dangermousie | Guess which movie I get to see today?

Mani Ratnam's Raavan:

I defy you not to be mesmerized by the visuals of this modern, loose take on Ramayana.

(Hopefully, one of these days I'll get to see the Tamil version as well (it is unsubbed as of yet)).

Why am I obsessed about seeing Raavan?

1. I never like Abhishek Bachchan as much as I do in Mani Ratnam movies - for example, his performance in Yuva is one of the best Bollywood performances I've ever seen - somehow Ratnam manages to bring this vulnerable, destructive darkness in him that I've never seen any other director accomplish.
2. Mani Ratnam is my favorite Indian director. Period.
3. Have you seen the visuals? They are out of this world, which is not surprising as his cinematographer is the amazing Santosh Sivan.
4. Aishwarya Rai - just like her husband Abhishek, she is an uneven actress, but just as he, she shines in Ratnam movies - she is never as luminous and warm as she is with Ratnam (except when she is in Bhansali's movies - but then she is his muse). Her performance in Guru was wonderful.
5. I like Abhishek and Aishwarya's chemistry together - Guru was wonderful, of coursw, but so were other pairings of theirs I have seen.
6. The story draws me in - turning the traditional heroic ethos of Ramayana on its head - where the Rama character is dark, possibly even darker than the Raavan character, who is humanized.