The much-hyped, mega-budget movie Adipurush, starring Prabhas, Kriti Shanon and Saif Ali Khan is a retelling of the Ramayana. After a short teaser was released yesterday October 2, social media was rife with discussions about the first visuals from the movie. However, unexpectedly, they were mostly negative.
The 1.46-minute teaser, though loaded with a lot of VFX and pleasant visuals of natural landscapes, dropped a lot of unpleasant scenes that made the audience question the logic behind the budget of over 500 crores for making a movie that has all the regular monsters and skeletal demons Hollywood used to portray 10 years back.
Popular YouTuber Deeksha Sharma has said in her review that Prabhas has a weird plastic expression on his face and lacks the ‘Godlike’ charm and calmness that is associated with Vishnu Avatars in Hinduism. She even cited the examples of Saurabh Raj Jain as Krishna in Star Plus’ Mahabharat, Nitesh Bharadwaj in the DD Mahabharat, Arun Govil as Ram in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, and the short but stunning transformation of Ram Charan’s character in RRR.
Sharma pointed out that Lord Ram is the calm, steady, benevolent warrior in the minds of the Indian audience but Prabhas lacks all that. Rather the makers of the movie seem to have invested all their money and focus on giving Prabhas the ‘six pack look’.
Sharma’s review has gathered more than 450,000 views in just 5 hours.
One Twitter user asked why are the makers of Adipurush trying to make Ravan look like ‘Rizwan’. Pointing at the beard and comical expression adorned by Saif Ali Khan in the teaser, he stated that Saif rather looks like Allauddin Khilji.
I mean seriously!!! Are they going to change the name of ravan to rizwan ?? Who is styling his beard ?? Javid Habib ?? They have made him look like alauddin khilji 😂😂😂#AdipurushMegaTeaserLaunch #Adipurush #disappointed #animation pic.twitter.com/MGZTtqqicz
— உன்னைப்போல் ஒருவன் (@Sandy_Offfl) October 2, 2022
Saif Ali Khan as Ravan rides a giant monster bat
Among the plethora of misplaced, odd, cheap Hollywood horror movie-inspired visuals were some shots of Ravan’s army. Curiously, Ravan seems to have an army of skeletal, rotten demons, looking like a cross between Dementors from Harry Potter and the wights, the skeletal animated zombies from Game of Thrones. These ones can fly, though.
There is also a hilariously copy-pasted scene of Saif as Ravan riding a giant, monster bat. Social media users were quick to point out that it was a rather stupid attempt to recreate the Night King character from Game of Thrones where he rides a skeletal zombie dragon.
Disappointed #Adipurush pic.twitter.com/89SOc9GGK4
— rae (@ChillamChilli_) October 2, 2022
“Is this a movie or a Game?”
Dozens of users have pointed out that it looks less like a movie and more like a new online fantasy game. Similarities of setups with Temple Run 4 were also pointed out.
700 cr Temple Run🤣🤣😭#Adipurush #AdipurushTeaser #AdipurushMegaTeaserLaunch #Disappointed #Animated pic.twitter.com/fH4B6k55iv
— Prem Sharma (@imprem858) October 2, 2022
The fact that Lord Hanuman and the Vanar Sena in general have been reduced to comical, angry monsters was also pointed out by many.
NO WAY THEY MADE AN ANIMATED MOVIE OF 500cr 😭😭😭 #Adipurush #Prabhas #AdipurushTeaser pic.twitter.com/Kxmacf8xoF
— R U M I (@iMalfoyRKF) October 2, 2022
Overall, the teaser of the mega-budget movie looks very disappointing. Sita, the strong, virtuous, brave princess of Mithila has been depicted as a mere damsel in distress. Prabhas, who now has a pan-Indian fan base after Baahubali movies, looks rather expressionless and bland. Saif Ali Khan has stupid, comical expressions totally unbefitting of a mighty, ‘Mahagyani’ king who ruled over even Devas and got blessings from Lord Shiva to gain his powers.
Some of the basic things On Raut missed in Mega project:
— Abey Kuruwila 🎭 (@kuruwila) October 3, 2022
1.Simplicity,Calmness of Ram
2.VFX
3. Ravan's look & Hairstyle
4.Vaanar Sena's
5. Basic screen tone. A complete dark tone giving a sense of Fear & Horror movies
6. Main characters are not even looking like a real human
A movie that attempts to retell the story of the Ramayana, with the scale of human emotions, and overwhelming popularity in multiple countries, should have been made with better care and finesse.
