Raavan is an ambitious production by Mani Ratnam, who changed the cast in order to produce two different language versions with the same story. In the Hindi version, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, and Vikram are the stars. Chief of police Dev’s wife Ragini is abducted by bandit Beera and his gang during a ship voyage. Dev recruits the entire police station to find her. Meanwhile, Ragini learns that Beera abducted her in order to take revenge on Dev; Beera’s younger sister Jamuniya committed suicide after being detained by the police on her wedding day and raped. As one of this generation’s best storytellers, Ratnam combines splendid imagery, strong music, and passionate dance to tell the story of love, hate and betrayal. Aishwarya Rai who plays Ragini in both versions is impressive, and Vikram who plays opposite roles in both versions of the film shows remarkable performance. (KIM Ji-seok)