Ravanasura Movie Review- Telugu (2023)

Movie: Ravanasura (2023)

Director: Sudheer Varma

Production: Ravi Teja

Cast: Ravi Teja, Sushanth, Jayaram, Megha Aakash & Others

Music & Score: Harshavardhan Rameshwar & Bheems Ceciroleo 

Editing: Naveen Nooli

Cinematography: Vijay Karthik & Vishnu

Language: Telugu

Release Date: 07/04/23

Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime

Rating: A (18+ content, violence, sexual reference, rape, murder etc)

2.5/5

"Typicality & eerie elements cast all over that get a very boring & unconvincing end"

01. Ravanasura on the whole.

Sudheer Varma is intelligent in capturing the audience with his screenplay but why isn't he interested in making a convincing or great end is a big question that might trouble all the audience who watched this film. 

Ravanasura is a brilliantly managed storyline that has all the eerie & horrific elements that thril the audience' to core but cannot manage us all the times & gets badly diluted towards the end of the film. That's why I termed it as well balanced or managed film but not a well made film. 

Ravi Teja gets a very very different role to play in this film & one who has watched him enact this character is really petrified. Ravanasura starts with a good amount of humour & comedy indicating the usual Ravi Teja but suddenly takes a turn shifts the gear & walks us through something that is uncomfortable, nauseating & horrific. Despite all the hustle, hype & fuss the film ends on a disastrous note which isn't convincing at all.

I don't want to releave any story, go watch & tell me your opinion about it. 

02. Ravi Teja as Ravanasura.

Ravi Teja starts it with a very lighter comedy humourous role & that character starts to build something that we are not at all expecting to come for. The typical eerie touch in the character & abundance of grey will shake the audience. Family audience will be in trouble watching such things happening unexpectedly. Especially the greyness in the character peaks at pre & post intervals. Am struck by his decision to choose to play such a character. 

Ravi Teja is however a delight to watch. He takes us back to his 90's plays where he was that bad goon troubling the heroines. No comments for his stupendous act but the problem is how people are going to take him after this film. Would they want him to be much more bad or get back to his usual lighter comedy roles is a task for him & filmmakers too. But, am sure after such heights of showcasing the professionalism in his act, one cannot expect him as the same normal fun generating guy in his next film. But, whatever hats off ✌️🙏 Ravi Teja an actor for a reason 🙂

03. More about the uncomfortable scenes in the film. Are they really worth?

And a straight answer to above question from my side is, a very strong YES. Without those terrific transformation scenes or those strange sensous scenes that create an air of awkwardness & uncomfortable situations to the viewers - the film would be on a toss for sure. The justification for such scenes is really really silly & after the suspense unlocks it's too predictable. So, the film is only saved by those uncomfortable scenes & typical picturization & strange sketching of Ravi Teja's character. If, we expect it to be normal film would end up with below normal results or much less than that.

04. So why the fuss for such normal story?

This is a question that direction department should answer. When you know that such horrific or troublesome scenes act as just catalysts & are really not helping the storyline too core, then creating such fuss is just a publicity stunt to attract the audience. So, in my opinion those awkward scenes are really not worth that high hype. But, without those scenes we really don't see any potential of the film falling into a  watchable track. So, I can neither support nor stay neutral regarding that awkwardness in the film.

Getting in the theme of puranas, the great battle between Ravana & Rama Chandra, is for sure an intentional approach by the director. Even without adding such themes just for name sake will also work with the film.

At one juncture in the second half of the film, we are like 'Wheres' the film actually heading too??!!' , we all are frustrated & the patience levels fall down with the  uneasiness & clumsiness taking top gears. But, to bring all that fuss to an end, the director gets in some absolutely silly & irrelevant justifications to the story which irritate us much more. But, however it depends on individuals on how would they react to the story. And one more interesting point is that, why again get back the grey character into life with dash of positiveness & transforming him into a hero?, he could remain that 'Bad guy' with his motto & principles right!  

05. My take on these genres.

It's ok, i l know that we all are trying different genres, liking typical content. But how does that mean that you give a character that's full on negativity & has not reason for that psychological behaviour or sometimes justified by very very silly reasons? It's ok to give a lead character grey, but how much? Till he's completely saturated that he forgets senses on why he choose to be like that? I will never understand this! And my sincere request to filmakers is to sketch anything that they wish but have a limit & a boundary to everything, so that we don't need to find or search for reasons in figuring out why that character is so bad. Let the films speak & let the characters act, but don't make them artificial with your greediness to make them appealing for the audience. 

06. Technical aspects. 

There's nothing wrong with technical departments, they are top notch. Music & score is one more plus to film. One or two songs act as speed brakers to film but still the other songs make it quiet a decent thriller. Especially Ravanasura anthem is too good to engage the audience in right junctures. 

07. Final words.

It's a good film with lot & lot of reservations. Watch it at your risk. It's A rated, not suiting for a family audience. So, watch it with your own limitations. I cannot either say I liked it or not, but can say that some elements in the film are for sure watch worthy & they deserve applause.