User reviews

Ramayana is eternal. Attempts to picturize the epic have been made before, and will continue to be made over the decades and years.

While Ramanand Sagar's portrayal lacked in the technical department significantly... that version was the closest I have found to be able to actually portray the characters of Gods and gods.

This particular attempt isn't half bad. The casting is mostly great, though falters quite a bit when it comes to key characters such as Ravana and Indrajeet, The character of Rama and Laxmana is quite accurately portrayed by the actors, though again, Ramanand Sagar's casting was more appropriate.

Debina was great as Devi Sita.

All the other characters were okay'ish to well cast.

The major problem, quite ironically, was CGI and technical effects. Even though Ramanand Sagar lacked all that CG imagery back in the 80's, the makers of this version had access to it, and tried to make up for several versions of Ramayana in one go. There's just too much of it, and it's flat out bad. There's no other way to put it. The CGI is bad, and detracts from the story.

It's funny because Ramanand Sagar's version lacked only on technical grounds, while this one does a horrible job of using technology despite having access to cheap computer power and graphic talent.

The series has its moments, though, that are really good. Like the episode of Lord Hanumana displaying Rama and Sita in his heart. That is rather well done.

Ravindra Jain's music score is, as usual, rather flawless.

The sets are beautiful, though, for the most part. Except, of course when they use CGI to enhance the sets. That's where they decimate the realism.

To many people including yours truly, Ramayana is historical, and not mythological. By having the show look fantastical owing to CGI, the creators indirectly portray the epic to be mythological.

One of the other great flaws of this version is the language. Of course the language that the showmakers use is indicative of the times we live in (and consequently I find the more modern remakes of Puranas unbearable to watch)... this particular version did attempt to allude to the Ramanand Sagar's excellent version's speech patterns, but fails miserably at times.

All in all, a good attempt, but could have been much better if the makers had focused more on language and less on CGI. Casting of Indrajeet was the biggest sore point for me, personally. The actor just couldn't portray the character accurately, at all.

Exactly 21 years later ie. Ramanand Sagar's was first aired in 1987 in DD National; Sagar Arts launched a new Ramayan with new cast on NDTV Imagine in 2008. It was a great success. Gurmeet Choudhry played the role of Lord Ram very well. Debina Bannerjee (now Choudhry after marriage) played Sita well but unfortunately, her costumes were not matching especially in the royal palace of Ayodhya whereas the vanvaas costumes were perfect. The other actors did played their roles of Kaikeyi, Kaushalya, Sumitra, Bharat, Shatrughan, Mantra, Vibhishan and so on well. The only actors who played Ravan (Akhilendra Mishra) and Indrajeet (Praful Pandey) were awful. The actor who played Hanuman was also not satisfactory. He looked quite thing to be Hanuman. They should have selected a handsome, young and a good actor having a well built body which would have suited the role of Hanuman. They just could not act properly. Akhilendra had to scream his lungs out for his dialogues which was hard to hear that. Similarly for Indrajeet too.

The music by Ravindra Jain was the best. His voice started to age and he should only concentrate on giving music rather than singing.

The sets like Ayodhya, Mithila, Kishkindha, Lanka was perfect. The animation and VFX were in many episodes like Lord Ram's Birth, Goddess Sita's birth, Hanuman's birth and Lord Ram's Vishwaroop but in many other episodes ; it was not so appealing. The serials that had the best animations and VFX was in Jai Maa Durga, Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali, Mahima Shani Dev Ki.

The reason I am giving 7 of 10 is only due to the grand sets, great cast (except Ravan, Indrajeet and Hanuman who were miscast), VFX (as mentioned only for those above episodes) and soulful music by Ravindra Jain. The costumes in the palaces were not good. Imagine a Goddess wearing sleeveless. It was just horrible seeing Sita and other young girls in those costumes. A bit decency needed. Hopefully Sagars will take a note of this next time.

I would therefore conclude that the remake attempt was great but not on par with the VFX of Jai Maa Durga, Jai Jai Jai Bajrangbali and Mahima Shani Dev Ki which was awesome in casting , costumes and mind boggling VFX.

First of all the best thing of this Ramayan is that it is a remake of old ramanand Sagar's Ramayan. And the director of this ramayan is Anand Sagar who was the director of ramanand Sagar's Ramayan.

Due to the limitations of doordarshan Ramanand Sagar could not create a complete version of Ramayan that's why the Ramayan of ramanand Sagar was incomplete because due to the limitations of doordarshan ramanand Sagar could not include most of the incidents happened in Ramayan so Anand Sagar did his job very well and create a masterpiece after the 20 years of the great epic Ramayan.

Gurmeet Chaudhary is best as Shri Ram and accurately portrayed the image of lord ram

Debina was great as sita. Her smile looks like actual sita is smiling.

And Ravindra jain's Music and voice completes whole Ramayan. In this Ramayan there are more songs then old ramayan

And the best thing of this Ramayan is that it is the complete version of Ramayan. It includes all the incidents which was happened in Ramayan but not included in old ramayan.

In this Ramayan Anand Sagar focused on all characters and the characters of ravan and indrajit was also good.

The only department where old ramayan legs was technical department and this Ramayan did it very well.

In the last the characters for luv kush could be better but the luv kush song was great.

If we don't compare this Ramayan to old ramayan then this Ramayan is best compared to all other Ramayan like siya k ram or ram siya k luv kush or zee TV Ramayan or br chopda's Ramayan.

This one is masterpiece, remain beautiful till end, songs special effects emotions acting characters everything mind-blowing 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