Everything that Adipurush has copied from the West

While the box-office numbers of Adipurush are rapidly plummeting with every passing day, the memes and tweets on all its creative liberties continue.

As is common these days, Twitterati are pointing out the irony that Yugo Sako’s 1992 anime classic Ramayan: The Legend of Prince Ram is more accurate than Om Raut’s Ramayana adaptation. 

That’s because while the Japanese production still attempted to be as faithful to its source material as possible, Adipurush seems to be busy Westernising its narrative with visual elements that are clear rip-offs from other non-Indian franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Lord Of The Rings. 

Death Eaters and Dementors from Harry Potter 

Adipurush opens with a hooded figure that looks like a poorly-animated Grim Reaper, complete with the skull face and a scythe-like hand implement. Some on the Internet have also compared this figure (which by the way has no mythological connotations) to an average Death Eater in the Harry Potter universe. 

Talking about Harry Potter, this Grim Reaper figure also sends several flying wraiths after the protagonist. All of these ghouls look like they are cheap copies of Dementors, the soul-sucking dark creatures that were first introduced in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Is Raavan a Targaryen? 

Raavan is draped in furs that seem like they belong to a Game of Thrones cosplayer’s wardrobe. But that isn’t his only connection with Westeros as Raavan also rides a gargoyle-like bat. This replacement of Raavan’s aerial vehicle Pushpak Viman (which could have seemed more modern in retrospect) flies like a dragon. 

And in the scenes when the camera puts Raavan and his dragon-sized bat in centre focus, one can’t help but see this as a poor attempt at mimicking Daenerys, Jon Snow (or any other Targaryen) riding dragons in Game of Thrones and House of Dragon. 

Sugreev is just Caesar from Planet of the Apes

It’s with the apes that the VFX team’s biggest blunders come out. For instance, there are numerous gorillas in the vaanar sena (ape army) that are being compared to King Kong. And then, there is the ape king Sugreev who looks like a shoddy replica of Caesar, the rebellious ape from the Planet of the Apes franchise. 

A particular scene in Adipurush finds Ram smearing his blood on Sugreev’s forehead like a tilak. Sugreev with this tilak looks all the more similar to Caesar when he smears war paint on his face in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. 

Lanka is just a blackened version of Asgard

Raavan’s kingdom of Lanka is often being compared to the MCU depiction of Asgard, a kingdom that the thunder-god Thor’s father rules over. The production design team of Adipurush seem to have just been inspired by the architecture of Asgard as they stick to a more grim and dull colour scheme.

Lanka, the kingdom famed for its gold and riches, turns into a city of granite with dark skies over it. The darkness of it all can seem reminiscent of the evil realm of Mordor in Lord of the Rings but then again, Raut’s film seems to borrow another element from that fantasy franchise. 

Raavan controls the Lord of the Rings orcs?

Raavan’s beastly minions in Lanka are just armoured orcs that we have been familiarised with in Lord of the Rings and numerous fantasy productions that have followed it (particularly the video game World of Warcraft and its movie adaptation). 

No explanation is required as once you see the orcs, it’s more than obvious that the asuras under Raavan aren’t really asuras. They are just orcs with badly-rendered CGI. 

Raavan’s son is The Flash

Raavan’s son Indrajit is a mayawi (a mystical demon) with powers of trickery and illusion. But Om Raut turns him into a full-fledged super speedster with Indrajit running at lightning speeds like the DC hero The Flash (whose solo venture was released at the same time as Adipurush). 

Hanuman does the Attack on Titan salute

When Hanuman meets Sita at Raavan’s forest Ashok Vatika, he could have greeted her with a simple greeting with joined hands (much like what the anime version also showed). But instead, Hanuman breaks into a weird military salute of sorts, a hand gesture that is very similar to the clenched-fist salute in the anime Attack on Titan. 

Adipurush dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir, in an interview with ANI, revealed that he is disappointed with children growing up in an era of Marvel and DC movies and that he wanted to present the "true heroes of Sanatan" to the younger generation. Muntashir's words just seem hypocritical now, given how much Adipurush borrows from Western superhero and fantasy flicks. 

In all, the controversies around Adipurush seem neverending at the moment, as is the trolling. All the word of mouth has also taken a toll on its box office numbers as Adipurush failed to sail smoothly into the week.

ALSO READ: Why Manoj Shukla became Manoj Muntashir, copying work after work on way to Adipurush