r/worldoframayana

Clarification: I am not a hater, in fact, I am more excited about Ramayana than doomsday or any other movie this year, not because it's Indian, but because of the quality and scope of story itself. And i think they already achieved 80% perfection.

This post is meant to attempt at reducing the noise, and compile all criticism in public into something coherent and actionable. This might seem like an opinion rather than a fact to some people, but it is based on my understanding of 3d assets, vFx, cinematography and acting. I watched and analysed all available footages at max quality possible online at 0.5 and 0.25x to see the details and not miss something before writing this.

At some point it may also seem that I am being hypercritical.

MAJOR PRACTICAL CRITICISMS:

2160p 4K Shot Asset Preview

Lack of lighting.

Presence of just lighting, blending is off as i used AI to say what could be changed without a lot of extra financial burden.

1. Low weightage demons and kumbhkarana: Low level demons(especially during the bala kand) looks bad.

Constructive: The CGI asset itself is not that bad if you pause and see, but the main culprit is color grading there. The scene's foreground and the background(forest) needs to be blended more with the asset and shadows and light. Spending high on 2-5 sec or max 10 sec demon shots is never the norm when you have to necessarily spend more on bigger scenes for the actual story.

His warrior like non demonic suit(except helmet) makes him less demonic and more disney's villain army member who will crack a joke.

Not much changes just some bloodily stained demonic suit

All dark and hairy demons look way better and good in the footages because that is how things are hidden for the good in vFx(ik also that hairs are the most complicated in 3d assets, maybe keep them universal for all low demons with changes in color and thickness). Low level monsters can also be made less cartoonish by making them darker and avoiding giving them "human warrior" like armour, the helmet and armour makes the demon look like straight out of disney, the armour needs demon like styling. Color grading will likely be fixed in post production like the kumbhkaran scene(which is a high quality asset when you pause and see without the environment) since that's how high vFx films work, while some assets need some slight non expensive changes to be way better.

https://preview.redd.it/jafih8dctkgh1.png?width=2556&format=png&auto=webp&s=04279f38c84e3dd7a19d5a34ba3680997f9f2df7

2. Arun Govil's Yajya Scene: Yajya scene looks like realism style animation.

Constructive: This scene has all elements but the lack of shadows and natural lighting or dept makes it look way more fantasy like than anything ever in both footages, this high fantasy vibe in absence of shadows and lights was also there in bala kand's monster hunting scenes(low level demons not tarka).

Just look at the blending and surface? Holy cow wow

A major appreciation also comes from lighting, the mithila scene of lifting bow has all natural shadows, lights and dept and that is irony from same picture.

3. Physics: This criticism is a 50-50 for me, 50% bs, 50% valid. Some scenes majorly the jumping scene of ravana from the body of dev army and the jumping of rama from the tree to kill demon army looks off due to lack of physics consideration maybe or it could be and i hope so, those scenes are intentionally made longer by stretching the small clips. If not so, then they do give South Indian action type vibe. Sorry, Terry Notary.

4. SMOOTH DUBBING: Mata sita dubbing is better than i expected, but it lacks something which needs to be tackled and i can't figure out what and how.

I ignored the inevitable and bullshit criticisms like "she/he doesn't give the vibe" and others. Feel free to correct me if i miss something. Ranbir's voice modulation is something i found validly criticized but i think it is unfixable now.

MAJOR APPRECIATIONS:

This is enough to tell you, we will cry here too.

1. SHOTS: Holy moly, some shots like the bow lifting in mithila, door reflection in waters, camera zooming to show tears in eyes of rama while leaving from praja and many more looks formidable. If you know about the mithila, ayodhya and lanka sets from the comic, you will know from the mithila scene how insanely they built all 3 cities and their shots will be insane.

Jai Siya Ram.

2. Divinity: Maharaj Dashrath and Maa Sita are giving divine vibes due to the practical sets and acting, ravana is looking and feeling like ravana.

This is the difference between a high value asset(where you are pouring money) vs low level demons.

3. VISUALS: If you think most look like AI Slop and most important visuals are not at least decent, your internet needs to be cut.

This Youtuber has done a phenomenal job here and we must applaud and make it viral.

If a YouTuber can do it with all AI and other resources available to him, we rightly expected Namit Malhotra's Ramayana to be way more epic that it current is (as seen in trailers), on a budget of $500 Million

Pranam 🙏🏻

Since Ramayana is going International, what do all think of this Hanuman Chalisa (English Version) for English speaking followers of Bhagwan Shri Ram and Hanuman Ji, especially the second and further generation NRIs.

This is something I wanted to share that I published some 6 months back.

It took almost a year, along with my day job, wherein I researched and respectfully tried translating each verse into a poetic English flow. My goal wasn't to replace the original, but to create a "New Avatar" for the same Soul, especially meant to be read/ listened together with original such that we understand what Goswami Tulsidas ji is trying to convey. Obviously, AI tools were used in it but I tried my best preserving the "soul" of Hanuman Chalisa.

Please forgive unintentional mistakes in translation.

Hope to get some constructive feedback from this community 😊

Full article I wrote on r/hinduism 6 months back:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hinduism/s/2EBgf2zYwP

Jai Shri Ram 🙏🏻
Jai Hanuman 🙏🏻