Ved Vyas’ Intervention | Mahabharat Hindi TV Serial On DVD | Personal Reviews

Why Mahabharat (aka Mahabharata) is the most talked about, adapted and cherished epic? Probably because it’s freshness remain intact even after centuries. The incidents mentioned in this great epic were relevant before hundreds of years and will remain the same even after many centuries.

It is said that there is nothing which is not mentioned in this great epic, which ever existed in the society. In terms of relations, situations, attributes, characters and all other aspects, Mahabharat is the true reflection of the society, and it makes it contemporary forever.

The writer of the epic, Ved Vyas is definitely a genius by all the means.

The episode we are going to talk today about, bring him into the canvas. His active actions are necessary to move the story and incidents ahead, and hence it is one of the most important episode of this TV serial.

Krishna was his birth name and due to his birth situations he was referred as Krishna Dwaipayana. But due to his immensely fantastic work of classifying and re-arranging Ved or Vedas to make them easy to learn, he is better known as Ved Vyas.

If you have noticed, Mahabharat, referred many characters which are more popular based on their remarkable works, and better known for their deeds rather than their birth named. As Karna rightfully said in one of the answers:
सूतो वा सूतपुत्रो वा यो वा को वा भवाम्यहम् ।
दैवायत्तं कुले जन्म मदायत्तं तु पौरुषम् ॥
(It was the destiny’s decision where could I took birth, be I a charioteer or his son, it was not in my hand, but my actions are controlled by me).

He was and is so correct!

Even Albus Dumbledore refer similar words in one of the Harry Potter series book. It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be. And rather than one’s birth clan, one’s action and efforts define his character.

The in-depth study of the characters and incidents mentioned in epics like Mahabharat will make you understand how modern the real Hindu/Indian culture was. Of course, there came a time where the guidelines for the society became rigid rules to be followed as word-by-word and lead to orthodox society.

To continue talking about the incidents mentioned in this episode, we must knew the relation of Ved Vyas and the royal family of Hastinapur. Ved Vyas was child born to Satyavati before her marriage. As we know Satyavati was driving a boat on Ganga. Her work was to drive people from one bank of wide spread Ganga, to the other. One day she met with sage Parashar and the course of events make her give birth to Krishna Dwaipayana. It was sage Parashar’s act which made her YojanGandha from MatsyaGandha.

The tricky situation at Hastinapur is, both Chitrangad and VichitraVirya met with their death, and Bheeshm was firm on his ultimate vows of celibacy. How can the Kuru clan produce the next ruler? And without a ruler, the kingdom cannot be administered. It make only one way for Satyavati. She need to call Ved Vyas and ask him to father a son with the widow of VichitraVirya.

It may occur to us, that if the DasyaRaj hadn’t shown obstinacy or stubbornness that the child of Satyavati will rule BharatVarsh, DevVart couldn’t have took that ultimate vow, and Hastinapur was not caught on this tricky situation, right?! However things are not as simple as that in real life. We don’t know the future, and we took decision based on our limited knowledge, assessment of situations and most importantly, our nature plays a vital part in the same.

So, be careful for what you demand for. It is wrong to believe that whatever you thought good, always turn out to be good.

That is why the Mahabharat is actually the story of Jay or Jaya, one’s victory over one’s self.

Some nice works based on Mahabharat – the epic tale:

• Jaya : an Illustrated retelling of The Mahabharata : Book Reviews
• Mahabharata 1 : Bharat Ek Khoj Hindi TV Serial : Reviews
• Mahabharata 2 : Bharat Ek Khoj Hindi TV Serial : Reviews
• News about animated movie : Mahabharata
• A set of books written in Gujarati based on The Mahabharata

Studded with fantastic dialogs and performances this episode covers the incidents where Satyavati asks Bheeshm about the problem they are caught in. And ultimately they decided to call Ved Vyas and take his help in continuing the family lineage of Kuru Clan.

Ved Vyas, despite of knowing what he is called for and what he needs to do, asks his mother Satyavati to let him know her wish. And he insists that as a queen of Hastinapur, her actions are very important and all the decisions she took, must be given words.

We often see the use of word “Dam” or “Daam”. It is often seen at many places where people talk about four ultimate ways to get your work done; Sam (साम), Dam (दाम), Dand (दंड) and Bhed (भेद). It is wrong, the word was never exist in Sanskrit, the actual word is (दान). Some knowledge magazines like Safari – iterated this fact as well. As the script writer of Mahabharat, Dr. Raza did really great job while writing its dialogs, if some smaller things like this taken care of, it could have been even better.

The episode then explores the events of birth of Dhrutrashtra or Dhritrashtra, Pandu and Vidur or Vidura.

They are the prime characters of course. As Mahabharat is referred at large, by the battle between the sons of Dhritrashtra and Pandu (but it is much much more than that, actually).

The episode ends by showing grown up Dhritrashtra, Pandu and Vidur. A very important scene in the last segment of episode comes, which should not be missed. It is where Bheeshm, after explaining the abilities of all three young fellows (well, two of them were prince, but Vidur was not), suggests that now it is the time to decide the next king. He proposes Dhritrashtra’s name, as he was eldest in them. Wise Vidur however suggest that any person with physical disability should not be made a king, and Pandu was chosen as the next king. You can see the flair of ambition and anger in the blind eyes of Dhritrashtra here. Girija Shankar and Virendra Razdan looks promising, though more footage will be given to them in coming episodes where we may analyse their acting abilities properly.

In addition to well through and meaningful dialogs, you will like the narration by famous voice artist, Harish Bhimani. See how the wiseness of Vyas’s character and his knowledge and respect about social relations and its importance is explored, despite of him being a sage. (For example, he considers his mother’s wish is more important than anything else in the universe, because she is responsible for his existence).

Other aspect of this episode we like is, the episode doesn’t waste time before coming to the point. No funny camera angles and showing the same shot from left/right/top/bottom to create unnecessary melodrama. It simply explores the incidents in straight-to-the point approach. Which is really good. It is also one of the reasons that people like to watch this TV serial after so many years, on DVD. We see that many TV Serials explores the incidents by stretching them beyond the scope, and ultimately viewers lost interest (though we see there is a set of audience, which like to watch such serials, despite of that) in watching such TV serials.

The other thing you can conclude is, money is not the ultimate factor when talk about an art. Of course it plays a vital role in creating impressive TV Serial or movie or even a play; but ultimately the content is the king. And by the content we mean all the resources, including but not limited to script, set(s), direction, music, actors, crew and other necessary stuff.

Casting director’s job become more challenging in such epic dramas. They need to find out the right actors to represent the respective character. You can see the results on the screen as almost every character is played by a convincing actor. Be it Bheeshm (Mukesh Khanna), Satyavati (Debashree Roy) or Ved Vyas (Rajesh Vivek). The actors playing Parashar / Ambika / Ambalika and few other characters are not as natural as the others. But overall the serial have good acting performances.

The background music is definitely must to mention attribute. It sets the mood effectively and makes the incident impressive. The wardrobe is well thought and nicely worked on. All the actors look impressive in the wardrobe allotted to them.

There are some technical limitations seen, when you compare the content of DVD with the HD stuff we are able to view these days. But as the episode doesn’t involve much of special effects, it would not be noticeable. Overall, the DVD quality is good.

Of course, the episode is worth to go for.

Quick Purchase Links:

• For International Audience : From Amazon.com
• For Indian Audience : From Amazon.in

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