I will not call it Krishnabharat instead i'll name it "Fakebharat#3" as their were two relevant depiction's of the story before this one ("Shri Krishna") they were the live stage play of Peter Brook which was 5 hours long & the 94 episode tv series of Br Chopra.
The name of the show is "Shri Krishna" but i did not choose to make the title of my post "defending shri krishna tv series" cause that would indicate i consider myself higher than or equal to a worshiped deity thereby causing more controversy/drama.
I will call out its PROBLEMS but also the reasons why it should be respected/hailed too.
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I've heard two major complaint's
[I] "sagar disliked arjuna"
Refute {1st} - an actor like sandeep mohan who had aryan/caucasian/white/european features and genetics portrayed arjuna's character in the show. Basically a actor who was more handsome than most of the actors who worked in that show was given the role of Arjuna. Clearly more handsome compared to govind khatri (the guy who essayed karna's role).
Also if he hated arjuna then why did sagar not even mention Eklavya let alone SHOW his character. Eklavya was a warrior that Krishna murdered, he is reported to be superior to arjuna during a point in time. Surely a hater of arjuna would have shown this character in his show.
If u watched the bhagavad geeta episodes then u can see that Ramanandan Sagar defended arjuna's stance and argument, that arjuna was not a coward he fought thousands of battles earlier but was reluctant in kurukshetra.
{II} "In sagars serial's the villains are shown to be more powerful."
Refute [2nd] - while this may be true in some of his other tv serials (like "brahma vishnu mahesh") in most cases it is actually false. For example in "anand sagars imagine tv ramayana" he showed that although kumvakarna/ravan were tough they both have their weaknesses too. Kumvakarna even fell asleep in the battle once so the overrated character of hanuman could tie him up.
The only villain portrayed as invincible in his ramayan was Vali. Even meghanad (played by "Praphulla Pandey") was given a couple embarrassing defeats in his tv show (ramayan 2008 to 2009) he lost at least three times.
And in the topic ("Shri Krishna") their is no villain who is presented as too powerful except for Bhishma in the kurukshetra war as he repeatedly bested abhimanyu. bheem etc in duel's on screen and even gained a upper hand over arjuna.
Also the only other villain who is portrayed as excessively tough would be Shambrasur's son Kumbhaketu as he defeated Pradyumna in the show;
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Regardless sometimes a script-writer/director need's to take creative liberties and make a villain look more powerful so that a story does not end up becoming boring otherwise the victory of the protagonist is even more predictable and boring.
Another tv serial where the sagar family was involved in was "Chandragupta Maurya" (2011) it was produced by "Sagar Films" but i did not find the name of "Anand" sagar involved in it. The series also got directed by a group of individuals, but the point of me bringing it up is that it kind of overpowered Alexander The Great (who was a villain in that tv series) the reason i came to that conclusion is cause their was an episode where a quick battle was shown in it many indian soldiers (who were fed up of serving the greek soldier's) chandragoopt and chanakya were also involved in fighting against Alexander. But ironically alexander was victorious and the overrated chanakya with his main character (Chandragoopt) who had PLOT ARMOR (protection by plot, main character strength) was defeated handidly by the greek army of Alexander.
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Let me address the ELEPHANT in the room first (which's one of the more important incident's to discuss).
Due to this screenshot a few people (like myself too) were under a belief that the show said "arjuna defeated shiva". But the truth is it was a subtitle translation error made by a employee.
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Point's:
Major points are that the word arjuna used (in hindi) was NOT "parajit" or "parajay" The scene/claim is made by him in two episodes 172 (flashback time) and before Subhadra marries arjuna (in episode 90 something). The word used by Sandeep Mohan (actor who is arjun) was "DRIPT" the same word was used by Bhishma ("Sunil-Nagar") during the 167th episode (kurukshetra war).
At the 40;16 time-mark.
But bhishma said it only in a episode which doesn't have any subtitles on it. Bhishma said "dripth" that his mind and soul have been gratified (dripth) saying it to Ganga (his biological mother).
At the 36:03 mark of this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI-KE7raSZc Rukmini also said "Dripth" cause her soul or consciousness got satisfied cause of fragrance from a lotus flower. It's from the 134th episode.
Logic - My opinion is that dripth means satisfaction or satiation/gratification.
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OTHER MISTRANSLATED SUBTITLES IN THE TV SERIES.
Here one subtitle mentions kaling raaj srutayu's name to be Rutayu instead.
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Jarasandha said "bhoj raaj vishmak kay mahadhanudari putra raaj kumar rukmi" but the subtitle stated "nishpakya" when it should have said "vishmak" or "bhismaka" instead. The subtitle also does not mention that Rukmi was the son of Vishmak.
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The actor who will in future play the role of Rukmini's positive brother (the one who supports her marriage to krishna & opposes jarasandha/sisupala) is playing a different character who is "mallav raaj subiksh" instead during episode 58.
{King Subhiksha} then 20 episodes later;
{Him as rukmi's brother}
In the 58th episode a yadava courtier was reading Jarasandha's message a line he said in hindi is "humarey paas 23 akshouni sena hai" that means "we have 23 aukshounis" in English. Yet a subtitle just said "we have a very big army" so its not a accurate translator (whoever is given the job to translate in other languages).
Another translation mistake is that whenever karna was called "sootputra" the subtitle said "surya's son" or "son of surya" instead.
So as u can see its a very COMMON thing for them to mistranslate words.
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During the only episode where they even had a fight it was one where unfortunately Shiva took the cake since he won while my man Arjuna lost. Episode number (for their battle) is 143.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCW5Cweh7Us - {link to it}
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Plus point's for Arjuna's character in this tv series:
In episode 167 when arjuna fired the arrow into the ground (to make ganga's water come to Bhishma's mouth) then everyone their shook (except for arjuna/krishna themselves).
