This is a Sanskrit language film that explains the nuances of the Bhagavad Gita in an easily understandable form.
The film starts with a background to the Mahabharata war and how Draupadi insists on the necessity of war. Neena Gupta plays the part of Draupadi to the hilt. It is surprising that the master director GV Iyer did not choose his protege Sarvadaman Banerjee to play the part of Shri Krishna. However the actors chosen to play all the characters - though not famous in public as Neena - are clearly talented and experienced and play their parts really well.
The rest of the film revolves around the dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna as it really happened. Instead of leaving it as dry philosophy, the film depicts while Krishna explains with his voice in the background. This makes it very easy to understand his teachings and thus the film does a great service to laymen and spiritual seekers alike. Of course, full credit to the writing and editing to get the gist of the teachings correctly, and in choosing how much to convey in the format of a 2.5 hour film.
GV Iyer has done a great service to humanity and Bharatavarsha by his direction of masterpieces on the great saints of Vedanta - Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhavacharya. Although Swami Vivekananda didn't come out that well, it still was a good effort. This film though has again come out really well despite him going out of his comfort zone of biographies. The Bhagavad Gita especially, if not correctly interpreted, can be misused to cause harm. Also being close to the heart of most Bharatiyas, any loose depiction would have caused a lot of backlash. Only a director of Iyer sir's stature could have taken up this effort. The justice he has done to it shows in the film.
The film richly deserved the Best Film National award it won that year. A must watch!!
