Adipurush is a Bad PR for Hinduism

Adipurush, the recently released Bollywood film which has caused major outrage in India across religions and ideologies for killing the soul of a revered Epic is more than just a bad film.

Problems with Adipurush

Prima facie, the film has the worst VFX, terrible costumes, bad screenplay, appalling dialogues, and pathetic characterisation.

Why 'Adipurush'

The creators seem to have zero knowledge of Hindu scriptures and that is why they coined the name Adipurush. Historically, this term did not exist. Rama has always been referred to as Maryada Purushottama, meaning the best man who follows righteousness or Dharma. The word Adipurush makes no sense. Adi means first and Purush means man, it literally translates to First Man. Unlike Adi-Yogi, an adjective used for Lord Shiva, this connotation has zero substance. Rama was not the 'first man'. The titling was stupid. 

Also, Lakshmana in the film was referred to as Shesha. Another stupid choice. Lakshmana is considered to be an incarnation of Shesha Naga but was never referred to as one. His other epithets like Saumitra or Ramanuja could have been better choices if they wanted to avoid taking actual names.

Bad Visual Choices

If you go to an Indian restatuant, will you expect Indian food to taste like continental food? If you want to eat continental food, why would you go to an Indian restaurant? Similarly, if you want to watch an Indian epic which is very well-known, why would you want to see Western style costumes? Wouldn't it be great to see characters wearing ancient Indian attires, golden crowns (mukuta), Indian-style weapons, tropical countryside, and some epic scenes which were depicted in movies like Baahubali? Why is this obsession to copy the West?

Worse Characterisation and Horrible Dialogues

What makes it worse is that dialogues are so bad, they not only sound bad but have an adverse effect on reverence of Ramayana. Ramayana is a Hindu epic and the hero is an avatar of God. The epic is revered outside of Hinduism and beyond India. The Thai version of the epic, Ramakein is the national epic of Thailand. Kakawin Ramayana is the Indonesian version of the epic and is still very popular in the world's largest Muslim country. 

Irrespective of multiple versions of the epic, one thing is uniform. Characters like Lord Rama and Lord Hanuman are worshipped as gods, not just because they are considered to be incarnations of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva but because they are believed to be balanced spiritual persons. They can't be seen speaking words of arrogance and pedestrian language, irrespective of the versions. Such characterisation destroys the whole idea of reverence.

Take any god, sage, messiah or prophet from any religion. They are always depicted as calm, peaceful, spiritual, and balanced personalities. This is because they are ideals for their followers. Therefore, such a depiction put a question mark on people's reverence. A layperson from the West or an Indian with zero knowledge of the epic will have a bad notion of the gods of this epic. This destroys the whole idea of Ramayana.

If you use Greek mythology as an example, where gods like Zeus had all bad qualities, you would also understand how spiritually bankrupt the religion had become which eventually led to its extinction.

Bad Precedent for future Writers & Filmmakers

As a result of this disaster, writers, producers and directors in the future would be scared to touch the subject, and even the audience will look at such content with scepticism. An Epic like this would again become an untouchable subject.

Sadly, the world has to witness this disaster which turned out to be worse than expected in its initial trailer. For those who really want to know the story, watch the Indo-Japanese animated film. While the film had also taken a few liberties with the depiction, visually and spiritually, it does justice to the epic.

The Indo-Japanese film