Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Movie: Part A

This film starts out with a young boy walking around a temple and he ends up running into a man called Vyasa. Vyasa asks if the boy knows how to write and if he could write a poem that he has composed in his head. He claims that the poem is about the boys history and by the end of it he will be different. Ganesha comes in and he ends up being the person to write the poem for Vyasa and the poem ends up being the Mahabharata story.

(Vyasa, Ganesha, and the young boy.

Source: Web)

In this story prince Bhishma is depicted as a black man and the Gods reward him by choosing the time of his death. Bhishma participates in a tournament and is rewarded with three brides. One of them named Amba was upset and claimed to Bhishma that she is bound by love to another man. Bhishma allows her to leave to marry the man she chooses to. Sadly the man she loves, Salva, does not want her anymore. He is scared of Bhishma and doesn't want anything to do with the prize of another man.

Amba comes back to Bhishma and wants him to take her back. Amba claims that Bhishma is responsible for her misery. She vows to be responsible for his death.

King Pandu gets cursed, he can no longer enjoy the pleasures of life and have a son as a result. King Pandu takes his two wives to the top of the Himalayas. But the two wives can tell that he is upset that he cannot have a son with either of the women. Kunti summons the sun god and has a son named Karna with him but remained a virgin. Karna was a strong man but he was somewhat evil because he doesn't know who he really is.

Kunti admits to King Pandu about her mantra to summon any god to impregnate her. She thought King Pandu would be upset but he ends up making her summon a god so that the two can have a child together. I assume he would just raise it as his own. The god that was summoned was Dharma and the child would be named Yudhishthira. Then King Pandu told her to do it again but call upon Vayu, the wind god. The son was named Bhima. Then she does it one more time and call upon Indra and that son is called Arjuna. Kunti tells Madri her mantra and she calls upon Ashwins and ends up having two children named Nakula and Sahadeva.

Duryodana is born and is thought to destroy the Pandava people.
Meanwhile King Pandu is trying to have sex with one of his wives but she knows that he will die if it happens. She said he will have to take her by force but did not put up much of a struggle. She lets him take her and King Pabdu ends up dying before he is even able to kiss her. Madri feels responsible for the kings death and tells Kunti that her sons now belong to her.  Madri follows King pandu into the other world.

This film follows an order. This whole movie is about the young boy, Vyasa, and Genasha writing the poem. When he starts to tell another part of his story it shows the actual scene.

The movie goes forward 20 years and all the children of Bhishma and King pandu are now adults. Drona comes into the scene when they are all fighting and says he will train them all.

Arjuna finally meets Karna. Karna claims to be every bit as good as Karna and even better. Arjuna says he will one day kill Arjuna.

Bibliography: Peter Brook, The Mahabharata
Link: http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2014/06/film-brook-mahabharata.html