Ramayana Part 1 Review: Yash’s Ravana Dominates a Stunning Epic
A visually ambitious retelling of one of India's greatest epics — but does its extraordinary scale create the emotional connection the story deserves?
There are some stories that filmmakers can simply adapt. Then there are stories that carry centuries of memory, devotion, culture and emotion with them. The Ramayana belongs firmly to the second category.
That is what makes Ramayana: Part One such a difficult cinematic challenge. The audience does not enter the theatre without expectations. Many viewers already know Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Hanuman and Ravana. They know the major events, the exile, the abduction of Sita and the inevitable confrontation between Rama and Ravana.
The real question, therefore, is not simply what happens. The question is how the filmmakers make us experience it again.
Directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Namit Malhotra, the film attempts to transform the ancient epic into a massive global cinematic experience. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, Sai Pallavi plays Sita and Yash takes on the role of Ravana.
Ramayana Is More Than Just Another Big-Budget Film
The ambition behind this project is difficult to ignore. The production is designed as a two-part cinematic interpretation of the epic, with the first chapter arriving in 2026 and the second part planned for Diwali 2027.
The makers have assembled a major technical team, with DNEG playing a central role in the visual-effects work. The film is being positioned as a global Indian cinematic event rather than a conventional Bollywood release.
That distinction matters. Indian cinema has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to tell powerful stories, but large-scale visual effects have not always matched the ambition of the storytelling. Ramayana attempts to close that gap.
The Biggest Strength: The Visual Effects
If there is one department where Ramayana immediately demands attention, it is the visual effects.
DNEG's involvement gives the film a technical advantage that few Indian productions can match. The company has worked on major international productions including Inception, Interstellar, the Dune films, the Dark Knight trilogy and several other large-scale Hollywood projects.
Here, that expertise is being applied to an Indian story rooted in Indian mythology. That combination is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the entire project.
From the environments and kingdoms to the creatures, battles and large-scale action sequences, the film frequently looks like a production built for the biggest possible screen.
There are moments where the spectacle becomes almost overwhelming. The action is designed for scale, and several sequences are likely to remain among the film's most discussed scenes.
Yash as Ravana: The Film's Most Powerful Performance
And then comes Ravana.
Yash's performance is arguably the most dominating element of Ramayana Part One. Instead of treating Ravana as a straightforward one-dimensional villain, the film gives him considerable dramatic weight.
That choice is important because Ravana has never been merely a monster in the larger tradition of the Ramayana. He is a powerful king, a scholar, a devotee of Shiva and an individual whose extraordinary abilities are ultimately destroyed by his own arrogance.
The film spends substantial time establishing Ravana's rise, power and ambition. This gives the character an identity beyond the familiar image of the ten-headed antagonist.
Yash understands that Ravana needs presence before he needs menace. His posture, voice, expressions and physicality make the character feel powerful even when he is not fighting.
More importantly, the performance allows Ravana to remain human enough for the audience to understand his motivations while still showing the dangerous arrogance that eventually becomes his downfall.
There Is No Ravana Without Rama
One of the interesting ideas surrounding Ramayana is that the strength of the antagonist ultimately determines how meaningful the hero's victory feels.
Rama's greatest opponent cannot feel insignificant. If Ravana is presented simply as a demon waiting to be defeated, the central conflict loses its weight.
Ramayana understands this equation.
The story becomes more compelling when Ravana feels like someone capable of standing against the greatest forces around him.
His devotion, intelligence, political power and pride exist alongside his destructive ego. That contradiction makes the character dramatically useful.
Ranbir Kapoor as Rama: The Difficultest Role in the Film
Ranbir Kapoor faces a completely different challenge.
Playing Rama in a film of this scale leaves very little room for experimentation. The character is not simply another fictional protagonist. For millions of viewers, Rama carries profound religious and cultural significance.
Every gesture, expression, line and emotional reaction therefore comes under extraordinary scrutiny.
The performance chooses restraint. Ranbir's Rama is calm, composed and controlled rather than aggressively dramatic.
The advantage of that approach is respect. The disadvantage is that the performance can sometimes feel less emotionally explosive than the surrounding spectacle.
When Yash's Ravana enters the frame, the character naturally commands attention. That creates an interesting imbalance: the antagonist can take bigger dramatic risks, while Rama has to remain within a much narrower emotional boundary.
Sai Pallavi as Sita
Sai Pallavi faces a similar challenge.
Sita is not a role where filmmakers can freely rewrite personality traits without facing intense public reaction. The performance therefore prioritizes grace, dignity and emotional restraint.
However, the Hindi dubbing and some of the dialogue delivery can occasionally make the emotional connection feel less natural than it should.
In a production of this financial and technical scale, language and dubbing become especially important because the audience needs to forget the machinery behind the movie and believe in the characters.
The Storytelling Problem: How Do You Fit the Ramayana Into One Film?
This may ultimately be the biggest challenge facing Nitesh Tiwari.
The Ramayana is enormous. It contains generations of characters, relationships, moral questions, journeys, wars, political conflicts and philosophical ideas.
Trying to fit the first major section of that story into a single theatrical film inevitably creates pressure.
The film has to establish kingdoms, characters, relationships, exile, Ravana's rise and the circumstances surrounding Sita's abduction.
The result is sometimes visually spectacular but emotionally rushed.
There are moments when the film appears to be moving from one major event to another before the audience has been given enough time to emotionally absorb what just happened.
