I should have written this post earlier....instead of the morose post which i penned down god only knows why, if i had written this, it might have made my mood lighter! I have long been thinking about writing on this topic....at least 4 days every week (mon - thurs, 9.30-10.00 pm) when Dad watches Ramayan....He is an avid follower or all religious serials while i dont watch even a minute of tv....However, I am generally cooking dinner when this serial comes so I 'hear' a lot of it and sometimes watch some of it if i happen to be passing by in front of the TV.
For a long time, i used to think that the serial was titled 'Jai Shri Ram' because of the background score signalling breaks.....recently i happened to look at the TV and realized that in fact it was called Ramayan.
Now, Ramayan for people in my generation is Arun Govil and Deepika with the balanced behaviour displayed be everybody. This Ramayan is Ramayan with a difference....an entirely new interpretation....with a lot of changes......The dressing style is not focused on modesty...in fact it borders on sexy....When Hanuman fights, we get to see the special effects and stunts common in contemporary hindi movies.....the dialogues and their style of delivery are also on lines of today's hindi movies with more focus on melodrama rather than the shudh hindi/sanskrit and the sedate voice in which they were delivered earlier......Ram and Sita are shown to be overly romantic.....Ram properly wooing her and we get to see a lot of romantic scenes between them which were not there in the earlier version......in fact there's a scene where Dashrath advises Ram to bring more ranis and the dasis tell Sita of how many wives Ram can easily get etc etc.....then Ram comes and tells Sita that he will marry the ones which Sita likes and gets the portraits brought in.....Sita is upset and says she dint like any of the princesses without looking at the portraits .....and then Rams gently turns her and she realises that all portraist where hers only! One full episode had been devoted to Ram and Sita's wedding night.....For 10 mins Ram asks Sita to ask for a wedding night gift and she gives the usual stuff ....'tum mujhe mil gaye to mujhe aur kuch nahi chahiye'.....Ram then gives her a promise as the gift - he would not get another bride ever and Sita would be the sole rani of his heart! The audience had to watch the love and victory on Sita's face for two minutes......These romantic moments come back to haunt Ram and Sita while they are separated from each other.....When Sita is taken away by Ravan, Ram is more upset than when he came for vanvas and behaves more like heer (of heer ranjha fame!).....thinking only of her and remembering all her romantic conversations.......when he speaks, he can talk only about his love.....One would think that being a raja, he would have more control on his behaviour in public.......
Well, its not my intention to belittle this version....in fact i feel that it is good to come up with another interpretation of the same theme....it gives the audience a variety.....and forces them to open their minds to a multitude of opinions.....makes them sit up and think about it......and of course its up to the director how he recreates the era (althout i must say that in this case it looks suspiciously like the era to which contemporary hindi movies belong!!) it leads me to wonder whether the makers really do research and try to recreate the atmosphere or just start with a general bhagwan ka theme and put in things which they think will be liked by the audience.......and this makes me think, after all who am i to say that the first version was closer to the truth????
For a long time, i used to think that the serial was titled 'Jai Shri Ram' because of the background score signalling breaks.....recently i happened to look at the TV and realized that in fact it was called Ramayan.
Now, Ramayan for people in my generation is Arun Govil and Deepika with the balanced behaviour displayed be everybody. This Ramayan is Ramayan with a difference....an entirely new interpretation....with a lot of changes......The dressing style is not focused on modesty...in fact it borders on sexy....When Hanuman fights, we get to see the special effects and stunts common in contemporary hindi movies.....the dialogues and their style of delivery are also on lines of today's hindi movies with more focus on melodrama rather than the shudh hindi/sanskrit and the sedate voice in which they were delivered earlier......Ram and Sita are shown to be overly romantic.....Ram properly wooing her and we get to see a lot of romantic scenes between them which were not there in the earlier version......in fact there's a scene where Dashrath advises Ram to bring more ranis and the dasis tell Sita of how many wives Ram can easily get etc etc.....then Ram comes and tells Sita that he will marry the ones which Sita likes and gets the portraits brought in.....Sita is upset and says she dint like any of the princesses without looking at the portraits .....and then Rams gently turns her and she realises that all portraist where hers only! One full episode had been devoted to Ram and Sita's wedding night.....For 10 mins Ram asks Sita to ask for a wedding night gift and she gives the usual stuff ....'tum mujhe mil gaye to mujhe aur kuch nahi chahiye'.....Ram then gives her a promise as the gift - he would not get another bride ever and Sita would be the sole rani of his heart! The audience had to watch the love and victory on Sita's face for two minutes......These romantic moments come back to haunt Ram and Sita while they are separated from each other.....When Sita is taken away by Ravan, Ram is more upset than when he came for vanvas and behaves more like heer (of heer ranjha fame!).....thinking only of her and remembering all her romantic conversations.......when he speaks, he can talk only about his love.....One would think that being a raja, he would have more control on his behaviour in public.......
Well, its not my intention to belittle this version....in fact i feel that it is good to come up with another interpretation of the same theme....it gives the audience a variety.....and forces them to open their minds to a multitude of opinions.....makes them sit up and think about it......and of course its up to the director how he recreates the era (althout i must say that in this case it looks suspiciously like the era to which contemporary hindi movies belong!!) it leads me to wonder whether the makers really do research and try to recreate the atmosphere or just start with a general bhagwan ka theme and put in things which they think will be liked by the audience.......and this makes me think, after all who am i to say that the first version was closer to the truth????
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