The Ramayana is hugely disappointing

A lot of money is being spent in promoting the Ramayana in social media and in presenting selective reactions of people coming out of the cinema after watching the movie. I saw it on Saturday 8 November 2026. I was very disappointed that the film did not do any justice to Lord Rama, Mata Sita and almost all the characters.
The movie started with the battles between the Devas and Asuras. Almost 30 to 40 minutes were taken up with Hollowood style action which looked juvenile. The film has been supposedly made for an international audience. What the international audience will make of this entirely unnecessary and confusing beginning is a big question. We are then shown Ravana getting various boons from Brahma but there is no mention of Shiva from whom Ravana received many boons also.
Next thing we are shown Ravana in battle single handedly killing all the Devatas and declaring himself as the ruler of 3 worlds: the Heavenly, the Earth and the Underworld planets.
Here again we Hollywood style violence with special effects. When we at last see the appearance of Rama and what should have been a dramatic entry we see Ranbir Kapoor walking with no real presence or charisma. Rama is also portrayed as someone who is engulfed by doubts constantly asking what his purpose of life was.
Saint Vishwamitra takes Rama and Lakshmana to kill demons who were disturbing Rishis in their fire worship or Yagyas. Here again Hollywood takes over with Lord and Lakshmana jumping from mountains and trees. Sometimes they are shown running away from the demons. These acts are a figment of the imagination of the producers of the film. In reality Lord Rama acts with great dignity and easily destroys the demons just with his bows and arrows.
We then come to what could have been the most important part of the film. Lord Rama wins the hand of Sita by lifting and breaking the bow of Lord Shiva. This could have been a lighter moment whereby the other kings were humiliated by not being able to lift the bow. Instead there was melancholy in the entire scene. We then have the grand entry of Sita played by Sai Pallavi. Sad to say that there was no euphoria. There is no gravitas of Sita. Out of over a billion people in India the producers could not find a suitable Rama or Sita. Lakshmana too was very ordinary and clumsy in his delivery. A few jokes cracked by him went against the Lakshman we know who was a no nonsense man for whom Lord Rama was everything. The wedding scene which could have been the most grand, glittering and extraordinary event was cut short to a short clip and an entirely unmatching music composed by A. R. Rahman and German film score composer Hans Zimmer. India has some of the greatest musicians steeped in Hindu traditions but the producers overlooked them. After the breaking of the bow the fierce Sage Parsuram confronts Rama. One of the ways by which Rama pacifies Parsuram is by showing him his four armed form. This could have been an absolutely amazing opportunity for the producers to vow the international audience but they failed.
.We move onto the time of exile. A low budget film could have portrayed evil Manthra better. In exile Lord Rama and Lakshmana kill more demons Hollowood style. We then come to the arrival of Surpanakha, sister of Ravana. Deviating from the main story we witness a brutal fight between Ravana and Surpanakha’s husband. Ravana kills him mercilessly. This irrelevant part to the story of Ramayana will leave the international audience in complete confusion.
After her nose was cut off Surpankha sends what looks like thousands of demons to kill Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. We know of her going to Ravana to seek revenge but we have never heard of her coming with her own army. Here again Hollywood takes over with action shots which are just nothing short of fantasy. And here we see Sita going into battle. This has to be the poetic license taken by the producers. We have never heard of Sita going into battle. This pure fabrication does a lot of damage to the character of Sita we know. By showing Sita going into battle she comes out as someone on an adventure enjoying every minute of it rather than a Sita who is giving companionship to her beloved Rama who has been banished to the forest for 14 years.
We then come to the point of demon Maricha in the guise of a deer. Scriptures describe the deer as extraordinary. magical creatures with a radiant golden body and silver spots. With all the £130 million spent in the movie we see a most ordinary deer. They could not even make one! No explanation again to the international audience that Marich was sent by Ravana to help kidnap Sita.
Finally Sita gets kidnapped by Ravana and we are presented with a spectacle of a massive fight between Ravana and Jatayu. And again we witness a Hollywood style fight between the two in Ravana’s airplane. The story ends there. The rest of the story presumably comes in the second part.
My verdict is do not watch this movie. It is a betrayal of the core story of Ramayana.
Nitin Mehta
9 November 2026.