Maya Bazaar

One of the best movies in indian cinema... Watching NTR garu in Lord Krishna's role is a treat..😍

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.

First I will start saying I watched the shorter color only around 162 min. I would have liked to see the full version but this was the one I could get my hands on.

Honestly I was very doubtful I would enjoy this movie before watching it. But I had some hopes since I always like good adventure and mythology movies.

I was a bit confused in the start about some of the characters as I am not knowing much about the Hindi religion and do not have one drop of Indian blood in me. But I thought the story was inviting and moving ahead at a good pace and you got interested in getting deeper into it and find out what would happen. After a while you find out the main problem in the movie. At that time you are not one second in doubt how it will end for the two young lovers, but you cannot foresee the exiting journey to the end.

I would call this movie a romantic adventure comedy. The romance is the main thing in the movie. But when you see that there are gods involved you already know it will not be without magic.

The music in the movie is fine. I am honestly not a lover of this type of singing/dancing but the acting was good and it was used to progress the story and there was not too much of it in my opinion. If you do hate the singing/dancing then you can use those moments to get some fresh coffee :-)

The acting in the movie was great by those that meant most to the story line and I had a good time with the movie and some laughs. Some day if I see the full length movie I will most likely give it a try.

I would recommend this movie to people that love a good adventure with some magic included. I was fascinated by this movie and it really should be much better known by people outside India.

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.

You are not alone in thinking this is the best movie ever made, rgulla. In a poll conducted in AP, this movie was voted the best telugu movie ever made, and I totally agree.

What makes this movie fascinating is, in my opinion, this is only movie ever made that speaks to all ages at the same time. Harry potter is a children's' movie, we all know that. Similarly there are adult, young people's movies etc. But this is the only movie that a child can see for the magic and Gatothkacha. A young adult will watch the love story, and finally, an older adult will see the interaction between the two families, the politics that are played out. To top it off, for the retired person, this is a religious movie! No other movie, in any other language, is able to reach out to every moviegoer of every age.