Well,the goras are loving it and so are the thinking audience in India. But the west media is totally swept by the striking images and the quality of filmmaking by our genius from Chennai Mr. Mani Ratnam.

The movie has got the rare distinction to be called as a ‘Critics Pick’ a distinction rarely if ever earned by an Indian film.

Leading American daily ‘The New York Times’ hailed it as a ‘Critics’ Pick’.

The world top entertainment trade publication ‘Variety’ and ‘Hollywood Reporter’ too have praised the film that opened Friday on over 2200 screens around the world in 35 countries including US and Canada.

‘Raavan’ has “Bollywood glamour aplenty, with the lovely if occasionally dramatically challenged Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Bachchan’s wife, playing the Sita stand-in,” said the New York Times. “The real star, though, is Ratnam, a talented visual storyteller who directs action crisply and fills the screen with striking images.”

The reviewers in west are very much impressed by A.R. Rahman’s ‘excellent score’ and Mani’s way of strory telling.

Praising cinematographers Manikandan and Santosh Sivan, production designer Samir Chanda and editor A. Sreekar Prasad for serving “Ratnam superbly with images, settings and vitality that take one’s breath away,” the publication thinks “success is inevitable throughout India and with expat audiences.”

“And that, folks, is entertainment,” was the Times’ verdict.

Well the home land may not given such overwhelming support to Mani but its sure as mentioned in our Hindi review of the ‘Raavan’ that the movie is for the connoisseurs of ‘quality’ cinema and the team should be happy that a film based on the most popular Indian epic ‘Ramayana’ is getting immense praise from the west. A rare achievement which underlines the fact that you don’t have to visit Korea or Iran or America to churn a quality cinema.

The Hollywood reporter has termed it as a ‘Pan-Indian saga with epic sweep, intense emotion and gorgeous images.’

East or west Mani Ratnam is the Best, we are proud of you Mani Sir.