Mahabharat

Star Plus"Mahabharat"(2013)Is a great... because so many points made it good and more acceptable.

I know our the-original-text-of-Mahabharatha. It is full of a huge history of our Indian HINDU religion and a GLORIOUS knowledge,AND IT is unchangeable and never old and always THE GREAT EPIC..

On the other side, it came out through a TV show in 1988 by B.R CHOPRA. It is a good epic show of MAHABHARATHA..the time was so different and the people's mentality were different,the main point of that great success, it was only 1st time TV show of MAHABHARATHA the limited TV channels were available on that time.

I saw so many people have commented on their reviews that the 2013 Star plus MAHABHARATHA is not good.. I just oppose that : the new MAHABHARATHA is extremely appropriate and acceptable..because the Time has been changed as it is 21st CENTURY, the science and life is too fast, the people is too busy in their work and they have no time, 1000 TV shows are available , all people are modern and so many youth are not believed in supper natural things.. as a consequence, they are detached from our main culture and religious..

As a Result the NEW MAHABHARATHA 2013, is so summarized and meaning full .. though some text have been missed and some text is manipulating but the basic thing is same as the-original-text-of-Mahabharatha.. the Other side it is true the TV shows are not written by VEDAVYASA the director want to represent the main and actual Indian History. A great religious Knowledge he want to represent through the science and good artist.. technology....he did a great job .....

anyone who read the Mahabharat book perhaps will feel disappointed with the story, indeed. but one who never read the book before, esp when you lived abroad far from India like me, will love the movie and perhaps wants to read the book after they watch this movie.

we have our own version of Mahabharat which been rewritten and recreated by our ancestors thousands years BCE. as I and several of our people read both Indian/original version and Javanese/Indonesian version of Mahabharat, so we don't mind and regret any improved or updated version of Mahabharat, as long as we can catch the moral message lies within the movie (and the book) itself.

what I love from this movie is their objectives to spread moral values, such as respect the elders, obey your parents, respect for women, teenage bravery to protect their parents,equal rights for low-class people, etc. which are damaged seriously within young and adult generation all over the world these days.

some key actors of Mahabharat enjoyed high appreciation in our country during their tour recently, and i think they worth it, regardless disappointed voices on their acting performance.

I myself would like to praise this movie (BR Chopra's Mahabharat was also aired by our television long ago)as the best version of Mahabharat. a little bit of my disappointment arise due to short episodes on Virataparwan (which should told us more about Pandava's suffering and how they survived), and small appearance of Gathotkacha, regarding this character is adored by kids and adults in our country.

I have been watching series since my childhood, i saw lots of drama,romance,action,thrill,horror, survival and all, bt no show can touch its height.Every character in this show are mind blowing and did very best of their performance. The epic show based on epic.A MUST WATCH.

The good -

• Graphics/VFX are good for the most part but overdone and too gaudy in some areas. It's an expensive project and it shows. Costume design is great.

• Krishna, Bhishmapita and Draupadi are excellent, others are ok. Krishna really stands out and his teachings are written properly( although hugging Karna is stupid). But overall really good, even better than Nitish Bhardwaj's Krishna. Bhisma looks the part and dialogue delivery is good. Draupadi has been given more role than BR Chopra's Draupadi.

• bgms for each character is great and gives an epic feel.

• Vidura, Drona and Drupad came out well.

Now the bad things -

• Loud and overuse of bgm. There's music after almost every dialogue and the thundering sound is cheap and unnecessary. Lacks subtlety of western shows like Game of Thrones.

• Lots of overacting and bad closeups of actors. Actors staring at the camera with their eyes bulging and crying dramatically. Bhim and Shakuni is particularly guilty of this. The BR Chopra edition had more subtlety.

• Too much masala drama added and scenes dragged out too long. The death of Abhimanyu is poorly shown with the Pandavas and Karauavs talking to each other which is not possible as Pandavas are supposed to be far outside the Chakravyuh at the entrance. And Abhimanyu is supposed to be deep inside the Chakravyuh when he's killed. The Pandavas didn't actually see his death because they were outside fighting with Jaidrath. Again, the BR version was better here.

• Lord Krishna hugging Karna before his death? Like c'mon, that's a bit too much. Krishna may have had a bit of sympathy for Karna but hugging him like that is completely out of character for him as Karna had insulted Draupadi and Krishna was very close to Draupadi and the Pandavas.

• In the original, Karna's chariot wheel gets stuck during battle with Arjun. Here Krishna takes the chariot away and makes Karna chase after them and then his wheel gets stuck.

• Karna's death is also laughably shown in this. In the original story he's instantly killed when Arjuna fires the arrow at him. In this however, he doesn't die and keeps taking for several minutes with the arrow in his neck. Then Kunti arrives on the battlefield and talks to him which never happens in the orginal story. Then his adopted mother Radha also arrives with his wife Vrushali wtf!! Completely ridiculous as they were nowhere near Kurukshetra during the war. Just added for masala.

• Bhishmapitamaha's death is also inaccurate, all the five Pandavas are attacking him in some secluded place and the Kauravas are nowhere to be seen lol. Then Shikandi arrives and shoots an arrow at him wtf. In the original story Shikhandi doesn't use any weapons and is just placed in front of Bhisma so he gives up his weapons. Why can't you just stick to the original in important events like this.

• Duryodhan actor is soft/boyish looking and doesn't have the strong vibe and rough look that BR's Duryodhan had. His dialogue delivery is weak as well and doesn't feel threatening at all.

• Krishna playing dice game with Shakuni in the end? Wtf lol

• Most of the fight scenes are bad with too much slow motion and unnecessary dialogues. After spending so much money atleast make some proper choreographed action scenes that have tension. In this it's two sides shooting CGI arrows at each other.

This series saved me from falling in depression and pushed me to start my life journey again with much more positive energy. Just wanted more details like old Mahabharat (later watched some episodes on YouTube). I love this Mahabharat 👏🏻 🙏 Jai Shri Radhe Krishna 🙏