Ramayana review: Can this $500m film saga live up to expensive expectations?

The ancient Sanskrit epic attributed to poet and sage Valmiki is the basis for Ramayana: Part 1, directed by Nitesh Tiwari.

With an ensemble cast including Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Yash, Lara Dutta, Vivek Oberoi and Anupam Kher, the film traces the diverging paths of Rama and Ravana on an extraordinary scale.

The two-part project has a combined budget of about $500 million, according to producer Namit Malhotra. This first instalment may stumble in places, but it holds your attention for the bulk of its gargantuan 195-minute running time.

Crafted as a classic revenge tragedy, it uses every weapon in its arsenal to deliver a spectacular cinematic experience without relying on its audience’s religious reverence for the source material.

Ramanand Sagar’s television adaptation, Ramayan, offers some measure of the story’s hold on audiences. Historian William Dalrymple wrote that “trains, buses and cars came to a sudden halt” during broadcasts. One can only imagine the pressure on Tiwari, Malhotra and co-writer Shridhar Raghavan, whose credits include Pathaan, to honour that legacy.

Show caption: Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part 1…

Tiwari’s adaptation stands tall as a spectacle in its own right, with some of the best visual effects and action choreography seen in Indian cinema.

The pedigree helps explain it: Malhotra leads Prime Focus Studios and Oscar-winning visual-effects company DNEG, whose credits include Blade Runner 2049 and Dune. With notable exceptions such as the work of Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, too many effects-heavy Indian films have struggled to make their digital worlds convincing.

Ramayana aims to break that pattern, beginning with a fantastical battle between two superpowered factions, complete with majestic white elephants and giant, thundering four-legged beasts.

The results are not always consistent – scenes in a newly conquered Lanka struggle to blend crowds convincingly into their surroundings – but the dips are few and far between.

The dialogue also feels clunky at first, with grating exposition where a silent exchange of looks could convey more. Yet the emotional storytelling soon compensates, thanks largely to Kapoor and Pallavi. Their heartwarming, old-school chemistry makes you want to root for them.

Supporting them are fine turns from Sheeba Chaddha, Shobana and Dutta, whose portrayals of women of influence and power help drive the narrative towards its climax. Arun Govil, who played Rama in Sagar’s Ramayan, now plays his father, King Dasarath of Ayodhya, bringing the emotional range that made his television performance so memorable.

Show caption: The film has an estimated budget of $500 million, making it …

With a cast this packed, some talented character actors inevitably feel underused. Indira Krishnan has a few standout moments but leaves you wishing she had more screen time.

Even so, the narrative’s patient exploration of the political and familial machinations within Ayodhya and Lanka largely justifies how the roles are apportioned. Yash plays Lanka’s king, Ravana, with aplomb, his imposing presence inspiring a mixture of awe and terror whenever he appears.

Gorgeous cinematography and an extraordinary score by Oscar winners Hans Zimmer and AR Rahman give the film a sense of wonder rarely felt in cinemas these days, outside perhaps the Avatar series and Christopher Nolan’s films.

There is something refreshing about the sincerity of its storytelling. The seriousness with which its makers treat this world, its people and their struggles makes it difficult to look away for much of its running time.

Ramayana: Part 1 is a great time at the movies and deserves to be seen in 3D on an IMAX screen.