Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi and Babur | Bharat Ek Khoj Hindi TV Serial On DVD | Personal Reviews

Episode #31 of Hindi TV Serial Bharat Ek Khoj talks about Rana Sanga, Ibrahim Lodi and Babur; three important rulers who shaped the history of India (that is Bharat) in a unique way.

Let us take a bird’s eye view of the plot.

Book Plot:

It all starts with the story of Maharana Sangram Singh (12 April 1482 – 30 January 1528) aka Rana Sanga. Maharana Sanga was one of those celebrated warriors who fought bravely and lost almost half of his main outer orgnans (a hand, a lag and an eye) and despite that he has continued ruling his kingdom and even take part in the battles when needed. It is worth to note that (as depicted in the serial) he didn’t get hold of the throne by force after getting physically deformed, but he continued it with the approval of his entire cabinet. Such things are rare to seen in the history.

The tale of Rana Sanga’s crowning on the throne is no less interesting. In Rajputs (and for that matter almost all ruling dynasties), there is a tradition of decorating the eldest son of the king as the crown prince and later on the king. Sangram Singh, in that way was not the suitor of the throne. How then he became the king? Well, it is something better to explore in the dramatised version of the story explored in this episode.

Ibrahim Lodi was not the founder of the Lodi dynasty, he was however one of the most remarkable rulers of the clan. He was a very strict, we can say a rude and cunning person when it comes to the administration. Probably in addition to his nature, his knowledge of how various rulers are de-throned or assassinated by some their close relatives or confidantes made him so. And when talking, he was never looking for any soft words, he was used to tell what he think.

He considered himself superior and has never trusted the political people living along with them, since the time of his father. He wanted to keep only those whom he can trust and who can follow his commands without thinking twice. He ruled Delhi for some time and eventually Mughals took it over.

Babur was the one who bring Mughals to India and ruled the throne of Delhi. Agra was one of the most important cities in his time (and followed). A lot about his life (definitely from his point of view) is available through a book named Baburnama. Actually, Babur was called in to attack Delhi by Rana Sanga. Rana wanted to get Lodi defeated and he was planning to launch a parallel attack on Agra. However, destiny never follows your plan. Ultimately, he unwillingly became the reason of Mughals’ arrival and staying in India..

A short dramatized versions of the glimpses of the history related to these three rulers are explored in the episode.

You will find the content of the episode quite interesting. As the events happened during the lives of all 3 main characters explored in this episode are not too far in the history they are known to the majority. Some of the Mughal architectures are still standing tall and most of the Indian citizens have explored these chapters of the history while reading school books.

It is however to tough to depict the historical incidents on the canvas, be it a book, a magazine article, an episode of a TV Serial or even a movie. Chances are there that you might do injustice to some of the stuff. The TV Serial is based on upon the famous book named – Discovery Of India – by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of Independent India. But, to make it presentable to the audience, it has to be dramatized and script has to be written for the same. The script writer does his job brilliantly and it is resulted into even better episode with the fantastic direction. We must give the credit for the same to key people associated with production and direction. Shyam Benegal must be appreciated for the fantastic word in all the areas he contributed. He is the one who made this serial happen.

Even a good content cannot appeal the audience if it is not performed effectively. In this episode you can see fantastic performances by many actors. Ravi Jhankal lives the character of Rana Sanga perfectly. By seeing the portrayal of various characters in this series by Ravi, we consider him one of the most underrated actors from India. He portrays the characters so brilliantly that you will be convinced that you are seeing a character on the screen and not the actor. Anang Desai is another person who will impress you immensely. Personally, I don’t think anyone could have performed Ibrahim Lodi so brilliantly and so convincingly. The way he shows arrogance and utters dialog including abuse in foul manner, is something totally opposite of his persona. He, has perfomed most of the soft roles in the TV Serials later on. The casting director must be appreciated for visualizing Anang as Lodi.

Lalit Tiwari is a brilliant actor. He portrays Babur in this episode. He is convincing. While almost all the other actors does their job with honesty, here are the names of them :Devendra Malhotra played Ajjaji, Surender Sharma played Dilawar Khan, Mahendra Raghuvanshi played Makan, Navtej Hundal played Tardi Beg, Ashok Banthia played Prithviraj, and Adil Rana played Miyan Kakkar.

The background music plays a very important role in any visual media. Playback by Murlidhar and Jasvinder Singh and Songs composed by Kuldip Singh are the positive attributes of this episode. The dialogs are convincing and first rate. The cameraman picks the visuals quite effectively.

For a low budget TV Serial, it is tough to film war scenes. The war scenes filmed in this episode are really remarkable and realistic. The TV Serials these days aren’t able to create such a splendid effect even with the use of SFX and VFX availability and a whooping budget too. A lot to learn is there for the makers of today from this episode or rather this entire TV Serial.

Before concluding, I must mention the way the wardrobe is taken care of.

Summary:

Overall a fantastic episode exploring the historical incidents which shaped India (that is Bharat). Though it is available to watch for free on YouTube (made available by Public Resource Organization), I will suggest the enthusiasts to rather go for a quality DVD set of this TV Serial. Later you will consider it as a gem in your collection.

External Links:

Here are some of the external links to the characters explored/mentioned in this episode.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rana_Kumbha
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rana_Raimal
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rana_Sanga
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodhi_dynasty
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikandar_Lodi
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Lodi
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Panipat_(1526)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babur
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baburnama

Did you watch this TV Serial? Are you going to buy it’s DVD Set? (It is available in two versions, economic edition and premium edition)? Do share your thoughts via comments below. And yes, if you like this article, don’t forget to share with your friends and loved ones on various social networks 🙂 And yes, watch out for next episode review for Bharat Ek Khoj.
»Reviews for all the episodes of this TV Serial