{GIF} The important warrior's who shook were Abhimanyu, Bhishma, Duryodhan, Yudisther and Kripacharya. Time stamp is from 38:30 to 39:05 [episode 167].
This's relevant because it shows that one move made by arjuna which wasn't even a offensive stunt was able to create that much of a cause-effect to the other warrior's in the region. If u look abit more carefully then u can see that even Drona shook a little.
Right after that Bhishma had a private conversation with Suyodhana, he told him Arjuna is invincible and cant be defeated, that indicates even Drona can not win against Arjuna.
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In a episode (regarding the bhagavad gita) a scene of arjuna killing bhishma, guru drona & suyodhan together got shown.
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I know it was a "What-if-scenario." (arjuna just thinking about if that would happen) but it still looked good. Arjuna did it while off the nandi ghosha chariot, no help from Krishna either, no gandiva or the overrated hanuman. It's from episode 148 of the serial.
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Other bonuses for Arjuna's character are the praise Shiva granted him;
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Here Shiva (highest authority besides the maker of the show) said arjuna is a great archer. No incident of him praising or mentioning karna is given.
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Balarama;
I enjoyed what they did with him. Cause they showed him as a jobber warrior. Definition of a "jobber" is the character who is defeated by a villain so the villain could look capable & powerful so it makes the audience/watcher's doubt whether the protagonist will win or not.
Losing to Duryodhan.
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[he admitted it]
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She proved that she was a better archer too.
Vajranabh.
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After that pradyumna (mustache-actor) saved balaram. It made me glad to see this.
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Losing to Shambrasur's beta.
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His loss to Duryodhan was the biggest L he took, cause duryodhan got punked out by so many individuals, like bhishma said "chitrasen nay tumey bandhi banaliya tha!" i bet Chitrasen could have arrested this joker balarama too.
This also mean's Bhima was a better mace fighter than balaram. And this presentation of balram effectively disproves the common belief of him being a great warrior. So i liked seeing Balram lose time after time.
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Presentation of Mahabharat was poorly done;
They pretty much skipped the entire vana parva, only showing 3 incident's of Arjun's meditation to Shiva, curse of Urvashi, training by Indra.
Though virat war is mentioned in cross references (conversation of kumar uttar/king virat) (arjuna reminded karna of it & bhishma reminded suyodhan of it) its never shown on the big screen itself. In the incident where Uttar mentioned it he said only kouravas lost but did not mention karna or any other participant/warrior that was defeated.
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Here's the reference of Bhishma stating it from episode 165 of the serial.
The incident of hanuman meeting Bheem was normally supposed to happen in vana parva but Sagar showed it occur before the dice game.
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What made even less logic is that Krishna said Arjuna will gain all weapon's of Indra yet a couple episodes earlier Pradyumna was granted Vaishnav Astra by Indra.
For some reason when karna fires Vaishnav Astra during episode 183 arjuna did not fire his own vaishnav astra (weapon of "Indra") back at him.
In the 130th episode Indra gave vaishnav astra to Pradyumna so why didnt he give Arjuna that astra too?
Also it looks entirely different compared to the one karna had.
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Representation of Bhima:
It is possible this character was handled the best in the show compared to all other presentation's of Bhima on screen. He's shown as powerful as he was in the authentic Mahabharat books at the same time they made a error by giving him a mustache.
Still they showed his power & personality accurately they made him a smart person who can provide good arguments to people like Yudhishthir, Arjuna, Hanuman, Droopad, Krishna & others etc. Bhima told Ashwathama he wanted to honor him by placing his weapons at his feet because he is the son to his mentor.
Later he tells Drona it is his bad fate that he has to use the knowledge Drona taught him against Drona himself.
Bheem tells yudisther krishna considers him the strongest (episode 176), and krishna says it in the narayanastra episode (180).
The GIF'S where Krishna praised him.
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Bheem was only defeated 5 times in the kurukshetra war segment of this serial;
1st - Bhishma in episode 164 leading krishna to take up the discus.
2nd - Drona in episode 165 made Bhima faint with an arrow attack. Ghatotkatch next appeared to battle Drona while Bheem then regained his footing (as he was back to proper health) this led to him killing a few brothers of duryodhan.
3rd - Jayadratha did the day abhimanyu died his defeat is only shown on screen once, but according to bheem he was repeatedly beaten by him.
4th - Aswathama defeated him in episode 179 with narayanastra.
5th - Karna in episode 183.
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Regarding the elephant in the room (his victory over karna):
I agree that it was first of all not shown elaborately, their was no great detail for it, the victory happened in episode 176 and he did it with his mace instead of arrows. Which is a shame.
But at least this tv serial actually showed it, ironically the only other show to do justice to the karna vs bheem rivalry was SPK (surya putra karn).
And the defeat was also cross referenced by other characters, like duryodhan in episode 177.
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Bheem himself in the episode that karna got his general rank.
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And on the 1st day they let Bheem gain victories over people that would beat him in the future (aswathama/jayadrath) in episode 161 and 162. So really the only people he was weak against/failed to defeat were Drona & Bhishma. Every other kourava warrior was inferior to him.
So as a warrior Mahendra Ghule's Bhima was better than all other bhimas, that includes Praveen Kumar (chopra's Bheem), Ketan Karande, Sourav Gurjar (the potato of star bharath).
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Flaw's this show (ignoring the obvious one's):
1 - They showed the wives of "Poundrak" and "Shambraasur" opposing, disagreeing and arguing with their husbands all the time. To portray the villains wife as being noble, kind hearted etc, but always making the villain look arrogant and seem too boastful/clue-less.
2 - No attention is given to the fact that Arjun is the man who educated Krishna's sons (Pradyumn, Samva etc) grandson (Anirudha). Arjun being Nara in his past life is shown.
3: King Vahlika was mentioned once by Sanjaya (as-he-described-the-various-duel's-between-warior's) on the 1st day of the Kurukshetra War. But he is never shown on screen, neither is his death mentioned.
