Let’s see why the movie is titled ravan(the villain) and not jivan or ji.one; the name of the hero?
probably the title ravan is more dramatic than jivan, and the villain ravan is after all - the creation of jivan(jivan daan). good begets evil, or so says conventional mythology and tradition.so the entire focus remains on the technical marvel created by ace nerd and programmer, jivan, which eventually assumes a monstrous will of its own.technology overtakes its creator.people who keep snakes in their backyard can’t be sure it will only bite the neighbors.
there are clumsy attempts to draw parallels to the original ramayana screenplay of ravan abducting sita and ram chasing him down.here ravan abducts sita as well as sita’s son and jivan goes to inflict retribution upon ravan.there are many other inspirations of frustration with technology and its inherent risk of overtaking the creators bonafide/benevolent aims, that are possibly taken from several hollywood themes, such as i-robot, terminator etc.
talking of titles, I am also surprised by the choice of name’lucifer’ for jivans son.though its only a gaming identity kept by his son, who is named something else in real life, the word lucifer has many negative connotations.
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer(as a noun) means "light-bearer"(from the words lucem ferre). It was the name given to the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, which heralds daylight. For this meaning, English generally uses the names "Morning Star" or "Day Star", and rarely "Lucifer".lucifer was the archangel before he fell from gods grace due to intense personal ambition.so, I give a thumbs down to shahrukh for choosing an inappropriate reference.
having discussed the titles and background, let us see the plot.well it’s quite simple. nerdy shahrukh who is a programmer for barron entp, makes a video game in which its impossible to defeat the villain, as desired by his son. jivans son thinks his dad is clumsy and lacks respect for him.hence the game to earn sons respect. jivan gets several more opportunities to earn his sons respect when he must play the game to defeat ravan.
during the trial of the game lucifer logs in and starts playing at the main game server. he must leave the game halfway .but ravan refuses to be shut down. he exits the game and kills an associate programmer, assuming his physical form, in search of lucifer whom he needs to finish off the game, for which he is created.jivan restarts the game and himself enters it to save lucifer and kill ravan. but jivan is killed by ravan and the mom, kareena escapes to mumbai with lucifer.
the gaming avataar of jivan however comes back to life in the computer game and then assumes a real life form to save kareena and lucifer.the rest of the movie is about the fights between ravan and jivan .
whether lucifer will be able to bring back his dead father to life and whether good will prevail over evil, is what you are looking at post intermission.
the music and dance numbers are real good and akon has done a great number with chammakchallo.
some of the jibes at bollywood are crass and in poor taste.one doesn’t know initially whether ravan is a spoof or a serious movie?providing wholesome entertainment doesn’t mean a cut and paste job or poor jokes.’the three girlfriends of bruce lee are - teri lee, meri lee aur uski lee’! wow, this one is straight from yahoo groups on silly jokes.
there are more 3d frames than avatar in this movie - so what? the stunts lack credulity and appear artwork.there is no suspense or emotion in the movie.the director focuses on technical brilliance and not storytelling - hence the movie fails to rise above a youtube-like video trailer of a new video game. technical work should remain a power point presentation and not an entertainer.
movie ok for kids, but the adults have to take a pitcher of salt. for someone bred on a dose of heavy animation and 3d effects so common in hollywood movies, ravan may be new to bollywood, but otherwise stale stuff without a convincing and emotional story to back it. even hollywood has stopped using hi tech animation effects unless it is to support a real life situation.
its ok for strictly one view only.