Mahabharat has inspired bollywood. A number of hindi movies are based on this epic and rightly so, because no other epic provides the depth and variety as this does. There are a number of films and serials which have been made on Mahabharat story and in recent times, we see a modernised version of Mahabharat where the story line is inspired by the epic Mahabharata.
There was Hum Paanch in 1980..( loosely adapting the five man army consept but not brothers..we have Sanjeev Kumar as the Krishna Charecter ,Amrish Puri as Duryodhana and also Kanhaiyalal as Shakuni Mama
There is a song too Hum Paanch Pandav Yeh Shakuni Mama dekho Mahabharata ka Drama ).
A year later Shyam Benegal Directed Kalyug which can be called a perfect adaptation of the Mahabharata in today's business corporate world scenario.
Here one starts to draw parallels between the characters from the great epic and the movie. It is surely captivating, for someone who knows a bit of Mahabharata, to decipher and witness the way in which Shyam Benegal has made some interesting moves. Some of the characters are given the same names as in the epic.
Karan Singh (Shashi Kapoor) plays Karan, a devoted friend to Duryodhan in the book, who is Dhanraj in the movie (essayed by Victor Banarjee). Karan Singh is pretty much the central character in the movie and it seems to be an adaptation of the saga from his perspective. Other characters with the same names are Subhadra, Krishna, Parikshit, amongst others. Many plot elements are cleverly harmonized with the ones from the epic.
Rekha plays for instance Supriya ( She would be symbolic with Draupadi), the wife of Dharmraj (Raj Babbar Eldest brother of the troika playing the Pandavas), and throughout the movie comes across as an irritable lady who finds it tough to get along with her mother-in-law and her younger devar’s wife Subhadra ( Supriya Pathak) (who is also her niece). This younger devar Bharatraj (Anant Nag interpreting Arjuna) and his Bhabhi share a very unclear relationship. Till the end there is no clarity whether their relationship is just one of mutual respect or something more (In the Mahabharata there is no Bhabhi and Draupadi is wedded to all the five brothers). Similarly the relationship between Dharmraj and his wife is shown to be dysfunctional but there are no reasons given. Balraj (Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Bheem) is shown as a pleasure-loving guy, but plays no critical role in the narrative (except being a trigger to the accidental death of his cousin Sandeep- a mentally unstable Dushasan?). Also, there is no specific explanation given for the great dislike Bharatraj has for Karan Singh (The Arjun-Karan war).
There is a Bhishma Pitamah too (played by AK Hangal!), but too plays no real part in the drama unlike the book where he was termed as the root-cause of the entire war. Also, in today’s context a woman bearing kids with Sadhus and priests as a mark of her devotion is too much to digest. There is also a fleeting mention of a past love affair between Supriya and Karan Singh (In the book Draupadi had prevented Karan from participating in her Swayamwar on the grounds of him not being from a royal family. Much later she had admitted to being attracted to him despite her being married to the Pandavas).
Krishna the most important Charecter of Mahabharata In Kalyug, is a benevolent-looking Amrish Puri playing a character named Kishan, a well-wisher to the film’s equivalent of the Pandava brothers, but the notable thing was how sidelined and inconsequential he was – as if the film were acknowledging that there was no place in its world for a God-figure showing the protagonists the “right path”. ( Quite a paradox as in Hum Paanch he was the equivalent of Duryodhana)
The eighties are often derided as a dystopian wasteland of cinema, but take a minute to recall Kalyug – how precisely, how powerfully Shyam Benegal situated the Mahabharata in the arena of corporate skullduggery, with characters that recalled as well as reshaped their mythological forebears.
Almost 3 decades later on 4th June 2010 came
Rajneeti..A Prakash Jha Film.
Which completes 12 years today
Rajneeti adapted the Mahabharata with Politics as a central theme but with a liberal dose of Godfather.
All that remains in Prakash Jha’s unsurprising retelling are the parallelisms – how so-and-so character from the epic maps to such-and-such person followed
Here we have Arjun Rampal playing a joint Charecterisation of Yudhisthira and Bheema, Ranbir Kapoor as Arjun
Manoj Bajpai as Duryodhana , Ajay Devgan as Karan and Katrina as Draupadi ( who loves Arjun bit marries the dual Yudhishthira and Bhim).
Raajneeti’s most interesting character is the family advisor Brij Gopal, played with assurance and knowing humour by Nana Patekar. It’s possible to view Brij as a Krishna of sorts, but it’s more revealing to see him as a blend of the two most irreconciliable figures in the epic: the wise Vidura (the closest the Mahabharata has to an unblemished character) and the manipulative Shakuni. Brij Gopal straddles both roles with nonchalant ease – he can be kindly, caring and judicious, but he can also be like a mafia don, ordering and supervising assassinations when he deems fit
Rajneeti has adapted the essence of the epic well
Now the question arises..
Which is a better adaption ..
Kalyug or Rajneeti ?
I leave it to you without giving my answer.
Please add any more adaptations even if any other languages.
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