4 - According to MahabharaTheBook (Kmg/Bori-Ce) the character of 'Suyodhana' had golden complexioned armor. But in Chopra's mahabharat they gave him black armor for kurukshetra war, and he had golden armor only for 2 wars (guru dakshina/virat yudh). Here in the "Shri Krishna" tv serial Duryodhan constantly alternated between armors. In his very first appearance in the long series he was shown with silver armor in a very dark room which lacked any brightness.
From the swayamavar of Droupadi until the marriage of Subhadra his armor got shown as the correct color (golden) for that very limited period of time.
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After subhadra married Arjuna then Duryodhan did not have his golden armor, he never appears (in the series "Shri-Krishna") until the dice game (the one where pandavas lose their nation) where he was shown with silver armor instead.
5 - In a episode (before poundrak vadh after shambrasur vadh) they had krishna tell balram about duryodhans daughter having a swayamvara, krishna mentions the son of jambavati [SAAMBH] too yet he does not appear, neither did the daughter of suyodhana.
6 - showing only one son of Krishna (Pradyumna) but ignoring all others.
7 - In the 22:27 mark of the 145th episode of the show, its shown that among the kings who joined the pandav army their was a king of KAMVOJA included in it as well. But if u read Mahabharat (kmg/bori) then this's clearly false. The most famous Kamvoja warrior (Sudakshina) was pro kourava, he fought on their side, not one kamvoja tribe warrior/character was aiding the pandavas at all.
8 - For most of the war they show Duryodhan on a chariot carrying a mace on his shoulder & laughing or talking but never fighting. Very rarely did they show him fight, he only fires arrows 4 times in the war. Once against Nakula, twice against Arjuna & one time vs abhimanyu though Abhimanyu told Laxman that many off screen defeats existed where duryodhan lost against him and fled.
9: In episode 141 Ramanandan Sagar talked to the audience in person. He claimed that Sakuni advised Duryodhan to do the gambling act, but what Sagar never showed was that 2 incidents exist in Mahabharat where Sakuni tried to advise Duryodhan in the right path even telling him to give up any dushmaani or hatred for the pandavas, instead negotiate with them or stop being hateful.
10 - Balram saw Duryodhan defend & support Sisupala in the rajasooyam incident, it happened before subhadra's wedding with arjuna (in the show). Yet Balram agreed to train Duryodhan after this moment. Clearly it made no sense, it would have been better if they showed him teaching Duryodhan before rajasuya or they could have decided to not show duryodhan as a supporter of sisupala.
11 - the unknown age of king Shalya when he was introduced (episode 57). His first appearance was in episode 54 or 55 but his name was not mentioned until episode 57;
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He appeared to be way older than the man he was during his death (episode 188).
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Some how his hair color reversed as if he got younger instead of older.
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12 - in episode 72 its mentioned multiple times that the princes (106 raj kumars of the kuru barivar) were in gurukul (a academy or school) yet their teacher (Drona) was in hastinapura (the capital city) so why would the students/prince's be left without a guide/adult watching over them? Drona's place should not have been in the court of hastinapore.
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13 - In the lakshagraha episodes they did not show PUROCHAN though he was a important character.
14 - During the eightieth episode at the 19:50 mark u cant really tell whose on whose side, who is fighting who, which one is a yadava of dwaraka and which one is a person that is a ally of sisupal;
Also - the only yadava warrior who fought (besides krishna/balram) was "Akroor" that's a big let down in my opinion cause their were so many characters in the yadava clan that should have been utilized, but the only one being used as a fighter is Akroor.
Akroor was never supposed to be such a powerful warrior that he could shatter arrows of sisupal, this was a problem in the mathura invasion saga too (saga refers to a big number/group of episodes). That when jarasandha invaded mathura only three characters ever fight, akroor, balram and krishna, not one other person which is not right. They could have used satyaki, kritvarman, or another son of Vasudeva (he had wives apart from Devaki). Maybe introduce the narayani sena.
In that episode (number 80) the fight between Rukmi/Sri Krishna was impressive i am glad Rukmi put up a fight, but what i dislike is that it made Rukmi seem more capable as a warrior than sisupal, jarasandha etc, as they were not able to do well against Krishna according to this show. The mace fight between rukmi/krishna was great.
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15 - During the Kurukshetra war they always showed repeated scenes of a chariot being destroyed or exploded. It was like they had nothing original just rinse, repeat etc. They did not show any of the kings that fought outside of a handful/few. Duryodhan in episode 177 complained to Drona that whichever ally kings arrived to support him have all been murdered.
But the issue/flaw is no ally king is shown besides Shalya, Susharma (whose death was not shown), Karna, Sakuni, Jayadrath that's it. But in that list three of the kings are alive so his statement made no sense.
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Basically the above point is about why their portrayal of kurukshetra was still bad. They barely ever had any of the chariot warrior's use arrows instead everyone from sakuni to nakula to bhishma was firing astra after astra. Where are the normal arrows?
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16 - Indraprastha was mentioned before the kuru raaj kumars completed their education, after this mistake the characters and actors begin addressing it as hastinapur instead of indraprasth.
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Even sakuni (the actor) called it Indraprastha which's a severe mistake.
17 - Showing the same mustache armor guy with a mukut repeteadly on both sides of the war.
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Explanation: the first picture was of episode 169, showing that actor is from the pandav army, the second picture shows this actor was a comrade of Susharma. Image number three is basically the same guy as a infantryman by the side of Nakul. Apart from this in the same video (169th episode) they showed that actor being an accomplice of Bhima & a driver to Jayadratha/Guru Drona. This's a very unprofessional mistake made by this tv serials directors.
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18 - No wife of krishna is shown besides satyabhama, rukmini, jambavati & a couple of narakasura's widows. They had a golden opportunity to show krishna's other batch of wives like Kalindi, Mitravinda, the gandhar princess Neeladevi (daughter of Nagnajit). But instead they refused to give them any attention.
