The Movie

The Mahabharata is a collection of ancient Indian Sanskrit stories that have been composed into the longest poem ever written - roughly 15 times the length of the bible. Within the pages of the The Mahabharata you'll find the origins of many of today's common religious beliefs. Indian culture believes this magnificent piece of literature to be the poetical history of the origin of mankind. One of the key underlying virtues in this poem is "Dharma." Dharma is nearly impossible to define, but can be thought of as one's virtue, or the right path, or a correct decision for a person at that given time. The concept of Dharma is very important to The Mahabharata, and must be understood to fully appreciate the vast teachings of this mystical poem.

In 1989, famed theater director Peter Brook attempted to tackle bringing this monstrous story to the stage. Due to the worldwide success of the theatrical tour, it was later adapted into a feature length movie, which aired on PBS. As a result, we now have a five and a half hour movie that fairly accurately depicts the most important points of The Mahabharata.

Now, I'll come right out and say this now. If you are familiar with The Mahabharata, and are interested in the ancient stories told in this elaborate poem, then this movie will absolutely delight you. The acting is first-rate, the directing is spot-on, and the sets and soundstages do a wonderful job at putting you in the mythical moment. However, if you are not interested in learning the ancient stories of Indian religion and culture, then this movie is undoubtedly not for you. For starters, this movie is long. And by long I don't mean Titanic-long, I mean Bill Clinton's mistress list-long. This movie ticks in at 5 hours and 25 minutes, and believe me, you'll notice every second that goes by. It would be one thing if it moved at a decent pace, but this movie waddles along like a drunken three-toed sloth.

Now I was highly intrigued by the story of The Mahabharata, and was looking forward to seeing it in this movie adaptation, however I was expecting it to be a little faster paced and a little more engaging. If you are not familiar with the 3,500 year-old poem, then the plot can be very confusing the first time you attempt to view this movie. In its most basic form the story begins with two brothers of semi divine origin. Meaning, these brothers were born from a human mother and had a father who was a god. One of the brothers is made king, but later renounces his thrown because of a curse inflicted on him. He passes the crown onto his blind brother, and flees to the mountains to live in exile with his two wives. The exiled brother has five sons who are also born of semi divine origin, but when the exiled brother dies, his sons must go and live with their uncle who is now king. The new king in turn gave birth to 100 sons, and now all of the sons must learn to get along with each other. However the sons of the differing families cannot make peace, and later finds themselves in a ferocious family feud. The five sons, along with the wife they all share, are forced to leave the city and live in the forest for 13 years due to a gambling loss. After their 13 years are finished, they return to the kingdom to try and reclaim the power they once had. This leads to the ultimate war that nearly ended mankind forever.

The Mahabharata is a deep movie that must be watched from beginning to end to fully appreciate. Herein lies the problem. If you are prepared for this gigantic epic tale, then you'll most likely be enthralled from the very start all the way till the final credits. But if you're not prepared, I would suggest avoiding this movie like my mom's tofu turkey on Thanksgiving Day. It's smart and good for you, but it's not for everyone.


The DVD

Video: The Hahabharata is presented in 1.33:1 full screen. Video quality, to put it bluntly, is not good. The picture is extremely grainy, and suffers horribly from video compression artifacts, and as a result of the compression, objects that are out of focus are look terrible. Scratches and blemishes can be easily found throughout the movie as well. Colors are generally dark and hazy, and black levels do not appear as true as we've come to expect. Obviously this is not a movie for showing of your fancy theater equipment.

Audio: A Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is the only soundtrack offered. Thankfully the audio is much better than the picture, which is vital because the heart of this movie relies on the dialogue, not the pictures. Even though this audio track is nothing special, it does do its job well. The actors are easy to hear at all times, and for this original PBS movie, that's all we really need.

Extras: Making The Mahabharata: This 54-minute featurette is a must see if you buy or rent this movie. And believe it or not, I actually suggest watching this featurette before you watch the main attraction. Taboo? Yes. But in this case, it's a necessity. Here the actors and people involved in the production give their thoughts on The Mahabharata and what it means to them. They effectively break down the story to simplistic terms, which greatly help the average person understand the story and its importance to Indian culture.


Final Thoughts

The Mahabharata is a very well done movie. Peter Brook has successfully adapted his incredible play into a wonderful looking feature length film. The acting is strong, and all the important story points are touched on here. However, for the mass majority of DVD buyers out there, I cannot recommend this title. People in "the know" will find The Mahabharata to be a movie making masterpiece, but most will find this film painfully long, excruciatingly boring, and somewhat ridicules. Rent It