The slanging match between the makers of Adhipurush and others who feel outraged over several aspects of the film that deeply hurt the sentiments Hindus and others believing in Sanatana dharma is the inevitable consequence of retelling the Yuddha kanda of Ramayana in a slangy manner with technical inputs that the filmmakers hoped would gel well with today’s generation feeding on deep fakes and ‘Marvel-lous’ takes.
It is but natural that many pleas have been filed in courts, not just by right-wing bodies and culture vultures engaged in moral policing, but also others whose religious sentiments and human sensibilities have been palpably offended.
The initial statements made by director Om Raut and writer Manoj Muntashir were indefensible. Om Raut went on record: “Ramayana is so large that it is impossible for anybody to completely understand it.
Those who say they understand it completely are either fools or they are lying”. Likewise, Manoj commented: “I wrote over 4,000 lines of dialogues in Adipurush, some sentiments got hurt because of five lines…I can give countless arguments in favour of my dialogues, but this will not reduce your pain…There is an objection to five dialogues, and they will be changed. If people are not liking some parts, then it is our responsibility to fix them”.
On June 19, seers in Ayodhya demanded an immediate ban on the film saying its dialogues made their “blood boil”. Acharya Satyendra Das, chief priest of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, said, “The film’s dialogues make our blood boil. The film should be banned immediately. The government should ensure that this does not happen again”.
The chief priest of the Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya said: “The dialogues delivered by the characters playing Lord Ram, Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita will destroy the ideal culture of Ramayana. We urge the Centre that the film should be banned immediately”.
The Hindu Janjagruti Samiti had issued a statement seeking action against “objectionable imaginative scenes” in the film. HJS national spokesperson Ramesh Shinde said: “A film on Lord Ram, who is revered by millions, must be made after reading and understanding the scriptures rather than through imagination in the name of creative freedom”.
Finally, bowing to mounting pressure in filmi and non-filmi circles, the makers of Adhipurush have since revised Lord Hanuman’s dialogue ‘Jalegi tere baap ki’. The word ‘baap’ has been replaced with the word ‘Lanka’. In the revised version, Lord Hanuman tells Indrajeet, “Kapda teri Lanka ka, tel teri Lanka ka, aag bhi teri Lanka ki, jalegi bhi teri Lanka hi”.
For that matter, even Lanka has been depicted like a netherworld in the film, though it mirrored divine opulence during the heyday of Ravana, a Shiv-bhakt who had believed himself to be an invincible King in all the three worlds because of the rare boons he had earned through intense tapas. Lanka is believed to have been built at the behest of Lord Shiva by Vishwakarma, chief architect of the devas. Befittingly, he raised a magnificent palace made of gold! Shiva invited the knowledgeable Ravana to perform the ‘grihapravesh’ ritual for the housewarming ceremony.
After the ceremony, when Shiva asked Ravana to ask anything in return as ‘dakshina’, Ravana, awe-struck by the ethereal grandeur of the palace, asked Shiva for the golden palace! Shiva acceded to Ravana’s wish. Golden Lanka thus became Ravana’s palace. Now, in the Lanka of Adhipurush, not even pin-sized gold is seen anywhere in the macabre constructions, in one of which Ravana is shown basking with multiple snakes slithering all over his body as if he is getting massaged by the reptiles.
That way, most of the visual effects in the film are not original in conception and execution. For example, once can find similarities with, or traces of, Avatar: The Way of Water, when it comes to strange animals used for astral transport, including the time when Ravana abducts Sita by deceit in the garb of a sage; King Kong, when it comes to Kishkindha and vanara king Vali and Vali’s final wrestling bout with Sugriva.
On October 2, 2022, when the film’s VFX was panned as sub-standard following the release of the first teaser of Adipurush, Om Raut pushed the release date promising an upgrade of VFX meanwhile. Instead, SFX is degrading.
Of course, one cannot compare Adhipurush with Ramanand Sagar’s 78-episode Ramayan serial aired by Doordarshan between 1987 and 1988. Given the broad canvas of Ramayan, with each episode running to about 45 minutes, it is impossible to pack even the gist of all those episodes in a film like Adhipurush, which runs for two hours and 54 minutes. Still, who prevented the makers from using chaste language for the retelling?
Where was the need for using pedestrian language and gangsters’ lingo to deliver any of the messages?Let alone Ramanand Sagar’s serial, there are many feature films based on Ramayan that have made an impact. They include Siya Ke Ram, Rama Yuga, Ram Siya Ke, Luv Kush, Sampoorna Ramayanam, Shree Rama Patabhiskhekam and Hanuman, to name a few.
It appears that elements contributing to the barbadhi of the film were built into Adhipurush in the name of creative freedom. Even the characterization and depiction of Raghav (Lord Ram), cornerstone of the film, are in bad taste due to use of rowdy language in the overall setting in which the Adhipurush, endowed with 16 legendary qualities identified by sage Narada, speaks his lines.
It is not surprising that, despite gimmicks wrapped in foils of faith like reserving a seat in every show of every theatre for Lord Hanuman, Adhipurush has failed to make an impact as the never-tiring story of Maryada Purushottam. At the box office, Adhipurush began with a bang, but appears set to end with a whimper. Wednesday’s earnings dipped between 30 and 35% from Tuesday.That is Day 6’s earnings added up to around Rs 3.25 crore net, bringing the film’s total so far to around Rs 120 crore net.