So for a show thats supposedly about krishna's life it was a let down. Not even the ending of his life is shown, the hunter jhara etc.
19th - In the 27:31 mark of the 129th episode Shambraasur said "if krishna had the same number of sons i had then i would have killed them all"
This line made no sense as krishna having 16 thousand wives had (at least 100 thousand if not more) sons, so Shambraasur had alot of people he could kill besides pradyumna.
20 - In the 142nd episode they did not show the second game of dice instead they did something that starplus copied. That it was instantly decided the pandavs would have to go on a exile and incognito year instead without any other dice game.
This's a mistake not only cause its against what the authentic book said but also because its another missed opportunity to introduce more characters in this tv serial or give character development or screen time to other characters. Because this tv serial already did not show many events centered around the lives of the kouravas/pandavas as its supposed to be about Krishna & not anyone else (the title speaks for itself).
Bonus - the very annoying character of Narad muni always came he was a nuisance.
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About Karna's portrayal:
This is very weird because although they degraded karna alot (as Mahabharat described his defeats & cowardly nature) they also uplifted him a couple of times. So its hard to say if it was pro karna or anti karna.
His crimes have been shown like trying to arrest krishna. The whole "karna not being involved in conspiracies or when he is involved then he protests against them saying they should wage war instead of cheating" myth was in Chopra's Mahabharat but here they never show Karna opposing unfair means or conspiracies, rather he supported sakuni during the dice game.
After the pandavas were exiled then Govind (actor who is karna) praised Sakuni and consumed alcohol with him. He never said that what sakuni did was incorrect.
He also supported the usage of deceit and magic in war when Sakuni told Duryodhan to invoke Alamvoosh the rakshas.
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His conduct in the dyooth sabha episodes was hard to decipher.
Elaboration:
When the dice game was being held and played then govind khatri was happy seeing the pandavas without mukut's becoming slaves.
When droupadi was brought in the sabha then he was laughing, smirking, but he never started using any insulting language until bheem made vows of killing duhsasan/duryodhan then govind khatri said droupadi has no honor and she should take a sixth husband since she already had five husbands.
Regarding why its hard to decipher the reason is because govind khatri's karna made a couple facial expressions that showed he pitied the pandavas and the state Droupadi was in when she complained about injustice to her husbands & said arjuna was the best archer:
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{17:51-17:56} was the time mark.
He also had that expression when Duryodhan threatened to kill vikarna if they didnt have a blood relation.
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So i think he was 90 percent evil and ten percent average as a human being.
Also in the episode of the lakshagraha conspiracy (before rukmini's wedding to krishna) their was a line stated by Sandeep Mohan (Arjuna) in a conversation with Bheem where he doubted whether karna was a part of a conspiracy to send them away from hastinapore. This indicates that they knew karna was willing to cheat and not play fair. But it was before karna's first appearance in the show itself.
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During the 198th episode when the funeral rites for all dead relatives in the war are being conducted nearby a river (hopefully not the ganga/GANDHA river) kunti had a conversation with the pandavas she informed them that they need to do last rites for karna too.
Yudishter's reply was that karna had only one true relative that was Adhirath not anyone else as he had no family members besides him. That means that according to Sagar's Mahabharat karna (govind-khatri) did not have any offspring or wives so their Karna was a virgin/bachelor.
Though according to MB most sons of karna were slain in his eye sight/range of protection still the tv serial should have shown at least 2 (one can be shown dying in shalya parva post karna vadh & vrishasena could be shown during the day of karna's own death). Because prince vrishasena was a tough warrior. Showing him (even if he dies infront of karna) would not be a embarassment.
In addition to that Sagar never shows a single conversation between shalya/karna apart from a minor exchange of words about the wheel of their chariot being stuck, so this can't be considered 'karna glorification'.
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Power Level of Karna here.
Karna was actually shown as weaker than Arjuna even before the pasupatastra incident. One not need look further than the Droupadi Swayamvara episodes. Compare how long they both took in accomplishing the task.
Karna (govind khatri) took 28 seconds to wield/move the bow their.
But Arjuna (Sandeep Mohan) took 23 second's only.
Showing that anything karna can do can be done much easier and faster by arjuna.
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Krishna said other warrior's (in the pandav army) can shackle karna;
Source - Episode 181s ending.
And in a scene of the final day of karna's life Yudisther injures him with 2 arrows and even made karna drop the vijaya bow. Raman Khatri was the actor that portrays Emperor Yudisther.
The same character failed miserably in battles against Jayadrath, Bhishma etc he did not successfully injure any of them so Govind Khatri's karna getting hurt by him is a embarrassment in this tv show.
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Bhishma showed arjuna respect in many episodes (163, 167) from what i remember but he never is shown praising karna in any episode of the series.
The only 3 times he talks about him are below:
1st - The exact number (for the episode) is not known but it was one before the bhagavad gita started and after krishna gave his army to duryodhana. Here bhishma said that he will never fight under karna's leadership or banner so the general position is granted to Bhishma instead of Karna.
2nd - In episode 165 the night after Duryodhan's brothers got murdered. Then Bhishma gets ticked off at how Duryodhan praised karna, so he brought up karna running and losing from chitrasen (which does happen but off screen) and arjuna in virat yudh (which is not shown).
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3rd: A episode after karna's death, the same episode where Shalya was promoted to rank of "general". Here though he had nothing negative to mention about karna he also didn't say anything positive. His purpose of talking to duryodhan was to get him to end the war and agree to a truce instead.
So thankfully the incident which is present in authentic MB (kmg, bori ce) where karna met bhishma before entering the war and bhishma praised him was not in the shri krishna tv series. Otherwise it'd be akin to karna glorification.
