Ramayanam on Screen: Magnificent Canvas, Missing Valmiki
Ramayanam: Part 1 is a feast for the eyes. Yet for those raised on Sage Valmiki's verses, certain scenes make us pause. The film opens with Ravana and his family being wrongly ruled over by the Devatas. Valmiki never wrote this. Ravana is also called an Asura, though he was a Rakshasa. Asuras and Rakshasas are different races, and blurring them blurs the line between Dharma and Adharma. Ravana begins his deep penance without a janeu, the sacred thread. When he returns, he wears one. I wonder if the sacred thread ceremony was performed inside the tree! For the record, Ravaya’s father was a Brahmin and mother was a Kshatriya clan, though Rakshasas. When asking Brahma for his boon, Ravana leaves out the common human, whom he considered unworthy of mention. He then attacks Indra and Airavata. Once Indra is weaponless, Ravana tells him to inform Vishnu that his future is bleak. Valmiki says nothing of the sort. Indra is then shown swimming through deep water to find Vishnu, an...
