Chakravartin Ashoka Samrat

By far the worst show in Indian history. I wouldn't even mind historical inaccuracy but this is way beyond that. A 12 year old Ashoka is able to overpower at least a hundred different soldiers ranging from Seleucid (Greek) and some fictional kingdom ruled by a tyrant called Kichak. As one review pointed out, the 12 year old Ashoka is taking a walk in the park in Kichak's palace, easily defeating his well trained soldiers who are armored by just pushing them. Meanwhile Superman Ashoka is able to take a sword to the neck and survive but a few dozen armored soldiers and royal guards can get defeated by a mere push. Not to mention the part where Ashoka is blindfolded and becomes a ninja and kills every soldier in the room using his "spider sense". This is absolute garbage, this show is over glorifying Ashoka and making him look like an unbeatable God. Absolute garbage

Though, known as a Historical Drama Series, I will call it a Historical Fiction as a lot of creative freedom has been taken in the storyline. However, what excuses the makers is the fact that hardly anything concrete is known about Ashoka before he became King and came up with his own edicts. The details of his youth, rise to power, and renunciation of violence following the Kalinga campaign come from Buddhist sources which are considered, in many respects, more legendary than historical. There is a lack of and one can say a gap in written evidence between Samrat Chandragupta Maurya and Samrat Ashoka rule. Even then the existing write-ups are shrouded with controversial discrepancies. For example, there is a discrepancy in Jain, Buddhist, and Greek texts about his childhood and about the queens of Bindusara.

So, this is a well-written intersting Fictional Story, which is cinematic and extremely entertaining to watch. What keeps you mesmerised and glued to the screen is the phenomenal acting by all the child artists, especially Siddharth Nigam in the role of Ashoka. Which was probably why he bagged all awards that year. Siddharth being a national level gold medalist gymnast helped in keeping the action scenes real and highly entertaining to watch. The dialogues given to Ashoka in the initial part of the series (about 200 episodes) are not just excellent, but the ideas are extremely forward looking. Without being disrespectful to religious edicts or the society timelines, it manages to challenge the cast system, and addresses ideas of birth, untouchability, dharma, slavery, nationality, womens rights, domestic violence, etc.

What I found unfortunate, was the almost glorification of black magic, not by saying it is good but what all is possible through practicing the art of black magic. Also, there is a remarkable age difference between the time of when Chanakya seemed to have died in reality and when it's shown in the series. According to most historical records, it is predicted that Ashoka was about 29 when Chanakya finally died. Of course his death remains a mystery and as opposed to popular belief that he starved himself, there is a legend that he died as a result of political conspiracy and his hut lit on fire.

For the interaction between Ashoka and his half brothers in the series, Sushim (played by Sumedh Mudgalkar) and Shaimak (Faizan Khan) I would have given this series a 9, however the series deteriorated fast after the adult cast, mainly because of the deterioration in the storyline. Amit Raina tried his best but the changes in Ashok's character to Chanda saw a remarkable failure of the script writer to add dimensions to adult Ashoka. It did not help that both Sushim and Saimak failed to impress. In fact, at this point the most interesting characters were the side actors. The show was quickly wound-up and the end was shoddy.

Well i just realized it's been 174 episodes today,n the main protagonist hasn't aged a year since the beginning of the show,,maybe the director has borrowed the idea from Boyhood,n is actually thinking of going as per earthly timeline!!!

So why i rated it awful-So despite the above fact,,,

acting is pathetic save for Chanakya n antagonist,,

direction is stupid(protagonist sleeps with a turban kinda thing on his head),,

the story is progressing at a speed in which u can have countless episodes(i bet at least 500 before Ashoka becomes a ruler),,

plus countless impossible moments(Ashoka fighting a tiger being one,,wait it's not stupid,until u realize he's shown to be around 14-15 yrs of age,,a 10 year n 15 yr guy studying in same class,etc.),,,

the music is horrific(they have a background music for every character,,inspired from Saas-Bahu shows),,, n politics more than even today's era.

In short the show is _________,,if u don't agree me kindly watch a couple of episodes!!!!

Dated 19.09.2016

A review from a hardcore happy fan to a hardcore angry and disappointed fan as the show progressed.

CAS could have been an excellent show. It started with a bang with awesome script, excellent actors and great set. People used to flock in front of TV awaiting for this serial.

Simply put Contiloe Entertainment, the Makers and Ashok Banker took gold and turned into dust. Entire fault is theirs alone. The show got impossibly boring, very unrealistic in terms of story lines and character plot lines. The audience felt cheated. Too much nonsense and bollywoodish bullshit drama. Great deal of advertisements and such fake toy swords and weapons. Very low class action sequences.

Other historical serials running along side CAS such as Siya ke Ram (excellent work by Devdutt Patnaik and team) and Suryaputra Karn had far better scripts and special effects. They ran their course with great ratings and kept the audience glued and got their love.

Now it seems the show is going off air in October which was expected. It's quite amazing no one actually died of boredom watching this show. I hope the the story of Samrat Ashoka will be retold in future on TV probably by the more able and talented team.

Do not take Indian audience as fool and learn something from International/ National successful historical shows if you want success.

Good Bye CAS with a heavy heart

"chakravartin Ashok Samrat" is one of the finest show in the Indian historical genre.It is no doubt Siddharth Nigam fully justifies the main character "ashoka".He set high level foe that lead character.But Chanakya was also a good part of show.Manoj joshi gave a power pack performance.

As we know the representation of the historical story is challenge for every show and movie.I think the the makers of the show are doing good job.Script is good.the twist given in story is also good attempt.But the best part of show is the visual effect.What I liked though is the visuals and the diligence that has been put in the show by the special effects and VFX team is brilliant.

But Also there is a lot of scope for improvement.First of all ,some time the show drag the track so lengthy that it bored all audience.it should be avoided.Some character are not interesting.

So I'd recommend that people watch this historical drama for Siddharth Nigam and the special effects of the show.

Thank you for reading