Movie Review 2: Ramayana

Earlier this week my family watched the Ramayana DVD we picked up in Berkeley. The cartoon art and simple story made it really easy for my son to stay interested, and for me to understand the attractiveness and romanticism of the story. I think there must be a lot more to Rama's story than just the one adventure portrayed in the movie I have, but it is enough for me to understand a lot of cultural references, and even people's names.

Here's a quick summary of the plot in the movie: Rama is one of several sons of a kind king with three wives. Rama is in town one day with his brother, and they see another king who will marry his daughter Sita off to whomever can string the mighty bow. Naturally, Rama succeeds where several other suitors (including the 10-headed demon Ravana) fail. Rama and Sita marry, and live happily for a while as heir apparent. However, one of the old king's wives and mother of one of Rama's younger brothers cashes in some political chips with the king and gets Rama sent off to the jungle for a 14 year exile. The townspeople are disappointed, and even the younger brother doesn't like what his mom did and promises to serve only as regent until the 14 year exile is done. Sita and another brother, Lakshman, go into exile with him. While in exile, Ravana finds out Rama is in exile through his sister Surpanaka , who stumbles across the exiles in the forest and falls in love with Rama. Rama diverts her affections to Lakshman, who rejects Surpanaka more harshly. She runs to Ravana complaining about her poor treatment at the hands of Rama and Lakshman, and Ravana decides now is the time to get revenge for having lost the contest for Sita to Rama. Ravana kidnaps Sita. Rama and Lakshman travel to rescue her, and along the way pick up the monkey army as allies. The mightiest monkey warrior is Hanuman, who helps Rama find and get to Ravana's island hideout. The last 15 minutes of the movie is a long battle scene where Ravana sends one hero after another out to be defeated by Rama's allies. At the end, Rama and Ravana go at it, and Rama wins. Soon after he gets back from the adventure, his 14 years of exile is up, and he takes over the kingship.

Some cultural notes on the Rama story, not included in the movie: 1) Rama can't trust in Sita's chastity during her captivity, and he ends up sending her into exile. 2) The Diwali festival (happening this week) is held on the anniversary of the end of Rama's exile.