Mahabharat Analysis and Debate (Page 5)

Here are some RadheKrishna scenes for those who want to see Swapnil as Krishna in action:

Nice topic.. hmmm.. for me the best Mahabharat has to be BRC.. I think it was the first i ever watched hence I always compare with the newer or other adaptations.. The casting was brilliant and mostly all actors fitted perfectly, righ from the child actors to the elders.. The pandavas however I never did like the actor chosen for yudhistar but i truly loved the guy who played Arjan and 'Mayur' as Abhimanyu.. Puneet Issar was fab..

I watched KHMK and although it was very different I actually enjoyed watching it.. It was very different to BRC and the story was explained in much more detail.. Alike the story of young Bhishma and I must say although Mukal Khanna( I think that was the actors name who played Bhishma) was superb Ronit Roy worked awesomely well and I thought did justice to the role..

KHMK's casting was quite poor

Although the clothing/costumes were criticized by many I think it was more realistic.. I mean the costumes in BRC's were way to flashy and those shoulder armour and massive mukhat's... Woah.. I'm not so sure that was the clothes wore back in the days..

Sanjay Khan's Mahabharat was a huge.. Let down.. Disliked it very much..

So, LJ, you didn't answer: why is Bobby Bedi's version included in the poll considering it was shelved?

On topic: I have to say that all the adaptations have major flaws and not quite satisfactory but the BRC version is the one I prefer most. Of course there were many changes and omissions in the tale. The adaptation was far from an accurate one. Still, I was impressed by the script. Despite the alterations, it was well-written and flowed nicely. The Mahabharat is a complex piece of work and Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza demonstrated quite a remarkable grasp of the material. Condensing such a gargantuan epic into a tv show  and still making it work is a remarkable achievement. It was very interesting to see how he adapted the basic story to reflect modern issues such as democracy.

It was sad though, that the serial left the epic incomplete. It was quite disappointing to see that they made 94 episodes plus 45 more episodes in the sequel and still did not finish it. The same is true of Ramanand Sagar's version: not only did they leave out 5 of Krishna's 8 principal wives (along with other details and many changes) but the serial came to an abrupt end with the story incomplete.

And Nitish Bharadwaj was the best Krishna ever. Swapnil was decent as the young Krishna but S. D, Banerjee was quite boring IMO. Nitish's version also gets brownie points for actually using make-up to have a darker appearance.

I think the idea of using dialogue between Ganga and Krishna to narrate the story  in Sanjay Khan's version was interesting. It was something different at least. I just wish he had spent more time on the story.

KHMK was a daily soap. Though I liked Ronit as Bhishma.

For those interested in the BRC version, I recommend a critique of Dr. Reza's script by Dr. Pradip Bhattacharya. There is a 10 volume reproduction of the BRC Mahabharat script and Vol 10 includes The Mahabharata TV Film Script--A Long Critique by Dr. Bhattacharya. It is a fascinating study of the script. The various changes are analysed in detail. Please read it if you get the chance.

@Emptiness: I found some of Peter Brook's approach/ideas to be more interesting than the execution itself. Using an international cast was an interesting decision. I think Mallika Sarabhai did a pretty good job as Draupadi. Casting the same actor to play both Ganesh and Krishna was a nice touch. The main problem was the over-simplification of the issues in the epic (e.g. simply saying "the ways of Dharma are too subtle" does NOT do justice to the source material).



All said and done, I am still waiting for an adaptation that is more accurate, faithful and complete. Adapting the text for modern issues is interesting no doubt but I would really like a more faithful version.



Edited by Kal El - 08 March 2010 at 7:36pm

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Awww man I didn't see this topic cuz I keep going to our other thread through the "my posts" button, so I'm all late again I voted RS SK cuz I saw it first and am overall more attached to the show, but since the MB episodes were not directed by RS I'll admit they sucked... he handled it upto Dwarika Nirmaan with total perfection, then he got sick and for the most part his sons took over and made a mess... but his half is THAT good that I can forgive them.

For MB itself though, no one's come near BRC in terms of casting, dialogues, and even the sets are awesome... My favs are Nitish of course, Pankaj Dheer as Karn, and Puneet Issar as Duryodhan... I love his crackly voice, I don't know why And yeah, if anyone can give Big B the shivers it's him... no wonder BRC cast him as the bad guy! Oh and Shakuni, gotta love Gufi!!! I guess I loved all the Kauravs then, that can't be good...

Yudhishtir was played by Gajendra Chauhan and I honestly didn't like him much either... very wooden dialogue delivery, always felt like he was just reading the lines... especially that scene during the exile when Yamraaj interviews him after "killing" his brothers,  gets impressed, and brings them back to life... he sounds like a kindergartener giving his graduation speech

And poor Arjun, looks like that gender-bending curse came true for him... almost every movie I saw him in in the 90s had him cross-dressing... Remember Rani's early movies, the feminist overload ones... like Mehendi and I forget what else... that's what he did in them, he was her gal pal But whatev, he was great in MB... esp after Abhimanyu's death, I turn into puddles at that scene

And speaking of tha Ruparel Rukmini, anybody else think she's a dead ringer for Neha Dhupia?

Doesn't Karn say the same thing to Shakuni right after? In MB we don't see what else Shishupal did wrong in the past so it looks like that, but depending on which text you read there was more to him. But I like the guy who played him, he was hilarious Sounds like a modern tapori among all the kintu-parantus... "arre teri jaat hi kya hai, re, jo tu mujhe kshama karega!" funny stuff

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