RAVAN V4.0 VS RAVAN V1.0

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!!!