When Amitabh Bachchan’s Criticism Of Abhishek Bachchan’s Raavan’s ‘Sad Editing’ Rubbed Mani Ratnam In The Wrong Way Who Said “Not In The Industry To Get Marks From Sr. Bachchan”
Amitabh Bachchan once claimed Abhishek Bachchan's Raavan's poor performance is due to sad editing. Mani Ratnam reacted. Read on!
When Amitabh Bachchan Came Out In Support Of Abhishek Bachchan’s Performance In Raavan & Blamed ‘Sad’ Editing For Film’s Poor Reviews, “Lot Of Merited Films Edited Out” ( Photo Credit – Instagram ; Wikipedia ; Raavan Poster)
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Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan has come a long way from his debut film Refugee to becoming one of the commercially successful actors in Bollywood. Often his father, Amitabh Bachchan, tweets in support of him and champions him from the sidelines.
Back in 2010, when director Mani Ratnam’s Raavan was released, some hailed the performances of Abhishek and his wife, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, while some criticised their performance. Amitabh, at that time, blogged about how the editing choices were to blame for the film’s poor reviews.
Amitabh Bachchan wrote on his blog, “Lot of merited films edited out, causing inconsistent performance and narrative. Abhishek’s erratic behaviour was due to the symbolic 10 heads visually appearing and each giving him different attitudes to adopt for a situation, he would then finally shake them off and decide… It’s sad, in the edit, you only see the aftereffect of that thinking process, hence inconsistent. In the edit, all the visual heads got cut, and you see a confused Beera expression and wonder why?”
Filmmaker Mani Ratnam also reacted to Big B’s statement. As reported by Mid-day, he was quoted as saying in a Tamil weekly, “That is his opinion. I am not bothered about it. And I am not here in the industry to get marks from Amitabh Bachchan. We have made a film after two years of hard work. Anyone can comment on it.”
Raavan’s film editor A Sreekar Prasad, said that Amitabh Bachchan is entitled to his opinion and explained the intensive creative process that went into the film’s editing. Prasad said, “As a member of the audience, he (Amitabh Bachchan) has the right to say whatever he wants to. We’ve been in the process of editing Raavan for a year and a half. I have gone through the footage with Mani so rigorously. We were probably in the best position to judge what was good for the film.”
Prasad further added, “The director chose to start the narrative on a very high note. It begins with the kidnapping and moves straight ahead to the finale. We had no back projection, no explanations, and no character establishment. We chose to tell our story in this way. We didn’t want to spoon-feed the audience. Mr Bachchan wanted us to show ten heads graphically. Mani and I tried that. But we made a conscious decision not to get into that area.
Prasad concluded, “We decided to let the audience get into the character’s head as the narrative progressed. I am sure there are lots of people who didn’t get the point. But it was a risk worth taking. Because a certain section did comprehend.”
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