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‘Jesus cameo in Adipurush’: Memes on Prabhas-Om Raut film flood social media

The Prabhas-Kriti Sanon starrer has been subjected to brutal trolling on social media by fans and Hindu right-wing nationalists, who are disappointed with director Om Raut’s modern retelling of the Ramayana.

Written by : TNM Staff

The internet has been abuzz with news of actor Prabhas’s new film Adipurush, which released on Friday, June 16. The Prabhas-Kriti Sanon starrer has been harshly criticised and subjected to brutal trolling on social media. The highly anticipated film, made on a reported budget of Rs 600 crore, has garnered the wrath of fans and Hindu right-wing nationalists, who are disappointed with director Om Raut’s retelling of the mythological Ramayana in a relatively contemporary form.

Saif Ali Khan, who plays Ravana in the film, is seen sporting a modern haircut and wearing heavy kaajal. Other characters such as Vibhishana (Ravana’s younger brother) and Indrajith (Ravana’s eldest son) also sport funky tattoos and modern hairstyles. It is indeed strange that the movie, which is seen to be pandering to the right-wing and trying to exploit the prevailing sentiment, has found haters among its target audience.

Adipurush has been criticised for several reasons: poor visual effects, poor storytelling, and also for the modern retelling of the epic. Particularly, the creativity in showcasing the 10-headed Ravana in a never-seen-before order has been widely slammed. The audience also pointed out that the filmmaker has copied computer graphics artwork from Hollywood films like Thor.

While in Ramayana Lanka is described as a beautiful city where gods reside, Raut has taken the creative liberty to show it as a dark gloomy land with tall towers. Prabhas’s looks in the film have also been subjected to criticism.

Hindu nationalists have also expressed outrage at the filmmaker for making the Hanuman character spout ‘uncouth’ dialogues like “Tel tere baap ka, aag bhi tere baap ki, aur jalegi bhi tere baap ki,” which roughly translates to “The oil is your father’s, the fire is also your father’s, and what will burn is also your father’s.” 

The film’s dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir has justified this by claiming that the “simple” dialogues were deliberate. “If there are multiple characters in a film, all cannot speak the same language. There has to be a kind of diversion, a kind of division,” he claimed.

The film also faces legal challenges. The Hindu Sena, a Hindu organisation, has approached the Delhi High Court seeking “objectionable” scenes involving characters such as Ram, Sita, Ravana, and Hanuman be removed from the movie.

“The bearded look of Ravana’s character played by Saif Ali Khan in the film is hurting the sentiments of Hindu community as the Hindu Brahmin Ravana is shown making a ghastly face in a wrong manner which is an absolute insult to Hindu civilisation, Hindu religious figures, idols, ideals, etc. (sic),” the plea alleges.

The petition claims that the “inaccurate” depiction of Hindu religious characters in Om Raut’s telling of the Ramayana has garnered criticism and resentment from across the country, including from actors who portrayed these characters in Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana, a TV series from the late 1980s.

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