Episode #24 of Hindi TV Serial Bharat Ek Khoj talks about the time when Turk Afghan attackers started visiting Bharat frequently.
While the wealth of this golden land is the prime attraction for them, they’ve started capturing people and bringing them back to their land for slavery. This went on and on. Some of them have started capturing artists, architects, and sculptor and bring them back to their land. While these prisoners’ existence and lives were not more important than the slaves for them, these fellows contributed a lot in making some eye-pleasing monuments there.
This Is Here In For You
Book Plot:
The narration starts where the author of the book – Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru – the first prime minister of independent India (that is Bharat) – talks about the rise of Islam and how it motivated the Arab countries. The rise of Islam infused a new life in those countries and eventually, they started capturing more and more lands by attacking the nearby kingdoms. They came up to Sindh and the Arabs in fact shared good relations with Bharatiya people.
As being the most tolerant and civilized people around the world, Bharatiya people respected the rights of an individual to have his/her own beliefs. And thus, there was no clash between the Arabs and Indian. Even some people living in Bharat who found solace in Islam were converted into the same. The harmony was always there.
Since Turk empire started rising, Mahmud of Ghazni started invading Bharat. His main aim is to loot the country and get as much wealth as possible from here and make his own city glooming. Just wealth, however, cannot add the complete charm to any place, there has to be art and craft respected in the reflected in the place. And to do that he started capturing artists with him as well.
There were some court poets who used to create the shayaris to please their ruler, and at the same time, there are some fellows who don’t fear anything and used to tell the fact. You will realize this fact when you watch a scene when a court poet, in praise of Alexander says how he has invaded Bharat and conquered it’s land and defeated the elephants (of Puru’s army). The wise one immediately contradicts him and confirm that Alexander was never able to conquer anything beyond the Sindhu river.
The episode then moves ahead in talking about Shahabuddin Ghori. He also wanted to expand the area of his kingdom. In addition, his agenda covered looting the golden sparrow named Bharat.
And to add to the ill fate of Bharat, some of the Kshatriya kings were keen on taking over each other and thus fighting among themselves. A king from the land of Gujarat approached Ghori to have a collaboration to fight against Prithviraj Chauhan, however, the meeting didn’t go fruitful. Ghori wanted to take over Prithviraj on his own. He attacked Prithviraj but what happens next is something unimaginable to him.
The history is almost fresh in most of the Indian citizens’ mind. However, it is good to explore it in the episode.
The good thing is, this entire episode is made available publically by Public Resources Organization.
Views And Reviews:
In terms of script, this episode tries exploring some of the important chapters of the history of India (that is Bharat). While the makers have good content at their hand, the scriptwriter’s job was no less challenging. Dramatizing something written in the book in a descriptive manner in an effective way requires a remarkable amount of talent.
I feel that the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni are not given the weight. The focus of the episode moves quite quickly to Ghori. The conversation between various characters is never to miss, be it philosophical or otherwise. Actually, these conversations explore the situations and persona of various characters effectively.
For example, the conversation between the ambassador of king Bhola Bhim and Ghori explores the value and pride with which the Rajput kings live those days, and at the same time, the way Ghori handles him explores, how he was overestimating his own power but was not interested in making an alliance with someone. It also explores that despite not fearing death in manner and being courageous souls, the Rajputs were having internal disputes. And these disputes ultimately work for the calculative and opportunistic invaders.
If only the kings and kingdoms were remained united towards the outside attackers, Bharat never had dark chapters in past. But what happened is what happened, and cannot be changed. By watching this 3 episode segments, we can learn many lessons from the history. And these lessons are effective only if something is learned from them.
In addition to the script, the narration is fantastic. Roshan Sheth does what is expected of him quite convincingly.
It is good to see Irrfan Khan in a small role here. Who could have thought about K K Raina playing Ghori?! He plays it here, and he plays it quite convincingly. That is why he is one of the most bankable actors. Ravi Jhankal is effective as Prithviraj Chauhan, he is a delight to watch. Vijay Kashyap plays Chand Bardai. Nisha Singh holds all the charm required to play Sanyukta (aka Sanyogita).
At the same time, Ahmed Khan could have done much better. So while there are some good performances, some of them are below the mark as well.
The wardrobe and sets are quite realistic and well searched for. The scene where you see the Bharatiya workers working on Islamic arts, or the Hindu traders are dealing with horse traders from Arab, you will understand the attributes of good direction. The use of horses and having a proper background music while they are running makes some of the scenes really effective.
If dialogs are supers, they are complemented by the background music at the same level.
The audio and video both are of good quality.
Summary:
Overall a TV series episode which explores some of the important chapters of the history of India. While some characters are not given enough scope, the overall try to explore the history is quite good. Good acting, remarkable dialogs, and complimentary music make it worth watching.
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.
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