Ask no questions,you ll hear no lies! :). Review on Ravanan Movie

".1000 sengal venum. ovvonnu laiyum'raaman' nu adichu venum." - Bombay

".Adutha leave ku vena.enna ma?. adutha jenmam illama adutha leave ku ma!." - Thiruda Thiruda

"unga mama minister apdingura thayiryama? .Yaen college election la unga arasiyal saakadai ya kalakureenga?." - Aaayutha eluthu

".Aanandan nadippa vitta. avar ketta padhavi avarukke."

".NADIPPA VITTA?." ".Avar ketta padhavi avarukke." - Iruvar

".Appo IPS padichathu yaaru.innuru payyana?. avarukku rendu mattum thaana illa innum vera ethavathu?." - Agni Natchathram

"Tha nahi. Hoon.Aur hamesha rahoonga.Gurukant desai"

Just a few sparks that hit me as I thought of Mani Ratnam. Everytime this man wields the microphone a new benchmark is set. Maybe he was just a little tired this time around.

Raavanan disappoints as a movie and specifically so, since its from the man who always sets his own lofty standards. Save its technical brilliance, with its amazing Cinematography, art and editing, this movie fails to make an impression. Not even mighty Mani could do justice to a script that was so shallow. The treatment I would say was still mediocre.

It is Vikram who single-handedly keeps you engaged for the entire film.the man is such a treat to watch. Its nice to see him work after a long time. Aishwarya Rai is however the pick of the lot. Too bad she had to be wasted the whole of second half.Prithviraj has painfully little to play and carrries it out with ease. Karthick comes across as a spark of the old fire that he was. Priyamani too shines in her short role. Other actors like Vijay, Vaiyapuri, Ranjitha appear in forgettable roles. Ranjitha's screen time is in fact countable in seconds.

The screenplay looks like its turning constantly through a square maze.Though the movie looks fast in certain cases, Many things like Karthick's intro, Vikram's romance, Prabhu's dialogue delivery at the beginning.to mention a few. looked too ameteurish. Suhasini's dialogues really mar the impact that the film could have delivered. Come on!this is not Iruvar for you to get away with simpler tones and leave all the poetics to Vairamuthu. I really missed Vijay Acharya's stunners in GURU. Even Rahman's BGM fails to make an impression. And I always thought Rahman reserved his best for Mani.

Santhosh Sivan and Manikandan take turns to salvage some respect and quite surely their cinematography is absolutely enchanting. Never have I seen such beautiful locations and creative photography as this. Apart from their hard work in the details, the camera also takes you through every delicate expression changes in the leads' faces. Marvellous! The songs were shot with such passion and the hard work put in was evident.

The references to Ramayan were quite obvious and most of it looked unnecessary and forced. If you want to paint grey both the shades of Black and White. please make it more interesting. A movie that blurs that line should be like "The Prestige". Not a revenge drama.

Mani has set a few benchmarks as usual.Not in his usual style. At 130 minutes the movie's length is quite commendable. But predictably there was nothing more to show on this idea.

This movie is proof that a weak script can never give you a memorable movie. This is from a view point of an educated movie-buff. A layman would have not noticed anything except aishwarya rai's low-cuts.

So Ask no questions. you ll hear no lies. Expect less. get a mouthful

Normal rating - Average 2/5

Mani's Scale - New-found low.