Adipurush teaser’s VFX look just as bad on the ‘big screen’ as on YouTube despite what director Om Raut says

When the teaser for the much-hyped and much-awaited Adipurush was released earlier this month, it became unwitting fodder for memes, courtesy its visuals. Viewers dissected the visual effects and graphics of the short teaser, slamming it quite hard. Jokes and memes began piling on social media, with many even saying that the animation of the 1992 Ramayana anime was better. In the wake of all this, director Om Raut defended his film saying it was meant for a ‘big screen experience’ and people didn’t get the full glory of it on small screens. Well, I watched the teaser on the big screen this Friday and I am sad to report it is just as bad on a cinema screen as it is on my smartphone. Also read: Adipurush director Om Raut says he’s ‘not surprised’ with negative reaction to teaser

Adipurush is a retelling of the Ramayana with Prabhas starring as Raghava, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, characters based on Lord Ram, Sita, and Ravana respectively. The teaser was criticised by many to contain ‘cartoonish’ VFX and bad CGI. The team soon organised a screening of the teaser in 3D on the big screen, where director Om Raut defended his film. “I was disheartened for sure, not surprised because the film is made for a larger medium—the big screen. You can cut it down to some extent but can’t bring it down to a mobile phone. That’s an environment I can’t control. Given a choice, I’d never put it on YouTube but that’s the need of the hour… I was not surprised because it’s not made for a smaller screen. It’s made for a larger screen and I can’t consume it on a smaller screen.”,” he said.

Well, no screen in the world can excuse a vanara sena that looks worse than the animations of a video game, particularly when Planet of the Apes set the standard there years ago. But I was prepared to take Om’s word for it. But then, I happened to watch the Adipurush teaser on the big screen. It played right before the Hindi version of Kantara, which released on October 14. Full disclosure, I did not watch it in 3D but I am prepared to debate anybody who says THAT is what would make it better.

Honestly, nothing about the teaser was better even on the big screen. Some visuals did look better but they were the ones where there was hardly any CGI. The grandeur of the film was more apparent on the big screen, particularly in the scenes where Kriti and Prabhas are in a field of flowers or the one where Prabhas shoots an arrow into the sky. Everything else still looked like it was out of a Rockstar Games product from the late 2000s.

There was one positive, I’ll admit. The background score sounded great in Dolby Surround Sound (I am assuming that’s what my theatre had) because Sharad Kelkar’s voice (he has dubbed for Prabhas), the Jai Shri Ram chants and theme music really filled the auditorium and that was quite something. As for the visuals of the faux Dementors and Ravana’s ten heads, the ‘big screen experience’ did nothing for me there.

Om Raut needs to understand that the audience today is intelligent. Yes, the internet is unkind but if the public at large says they don’t like the VFX, changing the screen size won’t make a difference. If anything, it might just accentuate the flaws as we see them on a screen hundred times the size. I do hope the filmmakers know what they are doing. Take a cue from Ayan Mukerji. He kept working on Brahmastra till three days before release. You guys still have two more months. Do it, because a story as rich as Ramayana needs better on screen depiction than what we have been teased.