Page - 39 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 07/02

Validating Demons | 39www.jrfm.eu 2021, 7/2, 31–53 great Indian epic, the Mahābhārata. In Raavan (2010) and Raavanan (2010), he sought to portray the virtues of Rāvaṇa along with his wickedness, and justify part of his ill behavior. The fact that Rāvaṇa loses in the end makes him even more interesting. Ratnam’s Rāmāyaṇa Adaptation Mani Ratnam’s adaptation will now be analyzed taking into consideration the way in which the story of Rāvaṇa is amplified and the Rāmāyaṇa is used to criticize power dynamics in contemporary India. The movie starts with a scene in which Bīrā (a contemporary Rāvaṇa) is about to jump off a cliff into a river in the beautiful wilderness below. In the next scene Bīrā’s sister Jamuniyā (corresponding to Śūrpaṇakhā) appears walking around a village fair with a couple of policemen; soon afterwards we see another scene in which a road in the forest is blocked and policemen are burned alive. Vis- ually, Bīrā is connected to the wilderness, the forest to violence, and Bīrā’s sister to the police. Two minutes into the film, the kidnapping of Rāginī (representing Sītā) occurs while she is gliding along a river; her canoe is struck and destroyed by a much larger boat in which Bīrā is standing. This version of the Rāmāyaṇa starts with the abduction of Sītā, because it is the part of the narrative in which Rāvaṇa becomes important. The destruction of Rāginī’s boat is cinematographically grandiose, and the music dramatic. Ratnam considers that the main point of his film is “the clash of two kinds of people”,32 and this contrast is symbolized by the collision of the boats. The image of the boat tossed in the water depicts the human condition in devo- tional poetry and is used as an analogy for crisis, birth, and death.33 Perhaps this kind of boat imagery also influenced Ratnam’s choices: the boats might represent the merging of good and evil. Although the storylines of Raavan (2010) and Raavanan (2010) are iden- tical, the language makes a difference for each version, as is evident from the lyrics of the songs. The first song of the Hindi film is devoted to Bīrā (Rāvaṇa). He is presented as a proud, strong man and compared to fierce natural phenomena. The reference to his birth and caste points to his un- derprivileged origins yet great qualities. The virtues of Rāma are never high- 32 Rangan 2012, 285. 33 Jackson 1988, 1; Wadley 1977, 144.