Few weeks back Prakash Jha narrated a political saga with the Mahabharata, this week it was Mani Ratnam’s time to narrate a story of the human emotions.

And the tussle between a wife and a woman’s heart with another Indian epic, the Ramayana. The name of the film may have been that of.

The anti-hero of the epic, but the film actually become the story of the woman Ragini and her feelings for her husband and her kidnapper Beera.

Ragini played by Aishwarya Rai and Beera is Abhishek Bachchan. Beera is an outlaw who has some scores to settle with the cop Dev Pratam Sharma (South Indian actor – Vikram) the husband of Ragini, hence kidnaps Ragini. Her turmoil begins then, she becomes indecisive about where her loyalty should lie, and she gets drawn towards the Ravanesque Beera who is a total antithesis to that of Ram-esque Dev.

Beera too falls for his victim while carrying out the role of the Robin Hood of jungle at the backwaters for the downtrodden. There are twists and turn of events, while the first half of the film doesn’t have much of a story apart from the brutish behaviour of Beera in muddy visage. The second half of the film goes with numerous twists and turns with the events from Ramayana revisited – Surpanakha legend, the Hanuman –Sita and the ‘agni-pariksha’ too, which is the polygraph test.

The film has been beautifully shot and Mani Ratnam never fails to show his masterpiece with the locales where he shoots his films. One picturesque frame follows the other; the camera works by Santosh Sivan and Manikandan are just spectacular. However, there is an uncanny resemblance between the black cloth clad Beera and that of Ajay Devgan of Omkara.

There are foot tapping numbers and a music magic created by Oscar winner A.R. Rahman and the legendary Gulzar. So if you are intrigued by the human emotions and the grey areas of the human nature, it is a must watch film. True to the caption of the film, “Ten Heads, Ten Minds, Hundred Voices and One Man” it film plays out the human nature and the various emotions one feels through a span of time which may not go in tandem with society and the rules of the society – but that’s humane.