Ravan - the name dreaded by most during their childhood.
Well, I couldn’t even imagine how hideous he would have looked with ten heads.
Later, during my teens I have chuckled looking at the funny cartoon that would
be telecast every now and then on Pogo. I would be musing as to how he would be
able to balance his body with one head extra on one side!!!!
Mythology says Ravan’s
ten heads stick out when he is so infuriated that fuming smoke oozes outta his
ears. Now I wonder as to how his wife would have mellowed his temper down, as
she would have had to kiss all 10 lips of his to soothe him!!!!
Jokes apart, if this was the transition of my attitude in
just 20 years’ time, how would the transition after millions of years be???... Yeah,
I am talking about the modern day Ravan.
We have already witnessed a portrayal contrasting history,
in the bilingual film “Raavan”. Gone are the days when Ravan was considered
diabolic and sceptic, gone are the days when he was considered a ruthless
animal or a barbaric human. Of late, may be due to the cultural interaction between
India and Sri-Lanka, the judgement (especially that of women) on the character of
Ravan, has transformed from loathe to love.
Once upon a time, Ravan was depicted as a huge brawny with a
big fat tummy. And now??? The unctuous, hunky,
handsome, 6-packer is the Ravan of today. (I am exclusively hinting at the Tamil-version
of the film Ravan . The H-Version hero is not even close to being hunky :-p).
The hero kills thousands, is mean to all strangers, but to one woman he is
sweet as candy and that’s the heroine.
Films love and support the cause of an anti-hero subject. May
be a modern day Valmiki would have given an unexpected climax to the myth!!
Hey, that was what
our old Ravan had also done. He was such a sweetie pie with Sita and still she showed
so much repugnance. The only difference is that Ravan v1.0 used a sword and Ravan
v4.0 uses a toy gun!
Modern day women, take for instance Aishwarya Rai,
understand that all men are not bad after all, and that is why she comes back
for Vikram. You know, after all, even Ram v1.0 had left his wife suffer in the
jungle in the name of I-want-to-take-care-of-the-kingdom. Wasn’t that uncompassionate???
That was clearly back-stabbing in the name of love. Till the very end Ram
didn’t enjoy his life, such as going out for a picnic or having a banquet with
the kings of other states. Instead, he was a complete workaholic, a nerd! Nowadays, women love men who manage work as
well as love, they are the Ravans of today and exemplifying my thesis is the
Dhoni-Sakshi Jodi!!!!
But this concept of good-guy-to-one-girl Ravan has taken a
tricky turn in the other part of media - in SOAPS! Back there, RAVANs are con
men and still ladies back home, pity them. Well, they weep more for the female
version of RAVANs though. In Ramayana v1.0 the character of sacrifice and
perseverance was so graciously depicted, but now none of the relationships has
commitment. People switch and oscillate faster than AC current!! It is a
disgrace if the protagonist in a triple-mega serial does not have at-least 2
previous relationships and a small affair after marriage. One could argue and
extenuate the importunity of the issue by stating that even Lord Krishna had an
affair before marriage, even Lord Muruga enjoys his life with 2 wives. But one
thing you would have missed noticing is that both Lords were seriously
committed to their true love.
So my wish to Durga Ma on Dussehra is this - Kindly kill the
bad thoughts of men and women who have the intention to cheat on their
partners. Else Durga Ma, no Lakshman Rekha would stop Ravan from taking Sita on
a ride on his new Thunder-bird and elope, every RAVAN would turn into RAM!!!
