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.
