Intro - For more than a year it was a dream of mine to create a post based on why Star Plus's mahabharat (tv series) is either overrated or just a bad presentation of the book.
But a big issue i have is that people act like this is either the best mahabharat tv serial after Br Chopra or even better than BR Chopra's, but i myself & other individuals completely disagree with the opinion given by those people.
And i think in this post i also speak on behalf of some karnian's (karna fans) that did not enjoy the show either. Though it is unfortunately true that not many people call out this tv series, like indian's over rate StarBharat the same way american's overrate TCW (the clone war) show.
Just a heads up to all reader's i will NOT analyze any episodes that have to do with the bhagavad geeta chapters. And lastly star plus Mahabharat will often be referred to as "Star Bharat" instead of Mahabharat or "starplus mahabharat" etc by me in this post.
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The EPISODES I intend on discussing (number 1 to 12). After that i will change the sheer amount of episode's that'll be discussed per post.
Note: If anyone that has hatred (for star plus mahabharat) in their heart uses this then i will be happy. You can use my content if YOU GIVE ME credit (tell your audience where you originally gained it from).
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BEGIN'S.
Reason 1;
During the very first episode (which was unfortunately long by the way) a river is shown along with watery places. This location is believed to be the village of Satyavati near the state of Hastinapore.
[visual evidence]
The problem lies in the fact that when Sakuni visited Dwaraka & met Krishna's son Pradyumn during episode 132 then Krishna told Sakuni "you must never have gotten to see a body of water during your time at hastinapur"
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Reason 2:
Bhishma fighting the cannibal/rakshasa named "Hida" (a possible ancestor of Hidimva) is not logical, it was never referenced in Mahabharat, and the fight in itself was boring, nothing compared to american action scenes.
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Reason 3:
Santanu had a mukut (crown) when he was prepared to go to war;
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Problem - for some dumb reasons when episodes for the Kurukshetra war began the writers of this TV series refused to let anyone who isn't krishna/abhimanyu carry a crown on their head's.
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REASON 4:
Santanu meeting his son bhishma was supposed to happen before he met "Satyavati". Yet what's shown in this pathetic serial is that he finds bhishma protecting a group of rakshasas then bhishma stopped the flow of the river.
After that Ganga appears and claims bhishma is a son of Santanu then Satyavati made a deal/offer to Santanu that he can stay and live as a fisherman with her or if he wants to remain in hastinapur then he needs to take away whats considered the legal inheritance of Bhishma to a throne.
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Reason 5:
In the 39th minute of episode 1 Bhishma claims he waited for 25 years to get his father's "prem" meaning that he should be 25 yrs old minimum by now, but in mahabharat (the book) no such digit or number has ever been written for the age of bhishma during this chapter.
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Reason 6;
During episode 2 Santanu gave Bhishma a boon, even if it is mentioned in Mahabharat, a problem would be it did not make any logical sense for Santanu to be able to award a boon of wishful death to his son.
Santanu was no "GOD" he didn't have any divine powers or the ability to perform a miracle so Santanu shouldn't be able to do that. Bhishma likely only lived the age he did due to sheer will power and health, that is all.
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Reason 7 (we're still on episode two);
A time leap occurred, off screen was the deaths of Santanu and the lesser known (Citrangada) which is a big disappointment. It would have been better if star plus took two more episodes to show the story of Chitrangad but a certain writers team was too lazy to do this.
It is an insult to never show that character.
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Reason 8:
Panchal having a feud with the kuru kingdom.
Somehow people (fans & writer's) believe Bhishma is justified for protecting his brother from any type of punishment. He provoked panchal for a war, spat in the face of a king, burned down crops of farmers. Also here the king of panchal is named Prishat but in later episodes Drupad called his father the name "prishula" instead.
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Reason 9;
In episode 2 the writers tried demonizing Amba by making her burn a farm.
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Reason 10;
In episode two it's mentioned by Satyavati that a kings body is equal to a "SWARN KHALASH" (i assume that means golden pot), yet bhishma does not reply with anything logical. It wouldve made more sense for him to respond with this - "Our swarn kalash is drowning himself and destroying his own body with alcoholism" (i made it myself).
