When it comes to animation films, our filmmakers usually fall back on Indian mythology probably thinking that the viewer will be familiar with the story already. Few, if ever, attempt a theme outside the myth such as the recent one MotuPatlu: King Of Kings.
Mahayoddha Rama adopts a different approach in that this tale has been told from Ravan’s perspective who wants to destroy Rama, the avatar of Lord Vishnu, prophesied to be his doom. The approach is comical with a dash of martial art.
As the story goes here, Ravan has been trying to get rid of Rama since his childhood and trying every trick from sending a tiger to kill Rama to sending his sister Surpankha to lure him and brother Laxman.
Ravan’s 10 heads are the funny part of the film as each head has a different voice. While the main head has the voice of Gulshan Grover to go with his villain image, the rest are voices of Roshan Abbas, Gaurav Gera, Kiku Sharda, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Amin Sayani, and others. One of the heads of Ravan also keeps chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ frequently!
Kunal Kapoor has done the voiceover for Rama, Jimmy Shergill for Laxman and Suchitra Pillai for Surpankha.
This animation film looks more like a comic take on the epic myth as the character of Ravan here is more like a caricature meant to evoke laughter though his surroundings are dark and he is surrounded by all sinister looking aides.
While the animation is not up to the mark with the characters having limited expressions. The film has taken a long time hitting the cinemas having been made in 2008. It aims more at kids seeking fun out of this comical version of the Ramayana.
Producer: Contiloe Films.
Direction: Rohit Vaid.
Cast (voices): Gulshan Grover, Kunal Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Mouni Roy, Amin Sayani, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Sameera Reddy
