Ramayana promotional still: Prime Focus Studios. © respective rights holders.

Spoiler warning: This Ramayana review discusses major scenes and character choices.

As a big Ramayana fan and a disciple of Lord Ram, I struggle to understand why filmmakers miss this story’s emotions. It is an amazing story, so poignant that it can sweep you off your feet. Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part One, also released as Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, feels quite similar in that regard. That surprised me coming from the director of Dangal. Nitesh Tiwari knew how to play with our emotions in that film. Here, he creates an epic with amazing visuals, by the way, but struggles to make me feel its emotional weight.

I wouldn’t say Namit Malhotra’s version of Ramayana was bad. It was definitely a really good movie compared to Adipurush, which we witnessed a few years ago and which was a complete debacle. But this version of Ramayana still leaves plenty of room for improvement. Apart from that missing emotional pang, which I felt was very much needed in the story of Lord Ram, the chemistry between Lord Ram and Sita needed more attention, as did the often-bland dialogue.

Ramayana and the Scale of the Action

Let’s start with the direction. It feels like I’m watching a South Indian flick in terms of how explosive the action is, right from the beginning, when we see Ravana conquering Lanka. It’s one of those action sequences that stays with you, right from the part where we see Ravana’s mother, Kaikesi, fighting a war between the Asuras and Devas. That action sequence alone makes you feel what you’re in for. The subsequent action with Ravana, after he performs penance and Lord Brahma grants him a boon, is just over the top, and it does seem to do him justice. Ravana feels like a character nobody should mess with. The buildup and detail make him feel ever so powerful.

In fact, I find that really necessary. Without a villain of that stature, the hero’s eventual battle loses its weight. The threat should be on a colossal level, and Ravana certainly feels like it. But I have read about Ravana and the other characters of this epic for years. No single movie could do them justice in so few hours. Ramayana is a huge, huge story. Even with this film covering only the first part of a larger adaptation, it feels as if the makers are trying to squeeze too much into a few hours.

The movie’s emphasis on larger-than-life action felt distant from what I had expected of Nitesh Tiwari after Dangal. My father made the same point while we watched it. The grand action and rapid shifts in focus reminded us of South Indian movies. The villain seemed to exist in a league beyond any supervillain. I felt that was necessary.

But when the film moves on to Rama’s story, it jumps forward quickly, showing the hero in glimpses. Several details also differ from the versions I know. The makers seem to alter some things simply to move quickly from one step to another.

Lakshmana Deserved More Than Comic Relief

I did not particularly like how the movie underplays Lakshmana. Lakshmana has always been a character who is like a shadow of Ram, but that doesn’t mean Ram was the only character who outclassed everyone. It was always Rama and Lakshmana, not just Rama. I remember only one moment where Lakshmana kills a Rakshasa. He then casually asks Agastya Rishi for a boon, saying that he too killed one.

The Lakshmana I know from the Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas is much more than a sidekick. Both brothers are extraordinary archers and fighters, and their bond has always been part of the story’s appeal for me. That does not mean they fight every battle together: in Valmiki’s Aranya Kanda, Rama faces Khara’s forces while Lakshmana guards Sita in a cave. My issue is with the film’s overall treatment of Lakshmana. I wanted more of his prowess and the sense of the brothers complementing each other.

Lakshmana’s Temper and Dialogue

I also missed the exchange familiar from Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, during Sita’s swayamvar, where Lakshmana objects to Janaka’s lament that the earth is without heroes. The fury we know Lakshmana for in that moment was very important to the tale, showing how easily he gets angry.

Readers have always revered Lakshmana alongside Rama, of course. The movie seems to downplay him a lot. The screenplay gives him crass lines and turns situations into jokes. I particularly didn’t like hearing Lakshmana talk trash about Kaikeyi. I understand his anger towards her, but hearing him call her a Rakshasi felt out of keeping with my understanding of the character. His impulse to draw his sword during the confrontation over Rama’s exile also felt excessive to me.

A lot of the dialogue immediately throws you off. The writers could have handled his character much better. Ravi Dubey does a good job as Lakshmana. However, the dialogue downplays the character and deliberately makes him sound funny. It’s so reflective of today’s times and not of Satyug. I fail to see why they strayed so far from the actual story and modernized it, perhaps thinking the screenplay needed that treatment.

Sita and the Film’s Character Choices

Sita, played by Sai Pallavi, feels miles away from the Sita I have come to know through the telling of this story. The writers deliberately present her as a fighter alongside Ram. To me, that choice reflects the lens of today’s world. But it feels at odds with the versions of this part of the tale that I grew up with. It’s a pleasant change from the story, but when you keep changing the story so much, you end up creating more loopholes. For example, if Sita can fight, why doesn’t the film let her fight Ravana when he comes to abduct her?

Ramayana’s Ram and Sita: Where Is the Chemistry?

One of the most disappointing things for me was the next-to-nonexistent chemistry between Ram and Sita. I mean, there were a few dialogues that were really powerful, but you don’t see them agonizing enough over each other, or maybe the sparks just feel missing. I’ve heard and listened to so many stories, even from narrators, gurus, and swamis all across India, that I think they do a better job of creating that atmosphere simply by narrating the story.

