Ramayana movie criticism justified?

Kabir Singh Bhandari

The much-awaited Rama teaser of Ramayana, featuring Ranbir Kapoor, was released recently, and the internet has exploded—primarily with criticism—over the casting of Ranbir, VFX, comparisons to previous depictions of Ramayana; basically, everything is up for discussion. The teaser introduces Ranbir as Lord Rama, giving glimpses of his life in Ayodhya, going on vanvas with Lakshmana and Sita, skirmishes with demons, war scenes, Yash making an appearance as Ravana, along with the grandiose Pushpak Viman.

One reason for the backlash, which hasn’t been highlighted much, could possibly be that the title slate teaser, which had come out last year, was exceptional. I was part of that launch, which took place at a multiplex, and I remember being absolutely blown away by the result. But what is the overall consensus?

Casting of Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama

This is one of the primary topics for debate. On one side are a huge section of Prabhas fans, who are saying that Ranbir is nothing compared to Prabhas in his depiction of Lord Rama in Adipurush. However, this seems to strictly be their belief, not shared by the rest. Then there is the morality angle, dating back to the time in 2011 when Ranbir, during a food-related TV interview, had admitted how much he liked beef. How can someone playing a divine figure say that, says one section. Even though Ranbir had, some time ago, also said that as he was cast, he stopped eating non-vegetarian food. But then the pseudo-detective’s pit that is X (formerly Twitter) has tweets showing snippets of the Netflix documentary, Dining with the Kapoors, where the entire khandaan, including Ranbir, are seated at a table where generous 

portions of fish curry, mutton, and paya are just some of the items which have been served. The point, however, is that should this be part of the debate? The reason being that absolutely no actor would, in reality, be pure enough to be playing someone like Lord Rama. For the record, Arun Govil, who played Lord Rama in the TV series Ramayana, was a smoker. He has admitted in various 

interviews that during the shoot, a fan noticed him smoking in a corner and scolded him. Arun, who was hiding behind a curtain, was caught unawares and realised the importance of the role he was playing. He quit smoking.