Ramayana international reviews hail dazzling visuals, but say exhausting narrative makes Ranbir Kapoor, Yash film an 'overproduced B movie'

The first international reviews for Ranbir Kapoor and Yash-starrer Ramayana are out following its world premiere in Los Angeles earlier this week.

Days after its grand world premiere in Los Angeles, the first international reviews for Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana are out. The review embargo for the epic lifted on Friday night, and a handful of international publications shared their assessment of the Ranbir Kapoor and Yash-starrer. So far, the select reviews have been critical of the film’s length and stuffed narrative, but praised the visual effects and scale.

Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama.

Ramayana international reviews praise visuals and scale

As of Saturday morning (October 31), five major international reviews of Ramayana have been published, with two of them praising the film wholeheartedly. However, overall, there has been praise for the film’s visuals. Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru called the film ‘a visually dazzling action adventure with great set and costume design’. Similarly, Screen Rant’s Brandon Zachary rated the film 7/10 and wrote: “On a purely visual and technical level, Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is an impressive cinematic achievement.” IndieWire gave the film a ‘B’ and called it an ‘epic’. Reviewer Christian Zilko wrote, “(Nitesh) Tiwari appears primarily focused on dramatising the classic epic with the highest level of production value that’s currently available. He undeniably achieves that goal, even if it means that the final product lacks some voice that would have made it more memorable on its own terms.”

Criticism for the film’s length and stuffed narrative

The English version of the Ramayana is almost half an hour shorter than the Indian version. Yet the 2-and-a-half-hour runtime has not pleased early reviewers. NYC Movie Guru called the film “bloated, clunky, exhausting, emotionally hollow and poorly acted.” Avi Offer added, “In a double feature with Sita Sings the Blues, it would be the inferior, overproduced B-movie.” Next Best Picture’s Giovanni Lago gave the film a middling 5/10, saying the film may have been better as a TV adaptation in the mould of Game of Thrones. “Overall, audiences can still be swept up by Ramayana, even if it feels so stuffed at times that it might’ve needed a "Game of Thrones"-level television adaptation to flesh out its narrative fully,” he wrote.

Perhaps the harshest review of the lot was by Siddharth Adlakha of IGN, who rated the film just 4 out of 10, writing, “A majestic epic falls victim to clunky action, eye-sore CGI, and awkward AI lip-syncing in what is, unfortunately, just a Part 1.”

All about Ramayana

The reviews for Ramayana have only come out from the international premiere in Los Angeles so far. Indian critics have yet to watch the film. Produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios in collaboration with DNEG and Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, Ramayana is planned as a two-part film. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Ravie Dubey as Lakshman, and Sunny Deol as Lord Hanuman. The first part is scheduled for worldwide release on November 5, while the second part is set for Diwali 2027. The films will release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam across India. There are paid previews scheduled in the US on November 4, but there is no information if India will also see paid previews on the eve of release.

Sony Pictures will handle global distribution, excluding India, while Dharma Productions will distribute the film in the Hindi-speaking market. The film is also planned for a worldwide IMAX release.