Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Ekta Kapoor's Suyodhan

Saw Ekta Kapoor's " Kahaani Humaari Mahabharat ki" today. I am a sworn hater of Ekta Kapoor but the Mahabharata fascinates me equally. I tried watching it and the very first thing that I noticed was that it started unconventionally with Draupadi Vastraharan. (Draupadi's humiliation) A twist in the tale was the last thing I had expected from Ekta Kapoor and I was also very impressed with the rich language used in the epic. The novelty wore off quickly as the costumes were such a turn off and also because I found myself inadvertently comparing it with the B.R. Chopra masterpiece that I grew up watching.

My Manager recommended me to watch the Ekta version again saying that she has tried to portray the relationships more deeply than her predecessor. I have read the epic many times and am a great fan but was intrigued by my Manager's recommendation. I saw it again and I won't lie. It was not as captivating as B.R. Chopra's and to be fair to Ekta Kapoor, he has set the standard too high. 
    But one thing that deserves a mention and actually is the reason for my post is that Duryodhan is called by his original name in the story. For the uninitiated, Duryodhan was born Suyodhan. Suyodhan means "A Good Warrior". It is because of his misdeeds , he becomes Duryodhan. The underlying principle is that as a child, he too, was born innocent and that his deeds made him a Duryodhan. His Choices shaped his destiny.

Not many know of this fact and it is good that this is being shown on television. I never believed that someone could be bad or that something evil. The concept of Good or Bad , Right or Wrong never made any sense to me. The Indian epics too, never showed anyone to be inherently bad. Be it Ravana, the renowned ten headed scholar or Shakuni , the loving brother. And the same can be said about the inherent good in the Indian epics as well. Yudhishthira, upon his death , is annoyed to see Duryodhana in Heaven. He being the most virtuous among men, had reached Heaven with great difficulty and just could not digest the fact that the evil Duryodhana was in  Heaven. Later, he is explained that Duryodhana had served his time in Hell and was in heaven for being a just ruler.

4 Grumblings:

Kunwar Krishna Khurana said...

if u would try it...

watch these two shows...
balika vadhu-8 pm colours monday to thursday

and kirshna @ 8:30
u will surely like them...

btw nice post

Ayyappan said...

@ Kunwar

I saw Krishna. It was certainly better than it's predecessor.

Don't know what's balika vadhu though. Will give it a try. :)

Punit Arekar said...

even i was not aware of the fact that Duryodhan's name was Suyodhan...

Ayyappan said...

@Punit

In Fact, Dushashan was also called Sushashan.
It is the sages and historians who later Re-christened the Kaurava Princes by adding the "Du" prefixes to their names.