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The fight against "Ghatotkatch";
Although it is true karna would have killed him with vaishnav astra for some reason he claimed he already used everything besides vasavi sakthi;
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Of course this would be considered another stupid error made by the tv series but still its clear that Karna was not winning against this demon, rather he was on the losing end of the battle until he used the particular weapon. So if we compare his performance (govind khatri's) to the other TV karna's (pankaj dheer, aham sharma) etc. Then he did better than pankaj dheer but worse than Aham Sharma, think about this..
In Star Plus Mahabharat during the battle Ghatotkatch never injured karna once, rather karna injured him with 3 arrows he only stopped firing because of the hostage (duryodhan) being used as a shield by Ghatotkatch. So starplus degraded ghatotkatch for karna glorification.
So though Govind Khatri did not do very bad i would still take him as a karna over Aham Sharma, cause Aham Sharma (though he barely wins) never really lost a fight in starplus. Govind on the other hand loses at least twice & received injuries during the battles he fought.
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The vaishnav astra controversy:
This was the very first onscreen fight between arjun & karna, though karna did have the upper hand he was not the victor as the battle reached a inconclusive point.
Remember if karna did win then the key word "har bhaar" (aka "every-time") would not be used by Arjuna in his conversation with Krishna.
[Photo as proof] These are from a episode after karna died before shalya was given the position of general in their army.
To analyze the fight itself, before any astra usage happened it was a combat of normal arrows and arjuna clearly was winning, he disarms karna of his bow in the duel, karna used a mace to protect himself from 7 other arrows of arjuna.
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Of course their are incident's where Karna (govind khatri got glorified) but they are minimal.
For example (only two):
1 - karna pushing the chariot of arjuna back with regular arrows in episode 183. But just doing that [chariot pushing] does not make karna great or superior, he remained inferior to the horses that'd been pulling the chariot for eighteen days.
2 - karna getting the vasavi sakthi as a gift/tribute from Indra opposed to the authentic MB (mahabharat book) where karna demanded it as a trade before he hands over the armor on his body.
Apart from that theirs not much glorification for karna, yes their are fake incidents like karna finding out surya was his father just a day after the tournament, but that doesnt make it a over glorification of karna's character.
Finally we can see this is what govind khatri's belly looks like. Obviously Sandeep Mohan was the better looking and fitter actor here.
Last point;
What almost everyone forget's (whether they are a fan of arjuna, bhakt of krishna, or a fan of karna himself) is that in the 185th episode of this tv serial when karna died he was ARMED. Yes he had a vijaya bow in his right hand, though he was off his chariot he was still equipped with a weapon so he died with a weapon in his hands, cause he failed to defend himself. While chopra included the "unfair death of karna" fortunately Sagar made karna's death a FAIR ARMED one instead.
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Satyaki;
Satyaki was first shown in the samantak gem incident starting from episode 93 that is when he made his entry, but he was given minimal attention/importance by the writers.
He did have a handful of conversation's with Balarama, Krishna etc but nothing too important that it needs to be elaborated upon here.
After that he makes an appearance when he accompanies Krishna to the cave but he does not go inside with krishna instead he was frightened so he did not enter their.
Next he is basically absent for like 30 episodes or more, not appearing until the assembly of dwaraka royalty has a discussion with a messenger of the False Vasudeva (poundrak). Then one of his final scenes is where Balram orders him to get their army ready for poundraks attack on dwaraka.
But when the battle against Randhir, kasiraja, Poundrak etc happened then literally Satyaki was not their, instead theirs only like one yadava fighting (akroor) besides balaram/krishna.
His last real scene was in the hastinapura throne room where he threatened karna, duryodhan both (if they take a step closer to Sri Krishna then Satyaki will behead them). No scene of satyaki was given after that one.
To their credit at least when krishna showed his divine form then duryodhan, karna both were hurt and in fear, but satyaki was bravely standing with his head high and hands folded, showing that he is dear to krishna while karna is not.
Lastly in the episode where barbareek made an appearance then the maker of this show (Ramanandan Sagar) himself says ten people survived the war, 3 for kourava's & 7 for the pandavas (the five brother's, Krishna himself and Satyaki) but ignored Yuyutsu. Ironic that he'd mention Satyaki but never actually showed him being involved in a fight.
So of course their portrayal of Satyaki was disrespectful as he was scared of entering a cave, and he was not given footage in the war at all.
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Best design:
I liked Ashwathama's design the best due to his armor with different colored gemstones, but at the same time is disliked the fact that Ashwathama had a mukut (crown) on him, because in my opinion Ashwathama should never wear that he was not a king or Kshatriya to wear a crown, he should just keep his hair the same way a brahmin does tied up "matted locks".
As a warrior his contribution was lessened. Yes they show Brahmashira/Narayanastra. But not any of his detailed battle's which were described in a elaborate manner in the books of Mahabharata. No satyaki means no battle with satyaki that involves Aswathama too.
Instead they showed a fake duel as his entry (1st scene) the fake duel was against Bheem which ashwathama brutally lost despite having Kripa's help. Then Ashwathama had a minor inconclusive fight against Iravan which is shown in eleven second's after that he basically disappears until the day abhimanyu died.
Yet Sagar could show incidents where Shalya, Jayadratha, even Sakuni fired arrows but not anything for Ashwathama during the Bhishma Parva segment of his mahabharat.
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Once karna's made chief and Ghatotkaca becomes relevant again then Sagar did not show ashwathama in the battlefield, hes just in one council meeting (where karna boasted that he'd use vasavi sakthi) before karna is told by Krishna that hes a son of Kunti. Then ashwathama appeared the day karna used vaishnava astra. After that he disappears until the night after karna is dead. None of his important fight's were shown besides the famed 2 incident's (narayanastra/brahmashir).
Examples of fight's they could have shown are the death of Mahishmati's ruler (Nila), Sarangdhwaj (king of a southern land, son of krishna's enemy), the arrow battle which ashwathama was involved in after drona died but before he used narayanastra. Or the 16th day duel between Ashwathama/Bheem which was only arrow based.
