The recent release of Adipurush, a film based on Ramayana, is generating massive and frankly speaking, unnecessary controversy. Not surprising since the age we live in is an age of controversy. I have not watched the film but based on the trailer and other random clips, the screen looks shoddy, the actors are looking confused and the VFX is juvenile. The dialogues are also cringing. Overall, the movie seems to be a poor production. But since when did the poor quality of a movie become a controversy?
From what I understand the director has not changed the story of Ramayana. There is still Ram, Sita Ma, and Laxman. The movie still has Hanuman and also has Ravan. The villain is still Ravan and the hero is still Shri Ram. Given the current discourse in the country, I am happy to take this. Now, if the story has not changed a bit, then we can love or hate the movie's quality. We can even laugh at the production. But there is no reason to get angry and upset about it!
There has been a spate of Hindu world-centric movies in the last 3-4 years. Partially it's a reaction to the overtly attempted 'secularised' and 'urdu'isd' movies and partially, due to changes in the political environment that made it safe to make such movies. There was a movie on the Great Bajirao I. The movie quality, direction, and acting were quite good. Much better than the Adipurush. But to have Bajirao I dance with his soldiers was simply unthinkable. Here is a warrior who never lost a battle in the field. He roamed conquering regions from Delhi to Hyderabad. His name is synonymous with victory in Marathi and Hindi language. And then the director from the Hindi film industry had a creative epiphany in which, Bajirao would be dancing with his soldiers! Yet the movie was a huge hit. And that's a good thing. People had forgotten about Bajirao I. India, which Maratha ruled for almost 120 years, had lost the memory of the Maratha empire, of Maratha warriors. How do we get people to learn about the history? At least, the key events or key characters of the history? We can and should update the history textbooks. But what if we can tap into mass media and spread the message? That's where movies come into the picture. Whether one likes or detests Bollywood, they do have immense power over the imagination of vast tracts of our country. Their ability to influence tens of crores of people is unparalleled in modern India. So, having them produce a movie on Bajirao (or later a movie on Battle of Panipat) is only a win-win situation, the quality of the movie notwithstanding.
Can we say that all presentations of Ramayana on big or small screens have been great productions? The Japanese anime presentation of Ramayana that came in the early 1990s was brilliant. But can we say the same thing about Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana? Sagar's Ramayana was right on time and was well- acted but as compared to BR Chopra's Mahabharata, Ramanand Sagar's Ramayana looked quite elementary. Yet we liked them all. That's because the original material, Shri Valmiki's Ramayana is just superb. The story of Shri Ram and Ma Sita is a story of human struggles, it's the story that perseverance, it's a story of following duty to the T. It's a story of love, lust, anger, triumph, and ultimately human tragedy. It's a story of standing tall despite suffering. In a month or so most of the population will forget about the Adipurush. However, the movie has brought back Ramayana in conversation. It's back on the center stage. It's back on people's minds, back in their imagination. People are looking for old clips from prior representations of Ramayana. People are again discussing Ramayana. Perhaps, we can all agree that the movie has achieved its (unintended!) objective already.
