RAAVAN

 RAAVAN is a 2010 Hindi film directed and co-written by Mani Ratnam. It starsAbhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Vikram in the lead roles while Govinda, Ravi Kishan,Nikhil Dwivedi, Tejaswini Kolhapure and Priyamani feature in key supporting roles. It was simultaneously released in Tamil as Raavanan with a slightly different cast, which would also be dubbed into Telugu and other regional languages. The film's score and soundtrack is composed by A. R. Rahman. The film was released on 18 June 2010. The film's premiere was held in London on 16 June 2010.


          

Cast

• Shahrukh Khan as Beera Munda
• Aishwarya Rai as Ragini Sharma
• Vikram as Dev Pratap Sharma
• Govinda as Sanjeevani Kumar
• Ravi Kishan as Mangal
• Priyamani as Jhamuniya
• Nikhil Dwivedi as Inspector Hemant
• Tejaswini Kolhapure as Dulari
• Ajay Gehi as Hariya

            

Production

Shooting began in the southern part of Tumkur , Karnataka at the end of October 2008. During filming, Mani Ratnam became ill which delayed the filming for a few months in 2009. However, the film began its last schedule in August 2009. The film finished filming and went into post production by October 2009. Manikandan was hired as the film's DOP or cinematographer. However he was replaced in early 2009 by Santosh Sivan.

This film have numerous action scenes and stunts performed by the actors. The stunts are directed by Mani Ratnam and are choreographed by Peter Hein, who received Filmfare action award for the Hindi version of Ghajini and Anniyan. The Kerala martial art Kalarippayattu is also featured in the film. Dancer Astad Deboo choreographed a passionate chase scene andtandav dance between Abhishek and Aishwarya for the film. Indian fashion designerSabyasachi Mukherjee designed Aishwarya Rai's costumes in the film.

Raavan has been shot in numerous locations around India including the forests of Karnataka (Tumkur), Kerala (Athirappilly Falls), Ooty,Jhansi, Kolkata, Mahabaleshwar and in the Malshej Ghats in Maharashtra.

Critical reception

Upon release, the film received mostly negative reviews from critics for its content, though its visual style and cinematography was praised by some of the critics. On review aggregation website, ReviewGang, the film scored 4.5/10 based on 10 critic reviews. Rajeev Masand of IBNgave the film 1.5/5 and said, "Despite some eye-watering camerawork and a stunning action piece in the film's climax, the film -- especially its first half -- is a carelessly edited mess of long scenes that make little sense when strung together". Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it 1.5/5 and said, "On the whole, Raavan is a king-sized disappointment, in terms of content". Raja Sen of Rediff rated it 2/5 and said, "Raavan truly and tragically fails us is in taking one of our greatest epics, and making it unforgivably boring". Sukanya Venkatraghavan of Filmfare rated the film 3/5 and said, "Raavan has its moments but it lacks depth. The first half is fairly riveting but the second half slowly slips into a coma". Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India rated it favourably at 3.5/5 saying, "There are enough punches in the second half to keep the momentum going, but by and large, the film scores mostly on art and aesthete" Cath Clarke of The Guardiangave the film a rating of 2/5 and found it sexist.

Soundtrack

Main article: Raavan (soundtrack)

Raavan
Soundtrack by A. R. Rahman
Released	April 24, 2010[25]
Recorded	Panchathan Record Inn and A.M. Studios, Chennai, India
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	29:36
Label	T-Series
Producer	A. R. Rahman
Professional reviews
Filmicafe Media Inc. - Review
A. R. Rahman chronology
Ye Maaya Chesave (2010) Raavan (2010) Raavanan (2010)

The soundtrack for the film is composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics penned by Gulzar. It features six songs and an additional song that was performed by Rahman at the audio launch. It was released on 24 April 2010 by T-Series.