Mahabharat (TV Series 2013–2014)

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Trivia
The viewership ratings of the week of 1 December 2013 reached 9.801 TVTs. The game of dice leading to Draupadi's 'cheer haran' took Mahabharat at its peak viewership (10 TVMs) and helped the broadcasting channel Star Plus clock one of the highest GTVMs.

Quotes
Krishna: This is Mahabharat, whatever you don't find here you will not find elsewhere.

Featured review

7/10

The good -

Graphics/VFX are good for the most part but overdone and too gaudy in some areas. It's an expensive project and it shows. Costume design is great.

Krishna, Bhishmapita and Draupadi are excellent, others are ok. Krishna really stands out and his teachings are written properly( although hugging Karna is stupid). But overall really good, even better than Nitish Bhardwaj's Krishna. Bhisma looks the part and dialogue delivery is good. Draupadi has been given more role than BR Chopra's Draupadi.

Now the bad things -

Loud and overuse of bgm. There's music after almost every dialogue and the thundering sound is cheap and unnecessary. Lacks subtlety of western shows like Game of Thrones.

Lots of overacting and bad closeups of actors. Actors staring at the camera with their eyes bulging and crying dramatically. Bhim and Shakuni is particularly guilty of this. The BR Chopra edition had more subtlety.

Too much masala drama added and scenes dragged out too long. The death of Abhimanyu is poorly shown with the Pandavas and Karauavs talking to each other which is not possible as Pandavas are supposed to be far outside the Chakravyuh at the entrance. And Abhimanyu is supposed to be deep inside the Chakravyuh when he's killed. The Pandavas didn't actually see his death because they were outside fighting with Jaidrath. Again, the BR version was better here.

Lord Krishna hugging Karna before his death? Like c'mon, that's a bit too much. Krishna may have had a bit of sympathy for Karna but hugging him like that is completely out of character for him as Karna had insulted Draupadi and Krishna was very close to Draupadi and the Pandavas.

In the original, Karna's chariot wheel gets stuck during battle with Arjun. Here Krishna takes the chariot away and makes Karna chase after them and then his wheel gets stuck.

Karna's death is also laughably shown in this. In the original story he's instantly killed when Arjuna fires the arrow at him. In this however, he doesn't die and keeps taking for several minutes with the arrow in his neck. Then Kunti arrives on the battlefield and talks to him which never happens in the orginal story. Then his adopted mother Radha also arrives with his wife Vrushali wtf!! Completely ridiculous as they were nowhere near Kurukshetra during the war. Just added for masala.

Bhishmapitamaha's death is also inaccurate, all the five Pandavas are attacking him in some secluded place and the Kauravas are nowhere to be seen lol. Then Shikandi arrives and shoots an arrow at him wtf. In the original story Shikhandi doesn't use any weapons and is just placed in front of Bhisma so he gives up his weapons. Why can't you just stick to the original in important events like this.

Duryodhan actor is soft/boyish looking and doesn't have the strong vibe and rough look that BR's Duryodhan had. His dialogue delivery is weak as well and doesn't feel threatening at all.

Most of the fight scenes are bad with too much slow motion and unnecessary dialogues. After spending so much money atleast make some proper choreographed action scenes that have tension. In this it's two sides shooting CGI arrows at each other.