Beyond the Binaries of Good and Evil

Raavan has remained the quintessential villain in our cinema. It's time to look beyond the binaries and explore his multifaceted character.

- Apeksha Priyadarshini

A broken god lies on the riverbed. Drenched in the incessant downpour, Ragini (Aishwarya Rai) asks the god for the strength to hate. "Don't show bad people in good light. Don't show them as truthful," she begs. As she wipes her tears, she senses Veera (Vikram) watching her. He smiles and asks: "What kind of man is your SP (police officer)? Is he a good man or a very good man?" "God-like," she replies.

Veera is curious about her god and muses about his greatness "I feel jealous," Veera confesses. "A burning ache deep inside.

Does your god feel jealous too? No, only Veera does-the downtrodden, uncouth brute. Not a match for you, or your god-like husband. But jealousy has suddenly made me feel matchless. It makes me feel invincible. This demon of jealousy has made me all-powerful," he declares gleefully. He looks around. Ragini has disappeared.

The scene, perhaps one of the most powerful ones in Raavanan (2010), encapsulates the multiple layers at which the film weaves in the inversion of the classic mythological epic Ramayana. The most prominent inversion is, of course, of the hero and the anti-hero.

Dev Prakash (Prithviraj Sukumaran), the devious police officer with a daunting record of encounters, is Ram.

On the other hand, Veeraiya 'Veera', a people's leader, is Raavan-an Adivasi rebel, fighting to avenge his sister's rape in police custody.

But Raavanan meddles with the binaries of good and evil beyond just the narrative. It interrogates the qualities that define the figures of Ram and Raavan in the Ramayana and turns them on their head.

Envy which is said to have possessed Raavan in the epic, leading to his downfall-becomes Veera's strength in Raavanan. Envy births love within him, amidst the endless flow of pain and rage. He isn't listening to his ten heads anymore; his heart has spoken.