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Reason 11:
For episode three at the 6;59 mark Amba said "duneeya" instead of the proper hindu word "sansar" people always bash Ramanandan Sagar for using Urdu language in his tv series so it is unfair hypocrisy to let this mistake slide.
{Image as prooF}
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Reason 12:
During episode 3 in the 9 minute mark Bhishma claimed their is no kingdom more competent than Hastinapur. This statement makes no sense cause in the previous episode bhishma's younger brother (the yuvraaj/heir) "Vichitravirya" was imprisoned by king Prishat.
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Reason 13:
Amba saying that she already wished for Shaluv (how the name "Shalva" get's pronounced by those actor's) to be her husband in the swayamvar.
The problem with this's that she was supposed to say it either on the way to hastinapur or in hastinapur itself. But this tv serial made her say it in front of all people inside the swayamvara. It also becomes a pathetic attempt of justifying Bhishma's negative deeds by ruining the characterization of other characters in Mahabharat.
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Reason 14;
Now in episode 4 the overrated character (Bhishma) chooses to advise Amba to seek out Parshuram's help but in the real Mahabharat he does not ever ask her to do this, he never tells her that Parshuram is the only individual who meets the power requirement of punishing him.
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Reason 15:
Another issue with episode 4 is that "Satyavati" is given such a high status and immense political power, but in actuality it makes no sense for any woman (even one of royal background.family) to have such a big position in the throne-room/court of a nation.
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Reason 16;
In the 1:41 mark of the episode Amba said that marriage, husband and offspring has no meaning (arth) for her yet second's later she claimed that she wants to be married to Bhishma. So her words, lines and the dialogues given to her do not make any real sense at all.
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Reason 17:
Hastinapore's yuvraaj Vichitravirya dying during the date of his coronation to the throne. This would be a problem for several reasons. First of all Vichitravirya was already made a king before he was married, second of all he was supposed to spend at least seven years with his 2 wives before he died, he even witnessed the duel between Parshuram & Bhishma.
But in this TV SERIES he is never even declared king until he dies, which is a pity, he remained a yuvraaj all his life.
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Reason 18:
Now at episode 5 multiple other mistakes are committed. First of all the reason why the slave-maid (mother of Vidur) had been sent to Vyas was never shown, second of all the character of "Vyasa" is also not even shown.
He was supposed to be shown before he copulated with the princesses of Kasi and but in this episode a nine month time leap happens immediately (as the queens become pregnant & give birth minutes later) no sign or appearance of Vyasa had been presented at all.
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Reason 19;
During episode five Bhishma consoled the mother of Dhritrashtra and even claimed that he would train him, yet he ignores how he failed with the tv serial version of Vichitravirya's character. He was the older brother of Vichitravirya but did not manage to make him competent in any way. Instead he became a feeble drunkard who is unable to maintain his own health.
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Reason 20:
In Episode 6 the pandit/brahmin with a black beard is finally called by his name, the person who called him by his name is "Bhishma" the name of that brahmin was revealed to be "Kripacharya" so this's yet another issue. Because Kripa's backstory, how he was adopted by Santanu how his sister was taken in as a foster daughter and Kripa's biological dad (Saradvan) is never mentioned her at all, it's just ignored for some reason.
If they wanted too chronologically present this tale of Mahabharat then they shouldnt have skipped all these things. They have a grand sized budget, they have all resources to show these thing's but fail each time.
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Reason 21;
The clothes of Amba have not changed in over nine months (the time that passed since Shalva rejected her is that much.)
Proof is the image.
Also as a bonus/off-topic:
I've noticed a unfortunate reality/fact that in this tv series so far most of the character's that speak are female/women, the only major male character is unfortunately Bhishma, not Kripacharya or even the important author/narrator (Vyasa).
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Reason 22:
During episode 6 even more mistakes were shown.
