Changes to the original story depiction only serve a shallow ‘girlboss’ narrative. The feminism presented is heavy-handed and shallow, with Kaikeyi hailed as a warrior queen since being a good female fighter automatically makes it ‘feminist’ with patriarchy to blame for everything, with Kaikeyi being absolved of her original villainous intent. 

The characters fall flat and are mere archetypes. It seems a narrow take on the original story, painting Kaikeyi as a generic fantasy feminist girlboss with every other character  meant to be misogynist. And in this version, she’s dismissive of more traditionally feminine arts like painting and embroidery. Never mind that the ‘softer’ arts have just as much merit as fighting. 

Ravana also kidnapped Sita in the original tale and yet this is ignored since the author changed him to be a good friend to Kaikeyi who only wants to protect his daughter. This reframing seems rather harmful. Overall, the story should've been treated with more nuance.