By the way not one ashwathama vs arjuna fight was given in the show besides the brahmashir one. So i would not claim this was the finest portrayal of Ashwathama's character at all.
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Drona:
He was given golden pieces of cloth and a crown which i dont think was that good but the change was welcome as the only other mahabharat serial which show's Drona with a mukut (crown) is Sanjay Khan's Mahabharata & Hanuman tv series.
A really good thing is that they made Drona look more powerful than karna by showing Drona defeat Bheem (1 day before bhishma fall's) & Bheem defeating Karna (day of Jayadrath Vadh).
They also showed nothing about Drona leading the nocturnal battle, their were no night battles in the entire saga of Kurukshetra except for Ashwathama's rampage.
They showed Drona losing only two battles here. One to ghatotkatch (episode 165) & to arjuna (episode 164). The ghatotkatch fight was shown in detail while the arjuna loss was shown in a few second's. But once he became chief they never show Drona losing a battle.
Though drona's reign as chief was reduced to 3 days still he began in episode 168 and died in episode 179, so that is 12 episodes, because after abhimanyu's death and before episode 175 their were multiple flash back type episodes (basically a break from the war for the audience).
While karna starts at episode 180 and finishes in episode 185 (he died their) but flashbacks of him get shown in episode 186 still his reign is over and at most despite being four day's long its just 6 episodes, but drona's was double the number of episodes despite having 25 percent less (in term's of days) so again Drona > Karna as per this serial.
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(HOS) Height Of Stupidity - basically the stupidest mistakes/things of this show.
1 - When they showed alamvush appearing in episode 164's ending, then fighting in episode 165, but the same actor/character returned in episode 182. Now hes suddenly a different character (Alayoodh) and the other actor/rakshasa (who made a fresh entry) is alamvush. Which makes no sense.
2 - Kalyavan called "arya varth/bharat varsh" by the name "Hindustan" when the term hindu was non existent before Islamic uprisings/invasion's.
The yavanas also were shown to be a islamic society.
3 - Right before Kalyavan enters Jarasandha told Shalya they attacked Mathura 17 times yet after kalyavan died it's shown that Jarasandha attacked Mathura even more times before Dwaraka was created. So did he attack it 34 times then? And Shalya/Jarasandha both vowed (before kalyavan's entry) they would commit suicide if they failed again. So why did they contradict themselves then?
4 - The night of jayadratha's death after drona made a vow to do a "NIRNAYAK YUDH" the next day then Ghatotkaca met Krishna, they had a conversation where krishna opposed the idea of ghatotkaca to act against drona. He says that drona/bhishma are both superior fighters to ghatotkatch.
The issue with that is obviously that in episode 165 (bhishma parva) they show ghatotkatch defeating drona after HIGH-difficulty.
So guru Drona being superior did not make sense, perhaps u could argue that maybe drona got overconfident (cause he was winning the fight against Ghatotkatch before the fire attack was used) so he let his guard down. But if that is the case then they should have mentioned it.
5 - Shalya getting importance in Bhishma Parva then getting removed from the story until after karna's death where he becomes relevant again. They didn't even show him as a driver of karna. His impressive achievement (mace duel with bheem) isn't shown his only feat shown on the screen is "bhuminjay vadh" (Uttara's real name is Bhuminjaya).
6 - Best friend of Jarasandha is for some reason Shalya instead of Salva (ruler of Soubha). Which made no sense. As they showed that shalya knew of the plans that sakuni had to murder the pandavas before droupadi swayamvara.
7 - Ghatotkatch was involved ever since Bhishma Parva but only on the battlefield, he's never a part of the war council meetings where important pandava leaders discuss battle plans. Even Sikhandi was in at least one meeting but Ghatotkatch was not.
8 - Showing Ulupi's son Iravan for the first day but then removing him from the story entirely like they mention king Bahlika but refuse to show him. The only other appearance of Iravan was for a brief point of time during the episode where the chakra vyuha was made, but he disappeared after that and it is forgettable u would have to watch really carefully to see him their.
9 - Bhishma is cleanly defeated by arjuna 1 day before the incident where Krishna took up his chakra, yet later on the writing team tries to make it seem as if Bhishma is more powerful. And theirs no incident in the show where Bhishma really held back. He used divya astra's 90 percent of the time in his battle's during this show.
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10 - One more classic mistake is that (in episode 161) the war started Bhima shouted "sablok choro mat! maro!" (everyone dont let kouravas leave attack!) yet when he defeated jayadrath, was in a position to murder him he chose to let him leave in the final part of this episode literally contradicting his own word's. He said "aaj tujey mere haatho say koi nahi bachayey gaah! savdhan!" but the driver (charioteer) helped him escape.
11 - Only showing seven kourava prince's being killed (excluding Duhsasana/Suyodhana). Basically the only time we ever see any kouravas dying is in Bhishma Parva. Their are cross references on the days that duhsasana/jayadratha die that multiple kouravas were killed but only off-screen they are not shown. Similar to Br Chopra but still a error/problem.
After Karna died then Bhishma said Duryodhana still had brothers (besides Duhsasana) left alive, but a day after sakunis death gandhari said she only has two sons remaining.
So this indicated that the day Jayadratha was murdered many kouravas were killed by bheem (after he defeated karna). And that the day sakuni died (before shalya & after karna) a unknown number of kouravas were slain.
12th - Kripacharya had a club on his back, but he never uses it in the war itself.
Same problem for "Drona".
13th (final) - Drupada in episode 178, this's really stupid if you think about it. In the episode's early parts king Droopad warned the pandavas that Drona is unconquerable and unkillable so they should use deceit instead. Then in the 25th mark (despite having already come up with a plan/conspiracy) they made Droopad challenge drona as if he was eagerly waiting to die. If their desire was to give droopad importance before his death (so that when drona kills droopad the audience will care) then they could have done it a different way, maybe show drupad stalemating karna in a battle, or show drupad fight kritvarma (who by the way gets poorly handled too).
