Adipurush is a self-declared screen adaptation of the Indian epic “Valmiki Ramayan”, there have been various and multiple adaptations of Ramayan over an array of media in the past and have built a reputation by being extremely careful in their representation as the source material itself is not just considered one of the greatest epics of humanity but also seen an as a religious book by a vast majority of the population of Earth.
#NotMyRamayan
All the various adaptations managed to respect the relevance and legacy of the lore and received lots of love, respect, and admiration, but Adipurush being a glorious exception received loads of hate even before it was released. Be it it teasers or trailers all were purely disappointing to the soul.
Let us dive into a few major factors which contribute to the united disgust of the audience:
Screenplay accuracy
Raghav (Ram)
Prabhas the Bahubali fame Hollywood megastar, plays “Raghav” aka Lord Ram, firstly no one wants to see a buff God Rama punching the life out of enemies’ minions, it’s just not Ram-like.
Lord Ram was known for his humane and peaceful and simply pure nature, even while killing demons his purpose was to provide their soul’s moksha (salvation) in a manner as least painful as possible so that they get a chance at rebirth and right their wrongs in the next life, such as the philosophy of the actual Adipurush, the one and only “Maryada Purushuttam Ram”.
‘Adipurush’ the word in itself means the perfect man, leave adi this representation fails to even put Raghav forward as a purush, seems more like an overgrown, brawler Neandrathal to be honest.
Janaki (Sita)
Kriti Sanon plays the role of Janaki aka Goddess Sita, to be fair Kriti Sanon, did as much justice to the role as could give the script and environment, so the dirt on this character misrepresentation falls completely upon the writes, a lot of scenes got completely changed which was not fair to Sita neither to the story as a whole.
Shesh (Lakshman)
The name itself does not make sense for a start, the only plausible explanation is that in the original Ramayan, Lakshman was the incarnation of Sheshnaag, Lord Vishnu’s 1000-headed serpent, hence they took the name from there.
Oh wait, it’s not plausible at all, as according to Valmiki Ramayan, none of the characters were aware of their divine origins till much after the Lanka war, so referring to Lakshman as Shesh is just purely lousy writing which spreads confusion and misinformation.
Saif (Raavan)
The Lord of Lanka portrayed by Saif Ali Khan is shown as a full-blown demon, riding bats, wearing black clothes, and using the first Shlok of Shiv Tandav Strotram in a threatening tone.
Raavan most definitely was the representation of ego and evil even in the Valmiki Ramayan, but even so, Raavan has to have a certain charisma in character, he was the most knowledgeable Brahmin of that era and is prayed in Sri Lanka even in modern times. He was an evil king, not a demonic being, who rides bats.
He has been proven in mythology to be the greatest devotee of Lord Shiva and would never use a self-composed song in praise of his god, in a threatening tone whatsoever, or use unfair war tactics.
Anyone who has any idea of Ramayan would truly feel as if injustice has been done to a character who has had a supreme impact on people. Also, Indrajeet is one of the only two characters in Hindu Mythology known to wear black attire. Raavan not so much.
Vatsal (Indrajeet)
Vatsal Sheth plays Indrajeet the valiant and extremely powerful price of Lanka, and the eldest son of Raavan, the injustice with this character is on such a stupendous level, the character who has had the honor of being the only human warrior to hold the highest warrior rank in all of the Mythology (mahamaharathi), and was undefeatable even by the Ram Sena and they had to sneak attack on him while he was unarmed, is shown as some sort of flash who can run out of juice, it is just unjust and disgusting.
It is an undeniable fact that Ramayan is known to and read by a vast population at least in India, so there’s no point in changing the established and loved characteristics of any character from the epic for the sake of making it more appealing to the younger generation.
It is simply sick of the creators to claim the younger generation is not aware and we are helping, we are aware, we listen to these tails every day, we pray to these characters every day, WE KNOW! Though, on the basis o the character portrayal it would be extremely fair to say, the creators themselves are not.
CGI and Environment
Apart from hurting the religious sentiments of Ram and Hanuman devotees across the globe, they even failed to impress the audience who don’t care about the characters or the accuracy of the source, here are some reasons:
All parts of Ramayan except the kidnapping and war were just skipped in the intro song, while the claims were they want to educate the next generation, well if you want to, do it properly, it was just ten percent of Ramayan that too as twisted as can be.
The attire was very off as, neither did Goddess Sita pack a suitcase full of dashing sarees nor were Lord Ram, Lord Hanuman, or Lord Lakshman wearing leather armor with claws hanging out.
Lanka is a grayscaled Asgard, and Lanka was known to be a “Golden” palace atop Mount Sigiriya, the fort was not black and the war was not on a port. Also, Lord Ram resided in a hut, not a cave.
Lord Hanuman is looking like a buff maulvi rather than a Hindu powerhouse god.
Everyone in Treta Yug was decent in communicating, even with enemies, and I don’t want to mention the horrendously atrocious dialogue written by Manish Muntashir, the kind of language they made our gods, idols, and respected characters used, is just wrong on all accounts.
Vaanar Sena is straight out of the Planet of the Apes series and leveled down many notches, there are lots of glitches and bad digitalization in play which makes it look like a game made by a freshman.
Star power
The movie had a strong cast but rather than using it to their advantage the writing and direction messed it up soo badly, it has even put the careers of these established stars in jeopardy, Alas.
Conclusion
If you have already watched the movie, I suggest you take a dip in the Ganges, trust me, you need to. If not, well done, please keep it up, proud of you.
Honestly, this movie is a straight-out mockery of a globally renowned Hindu mythology epic and a complete waste of the seven hundred crores that went into its making.
Movie directors and writers should take it as an example of what happens when you assume the audience is stupid and ill-informed and will accept any creation and praise it with laurels just because it has the cast the audience is attached to portraying the characters the audience is attached to.
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