The film opens with shots showing Beera Munda [Abhishek Bachchan] jumping off a cliff into the water. His gang is busy distracting the police. Police and police vehicles are set ablaze. Ragini Sharma [Aishwarya Rai], on a boating trip, is kidnapped by Beera. Dev Pratap Sharma [Vikram], her husband and a superintendent of police, is informed. A brief montage of sorts showcases the story of Beera. He is seen as a local hero, a sort of Robin Hood- who runs a parallel govt, with his brothers - Mangal [Ravi Kishan] and Hari [Ajay Gehi]. Though considered a terrorist by the local police, Beera is respected by the villagers. He kidnaps Ragini hoping to avenge the death of his sister Jamuni [Priyamani]. Dev and his team enter the forests with the aid of Sanjeevani Kumar [Govinda], a forest guard. Despite searching deep in the forests, Dev is unable to hunt down Beera. Beera eventually tells Ragini the story of his sisters death; Dev had led an encounter against Beera during Jamunis wedding. Devs shot grazed Beera in the neck. Beera escaped, but the police captured and serially raped Jamuni, when she refused to reveal Beeras whereabouts. Beera returns home to find Jamuni distraught and traumatized. The next day, she commits suicide by drowning in a nearby well. Unhappy that his brother is preparing for war, Hari convinces Beera to allow Hari to offer a truce to Dev. Dev initially seems to agree, but when Hari comes out in the open, Dev shoots him to death. Beera and Mangal are enraged and attack Devs camp and wipe it out. A final confrontation between Beera and Dev takes place on a rickety bridge, where Beera prevents Dev from falling to his death. Dev later finds Ragini bound and tied, with Beera leaving her. However, while riding a train back to their hometown, Dev accuses Ragini of infidelity and informs her that it was Beera who told him so. Furious, Ragini leaves Dev to meet Beera through Mangal. When she does, she asks him what Beera had told Dev. Beera replies that he had said, he protected Ragini for all the fourteen days and not anything else. They quickly realize Dev lied, hoping Ragini would lead him to his hideout. Dev appears with a police team and confront the duo. Ragini tries to save Beera, but he pushes her out of the line of fire. He is shot multiple times. Raaginis true feelings comes to surface when she tries to save Beera with all her might. Content that Raagini too has feelings for him, Beera falls off the cliff to his death with a smile.

Production

Shooting began in the southern part of Tumkur, Karnataka at the end of October 2008. During filming, Mani Ratnam became ill which delayed the filming for a few months in 2009. However, the film began its last schedule in August 2009. The film finished filming and went into post production by October 2009. Manikandan was hired as the films DOP or cinematographer, however he walked out in May 2009 and was replaced by Santosh Sivan. This film have numerous action scenes and stunts performed by the actors. The stunts are directed by Mani Ratnam and are choreographed by Peter Hein, who received Filmfare action award for the Hindi version of Ghajini and Anniyan. The Kerala martial art Kalarippayattu is also featured in the film. Dancer Astad Deboo choreographed a passionate chase scene and tandav dance between Abhishek and Aishwarya for the film. Indian fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee designed Aishwarya Rais costumes in the film. Raavan has been shot in numerous locations around India including the forests of Karnataka [Tumkur], Kerala [Athirappilly Falls], Ooty, Jhansi, Kolkata, Mahabaleshwar and in the Malshej Ghats in Maharashtra.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film is composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics penned by Gulzar. It features six songs and an additional song that was performed by Rahman at the audio launch. It was released on 24 April 2010 by T-Series.

Box office

= Raavan opened "below expectations" at the Indian box office, with the Hindi version earning Rs 60 million [Rs 6 crore] on its opening day. and 23.83 crore through its first week. In North America, Raavan opened in 120 theaters and ranked #15 on the domestic weekend box office chart with $482,760. As of June 24, it had collected $573,314 in this market. The film was declared a hits by box office India.

Critical response

= Among Indian film critics on the review-aggregation website ReviewGang, the film scored 4.5/10 based on 12 reviews. Baradwaj Rangan of The New Indian Express rated the film 4/5 and said "Raavan falls for Sita [and vice versa] in an intriguingly idiosyncratic take on the Ramayana - if you can get past the lead perfomances, that is" Rajeev Masand of IBN gave the film 1.5/5 and said, "Despite some eye-watering camerawork and a stunning action piece in the films climax, the film -- especially its first half -- is a carelessly edited mess of long scenes that make little sense when strung together". Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL rated it 2.5/5 and stated " Raavan is more a choreographed musical-cum-psychological drama but without proper character backing. What makes the movie worth watching is the peaks in the second half, of course apart from the imagery." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it 1.5/5 and said, "On the whole, Raavan is a king-sized disappointment, in terms of content". Sukanya Venkatraghavan of Filmfare rated the film 3/5 and said, "Raavan has its moments but it lacks depth. The first half is fairly riveting but the second half slowly slips into a coma". Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India rated it favourably at 3/5 saying, "There are enough punches in the second half to keep the momentum going, but by and large, the film scores mostly on art and aesthete". Raja Sen of Rediff rated it 2/5 and said, "Raavan truly and tragically fails us is in taking one of our greatest epics, and making it unforgivably boring". Parimal Rohit of Buzzine Bollywood said, "Raavan is ultimately a clever film, as it pushed the envelope on how one goes about defining who is good and who is evil." Among U.S. and U.K. film critics sampled on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate site, Raavan rated 70%, with ten reviews. Cath Clarke of The Guardian gave the film a rating of 2/5 and found it sexist, while New York Post critic Lou Lumenick wrote, "If youre not a fan of Bollywood movies - which have long resisted crossover attempts in this country despite the success of hybrids such as Slumdog Millionaire - Mani Ratnams action melodrama Raavan probably isnt going to make a convert out of you." However, Frank Lovece of Film Journal International found it a "cracklingly stylish, suspenseful psychological drama" with "a visual sense that evokes David Fincher at his darkest", and admired the dance numbers, "one taking place somewhat naturalistically at a wedding, the other essentially a stunning war dance." The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times likewise gave it positive reviews: Rachel Saltz of the former made it a Times "Critics Pick" and lauded Ratnam as "a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images" including "an eye-popping climactic battle", while Kevin Thomas of the latter said the film "is replete with dizzying camerawork, myriad complications, violent mayhem, broad humor, [the] usual musical interludes, a cliffhanging climactic confrontation and a finish that strikes a note of poignancy."