Shankar calls Yash a lovable villain in Ramayana review

S Shankar knows what a spectacle looks like. The director of Indian 2 and several of Tamil cinema’s biggest event films has shared a glowing review of Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, days after the Nitesh Tiwari epic opened in theatres on November 5. And when he calls a performance special, Bollywood buffs usually pay attention.

Taking to X, Shankar called the adaptation a spectacle and said he had never seen visuals like this in Indian cinema. He credited producer Namit Malhotra and director Nitesh Tiwari for taking production values to international standards, and he was specific about what impressed him.

What Shankar singled out

His review reads less like a polite social-media note and more like a director’s checklist. The technical elements, the music and one performance got named attention.

• Visual effects he believes set a new benchmark for Indian cinema
• Production design, look and feel that he called rich and global in scale
• A score by AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer that carries the epic tone
• Yash as Ravana, a villain he found genuinely lovable on screen

He is such a lovable villain and has delivered a quality performance, Shankar wrote, adding his best wishes for Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi.

Why a director’s praise matters

Shankar is not the first big name to back the film. SS Rajamouli and Sandeep Reddy Vanga had earlier shared their appreciation for the scale and execution of the adaptation. When filmmakers who build enormous worlds praise another director’s attempt, it signals that the film is being judged on craft, not just hype.

The post arrived after the film’s November 5 release and quickly became part of that wider conversation. Since the film carries enormous expectations as a two-part adaptation of a beloved epic, a respected director’s word of mouth can nudge undecided moviegoers towards the big screen.

For fans, the review also gives Yash’s Ravana a strong push. Ramayana: Rise of a Legend adapts Valmiki’s Ramayan and Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, with Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as the antagonist. A director of Shankar’s experience calling the villain a highlight is a real talking point for anyone deciding whether to book a ticket.

The film is only the first chapter

The theatre visit does not end with the final scene. A post-credits sequence introduces Sunny Deol as Lord Hanuman, and the character is set to feature prominently in Ramayana: Part 2, scheduled for a theatrical release in 2028.

Nitesh Tiwari acknowledged Shankar’s review with a short thank-you on X. But the larger message is already clear: the people who make India’s biggest films believe the bar has been raised.

Source: India Today