Mukesh Khanna wonders why Saif Ali Khan played Raavan in Adipurush: ‘Isn’t there a better actor in the industry?’

Mukesh Khanna has joined the brigade slamming the latest film Adipurush, and how it portrays characters from the Hindu mythological epic Ramayan. Apart from criticising the characterisation and wrongful portrayal, the veteran actor also took digs at Saif Ali Khan for his attempts at turning Lankesh, based on Raavan, into a comic character. (Also read: Kriti Sanon is ‘focusing on the cheers and claps’ amid Adipurush backlash)

Raavan in Adipurush

In a new video that he shared, Mukesh said, “Raavan may be scary, but how can look like Chandrakanta’s Shivdutt – vishpurush? He was a pandit. You will be shocked how can someone imagine and design Raavan in this manner. I remember when the film was announced, Saif had said he’l make the character humourous. I had said then as well – ‘Who the hell are you to change characters of our epic, apne dharam me kar ke dikhao. Sir katne lagenge (you will be beheaded)’. The fact is, not much changed in Raavan’s look and the makers even tried to make him do comedy.”

He added, “Om Raut ko Raavan ke liye sirf Saif Ali Khan mila? Isase uncha character industry me rah nahi gaya kya? Raavan kaddavar tha, isko jugaad se banaya. Raavan kam sasta smuggler zyada dikhta hai (Couldn’t Om Raut find a better actor than Saif Ali Khan? This one looks less like Raavan and more like a cheap smuggler).”

Mukesh also said that Lanka in Ramayan was supposed to be made of gold while Adipurush shows a blacked-out Lanka. He added that even the battles shown in the film looked less like battles from the era and more like neighbourhood fights of today, full of curses and abusive language.

‘Adipurush is an insult to Ramayan’

Mukesh started his video by calling Adipurush as an insult to Ramayan. “I usually do not talk about films, but this is related to my faith. I have read the reactions of people. One person, today’s youth, said ‘mazaa aya, comedy tha accha (It was fun, comedy film)’. I was like ‘How can Ramayan be comedy?’ So I decided to take a look, and when I researched, I realised isase bada bhayanak tamasha nahi ho sakta, isase bada apmaan nahi ho sakta humare Ramayan ka (There can be no worse drama than the film and no bigger insult to Ramayan than Adipurush).”

He also said that writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla made Ramayan “Kalyugi” with his dialogues that used “tapori language”.