Ramayana: Rise of a Legend Review

Ramayana is an epic poem and an important text within Hinduism as it tells the story of the seventh avatar of Vishnu’s war against the demon king Ravana. This story has been given a big-budget two-part adaptation, with the first part being subtitled Rise of a Legend.

Across the three realms, there has been a struggle between Devas and the tyrannical Asuras. The Asuras win this conflict after the emergence of Ravana (Yash), an Asura who is invincible against all supernatural threats and beings. The Devas’ only hope is if Vishnu is reincarnated in a human body. As a human, Vishnu is born as Rama (Ranbir Kapoor), the eldest son of King Dasharatha (Arun Govil). Rama is forced into his destiny due to court intrigue exiling him, and he ends up crossing Ravana’s sister, Shurpanakha (Rakul Preet Singh).

Ramayana is an ambitious project. Both films have an estimated combined budget of $500 million, making them the most expensive Indian films ever produced. The first part had its premiere at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, and there were ambitions to appeal beyond India’s borders. Sony handled the international distribution, and I noticed quite a bit of promotion on social media. Ramayana: Rise of a Legend came fifth in the US on its opening weekend and topped the box office in the UK, beating Wild Horse Nine and Godzilla Minus Zero. It has significance for people of Indian heritage: at my screening, there were families who went together, and this was at 8:00 pm on a Saturday in a small town in England.

My knowledge of Ramayana before going into the film was nil. Some Western critics have compared it to The Odyssey, and as a white Englishman, I could draw comparisons to various mythologies, particularly Greek and Norse. As someone who didn’t have any prior knowledge of the text, I could follow the events well enough: it wasn’t like Ne Zha 2 where it felt like I needed to be well-versed in Chinese mythology to fully understand it. Rise of a Legend starts with the rise of Ravana and Vishu finding a new avatar, Rama proving himself to Sita (Sai Pallavi), Rama being forced into exile, and Rama crossing paths with Shurpanakha.

Rise of a Legend does attempt to set up dramatic threads like Rama and Sita’s commitment to each other and the importance of ‘dharma.’ These throughlines can be compared to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey because dharma was like Zeus’ Law, the devotion and sense of duty a married couple had for each other, and even both films had major plot points where a legendary bow had to be strung up. However, the way the Rise of a Legend was structured made it come across as more episodic, as it jumped from one storyline to another. Nor did it help that the characters were one-dimensional, with Rama having no flaws as he is worshipped and praised by everyone. There was little conflict between the characters.

Rise of a Legend opened like it was a mash-up of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Immortals as it went through a long prologue about the conflict between Devas and Asuras, a war between heavenly beings and demons, and how Ravana became unstoppable. Then it was the physical and romantic feat to woo a potential bride. Following that was the court intrigue where Rama’s stepmother, Kaikeyi (Lara Dutta), forces the prince’s exile so her son could become king. Finally, it turned into an epic fantasy. It was an eclectic display.

When Rise of a Legend was an epic fantasy, it was an entertaining experience. Ravana was a one-man army who smashed through armies with ease and punched a flying elephant. The montage showing Ravana’s rise used a lot of stylish tricks. There were action sequences in the forest which felt like Lord of the Rings as Rama and his companions needed to fight off multiple rakshasas. It started small, where Rama and his brother battled two demons, before eventually needing to escape from a large army. There was a fantastic battle between Ravana and the demigod Jatayu, a visual-effects spectacle.

Considering the budget, there were some fantastic visual effects. The work on Jatayu deserves particular praise because he was designed to feel real, even though he was a demigod, half man and half vulture. It was a cut above some recent Hollywood films like Moana, Supergirl and Street Fighter. However, it came on the same weekend as Godzilla: Minus Zero and the Japanese film blew most of its competitors out of the water. There is also a note of caution because AI was used for lip-syncing the actors for the English dub, so AI could have been used for the VFX, and it has not yet been revealed.

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend does provide plenty of spectacle that can challenge Hollywood fantasy offerings and gave a Westerner like me an introduction into Indian mythology. The film was overlong and bitty, but there’s was no denying it had the action credentials.