It was true to the spirit that Maniratnam’s ‘Raavan’ was opened to mixed reviews from the day of release. As movie was made in two languages (Telugu was just dubbed version) with two different heroes (Abhishek Bachchan and Vikram) playing the title roles, obviously a comparison is ought to come in the market between the two leads.
Many sources find out that Vikram emerged as the real winner among the two but Big B Amitabh interprets Abhishek’s performance in a different way. He lamented that sad editing glitches down sized his son's performance in the movie and this editing has ruined Abhishek’s role.
Yes, one could easily think the blame was in the direction of director Maniratnam. Fortunately key players of the film have come to the defense of director Mani. Vikram and Cinematographer Santosh Sivan have spoken out against Amitabh's comments saying, ‘Directors prerogative can’t be questioned as Maniratnam is master of the ship. Lot of merited film got edited out causing inconsistent performance and inconsistent narration. Audience are ultimate judges but all is done for the well scoring of movie.’
Of course, a section of Bollywood media interpreted Big B’s statements as an affront to Maniratnam, but it is just for individual movie buffs to interpret it the way they like. South entirely agreed that Vikram was more vivacious in ‘Raavanan/Villain’ than Abhishek in ‘Raavan.’