{image}
First when Parshuram took up his bow then the sky darkened, even though in Mahabharat their was never such a incident, their was no need to waste their resources showing the sky blackening instead of showing the real facts.
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Reason 23;
Bhishma refusing to fight back (yet the fanbase and even hater's consider this fight to be the best one in starplus).
Also fighting underwater (only Arjuna was supposed to have a underwater fight) never happened between parshuram/bhishma so this was not supposed to happen.
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It's a dumb distortion of event's.
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Reason 24:
Parshuram was shown as fighting without a chariot but in the book him and bhishma were both supposed to have chariot's and charioteer's.
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Reason 25:
The gauntlet of bhishma is made out of steel or metal or iron, in any case it should not be able to withstand the tree branch thrown by Parshurama.
{giF}
Bhishma's skin remaining undamaged does make sense but his gauntlet/equipment withstanding that makes no sense.
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Reason 26:
The sword-attack movement's of both Parshuram and Bhishma seem to have very low dc (Destructive Capability).
{These 2 gif's are my pieces of evidence}.
Besides Krishna/Shiva as per this TV series their existed nobody superior to these 2 (of course the real mahabharat puts even Dhrishtadyumn & Jaydrath as better fighter's than bhishma/parshurama). So it made no real sense on WHY their sword's couldnt even cut a tree branch.
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Reason 27;
I was told by many people that Bhishma vs Parshuram was the only good handled fight in the tv series of starplus mahabharat, but now i doubt whether even this fight was good, it wasn't even average in my opinion it deserves a failing grade.
But if this is the best that they have to offer then it is a horrible start because this means that every fight shown in the tv serial afterward's will be much worse.
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Reason 28:
When they showed Bhishma activating his brahma-astra (in episode 7) then they made it seem like he was trying to hurl a spear, it looks very similar to Karna hurling Indra's dart weapon. But a real brahmastra need's to be placed on the string of a bow and then fired at a enemy/target.
Also if parshuram/bhishma can both lose control of themselves by resorting to such weaponry then why do people (hindus, brahmins etc) get angry at Ashwathama and curse him for using the brahmashir, even in BR Chopra's Mahabharat they made Vyasa call Ashwathama a "fool".
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Reason 29:
In Episode 7 yet another time leap/skip happen's where twenty five years pass by, one thing i disliked is how the writers just did not wanna show parshuram losing so they decided to have Shiva come in between interfering in the battle and stopping it instead, so now a misconception is spread to satisfy the frustrated parshuram bhakts & vaishnavite's.
Also the actor (Mohit Raina) is replaced for his role (as "Shiva") by another actor when Shiva meets up with Arjuna during the van parva segment of this tv show.
Lastly having another time skip so soon is a dumb decision for the progress of the TV serial, because we could have gotten at least 2 episodes for the childhood of the princes (Vidura, Pandu, Dhritrashtr) but instead we were robbed as a audience.
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Reason 30;
Still on episode 7 the king of panchal (still "Prishat") claim's when Srikandi's born that she is the female who will end bhishma's life. But the problem is that he is judging based only off her gender, their is nothing that indicated this random girl would be the reason for bhishma's death, and she was born 25 years after the parshurama duel ended.
And why does Prishat desire vengeance when his enemy (bhishma) already suffered three blow's? The death of santanu, chitrangad & vichitravirya? Knowing that all the men in bhishma's family are dead should have been considered a indirect win for Prishat.
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Reason 31 (one of the BIGGEST mistakes ever made):
The actor that played younger Droopad was not the same one who played Droopad later on (Sudesh Berry).
Sudesh Berry later on plays droopad for the remainder of the tv series even in the flashback of drona when drona is younger then Droopad is played by Sudesh, so it did not make any sense for the character of adult droopad to look any different, be portrayed by another face or actor especially when Droopad is already an adult with a daughter.
[Evidence is clearly their.]
So was their facial reconstruction surgery available? Or did the face of Drupada change off screen, or were their two characters named "Droopad" in the TV series? Because this's a critical error made by the team of Star Plus. What was wrong with just keeping one actor?
