Maya Bazaar

After watching movies like, Lord of the Rings, Troy, Harry Potter, Flash Gordon etc, one would wonder what this movie made by Indians in 1957 offers in terms of story, special effects, acting and all. But there ends the doubt. Maya bazaar is a tale which revolves around the kidnapping of Balarama's daughter Sasi rekha by Bhima's son Gatothgaja and her wedding to Abhimanyu, son of Arjuna. Full of special effects, camera tricks by the famous camera man Marcus Bartley, this movie is a visual feast to even modern audiences. The incredible star cast includes SVR, NTR, ANR, CSR, Relangi, Ramana Reddy, Savitri, Mukkamala, Mikkineni, and Surya kantam is unmatched in any other such venture. One can doubtlessly credit each of the above actors with a modern day Oscar (for lack of better recognized awards).

The story starts with Balarama promising his sister Subhadra that her son Abhimanyu,(Arjunas son) will be given his daughter Sasi rekha in marriage. This is endorsed by Balarama's brother, Sri Krishna. Abhimanyu and Sasi rekha are just kids when this promise is made and they eventually grow up separately in their own houses i.e Indra prasta and Dwaraka respectively. But as fate would have it, the Pandavas lose their wealth, kingdom in an unjust game of dice and are condemned to a 13 year exile by the Kauravas. Subhadra along with Abhimanyu seeks asylum with her brothers, Balarama and Sri Krishna. Balarama sets out to condemn the injustice done by the Kauravas to the Pandavas. But the Dushtachatushtayam (evil quadrangle formed by Duryodhana, Dushyasana, Sakuni and Karna) honour the furious Balarama and pacify him with praises and trick him into believing that the game of dice was won in a just way. The easily pleased Balarama returns to Dwaraka after promising Duryodhana that Sasi rekha would become his son's wife.

This news reaches Subhadra and she feels insulted by this gesture made by her own brother in seeking alliance with the enemies of her husband. Sasi rekha who is in love since her childhood with Abhimanyu is heart broken. Subhadra and Abhimanyu plan to leave Dwaraka unable to bear this. But the All knowing Sri Krishna, asks the charrioteer to take them to Gatothgaja's ashram instead. In course of time, after a few encounters with Gatothgaja's rakshasas and with Gatothgaja himself, Abhimanyu and Subhadra are united with Gatothgaja and his mother Hidimbi who is Bhima's wife. The brothers plan to take revenge on the Dushtachatushtayam after Abhimanyu recounts to his brother the events leading to Sasi rekha's planned wedding with Lakshmana, Duryodhana's son. Eventually, Gatothgaja with the help of Sri Krishna, kidnaps Sasi rekha and transports her to his ashrama where she is united with Abhimanyu. Gatothgaja, with his maya disguises himself as Sasi rekha and replaces her in Dwaraka after asking his henchmen Chinnamaya to build a welcome palace for the Kauravas who are set to arrive with the wedding procession. Chinnamaya along with Lambu and Jambu designs and builds a welcome palace with his MAYA and that is the MAYA BAZAAR. It is here that the wedding procession arrives with the groom Lakshmana and the Dushtachatushtayam, and the events that follow are hilarious.

The various events that take place in the MAYA BAZAAR where the bride's party caters to all the whims of the groom's party, with a funny twist for each are remarkable. The false Sasi rekha(Gatothgaja in disguise) behaves with Lakshmana in such a way that he starts becoming frightened of her and the final drama at the wedding alter leads the groom's party into believing that the bride Sasi rekha(Gatothgaja in disguise) is possessed by evil spirits. The Dushtachatushtayam blame Sri Krishna for all this because of this partiality towards the Pandavas. Ultimately Sri Krishna reveals to Balarama that the Dushtachatushtayam had tricked him by making him fall for their courtesy into this and explains that the true Sasi rekha is being married to Abhimanyu for the same muhurtam. The Dushtachatushtayam are bashed up and transported to Hastinapura and the rest attend Sasi rekha's wedding all by Gatothgaja's maya.

The sequences where Sasi rekha(Gatothgaja in disguise) meets Lakshmana for the first time, where Sasi rekha(Gatothgaja in disguise) eats up the food meant for the entire host, where Chinnamaya, lambu and jambu torture the groom's sidekicks are totally hilarious. The director has left no stone unturned in squeezing the best from all the cast. Songs are wonderful and are melodiously informative. Poems are circumstantial adding punch to the already marvelous dialogues. The skeleton for the story is derived from the Mahabharata but the meat is mostly fictional.

I have a personal feeling that this is the best movie, ever made. This is a movie for everyone and is made to perfection.

Laughs, Imagination and Wit.

A pure spectacle of cinema.!

A complete treat for soul.!