Theirs other mistakes too that can be considered the stupidest but i will not waste my time showing more as its not worth it in my eyes now.
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Kripacharya:
In the episode where karna is given the title of senapati, characters of Yudhisthir & Ashwathama praised Kripa as the best warrior left in the Kuru army after Bhishma/Drona. Also in another episode where Ghatotkatch dies uncle Sakuni said to Duryodhan "it would be better if Kripa was made chief instead of karna"
But really these statement's do not make sense, cause in this show so far Kripa never demonstrated a single combat achievement in the entire show.
He was most of the time a mere bystandard and infact easily defeated by Bheem on the opening phase of this war. He only has embarrassment's (anti-feat's) as he also lost to arjuna in episode 163 and 164 despite doing group attacks on him.
Yet still people were praising Kripa, and Duryodhans reason to not give Kripa the title of commander was that he was partial to pandavas, that means that duryodhan did not have any other reasons that even he agreed Kripa was superior as a warrior to karna (though i hate karna i dont agree with the praise that Kripa gets).
Kripa being considered the best after drona dies (by ashwathama, sakuni, yudisther etc). Proof in the upper picture.
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ACTOR'S CHANGING.
Vikarna's actor changed 2 times.
(swayamvara parva)
(dyuta parva)
The guy who had the beard did a better job as a actor.
Duhsasana's actor changed twice (no need for a picture). Just watch vastraharan, swayamvara then the incident where bheem tore his chest/heart in the war.
In episode 73 Urvashi was introduced the actress was someone else (in the 13:46 mark) then later when the vana parva is shown the actress that played Urvashi is someone else.
Prince Uttar changed twice.
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They can show 2 actor's playing the role of 1 character but it never crossed their mind that the 2nd actor couldve been used to portray another warrior who might have been a king that fought for the pandava side in the war. Like satyaki, sarangdhwaj, purujit, kuntibhoj, nila, or a son of dresthadyumna.
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Banasur was played by three different actors.
[I]
[II]
[III]
Ironically the 2nd actor had a grey haired mustache, implying that he aged or grew older.
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Same for Shalya.
[A]
[B]
[C]
Note - though they did not show karna asking duryodhan to make shalya his charioteer they still had karna refer to this new actor by word "charioteer"
What really made no sense is that though the 2nd shalya actor was their still they choose to put in another actor to serve his role in the tv series for the final episodes of karna's time as chief, he was present in episodes 184 and 185 (duel with yudisther/arjuna). Then once karna died the actor playing shalya II came back as general of the kourav army.
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Pradyumna's actor changing. The 2nd guy to play Pradyumna had a mustache. And it was a big slap in the face to the audience in my eyes. Because they showed that a son of krishna can grow facial hair but krishna himself can not.
Below is the original pradyumna-actor he returns to make a cameo appearance in the final episode of this tv show.
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Another-thing that made no sense is the guy who was the 1st duhsasana was an actor who stayed for 60 episodes (83-146) but for some reason could not stay any longer after that and once the bhagavad gita episodes began airing then the actor left so he was replaced by Deepak Jethi (2nd duhsasana). How can a guy stay for 60 episodes having minimal work [as an actor] yet get tired of waiting for just 10 or 12 episodes (bhagavad gita was that long)?
Also during a episode where the govardhan hill was lifted then Indra's character had been presented by a different actor.
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Role of SHIVA.
In episode 143 Shiva's role was played by Amit Pachori.
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[A]
Then in episode 164 a different actor (whose name i am not aware of) portrayed this god.
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[B]
[C]
Their was a 4th actor who played shiva's character in the banasur segment of the show.
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Was Duryodhana's portrayal disrespectful?
Answer - yes it was but still his portrayal is better than whatever the overrated "Shaleen-Bhanot" did in SPK, he was really only pathetic/comical after the dice game.
Duryodhans character had been introduced in episode 73, he then takes a leave once his marriage to subhadra is announced (episode 91) during that time span of episodes he was mature. Duryodhan was a calculated, smart and competent villain.
But then when he made a reappearance/return starting from episode 140 (the dice game) he became a lunatic, a self obsessed, arrogant chump who fall for basic tricks. Duryodhan even acted goofy like when yudisthir betted his "elephant wealth" then duryodhans reactions the way he talked to sakuni show how immature & childish he was.
His armour also changed. So did the voice dubbing actor.
Duryodhan by the time of the kurukshetra war (episode 161 to 189) was very pathetic, the way he acted and his character was handled badly, the problem is that is the part most fans or watcher's of this serial will remember.
Only one villain that i feel was comical the whole time even since their entry has gotta be Sakuni. Though Jarasandha was treated as a joke most of the time he atleast got 2 pieces of gold, his mace duel with balaram & his entry where he was described as a "GHAYAL SHER" wanting to avenge Kamsa.
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CHRONOLOGICAL ERROR'S;
1st.
Showing the Rajasuya Yajna, death's of Sisupal/Jarasandha before Arjuna's marriage to Subhadra.
2nd.
Arjuna (right before he married Subhadra) brags that he gratified Shiva in a wrestling duel, but when it comes to the timeline he does not fight Shiva until after the dice game.
3rd.
Episode where karna dies also had the death of asvasena naag, but Krishna mentions that arjuna massacred snakes including asvasena's mother. Yet when the khandava dahan is shown then no massacre took place in that episode (after droupadi swayamvar before jarasandha's murder).
4th.
Showing that Drona Parva was only three days unlike in the actual book where it was five days long.
5th.
Sisupal (a guy that was supposed to be younger than krishna) had a mustache when krishna was a teenager. His actor never changed but krishna's actor did change (swapnil joshi left & Sarvadhaman Banerjee entered).
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Showing that krishna grows up but sisupal was basically born as a adult with a mustache and krishna had to go thru a growth phase instead.