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Reason 32:
Gandhari was shown to be like a little girl that's underaged, immature, uneducated & ignorant. Based on the way she talked to her maid that was her friend i came to this conclusion, and it's still episode 7.
Bonus - In the Episode where Shiva stopped the fight between Parshuram/Bhishma then he told amva that he can't give a boon to someone that desires vengeance. But his statement made no sense as he gave boons to many rakshasas that wanted to take revenge against vishnu and other gods.
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Reason 33;
The king of Gandhar is shown to have a turban instead of a crown. Which makes no sense, he should never look like that.
It seems like the starplus team is copying br chopra's portrayal of gandhar royalty (how ulook & sakuni had only turban's no crowns in that tv series). He doesn't look like a real king at all.
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Reason 34;
It's episode 8 and cause of the time leap's the character of Bhishma should be 70 years old at the very least, so he should look older than Dhritrashtra did during the tournament/rangbhoomi phase, or older than guru Drona did during the drupad war episodes (59-63).
Yet instead of him having a single strand of gray/white hair he's shown with totally black hair instead as if he never aged at all.
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Reason 35;
Gandhari talked to her bhabhi (sister-in-law) meaning a wife of Sakuni (as no other male offspring of king Suvala had appeared in the television serial). Yet this woman's children (Ulook and others) are never shown in the tv series at all.
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Reason 36:
In episode 8 a inaccurate statement was mentioned by Bhishma that Gandhar is the neighboring kingdom of hastinapore. Which is not logical as hastinapore is in delhi while gandhar is in the modern territory of pakistan/afghanistan. So... star plus fail's yet again.
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Reason 37:
Here (episode 8) hastinapore is named as the most wealthy/strong kingdom of aryavarth by either Gandhari or one of her maid's/relatives. But this's a false claim as even vidarbha was a more powerful and rich nation, it controlled at least 25 percent of the indian sub-continent as per Sabha Parva of Mahabharat.
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Reason 38;
Episode nine
Vidura for some reason has facial hair but his brothers do not, so he ends up looking older than they do. And bhishma looks like hes the same age as vidura.
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Reason 39;
In episode 10 Sakuni called one of his assistant's the name "Ulook" i have no idea why the writers of the show decided to make it seem as if the son of sakuni was named after a faithful servant.
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Reason 40:
During episode 10 the character of Satyavati get's reintroduced, but she has not aged at all in appearance. Her age is much more than that of Kunti's during the rangbhoomi yet she looks even younger than Kunti does.
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Reason 41:
Hastinapore being bereft of a king made no sense, the throne being empty made no sense, because after Vichitravirya's death when the prince's were being raised then Bhishma took the duty of ruling the land until the time of abdication was right. But in this TV series no one was in charge of hastinpore for more than 25 years.
A kingdom would never sustain without someone ruling it.
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Reason 42;
In episode ten "Sakuni" display's a displeasure and objection to Gandhari's marriage but in the authentic script he was actually all right with the wedding arrangement.
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Reason 43:
During episode 12 Dhritrashtra rejected Gandhari before the whole assembly of people, it does seem like the wedding was taking place in the throne-room which does not make much sense for a wedding to occur their instead of a different location.
Also this episode just proves that the wishes of Dhritrashtra do not matter at all, as even though he rejects her here everyone know's he will end up with Gandhari in a future episode anyway so it is pointless to demean dhritrashtra even more (by showing him getting married to a individual that he rejected).
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Reason 44:
The following image/incident proves why star bharat is exactly like a daily soap opera ("kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi").
{GIF}
Tell me this incident (of Gandhari dropping the container of fire flies) isn't similar to a woman in a saas-bahu tv serial (like kasamh se) dropping a bronze complexion tray with a fire lamp on it?
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I do like the fact that Sakuni's character brings up the fire flies later on in a later episode (after karna's death & before duryodhan is finally looked at by Gandhari) but it still is akin to a saas bahu tv series.
My NEXT POST will be part 2 of why star bharat is bad.
