By Gene Ching  

November 2026 began with a pair of foreign film blockbusters, and both were timely. On November 6^th, GODZILLA MINUS ZERO premiered. That was a sequel to GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023), and it premiered in the wake of Godzilla Day (which was coincidentally also the Tuesday of the midterm elections). November 6^th was also the start of Diwali. (Just in case you don’t know, Diwali is an annual 5-day Festival of Lights that symbolizes the spiritual triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance, celebrated in India.) Diwali has different meanings to Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains. For Hindus, it honors the return of Lord Ram. Auspiciously, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND premiered for Diwali.

This article contains major spoilers…

…but RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND is based on a 2300 to 2700-year-old epic poem, so if you don’t know how the story by now, that’s on you. In all fairness, many Americans are unaware of what the Ramayana is. It is a fundamental precedent for the way of the warrior, and yet most western martial artists are shamefully ignorant about it. We’ll get into that later. For starters, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND is not as just another ‘Bollywood’ flick. It’s one of India’s most ambitious projects and it’s playing for a long game.

The film is based on the sacred epic Ramayana which tells of the heroics of Lord Ram. It’s a saga of the battle between heroes, avatars and demons, full of sorcery and magic, ripe for a monumental special effects extravaganza. RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND is shot for IMAX and available in 3D to give it maximum spectacle. The visual effects are done by DNEG, the 8 Oscar-winning studio that worked on INTERSTELLAR (2014), HARRY POTTER (2011), DUNE (2021, 2024), the MCU, and many more pictoral eye-poppers.

The score for RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND comes from a cinematic composer dream team – Hans Zimmer, the decorated music producer and another Oscar-winner, twice - for THE LION KING (1994) and DUNE (2021), and A. R. Rahman, another decorated music producer and two-time Oscar-winner, both for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2009). RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND marks the first time these Oscar-winning powerhouses have worked together.

This is the biggest production from India to date and the most expensive Indian film made so far.

The Kung Fu of Ram

The Ramayana is one of the two epic poems known as the Itihasa, a mythic foundation of Hinduism. It is attributed to the legendary poet Valmiki. The earliest fragments of what becomes the Ramayana are estimated to originate sometime between the 7^th and 3^th centuries BCE. It is a classic of world literature on par with Homer’s 8^th century BCE Odyssey or Wu Cheng’en’s 16^th century Journey to the West.

The Ramayana is the legend of Lord Ram, an exemplary warrior who would be king. His journey is one of the most time-honored cases of the way of the warrior. Lord Ram represents Kshatriya dharma (a Kshatriya is a member the warrior ruling class). A Kshatriya is bound to the sacred code of duty, honor, and righteous action of the warrior class. Ideally, a Kshatriya is a master of the martial arts but also retains an unwavering commitment to their moral code along with a commitment to selfless protection of the innocent. Lord Rama is a true warrior, balancing his immense strength and mastery of weapons with profound humility, self-control, and moral integrity. Victory is secondary to remaining bound by truth and honor. Lord Ram must make immense personal sacrifices such as accepting exile or fighting without malice. Ultimately, the Ramayana represents weapons not as instruments of destruction, but as sacred tools meant to uphold cosmic order, defend the vulnerable, and defeat tyranny with chivalry and moral absolute.

The Ramayana is one of the longest ancient epics in the world. It has some 24,000 verses where each is a couplet, akin to a Chinese chengyu couplet (chengyu duilian 成语对联), two rhyming lines. Those verses are separated into seven chapters. That’s a long story, one epically long poem. Nevertheless, as one of the earliest examples of a martial moral code, the Ramayana is a must read for literate martial artists.

Or you could just watch a movie or TV show that retells it.

A Battery of Rams

Given how old the Ramayana is, there have been dozens of movie adaptations before RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND. The first was in 1917, the silent B&W film LANKA DAHAN. Beyond many traditional retellings and live adaptations, there were some divergent ones including the hand-drawn anime Indo-Japanese co-production RAMAYANA: THE LEGEND OF PRINCE RAMA (1993), a Telugu-language live action in which all the characters were played by children called RAMAYANAM (1997), and an American indie animated musical comedy drama told from a fresh perspective titled SITA SINGS THE BLUES (2008).

There was also a recent TV series that retold the tale in 358 episodes titled SHRIMAD RAMAYAN (2024-2025). The Ramayana is such a long story that it lends itself to many interpretations, yet few can encompass the entire story. Consequently, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND is only Part 1. It only covers the first three chapters. There will be four more to go in the sequel.

