Psst - This section will contain some inside trivia about the film.
Quotes - Good one liners from the movie.
Oops - Goofs From the movie.
Director - Santosh Sivan
Screenplay - Santosh Sivan, Saket Chaudhary and Abbas Tyrewalla.
Beautifully shot yet historically incorrect movie about The Life and Ties of One Of Indian History’s most famous King Ashoka. King Ashok (Shahrukh Khan) is an egoistic yet extremely intelligent and shrewd son of Mauriyan ing Bindusara who is destined to be his successor. He is extremely hated by his half- brother Susima (Ajit) who has already plotted to kill him. He goes on a self imposed exile where he falls in love with a neighbouring kingdom’s princess Kaurwaki (Kareena Kapoor). He also befriends Danny and Kalinga’s Army General (Rahul Dev). After a sad seperation from Kaurwaki he marries Devi (hrishita Bhatt) who ashoka later follows in to learning Buddhism. After His Mother is Killed by a conspiracy by Ashoka’s cousins, Ashoka Kills each and evry one of them (Except Susima who is killed by Danny). He Crowns himself the King and goes on a conqueing spree. After The historical Kaling war he develops a change of heart and decides to follow and preach Non Violence. The star cast is just about ok but the movie is entirely wrong as far as history is concerned. Not expected from Santosh Sivan whose precvious projects were the superb, The Terrorist(Tamil), Halo(Hindi) and Malli(Tamil). The Comic sequences involving Johnny Lever, Suresh Menon and Raghuveer Yadav were in a very bad taste. So were the ridiculous dance sequences. sequences which have more of a ’’Chaiyya Chaiyya’’ Look. Movie largely inspired by The Gladiator and the final kalinga war scene was fully copied from War sequences in Braveheart and The Patriot.
Psst -
1) King Ashok was one of 101 children of King Bindusara.
2) It is still a mystrey whether King Ashok actually killed his brothers. What’s shown is just one of the possibility.
3) Shahrukh Khan was one of the producers along with Juhi Chawla and Aziz Mirza.
4) The Movie was ditributeed by Shahrukh Khan himself at a price of Rs 10 Million Per Terrirtory. This is 66 % less then his regular movie’s price. He even cut his acting fee by nearly 60 % for the movie.
5) Before the release of the movie, Shahrukh Khan went To The Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh for meditation.
Quotes
1) ’’Sinhaasan par bethne ke leye sahas chaiye.’’
Oops
1) Lots of Blue/Shades of blue coloured clothes are seen being worn by the actors/actressess. This cant be possible as Blue coloured clothes require Indigo dye and that dye was discovered as late as 19th century and that too by the Britishers. Even today when you visit the Buddhist/Hindu Caves (Ellora and Ajanta Caves near Aurangabad) you will NOT see any blu or shades of blue colour. (These caves were built during the same time as the movie setting)
2) The movie also shos a hige statue of Gautam Buddha in many scenes. This is also not possible as Statue Worshipping Of Gautam Buddha came much after The death Of King Ashoka. Before and During The Rule of King Ashoka Statue Worship Of Buddha was forbidden.
3) King Ashok never married any Princess Kaurwaki of Kalinga.The Kingdom Of Kalinga was ruled By A jain Dynasty and during The Rule of King Ashoka, Kalinga became India’s first Democratic Republic.
4) The Kalinga war was fought 8 years after King Ashoka was crowned as The King and not a few months later as shown.