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Let us move ahead in our quest to review Hindi TV Serial Mahabharat, which is available as a set of DVD for Home Entertainment. The main aim behind talking about this TV Serial is not just entertainment though. It is a set of many incidents weaved fantastically which teaches a lot of things. Basically, each incident brings us a new lesson. And, we strongly believe that if we don’t learn the things from the history, we have to learn in very hard way (by experience).
We strongly recommend you to read the following articles before moving ahead:
| TV Serial | : |
Mahabharat
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| Producer | : | B. R. Chopra |
| Writer/Dialogs | : | Dr. Rahi Masum Raza |
| Director | : | Ravi Chopra |
| Starring | : | Harish Bhimani (Samay (voice)), Rajesh Vivek (Maharishi Veda Vyasa), Nitish Bharadwaj (Lord Krishna), Shampa Gopikrishan (child Krishna), Kewal Shah (adolescent Krishna), Gajendra Chouhan (Yudhishthira), Sonu (young Yudhishthira), Arjun (Real name: Firoz Khan) (Arjuna), Ankur Javeri (young Arjuna), Roopa Ganguly (Draupadi), Praveen Kumar (Bhima), Sameer Chitre (Nakula), Sanjeev Chitre (Sahadeva), Razak Khan (Ghatotkacha), Paintal (Shikhandi), Arun Bakshi (Dhrishtadyumna), Mayur (Abhimanyu), Mukesh Khanna (Bhishma), Pankaj Dheer (Karna), Harendra Paintal (young Karna), Puneet Issar (Duryodhana), Vinod Kapoor (Dushasana), Kaushal Shah (young Dushasana), Gufi Paintal (Shakuni), Surendra Pal (Dronacharya), Dharmesh Tiwari (Kripacharya), Pradeep Rawat (Ashwatthama), Babbu (young Ashwatthama), Ashok Banthia (Kritavarma), Kapil Kumar (Shalya), Deep Dhillon (Jayadratha), Raj Babbar (Bharata), Ashalata (Shakuntala), Kiran Juneja (Ganga), Rishabh Shukla (Shantanu), Debashree Roy (Satyavati), Sudesh Berry (Vichitraveerya,), Vishnu Sharma (Vasudeva), Sheela Sharma (Devaki), Kshama Raj (Rohini), Ramlal Gupta (Ugrasena), Goga Kapoor (Kans), Rasik Dave (Nanda), Manju Vyas (Yashoda), Sagar Salunke (Balarama), Ajay Sinha (Akroora), Devidas (Kans’s Minister), Girija Shankar (Dhritrashtra), Renuka Israni (Gandhari), Virendra Razdan (Vidura), Tarakesh (Pandu), Nazneen (Kunti), Roma Manik (Madri), Kamlesh Maan (Sulabha), Channa Ruparel (Rukmini), Vikas Prasad (Ekalavya), Vinod Raut (Purochana), Om Katare (Adhiratha Sushen), Saroj Sharma (Radha), Varsha Usgaonkar (Uttaraa), Sameer Rajda (Uttar), Chandni Sharma (Sudeshna), Lalit Tiwari (Sanjay), Dara Singh (Hanuman), Sumeet Raghavan (Young Sudama), Chetan Hansraj (Young Balarama), Parijat (Radha), Ram Mohan (Head Priest), Rafique Mukkadam (Minister), Shivendra Mahal (Parashurama and Lord Shiva), Randhir Singh (Hidimb), Rana Jung Bahadur (Jarasandha), Karunakar Pathak (Shishupala), Sharat Saxena (Kichaka), Gopi Krishna (Chitrasena), Ayub Khan (Parikshit Abhimanyu’s son), and others… |
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Now, we see that King Shantanu is married to Ganga and the initial segment of their married life was going on smoothly.
Married life aka Gruhasthashram is the second segment of Human life as per the classification of the same by Hindu – way of living. It is the time when one gets his/her soulmate and bond with her/him to live the rest of the life. By being a social animal we always require to have someone to share our joys and sorrows and an ideal life partner is the one on which we rely unconditionally. The initial days of the married life are usually happened to be very romantic and the couple lives in the world of dreams and fantasy. It fuels their relationship and makes it strong enough to overcome the challenging situations they face later in life.
This romantic segment of Ganga and Shantanu’s life is explored in the second episode pretty nicely. While the romantic relationship and togetherness is explored, the script writer and director took care that the things don’t get absurd at all. Of course the dialogs written for both Shantanu and Ganga are really simple and authentic, the writers took care to write with the same dedication for small role characters. For example, through the dialogs of some courtiers, the importance of giving some dedicated time for each other to the newly married couple (i.e. the honeymoon period) is mentioned very well. After all a king is also a human being and he have his personal requirements too, and if he is happy in the personal life then he will be able to focus on the administration of the kingdom properly.
The episode then explores the bitter truths of Shantanu and Ganga’s married life. Ganga eventually got pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy. The entire palace was enjoying the event of joy and happiness and they all witness a very sad event. Ganga took her newborn to the riverfront and just put him into the river! She does it so smoothly that if someone is putting a child to the mother’s lap! And she came back to the palace as nothing happened! Unable to believe what he have witnessed with his own eyes, Shantanu got very sad. The maids of the palace started gossiping about the incident and it got viral and every citizen of the kingdom started speaking ill about Ganga.
The brilliantly added narration (in the voice of Harish Bhimani) gives some important details and moves the story forward. The window of King’s palace and the scene of the riverfront from the same is not looking very convincing. The set could have been better here.
The conversation between King Shantanu and RajGuru is one of the most brilliantly written part of this episode. It explores the mental situation of Shantanu (as a father) very effectively. On the other hand it shows the important aspects of the ideal ruling system. Here king goes to the Brahmin adviser of his kingdom to seek the guidance. The importance of wisdom can never be neglected. Also hear the dialogs of the RajGuru and realise that how blatantly he can speak to the king. He can tell the king the truth without any hesitation and even in bitter words! The king should be accountable, and have the attitude to accept the bitter truth and have open mind to seek the right guidance. This attributes of the ideal kingship made it to be an integral part of the society for very long. Once these attributes are started being played with, it prove problematic (and even destructive) for the society. Late Mulraj Rajda is convincing as Rajguru.
The fate of Ganga’s next 6 sons is also the same!
But why is she doing so? Mother-child relationship is considered as the best in the world. The love found there is seen nowhere else. Shantanu cannot ask her anything about her actions, but there will be a limit to his tolerance also right? So he is going to ask Ganga when she is going to get their eighth son drown in to the river. What truth will be revealed than? The rest of the episode tries answering this rather known facts (for those who know the story of Mahabharat – and we believe that majority of us are aware with it).
The background music by Khayyam is really effective too.
The episode is nicely written and brilliantly executed. It also gives a message that one has to take care before promising anything to any one. Rather than choosing things in hurry, it is better to give it one more thought and think about the future.
Our personal verdict: Not to miss it.
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