Jatayu's Sequence Is a Major Highlight
One of the strongest examples of what Ramayana can achieve comes during the sequence involving Jatayu and Sita's abduction.
Most viewers already know the outcome. The surprise therefore cannot come from the plot. It has to come from execution.
And this is where the filmmaking becomes especially effective.
The scale, movement, visual effects and action choreography combine to turn a familiar episode into a major cinematic set piece.
These are the moments where the film justifies its enormous production scale.
Action: Designed for the Big Screen
Ramayana clearly wants to be experienced in a theatre.
The battle sequences are large, physical and visually ambitious. The action choreography, environments and VFX work together to create moments that would lose much of their impact on a small screen.
The film's strongest action scenes demonstrate what Indian cinema can achieve when visual effects are treated as an essential part of storytelling rather than simply as decoration.
But the Film Still Has One Old Bollywood Problem
Despite all the technological ambition, the film occasionally falls into a familiar Indian-cinema habit: excessive slow motion.
Action scenes slow down. Emotional moments slow down. Romantic moments slow down. Heroic entrances slow down.
Slow motion can make a moment feel larger when used carefully. But when it becomes a recurring visual language, it can also make a long film feel even longer.
A tighter edit could have improved the overall rhythm and allowed the story to breathe more naturally.
Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman: A Collaboration With Huge Expectations
The collaboration between Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman is another major reason audiences entered the film with enormous expectations.
Both composers have created unforgettable cinematic music in their careers, so naturally the question becomes whether Ramayana produces a theme that stays with audiences long after the credits.
The scale of the music is undeniable, but the film's visual spectacle can sometimes overshadow its musical identity.
A film of this magnitude needs at least one melody or musical theme that audiences immediately associate with its characters.
Why Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan Still Feels Different
Comparing modern Ramayana adaptations with Ramanand Sagar's iconic television series is inevitable.
The older series did not have today's technology. It did not have photorealistic CGI, giant virtual environments or modern action choreography.
Yet it created something that technology cannot automatically manufacture: emotional attachment.
Audiences connected with the characters because the storytelling gave them time to live with those characters.
That is perhaps the central lesson for any modern Ramayana adaptation. Spectacle can make people look at the screen. Emotion is what makes them remember it.
Ramayana Has More Than One Interpretation
Another fascinating aspect of the Ramayana tradition is its diversity.
The epic exists through numerous regional, literary, theatrical and cultural traditions. Different versions emphasize different characters, philosophies and interpretations.
That means filmmakers potentially have enormous creative space.
A modern adaptation does not necessarily need to disrespect tradition in order to explore something new. It can respect the core story while examining characters and perspectives that mainstream adaptations sometimes overlook.
Ramayana Part One takes some meaningful steps in this direction, especially through its treatment of Ravana, but there was still room for greater experimentation.
The Global Ambition Is a Victory in Itself
Whatever one thinks about the storytelling, the international ambition behind Ramayana is difficult to dismiss.
The film has been built for audiences beyond India and is being released across multiple languages and international markets.
The official production team describes the film as a global cinematic interpretation of the epic, with DNEG and Prime Focus Studios leading a large-scale technical effort.
That matters because Indian stories are increasingly being presented to international audiences without abandoning their cultural identity.
Ramayana is therefore not only a movie release. It represents an attempt to demonstrate that Indian mythology can occupy the same global visual space as other major fantasy and epic franchises.
Ramayana Part 1: Strengths and Weaknesses
What Works
- Exceptional large-scale visual effects
- Yash's commanding performance as Ravana
- Massive action sequences
- Detailed production design
- Strong international cinematic ambition
- Powerful presentation of the Ramayana world
What Could Be Better
- Some emotional moments feel rushed
- Limited experimentation with Rama and Sita
- Occasional dubbing concerns
- Frequent use of slow motion
- The huge runtime can affect pacing
- The story sometimes struggles beneath the scale of the spectacle
Performance Breakdown
Our Verdict
Ramayana Part One is not a perfect film.
Its greatest achievement is visual. The film demonstrates that an Indian production can attempt genuinely world-class VFX while telling a story deeply rooted in Indian culture.
Its biggest weakness is that the emotional storytelling does not always match the scale of the technology surrounding it.
Yash's Ravana is the standout. The character receives complexity, authority and dramatic freedom, allowing Yash to create a presence that frequently dominates the screen.
Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi face a more difficult problem. Their characters carry enormous cultural expectations, leaving the actors less freedom to experiment.
Ultimately, Ramayana succeeds when it remembers that spectacle and emotion need to work together.
| Category | Our View |
|---|---|
| VFX & Visuals | 9.9/10 |
| Yash as Ravana | 9.5/10 |
| Action | 9/10 |
| Performances | 8/10 |
| Storytelling | 7.5/10 |
| Music | 7.5/10 |
| Overall | 8.5/10 |
Final Word
Ramayana Part One may not completely solve the challenge of adapting one of the world's most familiar epics for modern cinema, but it takes a major step forward in visual ambition.
The most encouraging part is what the film represents beyond the screen: Indian filmmakers, artists, technicians and VFX professionals working on a homegrown story at a global scale.
And if the first part has one character who truly owns the screen, it is Yash's Ravana.
Ravana's tragedy has always been that his greatest enemy was not simply Rama. It was his own ego.
That timeless battle between power and humility, ambition and responsibility, ego and dharma is what gives the Ramayana its enduring strength.
The real test for the franchise now is whether Part Two can combine the visual excellence of Part One with the emotional depth that this epic ultimately demands.
