Raavanan is a Vikram special; Ravan suffers from poor casting

Raavanan has convinced me that Vikram has even more fire in him to do ever more challenging roles. Sadly, this realisation comes from Junior B's lacklustre performance in Raavan - it's just not easy to play the maniacal villain-hero - especially as portrayed by Vikram. The gym body, gruff voice and evil scowl add tons to a scene much more than music and a storyline could.

Incidentally, the very qualities which make Raavanan remarkable have let Raavan down - casting. In the Hindi version the villain-hero looks too young and 'small'. The point is not to deride Junior B for his lack of muscles, it's just that the script demands an actor who can fill the scene with his presence. It's hard to take a scrawny villain seriously. Same for Prabhu's role - it's some thin guy with passable acting skills. Prabhu seems to enjoy acting, moreso for unconventional movies. His size is a plus(pardon the pun) given that he occupies the screen with ease. But, he just can't get himself to dance, try as much as possible.

There are several parallels between the character of 'Raavan/Raavanan' and the street kid in Yuva/Ayutha Ezhuthu - both have moustaches with unshaven beards, they shout and screech randomly and enjoy beating up people. That must be why Junior B was chosen to play Raavan, but the minor flaws in Guru prove he still has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to do character-based movies.

Speaking of which, I couldn't think of another person to play the title role in Hindi. Aamir is too short; Salman Khan is too mainstream; I doubt anyone would want to play a half-mad man. Naseeruddin Shah maybe?

Karthik and Govinda must be commended for accepting a minor role. They tend to act silly, must have been easy playing Hanuman.

The difficulties of making a bilingual, that too opposite ends of the country, has not been lost on the music too. Some of the songs are designed for Hindi lyrics, some for Tamil. Even more disappointing is the sudden and short appearance and disappearance of grandiose pieces - hardly a few seconds, giving the impression that there are several scenes shortened in the movie.

Now for a few pedantic notes: In the scene where the kids make the boat go in circles and Raavan and 'Sita' are talking, their voices are just loud enough for a person standing next to them, not the far away bank. Of course, they were talking to the camera, which was next to them. In the song Kodu Potta, Vikram is the only guy wearing slippers - probably star treatment.

There are two scenes I like very much - first, when Ash and Prithviraj/Vikram arrive at the train station. Prithviraj in the leather jacket and Ash in those earrings and North Indian dress look gorgeous. Second, the symbolic burning of the newspaper photo with the cigarette - depicted slowly conveys the anger and raging want of revenge.

The climax involves just 3 people - if you exclude a couple of scenes - and is a nice twist to the Ramayan tale.

All in all the Tamil version is much better; Vikram is an amazing actor; Prithviraj moulds himself to the serious role well and Junior B should stick to metro-oriented non-maniacal roles.