RAAVANAN

Dev Prakash Subramaniam is a police officer, determined and unforgiving, with orders to capture Veeraiya: a leader from the forests whom the villagers revere and whom the state hunts as an outlaw. Veeraiya kidnaps Dev’s wife Raagini and holds her captive in the jungle – retaliation for his sister having been abused in police custody and dying of it. Dev combs the terrain with his men, while something develops between Raagini and her captor that no longer fits the roles of victim and perpetrator. “Raavanan” by Mani Ratnam, India 2010, transposes the core of the Ramayana into the present.

Ratnam shot the film in parallel in two languages: in the Tamil version Vikram plays Veeraiya and Prithviraj the police officer; in the Hindi version, “Raavan”, Abhishek Bachchan took the role of the kidnapper and Vikram that of the police officer. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan plays Raagini in both; for her it was a return to Tamil cinema after ten years. The music is by A. R. Rahman. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2011.

Shown at the 2011 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2011 · Film Archive