The hype around Adipurush, one of 2023’s most anticipated films, had raised our hopes for a visual spectacle revolving around the Ramayana. But the world building in Om Raut’s adaptation of the epic is instead a mashup of scenes, set pieces and character looks from a bunch of fantasy films and web series from Hollywood, rendered in poor-quality CGI despite its colossal budget.
Here are seven films and web series we had a deja vu of while watching Adipurush, starring Prabhas as Raghava, Kriti Sanon as his wife Janaki, Sunny Singh as his brother Sesh and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh.
Bats: The kidnapping of Sita is a turning point in the Ramayana. After Ravan successfully tricks Sita into stepping out of the Lakshman Rekha, he whisks her away to Lanka on his Pushpaka Vimana.
In Om Raut’s film, Lankesh aka Ravan (Saif Ali Khan) rides a giant bat, with a flock of smaller bats following it. When Jatayu attacks Ravan to rescue Janaki (Kriti Sanon), these bats attack the Griffin-like bird and Lankesh emerges from behind them like a menacing villain. The scene is a stark reminder of the poster of Louis Morneau’s 1999 film Bats.
Game of Thrones: Jon Snow’s death in the finale of Game of Thrones Season 5 and his subsequent resurrection in the first episode of Season 6 were two of the iconic moments of the HBO web series. In Adipurush, when Sesh (Sunny Singh) becomes comatose after being hit by Indrajit’s (Vatsal Sheth) maya astra, a female physician (whose identity is not clear; she switched camps along with Vibhishan) cures him with a dose of the medicinal herb sanjivani. The physician strongly resembles Melisandre, who resurrected Snow, and Sesh wakes up from his slumber exactly in the manner Snow did.
The resemblances with Game of Thrones do not end here. Lankesh’s rides on the giant bat are a throwback to Jon Snow learning how to ride a dragon. Not to forget Raghava’s introductory sequence where he fights an army of what looks like White Walkers.
The Lord of the Rings: In Om Raut’s cinematic world, Lanka is not a tropical island. It looks like a Scandinavian country where the sun can never be spotted. Ravan’s castle looks more like Sauron’s dominion in Mordor and Mount Doom from Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Even the residents of Lanka reminded us of the ogres in Sauron’s kingdom.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: In Goblet of Fire, the fourth installment in the Harry Potter film franchise, Voldemort is resurrected in a graveyard where he gets into a duel with Harry. Since their wands share the same core, a bridge of flashy red and blue light called Priori Incantatem is formed. In the climactic action set piece in Adipurush, although Raghava and Lankesh do not share such a connection, the VFX does remind one of this scene from Mike Newell’s film as their arrows spark orange and blue light.
Planet of the Apes: Advancement in CGI technology has taken the depiction of humanoid animals in Hollywood movies to near-perfect levels. Apes have frequently appeared in movies, and Planet of the Apes is particularly notable for making apes appear remarkably human-like. The CGI work gone into creating Raghav’s vanar sena is heavily inspired from the Tim Burton-directed film.
Aquaman and The Flash: Lankesh’s son Indrajit possesses magical powers with which he can whizz from one place to another in a flash. Rings a bell? DC fans would know that Barry Allen aka The Flash can travel faster than light with his superhuman speed.
Moreover, Indrajit’s rippling muscles and heavily tattooed body in Adipurush would remind you of Jason Momoa’s Arthur from Aquaman. The underwater action sequence where Sesh kills Indrajit could very well have been set in Atlantis — the lost home of Aquaman — instead of Lanka.
