Adipurush review: Saif Ali Khan and Prabhas fight it out with their CGI armies, film offers a visual spectacle

Take a bit of Avengers and Lord of The Rings, add a pinch of Game of Thrones, and top it up with Temple Run — and Adipurush is served. Agreed it’s no easy feat to recreate an epic tale, but with all the research and material at hand — through Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas and Valmiki’s Ramayana — if this is director Om Raut’s best take on the contemporary Ramayana, we need to go back and revisit the original in all its glory, and restore our sanity. Adipurush is merely a Bollywood-ised version of one of the most epic tales that ever existed. If you keep the story aside for it’s largely known to all, the execution turns out to be a messy blend of over-the-top CGI and passable VFX, and making it worse are the intentionally funny dialogues that sound misplaced in a sensitive and mythological story. Why would you want Hanuman to say ‘Jalegi tere baap ki’? (Also read: Adipurush movie review and release live updates)

As for the narrative, Adipurush wastes no time in character-building or telling us the back stories of how things transpired in Ayodhya. After briefly using the opening credits to establish that that Ram (Prabhas as Raghav) and Lakshman (Sunny Singh as Shesh) along with Sita (Kriti Sanon as Janaki) have left for 14 years of vanvaas, the shows Raavan (Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh) disguised as a sadhu and kidnapping Janaki. There are quick portions that are essential to Ramayana that come and go and leave a bit of an impact: Shurpanakha’s (Raavan’s sister) nose gets cut when she tries to attack Janaki and lure Raghav, Shabri’s joothe ber episode showcases Raghav sitting with an old woman, who guides him to seek help from Sugriva and his vanara sena and Bajrang (Devdatta Nage as Hanuman) meeting Ram in the jungle and helping him rescue Janaki from Raavan.

The first half is pretty slow and dragged, and never makes you feel invested in the characters or excite you to see what unfolds next. The screenplay never rises beyond being a sluggish narration with average dialogues. It’s only in the second half when Raghav lays the foundation for Ram Setu and along with his army, heads to Lanka and things start to pick up pace. The next few action sequences with CGI armies fighting each other is the highlight of the film, and I am sure it’ll evoke some polarised reactions.

And mind you, all this was done with a whopping budget of ₹600 crore. Imagine what wonders could one do with a fraction of that money. Raut indeed succeeds in mounting the film on a scale that he envisioned, but he falters when it comes to adding depth to his characters and refraining from cartoon-ish representation.

Prabhas may have shown enormous conviction playing Lord Ram but what’s with those wooden expressions? I remember seeing Ram and Sita in the original Ramayana and there’s something very pleasant about their persona. Even in pictures, there’s always a smile, but Prabhas brings no variation whether he’s happy, sad, angry or confused. Kriti delivers a decent performance in Sita’s part and has a very charming screen presence. Her confrontation scene with Raavan is well-written and nicely executed. Though Sunny Singh gets very little to do, his action scenes with Vatsal Seth as Meghnath are spectacular. Sonal Chauhan as Raavan’s wife Mandodri gets exactly two scenes and line. The best of the lot has to be Devadatta playing Hanuman. He brings CGI alive on screen and how! His larger-than-life structure actually adds gravitas to the film. Lastly, Saif is the saving grace in Adipurush. No, I’m not saying he is good, but he is definitely better than the other characters in terms of the expressions and the emotions he evokes each time he comes on screen. And please just simply ignore the portions with his nine other heads – I am still struggling to find words to explain them. For now, less I say, better it is.

The music composed by Ajay-Atul and Sachet–Parampara is the heart of Adipurush. Each time Jai Shri Ram is played in the background, you get goosebumps. Ram Siya Ram is equally enchanting. The track Shivoham featuring Lankesh sitting in his den and playing a musical instrument is quite a visual spectacle.

It won’t be wrong to call Adipurush one of the most audacious projects made in recent times, but just like Brahmastra, it goes overboard at several places and loses the essence that you would expect to feel in an epic mythological tale. Even if you say it’s made keeping the young audiences in mind, there is no reason why they need to see a mediocre adaptation when the heartwarming original still remains relevant. Watch Adipurush in theatres for its scale, grand scale and the 3D fun it brings, even if main actors still look as one-dimensional as you can imagine.