I watched Peter Brooks Mahabharata last night
a powerful experience no doubt... a nine hour play condensed to about 3 hours for DVD release.
The productions use of an international cast caused heated intercultural debate. Negative criticism came from Indian scholar Pradip Bhattacharya who felt that Brook's interpretation "was not a portrayal of a titanic clash between the forces of good and evil, which is the stuff of the epic... [but] the story of the warring progeny of some rustic landlord".
I tend to agree with Mr Bhattacharya on this - the cast may be great actors - but that is what they are - they are nearly perfectly cast- for the european eyes and senses -
Indians may not agree whole heartedly --for to us the Characters n the epic are real life people -people we have grown up with :) we know them closely and in minutae- we know how they have behaved in other contexts as well - in other stories in other versions- the telling of the epic tale takes on a family drama like feel for us- slightly gossipy and interpersed with references to all the other tales that have happened at other times - in other places- told and retold by so many people with their own little quirky insights-
for us it is a tale of our own people---
the larger than life characters are mere humans here-
we keep feeling that there is more happening there than the camera shows us- and we wonder what is it that we are missing- why we are not being witness to that drama we know has happened -
the actors movements seem strange- culturally different body language - the hand gestures are perfectly executed but the hand raised to give blessings -well it is not the same fluidity that naturally comes to our elders --:)
it has its weird points like the use of magic by duryodhana to see arjuna doing penance--- but these gimmicks are for the western sensibilities that probably believe in the indian rope trick:)
powerful perfomances - amazing visuals - awesome mix of theatre and film---tasteful Costumes , hauntingly beautiful music score , taut and poetic dialog - I wish i had seen the original show - even if it was 12 hrs long_____
all in all a good dvd - definitely worth buying for the collection:)
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