Mahabharat or Masalabharat

moonbeam165

When I first heard that a big budget all-new Mahabharat was going to be played on Star plus, I was excited. I was excited because I always wished our richest and greatest Epic be made with special visual effects and a much more dynamic star cast that it well deserves. Well, to start off with I was very impressed with the setting, the cast, visual effects, background score and Krishna's narration. However, as the drama progressed, I saw the detonation of the script and characters. It sort of started to degrade to the soap standards with young pretty girls playing old women, the suspenses, too many dialogues, etc. etc. Here are a few more examples for my disappointment: (1) I think the girl who played Kunthi's role was such a turn off. One could never relate to her as a mother of such mighty warrior sons. (2) The characters lack depth. For example, Duryodhan is shown as such a shallow character; he's plain bad and silly which I guess was not the case. Duryondhan too was a mighty warrior and did have some spiritual qualities. Similarly, Karna's role too lacks depth; he seems to be so inconsistent with his stand. Sometimes, he is super kind and sometimes, just blindly supporting his friend or using profane language against Pandavas. (3) Oh, the main guys, the Pandavas!… they act and behave like college dropouts. (4) Krishna was good to start of with, but somehow his character began to ramble a lot. He can connect anything to Dharma for his own convenience. Also, its funny how they show he can freeze time and space to explain his point on the war field. (5) I was disappointed with Abhimanyu's war scene too. They could have worked more on the Chakravyuh formation and the strategy to break it. In stead, they just wasted the scene with dialogue exchanges and the poor kid simply dies talking Based on the above few things I mentioned and more, I just feel it's just it's an okay entertainer. I wished the team had invested more time in researching the mythology and presenting it in a more philosophical and profound manner. I don't think i would make my children watch this when they grow up as it would simply confuse them with the essence of our epic. I would rather read them the Mahabharat series from Amar Chitra Katha. Hence, I just give a 5!

score 5/10

moonbeam165 6 August 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3063420/