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vnilesh1984
Reviews
Arjun: The Warrior Prince (2012)
Not Epic! May appeal to those not familiar with the epic.
The movie 'Arjun: The warrior prince' is confused, its neither for kids nor is it for adults. And for a movie based on the greatest warrior on earth, it fails to capture the richness of the character. For me, this movie didn't work mainly due to not-so-good animation, truncation of characters and deviations from the original Mahabharata. Let me point out the details...
Characters: Mahabharata has always been about the characters and their intertwined relationships. But this movie fails miserably in this aspect. Agreed that the movie is based on Arjuna, but that doesn't mean that the other characters could be tweaked at will. Characterization of Arjuna himself is pathetic and deviates too much from the epic. In the original epic, Arjuna is a master archer, who picks the Bow-arrow as his favorite weapon, and surpasses all at a very tender age of 18. He is the one who masters shooting arrows in the dark, and obtains the best of weapons for his worth. In the movie though, he is not able to summon up courage to fight or wage war until eternity... Here, Arjuna appears too weak as a warrior and his skills are almost nonexistent.
There is no respite for other characters as well. Krishna, Bhishma, and Karna combined get a screen time of may be 5 minutes or so. And Bhima, that strongest and smartest warrior is used as a comic relief! Susharman, who is supposed to be king of a state is shown to be a animal-like wanderer of forest, with a bunch of thugs for his company. Yet, the award for worst characterization would go to Shakuni, who rides a pony to lead a war!! (unintentional laughs at best!). And oh well, Ashwatthama is absent from the cast, I wonder how Drona will be killed if there is a sequel!
Animation: Animation of the human movements was jittery for most part and the physical attributes of warriors are not proportionate. In the final battle scene, when Arjun fights with Duryodhan, the latter actually looks twice the size of the former; which gives it a 'cartoonish' feel. There are a few scenes which are done better, like the swayamvar scene.
And finally... The deviations from the original epic. Uncountable, but here are a few. (1) The famous bow of Arjuna is not even named in the movie! In the epic, Arjuna and the Gandiva bow are synonymous in battlefield. (2) How Arjuna learns to shoot-down targets in the dark is absent. For a movie solely based on Arjuna, this should have been included. (3) The scene of Rangbhoomi is done ordinarily and fails to capture the enmity between Karna and Pandavas. Here again, Arjuna seems to be a timid boy, but in the epic, he was already the most skilled and courageous warrior by then. In the epic, Superiority of Arjuna is highlighted by victory over Drupad, (father of Draupadi), which is not mentioned even verbally. (4) In the epic, in the Varnavat episode, it is Bhima who saves Pandavas from the burning palace. In the movie though, the pandavas are saved accidentally. Whats the need to truncate the elder brother's feats?? (5) The scene where Arjuna says 'This is the first time I have seen a person killed' is ridiculous. At this point, in the epic, Arjuna himself has taken part and won many battles!! (6) The movie does not mention any mythical weaponry which enables Arjuna to fight with an entire army single-handed. In fact, the very purpose of Arjuna going to Mount Kailash is to obtain these divine weapons. (7) Arjuna's journey to north and marriages are not mentioned at all. (8) The swayamvar scene is highly truncated, with no mentions of Kauravas who attended the same, and also the battle that ensues between Arjuna and Karna at the end of swayamvar (in which Arjuna defeats Karna). (9) The battle of Virata, which is the climatic scene in the movie, is the most ridiculous of them all. In the epic, this the book in which the jaw-dropping duels between each of Kaurava commander with Arjuna takes place, and Arjuna defeats all of them one-by-one. The duels are fought with bow and arrow with special arrows attacking and counter-attacking each other... In the movie though, the duels are fought by mini swords :) and to top it, Drona gains upper hand over Arjuna for no reason what-so- ever. Someone uninitiated would find it hard to accept Arjuna as the greatest warrior at this point. The other duels are not shown and finally Arjuna defeats Duryodhana. This is again ridiculous. As, Arjuna is always considered way stronger than Duryodhana (in fighting other than with mace), so no point in this battle. His true battles are with Karna, Ashwatthama, Bhishma and Drona, for they are the only ones with some chance of success against him!
I could go on and on but I need to stop and return to work now... My opinion- Stay away from this movie if you are interested in the epic; an in case you want another action with Kung-fu sequences, there are many better Hollywood alternatives!