.....the same cringe worthy romantic & action plots and unnecessary song sequences. One such pointless addition to this list is Adipurush, a movie which was apparently meant to be a sincere adaptation of the timeless Hindu epic, the Ramayana, but now only remains to be a despicable attempt at doing so that deserves to be straightaway thrown into the dustbin.

The state of the mind that the Hindus find themselves to be in, since the worldwide release of Adipurush has been of utter frustration. Moreover, the thing that has been hurting the most in case of Adipurush is that the idea of it was conceived by a Hindu himself. Om Raut, the director was so much in love with his idea of the Ramayana that he went on to make the worst adaptation of it. Adipurush is an outrightly humiliating version of the Ramayana and completely lacks the emotional sensitivity with which a story like Ramayana deserves to be told.

Adipurush was released worldwide on 16th June 2023 and immediately started gathering negative reviews. It was being severely criticised for its loose and inconsistent screenplay, shabby VFX and unbelievably naive and laughable dialogue writing. To put it briefly, Adipurush lacked everything that a good movie is made up of. Every single frame of this 500 crore movie project had shortcomings and should be criticised. It is quite clear that director Om Raut and writer Manoj “Muntashir” Shukla have completely missed out on the possibilities of What Ramayana as a story has to offer to the Hindus and thus have ended up in committing a massive blunder. They have set an example of how Ramayana should not be made and that all those who wish to remake and portray this timeless epic according to their perspective must first make a serious attempt at understanding the rich and vibrant story of the Ramayana and the subtle emotional connect about it which commonly pulsates from heart to heart amongst the Hindus.

The story of the Ramayana holds a very special place in the hearts of Hindus. Shri. Rama is dearly revered in every Hindu household right from a small child to the elder most member of the family alike. The Hindu ethos worships Rama and looks up to him as the upholder of Dharma and the champion of righteousness. He is looked at as an embodiment of the ultimate man (Maryada Purushottam), who despite of being subjected to the worst of sufferings, always remained calm and composed and went on to fulfil the national duty of becoming a just ruler without ever getting resentful and sorrowful. The real beauty of the Ramayana lies in the fact that despite of Rama being the central character of the epic, there is much more to it than just him. The story of the Ramayana is so vivid yet so complex. Every character associated with this epic has the subtleties of human emotions and human behaviour attached to them. Hence, these characters are still relevant even in these so called modern times as after all no matter how modern and progressive we might become, we can never run away from the emotional and mental insecurities that we as human beings have to deal with.

Although a detailed discussion on every aspect of the Ramayana is virtually impossible to have within the scope of this blog, there are a few aspects that stand out more clearly than the others and breathe in soul into the entire story of the Ramayana. The story of the Ramayana is a classic portrayal of the victory of good over evil. As discussed earlier, the story is not just about the characters but also thoroughly explores the human nature of the relationships in between those characters. Right from when the old and crooked Manthara spews hatred against Rama and manipulates Kaikeyi into demanding the exile of Shri. Rama to the pure bond of love that Rama and Sita share owing to which she willingly agrees to undergo the Agni Pariksha, Ramayana beautifully explores different compulsions, insecurities, expectations and selflessness that come along with relationships. The absolute devotion that Hanuman bears towards Shri. Rama still inspires us and will always keep inspiring Hindus. The bond of brotherhood that Rama and Lakshmana share can be regarded as the ultimate bond of respect and care that siblings can have in between them. The bond of love that Shri. Rama and Mata Sita shared is still adorned and celebrated by all and every Hindu desires to have a selfless, pure and sacred bond of love like the one they shared.

Although it is impossible to completely give justice to Ramayana through a 3 hour long movie, there have been a few attempts such as Ramananda Sagar’s Ramayana and Yugo Sako’s Ramayana : The legend of prince Rama that have tried honestly to preserve the sanctity of it. Unfortunately, Adipurush hasn’t even tried to emulate what the other two aforementioned projects had done, and it goes needless to say that they have failed miserably. We would never know where exactly did all the 500 crore rupees invested into this project go? If you pump in 500 crore rupees and come out with a movie like Adipurush (no matter how enthralling the title sounds to be), it is with a heavy heart that we need to accept that the future of Bollywood is doomed. There already has been a lot of debate and controversy around the story of Adipurush and it is honestly becoming a boring job now to discuss the poor dialogue writing like ‘Kapda Tere Baap Ka’ and childish VFX that the movie is stuffed with. After all the discussions, debates and controversies surrounding Adipurush, the audacity of the director and writer to support and justify their actions perhaps just goes to show how ignorant and unbearably naive and callous their approach towards this movie was.

All said and done, the fact remains that, sometimes you start thinking and get an idea of making a movie like Adipurush and then,

YOU DON’T MAKE IT!