It was a euphoric response from across the nation which greeted the announcement of a Malayalam movie couple of weeks back. It was the mammoth ₹10 billion project with the Malayalam super star Mohanlal in the lead role. The movie is said to be made in all the major Indian as well as global languages.
The awe factor was not only the jaw dropping budget alone, it was the title of movie which enthused the Indians more, ‘The Mahabharata’. A budget, may be first of its kind in India, which is more than 5 times that of Bahubali with a title Mahabharata is more than enough to set the Indian expectations and admiration soaring high.
The movie is based on a well acclaimed Malayalam novel titled ‘Randamoozham’ which means 'the second turn'. This novel is considered to be the masterpiece of its author M.T Vasudevan Nair who will also be doing the screenplay for the movie as well. The 1984 novel, which has two translations in English with titles ‘Second Turn’ &‘Bhima Lone Warrior’, has won many awards in Malayalam.
The novel is based on how the author wanted to the see events and characters of the epic Mahabharata through the eyes of Bhima. In his way of interpretation, the author has taken the liberty of straying away from the original story line of the epic Mahabharata. The author,fondly called as MT,is someone who is already known for mischievously changing the nature of the well-known characters of the history in his writings. He has a great acumen in painting heroes into villains and vice versa.
It is not different in this novel too. To name a few instances, Bhima, the central character of the novel ‘Randamoozham’ is not the mighty, respectful, loved by all and dreaded by the enemy Bhima of the epic Mahabharata. If the Bhima of the epic is the epitome of strength, power and victory, then it is the opposite in the case of MT’s Bhima. The thread of the story itself is that the whole world is doing injustice to Bhima by making him a second in everything in his life, be it Draupati’s love or the respect for the valour among Padavas, as the title ‘Randamoozham’ suggests and making him feel inferior. In this novel he is always resentful in the step motherly attitude meted out to him by the life and he transmits only negativity throughout, much to the contrast to the original Bhima in the epic.
It is not only the character of Bhima who is disfigured by MT in the novel. There is no divinity to Krishna in the story as well. He is even picturised as a caste begot who feels satisfied that it is a lower caste Ghatotkacha who died (an upper caste Arjuna is saved!) in the fight against Karna.
<Page reference pic#1 at the end of the article>
Another example is Mata Kunti who is characterized as good as a prostitute or a whore by suggesting how she mothered Bhima from some random forest-dweller, Yudhishtira from Vidhura the brother of her husband Pandu and Karna from some charioteer.
Another example is Mata Kunti who is characterized as good as a prostitute or a whore by suggesting how she mothered Bhima from some random forest-dweller, Yudhishtira from Vidhura the brother of her husband Pandu and Karna from some charioteer.
<Page reference pic#2 at the end of the article>
There is already a controversy raging in Kerala on naming the movie as Mahabharata. It is also doubtful that the cheerful lot who lauded the announcement of the movie earlier will still favour naming it Mahabharata after knowing that it is not the Mahabharata that India reveres, or rather when realizing that it is just a tiny piece taken out of the revered epic and reshaped into something else.
There is already a controversy raging in Kerala on naming the movie as Mahabharata. It is also doubtful that the cheerful lot who lauded the announcement of the movie earlier will still favour naming it Mahabharata after knowing that it is not the Mahabharata that India reveres, or rather when realizing that it is just a tiny piece taken out of the revered epic and reshaped into something else.
But the point not to be missed here is that nobody is against the novel ‘Randamoozham’ or making it into a film. Only issue is in naming the movie as Mahabharata.
The main argument at this point is that adaptation of a novel which deals with a few leaves taken from the epic should not be called Mahabharata, instead it should either retain the original title or anything else other than that of the epic.
Neither anyone is averse to the use of the name ‘Mahabharata’ nor anyone is against the freedom of the writer to depict the Bhima and other characters of Mahabharata in his own way. Only issue everybody is raising is that if you call something Mahabharata and want to show the world it as Mahabharata (producers have announced this to be a global project) then it should be Vedavyasa’s epic Mahabharata only. Any adaptation twisted or not should use some other name.
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Page reference Pic#1: A caste begot Krishna draws satisfaction from the death of Ghatotkacha because he is from a lower cast!
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| Page 252, Randamoozham |
Reference Pic#2: Mata Kunti who is characterized as a prostitute by suggesting how she mothered Bhima from some random forest-dweller, Yudhishtira from Vidhura the brother of her husband Pandu, Karna from some charioteer.
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| Page 284, Randamoozham |
http://www.dailyo.in/voices/mahabharata-1000-crore-film-malayalam-mohanlal-mt-vasudevan-nair/story/1/16986.html
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