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Ramayana doesn’t need Marvel-style spectacle. It needs good storytelling

The trailer of Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana feels less like a story adapted from a centuries-old epic written by sages and more like an adaptation by a modern-day novelist.

Every time a new live-action adaptation of Ramayana is announced, the chatter shifts from the story, or what the makers are offering extra, to questions like: can someone who played a gangster portray Ram? Can a romantic actor play Hanuman? And that’s not all. Keyboard warriors even start digging up actors’ old videos where they’re talking about eating meat or drinking alcohol, just to prove that the actor is not worthy of playing the gods.

But that changed in 1993, with the Japan-India co-produced animated film Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama. Directed by Ram Mohan, Yugo Sako, and Koichi Sasaki, the film is appreciated till today, with no controversies around it.

Animation allowed the audience to immerse themselves in the story they had heard from their grandparents, in temples, and on the streets, without heavy VFX from an Academy Award-winning company, unlike what we saw in the trailer of Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming film Ramayana. Most epics are passed on orally from generation to generation. That’s what the Japanese creators understood but many contemporary Indian adaptations struggle to. Mythology is often strongest when the characters become larger than the people portraying them.

Staying true to the epic

The trailer of Ramayana feels less like a story adapted from a centuries-old epic written by sages and more like an adaptation by a modern-day novelist. The opening scene, where Ravan is standing in front of a huge door, feels too inspired by the White Walkers from Game of Thrones. 

This is where the animated film stands out. The story was told as it is. It looked Indian and ancient in its visuals. The story was about Prince Ram, about his love for Sita. The action scenes were never so exaggerated that Maryada Purushottam looked like someone we had never imagined in that avatar. But in the new trailer, the first image we see of Ram is him riding a horse and aiming his bow. Ram is much more than a master archer. His humanity, kindness, and wisdom were more........

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