Ramayana released on November 5.
Nitesh Tiwari directed the epic adaptation.
Ramayana is led by Ranbir Kapoor, Yash and Sai Pallavi.
In Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part 1, the supporting cast acts less as mythological ornament and more as the geopolitical engine of the story. By opening in Lanka rather than Ayodhya, Tiwari brings peripheral figures like Ravana’s mother, Kaikesi (Shobana), to the forefront, framing the epic’s central conflict through generational grievance and a fascinating origin story. We get an impassioned appeal for the underclass, the oppressed to reclaim their lost agency. At the same time, figures like Lakshmana (Ravie Dubey) and Shurpanakha (Rakul Preet Singh) are standouts, the former's comic relief and the latter's rage earning applause.
Yet this expansive world-building comes at a cost to the ensemble. Racing to traverse immense narrative ground before the epic war of Part 2, the screenplay frequently does away with slow-burning domestic intrigue for vast, ambitious macro-spectacle, leaving heavyweights like Lara Dutta (Kaikeyi), Sheeba Chaddha (Manthara), and Kajal Aggarwal (Mandodari) with woefully trimmed arcs. In a pursuit of majestic, intimate character moments and interpersonal dynamics don't always leap out.
Lakshmana (Ravie Dubey)
Lakshmana, portrayed by television star Ravie Dubey in his big-screen Bollywood debut, is one of the most memorable offerings in the film. Tiwari and co-writer Shridhar Raghavan position Lakshmana as the primary human counterpoint to Rama’s divine restraint. While Ranbir Kapoor’s Rama is played with deliberate stoicism and spiritual remove, Dubey’s Lakshmana is grounded, witty and biting. His humour comes as a winning reprieve amidst the solemnity of the royal court and forest exile. It's his performance that has been singled out for praise. His comic relief has earned him a surge of new admirers.
The film leans on the easy, playful camaraderie between Rama and Lakshmana, both during their training under Sage Vishvamitra and in the forest, making their bond feel visibly brotherly before shifting into fierce protectiveness whenever Rama or Sita is threatened. After a battle with asuras in a forest, he also quips to the sage that he too isn't half a bad warrior himself when Rama gets a boon.
In the pivotal confrontation with Shurpanakha (Rakul Preet Singh), Lakshmana’s impulsive anger is noticeably tempered compared to traditional tellings. His humane grudges and resentments against Kaikeyi contrast with Rama's placid acceptance of his fate. Rather than severing Shurpanakha's nose completely, his strike leaves a slash across her face, a wound that still hits at her vanity and triggers Ravana's wrath. This ignites a beat in which Sita (Sai Pallavi) reprimands Lakshmana for his violence.
Since Part 1 moves rapidly through the Ayodhya exile and focuses on the build-up to the war, the deeper emotional weight of Lakshmana’s personal renunciation, including his separation from his wife Urmila (Sonia Balani) and his legendary fourteen-year sleepless vigil, receives the short shrift.
Veteran actor Sunil Lahri, who immortalized Lakshmana in Ramanand Sagar’s 1987 television series, Lahri wrote, "The innocence and intensity that should be reflected in the character of Laxman is visible in new Ramayana." Dubey's performance infuses humour into a VFX-laden spectacle. Additionally, Karan Johar also raved about Dubey's performance, "Outstanding! Ravi Dubey @ravidubey2312 is so BRILLIANT as LAXMAN! The depiction of a loyal and loving brother is so heartening and your goodness ( both internal and external ) moved me and made me smile wide...."
Veteran actor Sunil Lahri, who immortalized Lakshmana in Ramanand Sagar’s 1987 television series, Lahri wrote, "The innocence and intensity that should be reflected in the character of Laxman is visible in new Ramayana." Dubey's performance infuses humour into a VFX-laden spectacle. Additionally, Karan Johar also raved about Dubey's performance, "Outstanding! Ravi Dubey @ravidubey2312 is so BRILLIANT as LAXMAN! The depiction of a loyal and loving brother is so heartening and your goodness ( both internal and external ) moved me and made me smile wide...."
