Ramayana: Rise of a Legend Review: 162 Minutes, Little Soul

Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Rise of a Legend lands in theatres on 5 November with the scale of a modern mythic blockbuster: Yash as Ravana, Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, and a score shared by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman. The 162-minute English version shown to press is 18 minutes shorter than the original Hindi cut, and it often feels like a lavish setup that saves its real story for later.

A part-one problem

The film opens in a cosmic conflict between the Devas and the Asuras. Its Ravana starts as a liberator figure—praying for the power to free his clan—before conquest turns him into a villain, which pushes the demigods to seek Vishnu’s intervention. Vishnu is reborn as Rama, and the film spends nearly an hour stacking prologues as the prince grows into his destiny.

Then it stops. The English cut ends just as the central abduction-and-rescue thread around Sita finally begins. Rama and Ravana never really share the screen, and the film must make both compelling enough that newcomers return for the sequel. The US title itself drops “Part 1” in favour of “Rise of a Legend,” a choice that may leave first-timers expecting a complete arc.

The best and the blandest

Yash’s Ravana is the clear highlight. The film reworks the traditional ten heads into ten arguing personalities inside the demon king’s mind, and Yash plays the shifts with swagger—fiery devotion to Shiva one moment, measured ruthlessness the next. His Lanka is lively, warm and visually rich, especially beside an austere Ayodhya that never quite earns the audience’s loyalty.

• Rama feels flat: virtue is declared rather than demonstrated, and his level-ups arrive through gurus unlocking powers, not through learning.
• Sita gets glimpses: Pallavi is briefly allowed a sword and more agency, but the film quickly returns her to a damsel register.
• The English dub distracts: in-house Brahma A.I. lip-sync aims for the future but currently reads as exaggerated, uncanny mouth movement.

Spectacle without momentum

The costumes and sets can be striking in still moments, but the action often feels busy rather than weighty. Zimmer and Rahman’s music is trimmed in the shorter cut, and it is asked to score scenes that lack their own rhythm. There are flashes—a cut from a nightmarish vision to an empty throne, a climactic mid-air battle—but they do not rescue a lead who remains dramatically inert.

Total Filmi take

For Hindi film fans and anyone raised on the Ramayana, this is still likely to be a big-screen event, especially with a Diwali release. For newcomers, it is a tougher sell: the visual grammar is chaotic, the hero is thin, and the film leans on a half-baked tech experiment to cross over. If you can, the longer original Hindi cut may be the fairer first viewing.

Source: IGN