Le mahâbhârata

Very simply get a comfortable chair and be ready for a magnificent journey. You will get "inside" the movie and not realise that 5 hours have gone by when it will end. This is one the best movies ever, not only it is entertaining but it will help you get a glimpse of a very foreign culture. The characters will talk to you on an immediate and direct level and, unusually, they will stay with you for a long time. You will find yourself thinking back at this movie, from time to time, and compare what you are living in real life with what happened in the movie. Peter Brook is master and I definitely think this is his best movie ever. Just relax and enjoy.

Brooks has done an amazing job of distilling the monumental indian epic into less than a 6 hour film. In the process, a lot of good stuff had to left out, but what remains is pure gold.

The style is spare and theatrical, with fairly minimal sets. Rather than detracting from the sense of immediacy, however, the lack of background serves to throw the characters into bolder relief. And what characters! Arjuna, Yudhisthira, Draupadi, Bhima, Krishna - marvelous characters all. And the 'bad guys' are nearly as good - flawed, but complex and even somewhat sympathetic. The minor characters too are arresting - bhishma and drona especially.

This movie translates the power of myth to the screen better than any other by far. Maybe when LotR is complete that will change, but for now Mahabharata reigns supreme.

We follow the Indian great families of gods and demi-gods, and the conflicts that arise between them. Yudhisthira is a righteous man, but can succumb to great foolishness when it comes to gambling. Arjuna the great warrior hero, is prepared for war but yet is besieged by doubts. Is war unavoidable, and is it possible to fight a war without losing? Krishna takes on an ambiguous trickster role, as he proceeds in guiding the Pandava family, but towards what?

This is very much a theatrical version of the story, do not expect any special effects or such, you wont get any here. The stripped down production gives it a timeless feel, and it has its logic, after all how do you do visual justice to gods and great mysteries? The acting is strong, some of the characters are fantastic to just listen to, and more or less the whole cast manages to tread the thin line between the grandiosity and humanity, that the characters possess.

I am a little annoyed that the full version is not available on DVD. Isn't DVD about putting things out in their full length and then some? It feels like an unnecessary loss that we don't get the see the play in its full.

I love these great epics, but the Mahabharata in particular can be a pain in the butt to try and read, in its enormous length, so to get condensed version of it as a play, this well executed and acted out, is well, a god-send.

I can't recall anything Peter Brook has done that wasn't at least worthwhile, and most of his oeuvre is far more than that--including his Mahabharata. To my great disappointment I never got to see the stage version, but did see the film, as presented on TV. It was cut down (!) to a mere 6 hours, and the only word for it is stunning. The international cast is as good as any ensemble I've seen: they're always right on target, never over the top, and I think I could watch the whole 6 hours without ever getting restless. I've read the Mahabharata in a very good American adaptation that trims the enormous length--15 times the length of the Old and New Testament combined!--to manageable size. While some fine material was necessarily excised from Brook and Carriere's version, the essence seems to be there. By turns, it is amusing, touching gripping, and always absorbing. I believe it is still available on videocassette and may well be on DVD as well. .I notice that, with only one exception, all the users who have written appreciations share my feelings, and I suspect that most others will feel the same way. I won't bother to mention individual performers or scenes; it's all of a piece and a great accomplishment. Next time I watch it will be my seventh or eighth time, and it won't have lost any of its appeal. This is a work of art to savor and treasure.

This movie was a MASTERPIECE! i loved it. The variety of characters really made my mind work to the degree it was meant to. I must say the best scene of the entire movie was when she(forgive my memory has forgotten her name)was giving birth and her maid had to hit her across the stomach with an iron rod and then a ball came out of her. BOY what a creative idea! I must say the entire movie was extremely well done, everything from the characters to the story line, nothing at all was boring about it. The only complaint i can give is that it was WAY TO SHORT. there were so many unanswered questions and i never wanted the movie to end! I give it 4 stars and two thumbs WAY UP! Good job director Peter Brook!