Shurpanakha (Rakul Preet Singh)
Meanwhile, Shurpanakha is lent both a fuller backstory and a sharply reframed confrontation in Panchavati. Before she ever encounters Rama, the film shows Ravana slaying her debauched husband Vidyutjihva (Vivek Oberoi) in a duel and coldly commanding his newly widowed sister to find another consort. The Lanka portions in the film are far more compelling than the Ayodhya bits. Tiwari indicates the loss and desolation Shurpanakha faced before she came to the moment of attraction towards Rama. She's shattered as a widow, scrambling for suitors, until her eye falls on Rama and she's instantly besotted.
When she later arrives at Panchavati and attempts to seduce Rama and attack Sita, Lakshmana slashes her face. Crucially, Tiwari’s screenplay introduces a contemporary revision here. Sita actively takes a stand for Shurpanakha and chides Lakshmana over the mutilation, shifting the scene from an unchallenged heroic act into a moment of ethical reflection that directly triggers Khara’s assault and Ravana’s vow of vengeance. Even when Shurpanakha approaches Rama earlier stating she wants to marry him, she's level-headed. Upon his rationale that he's already married to Sita, she points out that his own father had several wives. She'd be content to be his second wife. But Rama repeats his vow to Sita and her father, that he'd never allow space for another woman in his life.
Shurpanakha shuts down the suggestions of Ravana's advisors who tell him to show restraint. She calls for Ravana to act on his sister's humiliation, baying for revenge. Audiences have raved about Singh's ability to convey a sizzle of rage and humiliation in the brief screentime.
Kaikesi (Shobana)
Kaikesi, Ravana’s (Yash) mother, portrayed by the legendary actress Shobana, is elevated from a peripheral mythological figure into the ideological catalyst of the entire conflict. Anchoring the film’s extended opening act set in Lanka, Shobana’s Kaikesi is pitched not as a one-dimensional instigator of evil, but as a proud, wounded Asura matriarch shadowed by her clan’s subjugation at the hands of Indra and the Devas. She twists generational grief into untethered maternal ambition. She exhorts a young Dashanan to reclaim their lost dignity through penance and conquest. The opening scene has Kaikesi going all out on the battlefield. When Indra prevails, the asuras are turned an underclass, stripped of dignity and basic rights and pushed underground. She's presented as a formidable warrior who stirs Dashanan into becoming Ravana and the rescuer of their fallen people.
Shobana dials up the commanding, aristocratic regality and measured vocal authority. She gives the push to Ravana’s origin story and reframes the epic’s central rivalry as a tragedy born of historical grievance rather than mere villainy.
She wants to see her disgraced community rise and sets her son to the task. Shobana's performance has attracted much praise as the opening stretch received the strongest notices. The choice to open the film with Ravana has been called the film's smartest decision.
Kaikeyi And Manthara
Despite the convictions of Lara Dutta as Kaikeyi and Sheeba Chaddha as Manthara, their pivotal palace coup is too rushed to bring the betrayal register. Though Rama witnesses his mother Kausalya’s quiet anguish over King Dasharatha’s (Arun Govil) intimacy with his much younger queen, he remains Kaikeyi’s favorite, getting the first bite of every meal, much to the annoyance of her own son, Bharat. Ultimately, it takes her fiercely loyal daasi, Manthara, to vitiate her mind against Dasharatha for breaking his word and naming Rama heir. The souring of Kaikeyi against Rama is dispensed with in a few scattered moments, without letting the impact, the fray be felt over a gradual span.
The screenplay doesn't let the machinations simmer and boil. They needed time for the rupture to snap into focus. Kaikeyi gets excited in choosing what sari to wear to Rama's coronation as the king. Many viewers felt Kaikeyi’s sudden switch, from openly loving Rama like her own son to demanding his 14-year exile, felt jarringly abrupt and unearned. Manthara rushing in a fit of viciousness, warning her that Rama would soon cast her and her son off to an outhouse, and thus triggering her freezing of heart, struck many as a quick shift.
