I wish I could have had a better concluding tribute to what was the biggest attempt at a Mahabharat serial since the late 80s. Unfortunately, what started off w/ great promise quickly disintegrated into a farcial mockery of the great epic, leaving a sour taste in one's mouth.
It's well known that there are many Mahabharatas around - in this forum itself, we've discussed quite a few of them in the Perspectives thread. Had the makers of this serial picked any ONE of them and run w/ it, it would have been fine. It may not have been the MB that we all knew, but at least, it would have opened us to a perspective that wasn't there before - say, the Cambodian one. But by trying to take bits and pieces from every version out there, the CVs made a mockery out of this great epic.
It started almost at once, w/ the story of Bheeshma's birth (as w/ much else in his life) bypassed, and in its place, a modern day boat dating scene b/w Shantanu & Satyavati starting off the epic. One had to absorb the fact that the makers were not trying to fit in the temparament of people in that era, where people did not go out on such dates 😆 Also, the way Satyavati's character was blackened and she became a scheming blackmailer in favor of her unborn sons left a bitter taste, since the original Satyavati was nowhere near as evil.
In fact, the serial's decision to blacken the characters of a number of women, who were not vamps in the original story, really turned me off. Satyavati was the first, followed by Amba, Ambika and then Madri. OTOH, Kunti, who did wrong Karna a lot, was whitewashed unbelievably by the serial. The original Kunti didn't think much about Karna, aside from having her spies track him to see what he was up to; ⭐️Kunti in contrast thinks of him a lot. Similarly, the serial showing Gandhari in an over positive light in the beginning, and making her almost a villain at the end, defied logic.
In fact, logic was something badly lacking in this serial. If Bheeshma wanted to secure the future of Hastinapur, why would he object to Rani Sudharma's proposal to marry Gandhari to Pandu? And the whole plan was so shoddily executed - Gandhari marries Dhritarashtra w/ the promise from Bheeshma that she'd become Hastinapur's queen, and then when it's Rajyabhishek time, Vidura reveals that Dhritarashtra is unfit to be king, and then Bheeshma's promise to Gandhara is made a mockery.
And Shakuni? While the original Shakuni of Vyasa was in fact a moderate, whose only major crime was representing Dury in the game of dice (despite nebulous Vyasa references to other crimes he did, such as the Varnavarta incident), most serials have made him a much greater villain, while whitewashing his sister. But this serial went to absurd lengths in vilifying him - starting w/ him kicking off his mountaineering assistant to his death - to having him destroy his weapons in his final battle to avoid fighting on the grounds that he was unarmed 😕 The promotion of Shakuni into the Prof Moriarty of the Kauravas was really unfounded - but how many would know it? This would have been a great opportunity to bust that bubble, but instead, this serial took it to new heights.
The serial however was more or less fine during the childhood of the Kuru princes - although the blackening of certain characters, such as Madri, left much to be desired. However, for the first time, a serial gave proper coverage to Pandu, including showing a couple of scenes b/w him & his sons. However, the parallel track of Karna that the serial developed - w/ Adiratha depicted as opposing Karna's martial ambitions - was really stretching it. Also, some events, such as Ekalavya, were totally fabricated - while some stories have him as a protege of Magadha, in no account did he get approached by Duryodhan to lead their army. In fact, unlike Karna, he had no animosity towards Arjun.
However, once the kids became adults, the story took a dive, w/ each week seeking to surpass the previous in being ridiculous. Starting w/ a completely filmy entry of the Kuru princes, followed by a hostile family meeting b/w Kunti, Karna & the Pandavas and then the introduction of Subhadra to the story @ this stage. And it continued - Arjun being made to wash Karna's feet, taking Subhadra to Dwarka & rescuing her from Kalyavan, getting Rukmini out in the guise of Brihannala, it's hard to say which one took the cake.
And Panchala? Drupada, whose only fault was his refusal to acknowledge his friendship w/ Drona, is turned into a fiend - who refuses to bless Draupadi and spurns her until Krishna intervenes and does his magic on them. Ashwatthama becomes the king of the part of Panchala that Drona annexes: if this had actually happened, why would he not have taken up the Pandava side? The whole depiction of Drupada as a tormentor of rishis - presumably based on his spurning of Drona - was really disgusting, given that he sacrificed himself & his entire family in the war for the Pandavas, who didn't have their own army.
While it was nice to see this serial do what Vyasa didn't - covering a bit of Karna's family life, the way they did it - making Vrushali a proposed maid to Draupadi - was jarring. Even worse was Karna choosing to abdicate the throne of Anga in protest @ Dury's decision. Had the real Karna done that, he'd have been free of any bonds to Dury. And after doing all that and taking Vrushali to Indraprastha, he returns w/ her since she's encouraged by Krishna to go & marry him.
The depiction of Arjun's exile, and particularly Subhadra's engagement to Dury, was disgusting. In the MB, there is no mention of Subhadra vs Dury, and in SB, it's mentioned that Balarama thought of giving her to Dury, but Krishna sabotaged that idea. There were no proposals to or from Dury for her hand. Yet, this serial had her stand him up @ the alter 😡
The serial really made a mockery of itself by depicting the shastraharan as the provocation for Dury's vastraharan. For starters, Sishupala was an ally of Bhima, after Jarasandha's death, and had nothing to do w/ Dury. Had they shown the Maya Mahal episode, where Dury falls into the fountain, it might have made sense. And at the game itself, they show Dury staking not just his brothers, but also people who did not belong to him - especially Ashwi & Karna. The VH scene was beautifully done, and Draupadi grabbing Dushashan's sword & threatening him was a sight to behold. What wasn't beautifully done was Draupadi's threatening divorce of the Pandavas. As for the vastraharan of the men, it was a stunt that achieved the attention that it desired 😆
The vanvas was really short, and out of sequence, and then in the agyatvas, they made a mockery of Ballav. Again, Keechak is made a friend of Dury & Shakuni, which is unthinkable, since he was a mortal enemy of their friend, Susharma. The battle in Matsya b/w Arjun & Karna, w/ Bheeshma blocking their battle, was again too much.
The period b4 the war defied any sense, and so for that matter, did the war itself. The Pandavas spilling out their secrets to Bheeshma, Abhimanyu permanently ready to die, Shakuni always concocting something (when he was hardly important once the war started) all made what should have been the most exciting stretch of the story really dull. By the time Draupadi's sons were dead, it had already lost its charm.
The final 2 episodes were real downers, and the final episode, which only had Gandhari's curse, Krishna's bhashans & Yudhi's coronation, was an ill fitting end to what ended up as a mediocre serial. Which is tragic, given that the cast was excellent, and could have achieved great things had they stuck to the story.
I do hope that someday, another MB - which is 90% true to Vaisampayana/Sukhdev/Janemaya - is done, where we don't have a repeat of BRC, Ekta or Swastik Productions.
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