Maya Bazaar (1957) : Brief Review -

A Colossal Tower of filmmaking that raised the bar of Indian Cinema forever. An Astounding and Unmatchable Cinematic Grandeur. Historical Epic tales have more appealing stories than any other literature or books but almost all Indian Filmmaker failed to understand this fact. Ramayana and Mahabharata have plenty of gorgeous stories that can be turned into Masterpiece films but who would dare to try hands in it? And would that person be enough intelligent to understand how big responsibility it is? These two questions are the reason why Indian Cinema hasn't produced lots of Magnum Opus despite the fact that we have stupendous larger than Life Stories available in our history books. I always complained that Hollywood made two of the biggest grandeurs of all time like 'The Ten Commandments' and 'Ben-Hur' in 50s and both were biblical but why didn't Indian Cinema achieved something like that when we have almost 50x more number of traditional and religious stories than them? Bollywood made 'Mughal-E-Azam' and raised the bar but why just one? Now i think i must say Two. Yes, Maya Bazaar is that First One and then Mughal-e-Azam follows. What MEA means to Bollywood, Maya Bazaar means to Telugu and Tamil Cinema. What those two grand biblical means to Hollywood, Maya Bazaar means to INDIAN CINEMA. I am speechless looking at the grandeur and finesse in storytelling along with stupendous sets and grand scale execution. Maya Bazaar raised the bar of Indian Cinema for generations to follow and nobody has been able to match it till date except for 'Mughal-E-Azam'. Acting, writing, screenplay, production, dialogues, music, execution and direction everything has come together in their best forms to deliver an astounding and unbelievable Magnum Opus to remember forever. If i have to make a list of Top 5 Biggest and Best Grandeurs made in the history Indian cinema then Maya Bazaar will be in Top 3. A GIGANTIC MASTERPIECE!

RATING - 9/10*

By - #samthebestest.

No other Telugu movie has transcended the boundaries of language as this film did and it goes on.

If there is one telugu film to refer to say that it is the all time great of all, then this film in every sense does justice to the statement. It indeed, is seriously the best film technically, culturally and aesthetically. Acting is one heck that makes it a must watch and so is the music that will be alive even 100 years later. I love many songs today too and the tiles of most songs are later made as titles for other films. Now, we can understand how loved the film was to every telugu movie goer.

The story is not as though a tale taken from Mahabharata but a fable written by the writer Pingali Nagendra Rao and also Nagireddi and Chakrapani (both Reddy and Chakrapni are founders of Chandamama magazine too) but nevertheless its based on Mahabharatha.

If I were to simplistically write then this is about out how a man helps a girl elope and gets her married to a dear relative of his own. But this movie is not that simplistic it's multi layered and comes out in many folds as we go about each character. What's more astonishing is that Ghatothkatcha (who is the main character of the whole film) comes an hour into the film and takes this film head on and gives us a really enthralling performance.

The movie is slow for today's times but perfect and in fact you will crave for more after the completion of it. Such is the magic of this film, just terrific and enjoyable. The cinematography by Marcus Bartley (I suppose the greatest cameraman ever for Telugu films) is so awesome like we wonder how those scenes were made possible in 1957 when there was no CG or computer or any other equipment apart from a camera. Man, he must have been god to create illusions as they were shown in the film.

Everyone did their best from writing to editing to sound design to every aspect of the film. There has since not been a movie that can beat this in all departments in Telugu at least.

I have both the Black and White and the Colour DVD's but I prefer to go with B & W. It's lengthier and pristine so that helps the magic live longer. Having said that, the colour conversion is done well and I was very happy with the fact that this film was being re released.

I bet, that most films made in those good old days of Telugu are much better and much relevant than the crap being made today.

I will go with 5/5 for this movie that will ever be called the best of all Telugu movies.

Perhaps the complete cinema in its era, Mayabazar with its stellar cast continues to amaze the Telugu audience till date... If the Telugu film industry can be divided into two eras then, it would be Pre and Post Mayabazar... That's how big the movie is... It was, it is and it will remain the CLASSIC for eternity... It has big heavy weights of Telugu Film Industry donning in various roles... ANR as Abhimanyu; SVR as Ghatothkacha and above all NTR donning the role of Lord Krishna.... Particularly NTR's subtle dialogue delivery and magnificent stature lights up the frame when he is there... The ever gorgeous Savithri is at her best... Adorable beauty she remains...

To sum it all, the events in the Movie do not truly depict of what happened in Mahabharata (The Epic of Hindu Mythology)... The likes of K.V. Reddy came out with a brilliant idea of weaving a small skit in the form of MAYABAZAR... The stand out point in the movie is "Marcus Bartley's" stunning light effects for the song "Lahiri Lahiri Lo..." The frame has been caught to perfection in every minute detail.. Hats off to that...

The movie was digitally remastered in color in the year 2008. They had to do away with some editing as the original movie tape was badly damaged in the testimony of time.. The newer version is Nevertheless, it lived up to its expectations... The movie came out exceptionally well and K.V.Reddy would have been proud of that..

If Moghal-E-Azam is to Hindi Film Industry then, the south India claims to have Mayabazar ... If a person were to draw comparison, then that would be it.. Both were magnum opus in their own way...

Go ahead and watch it in color and be enthralled !!! I will give it 10 out of 10... I consider myself blessed to have been born in the MAYABAZAR era....