‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend’ Review: A Mighty Myth That Finds Its Villain Before Its Hero

Few stories carry the cultural weight of the Ramayana, so a global theatrical release timed to Diwali on November 5 feels like an event. Nitesh Tiwari directs, Namit Malhotra produces, and Sony Pictures is handling the worldwide rollout. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, Yash plays Ravana, and Sai Pallavi plays Sita.

This is the first half of a two part retelling, with the sequel aimed at Diwali 2027, and you can feel that structure from the opening stretch. I watched the English language version, which comes with a score by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman and visual effects from DNEG. Expectations for ‘Ramayana’ could hardly be higher.

The best thing about the film is easily its villain. Yash turns Ravana’s famous ten heads into ten quarrelling personalities sharing one mind, and the swagger, menace and flashes of wounded pride make Lanka the liveliest place on screen. Whenever the story drifts away from him, the whole thing loses a little voltage.

Kapoor’s Rama has the opposite problem. He is noble, calm and almost entirely still, and the script announces his goodness far more often than it lets us feel it. The big beats are all here, from the stringing of Shiva’s bow to the marriage with Sita to Kaikeyi’s demand for fourteen years of exile, yet they pass by like checkpoints rather than heartbreak.

The craftsmanship is easiest to admire when the camera slows down. The costumes and palace sets are opulent, and the score rises to the occasion even when the scene underneath it does not. Once the fighting begins, the picture gets busier and the effects get shakier, with some creature designs looking rubbery and many battles feeling weightless.

I also have to talk about the dubbing, because it is hard to ignore. The English version uses generative AI to reshape the actors’ mouths to fit the new dialogue, and in close ups the lips move with a stretched, unnatural quality that pulls you out of the drama. A subtitled Hindi viewing would almost certainly be the smarter choice.

Then there is the matter of the story’s shape. A huge portion of the runtime goes to cosmology and origin stories, and by the time Rama walks into exile the film is still setting the table. It stops just as the central conflict is about to ignite, which makes the whole thing feel like a very long and very expensive prologue.

Still, I never stopped being curious. The ambition is real, the production is enormous, and Yash alone makes the ticket worth considering. I wanted a Rama who felt as human as the villain, and I wanted effects that matched the grandeur of the myth, so I come away more intrigued than satisfied. ‘Ramayana: Rise of a Legend’ earns 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Did the film’s bold take on Ravana win you over, or does this first chapter need to deliver more, and do you agree with my verdict? Tell me in the comments.