Vikram’s Raavanan is not based on the story of epic Ramayana

The recently-held press-meet of Maniratnam’s upcoming film ‘Raavanan’, starring Vikram, Prabhu, Karthick, Prithviraj, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Priyamani in the lead, was a lively affair. The Hindi version features Abishek in Vikram’s role and Vikram enacting a reversal of role in it. The film would soon be releasing in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

Many film-based websites claim that the story of ‘Raavanan’ is based on the story of epic Ramayana. As per the story, Prhtiviraj (a cop) accidentally kills Vikram’s sister Priyamani. In order to take revenge, Vikram abducts the cop’s wife Aishwarya and takes her into the jungles. Even as Prithviraj tries his best to rescue his wife, Vikram sends her on his own back to her husband.

Instead of rejoicing, Prithviraj doubts his wife’s integrity and casts aspersions on her ‘character’, forcing her to take a dramatic and unexpected decision. Observers say that the story is not dissimilar to the film ‘Sirai’ which starred actress Lakshmi and Rajesh in the lead and released more than a couple of decades ago. The film was based on a story by author Anuradha Ramanan and was directed by veteran R.C. Sakthi. It own many an award at that time.

When host Karthick asked Vikram as to the film’s story resembled that of Ramayana, the latter replied that it had a bit of everything: Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Tamil epic Sivappadhikaram. Asked if he was playing ‘Raavanan’, Vikram replied that it was his ‘knick-name’ in the film and jocularly remarked that like the epic character, he too had ten heads and that he had ‘dispatched’ each of those heads to many film events!