For those familiar with the story, Part 1 gets as far as the death of Jatayu. It doesn’t even get to one of the most significant heroes, Hanuman, the divine warrior monkey, except for in a mid-credit teaser. Some scholars believe that Hanuman was an early influence on the Monkey King, Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong appears in the Chinese classic, Journey to the West, published nineteen to twenty-three centuries after the Ramayana. Beyond being divine monkeys, there are many other parallels between Sun Wukong and Hanuman. Both are incredibly powerful warriors. They can shape shift from tiny to giant, fly for great distances, and are immortal. They are both scene-stealing sidekicks. Hanuman is the faithful servant of Lord Ram and Sun Wukong is under oath to the monk Tang Sanzang. However, their personalities are distinct. Where Hanuman is humble and disciplined, Sun Wukong is a mischievous trickster, rebellious and proud. Nonetheless, both figures are inspirations to any warrior that can decipher their metaphors.

There are multiple versions of today's RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND too. Beyond the IMAX, 3D and standard versions, there’s the original Indian movie and an international cut. The international version clocks in at around 2 hours and 45 minutes. The Indian version is longer, over 3 hours long, with more dances and music, plus a much needed intermission break. On top of that, there are many different dubs. In India alone, there are five different language versions: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. There is an English-dubbed version, and it deploys AI lip-sync and voice technologies to reshape the actors’ lip movements to synch the English dialog with their original performances. There are also versions dubbed into Spanish, German, and Japanese. 

The estimated budget for RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND and its upcoming sequel is ₹4,000 crore ($420M USD) which makes it the most expensive film project to date. For its global premiere, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND was reportedly released across 59,000 screens, including 50,000 screens in overseas markets and 9,000 screens in India. At this writing, initial tracking reports note that the North American theatrical release was 1,433 opening locations, 32 of which were on IMAX screens. At the time this review was published, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND made ₹673.90 crore ($63M USD) globally. That is about the same as GODZILLA MINUS ZERO over the same opening weekend, although the numbers haven't quite settled yet. 

‘Self-control is the warrior's true strength’ – Lord Rama

For the most part, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND stays loyal to the Ramayana, remembering that there are some 300 different literary and regional versions across Asia. Ranbir Kapoor plays Lord Rama with a handsome humility and nobility. Kapoor comes from a dynasty of Bollywood filmmakers and well suited to the role. Playing the villain is Yash in his Hindi film debut. Yash’s take on Ravana is brilliant, brimming with destructive hubris and venom. Sai Pallavi gives Sita a wholesome grace underpinned with her unshakeable moral resilience. And Ravi Dubey exudes the brotherly loyalty due to Lakshman. It’s a powerhouse of cast.

Given the sacredness of the Ramayana, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND is a devout retelling. The symbolically significant scenes like when Lord Ram gives Bharata (Adinath Kothare) his sandals are reverently recited with a restrained pageantry. The costumes are lavish and regal. It’s stunningly fantastic design.

There are a few oddities, like the interpretation of Ravana’s flying chariot, Pushpaka Vimana. It has been depicted as a flying horsedrawn chariot in some retellings, but in the epic poem, it is described as a flying golden palace. In RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND, the Pushpak Vimana becomes a gilded steampunk zeppelin-like flying saucer. It felt out of place against the more traditional costumes and architecture, although justifiable as an interpretation of the original text. Overall, the movie is magnificent.

RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND is an eyeful and an earful. It is visually and sonically overwhelming with lush CGI settings and a gorgeous score. The 3D is astonishingly robust, so much so that even the subtitles seem to float above the screen. The settings are massive, but it’s tricky to tell where the sets end and the CGIs begin. However, in the era of THE ODYSSEY, any IMAX film needs to truly level up. Despite DNEG’s interstellar reputation, some of the effects feel dated. A few of the giants and demons feel like they might be recycled from Harry Potter effects, redressed in Indian attire. At times, it leans more towards being a big video game than an expansive IMAX experience.

Much of the fight choreography is CGI-driven. There are some big battlefield scenes and one fun duel. Lord Ram versus Parashurama (Ranbir Kapoor) is well done (Lord Rama and Parashurama are both avatars of Lord Vishnu, so Kapoor plays both roles). The fight cycles through a series of fantastic weapons, reminiscent of Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) versus Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi) in CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON (2000).

In the shadow of GODZILLA MINUS ZERO, RAMAYANA: RISE OF A LEGEND will be overlooked in the North American market. Americans know Godzilla, the Kaiju from 1954, much better than they know Lord Ram from two-and-a-half millennia ago. Even though next year is the Year of the Ram, that homonym won’t bring any auspiciousness. We must wait until 2028 for the second installment of RAMAYANA. I plan to be there.

AUTHOR:

Gene Ching is the Publisher of KungFuMagazine.com and the author of Shaolin Trips.

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