prasad Sutar, Krishan Kumar

Language: Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil

Rating: 3/5

19th June 2023, Preeti Ramesh

Amidst all the trolling and controversy over dialogues assigned to Hanumanji in Adipurush, let’s get down to talking whether the movie is actually that bad and whether it deserves all the flak it has been getting?

Adipurush gives off a distinct Game Of Thrones vibe with its bluish setting especially when Lanka’s geography is shown. Ravan uses a ginormous bat as his vaahan instead of a dragon though there is a pushpak vimaan shown at the side (wonder what was the point of showing that?), who he feeds man sized chicken legs. There is also a scene where he is shown to work at the weapon furnace, working hard on forging a blade (Really!?!), ogres roam Lanka rajya and Indrajeet (Lankesh’s son), has speed like flash. Adipurush introduces a never before mentioned in Ramayan battle scene with a creature called Pathangi: a hooded skeleton creature that flies around and is controlled by a nexal entity; which is slain by Raghav. In a three hour movie, this was unnecessary but probably introduced to appeal to the western audiences. The ending has hand to hand combat and Lankesh dies in true Ravan Dahan style.

I liked Ravan.

With his thuggish walk, slight limp like gait which went well with his twisted personality, a humpish shoulder which reminds me of the Hunchback of Notredam (very different personality though)! The way his 10 heads snarl at each other when he fails to convince Jhanki.

Loved the Veena playing where the shivling was consecrated. Ravan’s stone statues also come alive and pay tribute during the playing. It’s enthralling and one of the scenes I liked the most, till the strings rupture like a harbinger of doom when Surpanakha enters.Since, Saif Ali Khan, himself is a guitar player, a lot of the playing was probably original. 

Adipurush tries to avoid conflict by not depicting several scenes from the original Ramayan; where the decisions or actions have been up for debate on whether they were Maryada Uttam : There is no Agnipariksha, Raghav does not slay Vali while hiding behind bushes, No accusations by Jhanki when she coaxes Shesh to go after Raghav during the Swarna Maan hunt, Vibhishan is justified in leaving Ravan etc. 

Lastly, it was a story of Raghav, Jhanki, Shesh and Bajrang not Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman. Ravan is not the villain ,instead it’s Lankesh.While these may be namesakes, it was a wise decision to change the names. It’s interesting to note that while it’s Raghav who is the lead character, what plays as the background score is Jai Shree Ram.Still, Adipurush couldn’t keep itself out of controversies. It received severe backlash for the boorish and cantish dialogues assigned to Bajrang. During the initial teaser release last year, many complained about the poor VFX and similarities between existing animation screens or posters created by other animation companies. The team seemingly did work on improving it’s effects after being trolled in the initial teaser released by them in October last year.

My final take is that, while Adipurush was not mesmerizing, it was not a severely botched up effort either. While there is huge scope for improvement, it is still a commendable attempt at animation by Prasad Sutar, the man who purportedly is behind the VFX for the film.