Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part 1 carries a burden that has little to do with its reported ₹4,000 crore budget. It is the first big-screen, two-part attempt to retell Valmiki’s epic for a generation that still measures every adaptation against Ramanand Sagar’s television version, which began its hold on the country nearly four decades ago.
Hindustan Times’ first review awards the film four stars and concludes that the gamble mostly works: the first half is deliberate, the second half spectacular, and the visual finish can stand beside Hollywood output.
Why the retelling works
The film chooses to open with Raavan rather than Ram, setting up a contrast that pays off later. Yash commands the screen as Raavan with the swagger the part demands, and the review says the ten-faced interpretation is likely to draw praise. Sai Pallavi’s Sita carries grace; Lara Dutta’s Kaikeyi and Sheeba Chadha’s Manthara are cast with precision; Ravi Dubey’s Laxman balances devotion and impulse.
Most importantly for an audience that knows this story by heart, the makers do not rewrite its emotional architecture. The review points to the Jatayu sequence, voiced by Anupam Kher, as the film’s high point.
Where it strains
- The first half moves slowly because the two-part structure gives every principal character an extended introduction.
- Ranbir Kapoor’s Ram handles action confidently, but the review says he does not summon the devotion Arun Govil once did; Govil’s presence as Dashrath softens that comparison.
- The Zimmer–Rahman score is pleasant but falls short of its very high expectations, and the songs occasionally feel unnecessary.
The commercial and cultural arithmetic
The budget figure, reported as ₹4,000 crore, is the number that will follow the film through its run. The review estimates that DNEG, the visual effects house linked to producer Namit Malhotra, may have absorbed around 70 percent of the spend. That scale makes this as much an infrastructure statement as a movie: if the audience accepts the visual world, Hindi cinema has a new benchmark for mythic spectacle.
The cultural test is subtler. The review makes the comparison explicit: this is the opposite of Adipurush’s approach. Ramayana: Part 1 keeps the images and beats viewers remember — Raavan taking Kuber’s Lanka, his devotion to Shiv, Kaikeyi’s horror at what she sets in motion. The result is a retelling that feels faithful rather than clever for its own sake.
What comes next
The first instalment clears the ground for the war to come. The review notes that Sunny Deol’s Hanuman, the Sanjeevani sequence and the climactic battle are still ahead. Part 2 now has the easier job in mythic terms — everyone knows the ending — but the harder job in cinematic terms: delivering the fireworks the first film has promised.
Source: Hindustan Times
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