Film Review: Adipurush [First Man/Supreme Being]

Starring: Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan, Kriti Sanon, Sunny Singh, Devdatta Nage

Director: Om Raut

With this religious saga now hitting the streaming platforms, ‘Adipurush’ is once again in the news as a modern-day reimagining of the ‘Ramayana’ which released in cinemas recently. The lead characters of this Sanskrit epic are referenced in the film by their historical synonyms, with Lord Ram as Raghav, Sita as Janaki, Lakshman as Shesh and Raavan as Lankesh.

The film opens with the imposing character of Lankesh (Khan) as he is endowed with a divine blessing of invincibility. Meanwhile, Raghav (Prabhas) has willingly accepted a gruelling exile to honour father King Dashrath’s vow and has created a home in the forest. This cave home, though sparse and lacking in comforts, has warmth and love in abundance – that of his wife Janaki (Sanon) and brother Sesh (Singh).

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The trio are living a happy life dancing under the stars and playing in pristine rivers and lakes, with Raghav every now and then feeling a tinge of guilty about dragging a wife accustomed to palatial luxuries into the vagaries of jungle life. However, Janaki is never in doubt that her happiness is inextricably linked to that of her husband’s wellbeing and assures him of her complete devotion.

Their forest idyll is soon shattered when Lankesh (Khan) is exhorted by his egotistical sister to avenge her humiliation at the hands of Raghav and his brother Sesh by kidnapping the unspeakably beautiful Janaki, setting in motion a set of tumultuous events.

The basic premise of the story of ‘Ramayana’ is a familiar one. We all know that ultimately the “Supreme Being” of the title will be victorious, because good must always triumph evil. Therefore, this reimagining needed to make quite an effort to make this ancient and loved tale come truly alive.

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Unfortunately, the filmmakers simply injected much CGI to create a make-believe world of the epic tale that never quite truly comes alive.

Saif Ali Khan as the evil Lankesh veers towards hamming in his role and the others fail to make much of an impact. The end result, sadly, is a film that was conceived on a grand scale but fails to live up to that vision.