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[when Swapnil Joshi was Krishna]
[When Sarvadhaman Banerjee was Krishna]
Basically even when krishna was a teenager then still sisupala looked like the adult male that he is. A guy supposedly a generation younger than him looked old enough to be krishnas dad.
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Other plus point's of the tv serial (before i get to the final point);
1 - This's the only tv serial to show that Ashwathama used Narayanastra the same day Drona died.
2 - They tried showing the story of king Parikshit.
3 - They showed events which take place after the kurukshetra war ended.
4 - They showed that if two brahmastras collide then the world is still safe not destroyed (drona vs arjuna episode 178).
5th - It's shown that Bheem usually fought as archer with arrow's not a mace.
6 - They show that Ashwathama used brahmashira not brahmastra in the incident of souptika parva.
7 - Ghatotkaca is shown being apart of the war before bhishma is put on a arrow bed.
8th - The portrayal of the war in Bhishma Parva (everything before drona is made chief) is better than Br Chopra, Sanjay Khan, Peter Brook ever could.
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9 - though it does only show se7en kourava brother's dying (other than duhsasana/suyodhan) still here it can also be considered a good thing. As in episode 165 (where they died) Gandhari laments over the news of their death, she actually said their names (Adityaketu, Kundadhar, Visalaksh) etc, they had an identity so when they died then the audience/crowd would feel something, it would be considered more relevant and impactful.
But in BR Chopra when they show Bheem ("Praveen-Kumar") killing ten kourava prince's then their names are not even mentioned. And for starplus the only time the names of the kouravs get mentioned (in the war itself) is day 11 when bheem killed suvarman, vikarna, sunabh & upachitra. Never are their names mentioned at all but in Shri Krishna tv series all seven of their names (the ones who died) get a mention.
More importantly in "Shri Krishna" they show the kourava brothers death spree beginning at Bhishma Parva instead of waiting till Drona Parva.
10 - Only tv series to show that ashwathama approached krishna in dwaraka for trading the sudarshan chakra with a brahmashira.
11 - Also here duryodhan does not gain a special boon of adamantine body/limb's from gandhari, so the final gada yudh fight happened without any external help.
12 - When drupada/virata died on the same day then both were able to put up a fight against drona before losing/dying. This's better because it makes it matter more when they do die.
13 - Though the presentation of garuda vyooh was incorrect in episode 169/170 at least such a vyuha was mentioned in this tv serial unlike br chopra which only showed chakra vyuha nothing else.
14 - Showing Jayadratha participate in the war from day one, something that both SPK/StarPlus failed in doing as they made him apart of it for only two days (abhimanyu vadha/jayadrath vadh etc).
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Abhimanyu's portrayal:
In physical appearance he's better than Mayur (BR Chopra's actor) but not as handsome as Paras Arora (Starplus's actor) unfortunately. The man's clothes are decent and he is cleanly shaven to show his youthful looks.
Abhimanyu fighting se7en warriors at once [kripa, duhsasan, karna, sakuni, drona, duryodhan, ashwathama] is shown, so it is a good scene which makes him look tough.
It's shown that abhimanyu enters chakra vyooh after significant struggle and attack strategies, unlike starplus where they show that he was basically let inside here it is shown he got that far inside due to his power & ability instead.
They showed him killing Laxman but on the incorrect date.
They did not show him defeating Karna, all they showed was 2 arrow's of his colliding against Karna's 2 arrows then a facial expression of Karna but no defeat instead karna punches abhimanyu once he is encircled like a infantry man.
Unfortunately they showed abhimanyu losing twice to bhishma (episode's 162 & 164), the first day of war and the day krishna took up a sudarshan.
Though abhimanyu still put up a fight before losing.
Kripa was able to null one astra vaan of abhimanyu but drona/karna were not able to do the same in the episode he died in.
At least Abhimanyu is portrayed as a warrior & theirs no fake tale of karna giving a mercy killing to abhimanyu. It is better than star plus not as good as br chopra's though.
By the way they also make Arjuna use the gandharv astra while in the real MB (mahabharat books) the only person to actually use that weapon was supposed to be Abhimanyu not Arjuna.
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BHAGADATTA was mentioned 4 times in the serial but never shown;
First in the swayamvara of Droupadi. We see Jarasandha, Duhsasana, Vikarna, Duryodhana, Chekitan & Sisupala try and fail but we do not see any attempt or appearance of Bhagadatta. Next was when Sanjay mentioned to Emperor Dhritrashtra that bhagdatt was fighting Virat (episode 162). Then on the day of the kourava brother's getting slain (right before bhishma is given the arrow bed) by Sakuni himself.
Lastly by the god himself {Krishna} during the night after abhimanyu died, where he alerted the pandavas that warriors like bhagadatt will protect jayadrath from them the next day. Basically three times in kurukshetra once before Kurukshetra.
I guess their reason for not actually showing him (Bhagadatta) is the same as George Lucas's reason for depowering the character of general grievous in ROTS (revenge of the sith).
In simpler term's - because if a minor villain like that proves to be so powerful then he would OUTSHINE the 3 stooges (overrated TRIMURTI "Karna" "Bhishma" "Drona"). Though Drona was the least overrated among those three disciple's of parshuram.
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Speaking of which by the way Parshuram came in one episode and was shown to be a young man with a black beard;
He looked young enough to be a son of Drona/Bhishma (two people he was older than).
If it were upto me i'd just have the actor who played Balaram's role become Parshuram, or i would have sarvadhaman d banerjee portray parshurama. It would give the actor a chance to sow his variety as a angrier avtaar instead.
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Overall this tv serial was better than SPK, Starplus Mahabharat & many other's, definitely superior to peter brook's edition too. Just inferior to Ekta Kapoor and B R Chopra. Due to the messed up chronology and errors this tv serial should be renamed into "Fake Bharat III" so it can be clarified that it was a fanmade/fake version too.
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