Performances and the Missing Emotional Connection

While watching the movie, I felt as if the makers thought, ‘We already have the story, right? We can’t really mess this up.’ But it turns out the performances can mess up that element too. I really felt that if they had spent enough time creating even 10% of the romance and real emotions Lord Ram and Sita had for each other, it wouldn’t have bothered me as much.

Arun Govil, as King Dasharatha, is one of the most brilliant actors in the entire movie, showcasing the right emotions. Even he, however, has little to say for much of his screen time. Because of the time limitations, the movie felt as if it was trying to wrap things up quickly.

I would have welcomed much more emotional depth. For me, the conversations carried more importance. It was important to showcase a happy life first, a thriving life first, and the real emotions between the characters—the way they simply were with each other—instead of crazy graphics and visuals.

At times, the movie seems to exist because we now have the graphics and money to make it. I still feel a director with a stronger grasp of drama could do greater justice to this epic story.

Ramayana’s Visuals: Impressive, but Uneven

There were some hiccups in the CGI department, even in the visual storytelling. Some Rakshasas looked as if their visuals had come straight out of older films, from the 1970s or 1990s, or movies like Van Helsing and adaptations of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It seemed like the same demons, just placed in a different setting. The heavy CGI made the demons feel as if they had nothing human about them. I couldn’t connect with faces that the effects distorted so heavily. With characters like Khara and Dushana, that felt completely unnecessary, and I think it was a really bad call.

In some areas, I think the decision worked, particularly when showcasing enormous demons. But those other bits felt unnatural to the eyes. It felt as if Hollywood had been doing this long, long ago, rather than something a production of this scale should be presenting.

Jatayu and the Mythical Creatures

The treatment of some of the animals was good. Airavata, the elephant, really felt like something coming from a divine dimension. Although it had wings like Pegasus, it did feel like a mythical creature. The other animals look fairly average. One particularly amazing character was Jatayu, whose action sequences were over the top and really good to watch. In fact, every action sequence in the movie was worth it. It was only the missing drama that felt like a missed opportunity.

Ramayana Needs More Than Spectacle

If you’ve read the Ramayana or heard its narration, you may notice moments the movie overlooks or presents differently. For me, some of those changes felt different simply for the sake of being different. That bothered me a bit. The movie seems to address an international audience more than our very own. It tried to magnify everything through scale, style, and pizzazz. That formula worked in the past with RRR, which I personally did not like at all, yet it received accolades and global recognition. You could see something similar happening with Ramayana, given its apparent international ambitions.

But the missing dramatic pieces, the changed storyline, and the overblown treatment of certain events left the film feeling distant from the story and storytelling style I love. I would definitely have preferred a better director here. Nitesh’s work felt distant from his previous films. Maybe someone who understood human emotions better and could portray chemistry better would have been a stronger choice.

I wouldn’t say, as a final verdict, that the movie was bad or anything. Given its colossal scale, I expected more attention to those weaknesses. As a storyteller myself, I could have approached it in a very different manner.

Hanuman, Jatayu and the Moments That Should Stay With You

The final scene with Lord Hanuman should give you goosebumps. Instead, I felt I was merely watching a CGI version of the Lord run and fly. It didn’t stir me as much as the moments that felt phenomenal in the Hanuman movie from a few years ago. For me, the makers misjudged how to present some of these moments.

There are really good scenes in the movie, no doubt. When Rama uses his divine arrow and powers to summon a cyclonic event or save his kin, those moments are impressive. Jatayu’s fight and Ravana’s vengeance are also really good action sequences. But the film keeps focusing on Rama vanquishing enemies, leaving Lakshmana’s action in the background once again.

Does Ramayana Play It Too Safe?

I also felt that the movie sidesteps potentially controversial moments, especially in its staging of Sita’s abduction. Different tellings handle this episode differently. Valmiki’s Aranya Kanda describes Ravana physically seizing Sita; the belief I had heard about his hand burning on touching her is not a rule established by that passage. My criticism here is about how the film stages the moment, rather than which telling it should be required to follow.

Instead of showing Ravana physically taking Sita, they simply cut to a scene where the Pushpak Viman is already carrying her. There was another scene where Rama runs after the deer, and they directly show him holding a rope. His intention, then, was to catch the deer rather than kill it. He only decided to kill the deer when he realized it was a Rakshasa impersonating one.

There were moments when the movie tried very hard to escape controversy by cleverly moving away from such elements. You can almost picture the cast, crew, and creators discussing how to handle these scenes without actually showing them. And yes, it’s a clever and subtle way of doing things. I’ll give them that.

Ramayana Review: The Final Verdict

Overall, I would say the movie is actually worth watching, and it’s a revolution in the Indian film industry in terms of how far our visuals have come. But it also shows us how we can make things better. Visuals alone can only go so far when the drama and screenplay fall short.

Explore more of our Indian cinema reviews, or visit the official studio release page for the film’s credits and release information.

Watch the official Ramayana Hindi trailer.