Raavan: A review

I have been hearing about this movie for a couple of years,specially when parts of this movie was shot in Kolkata & around. I was wondering why this name "Raavan",is it going to be a movie based on the life of "Raavan", the ten-headed demon of Ramayan[an Indian epic]?
While coming back from work yesterday, a colleague was talking about it. Yes, I was interested, as one of my favorite stars, Abhishek Bachchan acted in that movie as one of the protagonists & secondly, for the last 18 months I have not seen a hindi movie!!![Yes, the one before it was Ghajini!!]
So with great interest & excitement, we entered the movie theatre[Reel Cinemas, Dubai Mall]& was waiting for the movie to start. It starts with a couple of happenings, specially the local villagers[Local mafia???] targetting the cops when they were trying to enter a jungle, a couple of them were in a village fair & also few of them on their way to a village. All were beaten to death & those who were alive, were burnt to death & in the end, a tall villager, 6 feet 3 inches dances to the beats of drums!!!
This tall, guy is "Beera"[Abhishek Bachchan], who is both angel & demon in a rural town of North India[Bihar/UP??], Lalmati. To some he is Robin Hood[for he does a couple of good deeds] & to few he is "Raavan", as he has 10 forms in one place, 10 hands,10 legs & also 10 heads, the ten-headed Raavan.
To cut short, Beera is on a spree, taking a revenge when his sister Jamuniya[Priyamani] who was picked up from her wedding canopy to police station & was an object for the sexual satisfaction of all the police in the police station[ a touchy scene!!!].
Beera kidnaps Raagini[Aishwarya Rai] who happens to be the wife of Dev[Bikram, in his debut hindi movie]. Terms of release??Perhaps, Beera forgot to put any terms, but why did he kidnap Raagini??To reach Dev & kill or allure Dev so that Dev can be killed. By the way, Dev happens to be a police Superintendent & has recently moved to Lal Mati to kill the demon Beera.
To cut short, in the end, there was a good action between Dev & Beera, & none of them, while Beera leaves Raagini in his hands & leave. On their way back, Dev & Raagini were talking to each other & then started doubting Raagini's morals since she was with Beera & in his den for 14 days & 14 nights, so they have had developed some relationships...Raagini breaks apart & feels it is better to stay with Beera than Dev, who she considers the best in the world..
Raagini comes back & wanted to know from Beera, what he told about Raagini to Dev. After hearing all these praises, Raagini decides to stay back, however, in her awe, Beera starts disbelieving her, when he starts thinking why Dev would lie?Is it a trap to reach Beera??
Yes, Dev used Raagini as his pawn to reach Beera, so that he can be killed...with all military & paramilitary forces, Beera was shot, in front of Raagini...the movie ends here!!!

This movie is a loose adaptation of Ramayan, an Indian epic, where wife of Ramchandra, Sita was being kidnapped & while they were on exile for 14 years. In the movie it was 14 days. Beera is a primitive warrior, an analogy has been imposed on him, 10 hands, 10 legs, 10 minds & 10 heads, akin to mythical Raavan.
Aishwarya in the role of Raagini was excellent, specially I loved her dance skills[Rarely, we get to see nowadays]. Vikram was flawless, specially his hindi, despite he being a South Indian.Govinda was a comic relief, as if he is the Hanuman of Ramayana & often like monkey jumping from trees to trees...from branches to branches..
Excellent direction from Mani Ratnam yet again...Abhishek in the role of Beera was "okay", sometimes he was eccentric to me[perhaps the role demanded this..], with his "chaka-chaka-chaka, cheeky-cheeky-cheeky..."
Overall out of 5, I would give it 3.5--It is not a great movie, for obvious reasons, as there has been overacting. Music was not great by AR Rahman, as everyone would expect. Rest all ok!!You should see this...