Ramayana: Rise of a Legend Review: $500M Epic with Pacing Issues

A mega-budget mythological swing

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend opened in cinemas on November 6 as the most expensive Bollywood film ever made, with both entries costing nearly half a billion dollars. That makes it the biggest financial swing since RRR’s 2022 US breakthrough turned Indian spectacle into a regular theatrical import. JoBlo’s review meets the film on those terms: as a gigantic piece of entertainment, not as mythology.

The setup is essentially the beginning of the Ramayana. Yash plays Ravana, a ruler who becomes almost invincible after taking dominion of the three worlds, with one fatal loophole: he can be killed by a human. Ranbir Kapoor’s Prince Ram, exiled with his wife and brother, is that human-shaped problem. The review says the structure is traditional and epic, which also makes parts of it predictable.

What the first review loved

Yash is the gravitational force. The review calls his Ravana “the most overpowered villain that has ever existed” and argues the film loses presence whenever he is off screen. His intensity makes the antagonist the engine of the movie. In the Hindi version, Ravi Dubey’s Lakshman gets a rock-star reception from an Indian crowd, with simple line readings scoring huge reactions.

The score carries heavyweight names in James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, A.R. Rahman and Rishab Rikhiram Sharma. The music invokes The Mandalorian, Lord of the Rings and Superman at different moments, though the reviewer feels it tries too hard to sell every beat and can become unintentionally funny when it swells in mundane scenes.

Where the scale gets heavy

The budget buys a film where almost every shot has VFX, but consistency is not guaranteed. The review says some shots look photorealistic while others are awkward green screen, and the physics-defying moments may be part of the magic but also feel like the production tried to do too much at once.

The runtime is the sharper complaint. The reviewer says the film did not need to exceed three hours, and that scenes could be cut without losing the story. Because the big confrontation is held for the next entry, the second half loses momentum.

• The Hindi 3D version includes 30 minutes of additional footage.
• The dubbed version uses AI lip-syncing, flagged for an uncanny valley effect.
• 3D dims the image, making some night scenes hard to parse.

Should fans book a ticket?

For Bollywood fans, this is still an event movie. The reviewer’s advice is to choose the Hindi 3D version for the most value, despite the dimming, and to go in knowing that the payoff is intentionally saved for the sequel. If you are more forgiving of mythology’s deliberate pacing, the Lakshman moments and Yash’s performance may carry it; if uneven VFX and a long setup frustrate you, it could be a harder sit.

That leaves the real question: can a half-billion-dollar beginning hold the audience’s patience long enough for the next chapter to land the blows?

Source: JoBlo Media Inc