Namaste! In this life I took birth as a Black American woman and so I grew up in the American culture but all things Indian especially Indian history, music, culture and religion have affected me profoundly during this lifetime. After reading several reviews most of which trashed this movie I was overjoyed to finally see someone like, “eyes open” who was able to see what I saw in this beautiful movie. Thank you “eyes open”for writing such a wonderfully explicit and well thought out review!
By the way……just like “eyes open”….I never thought that this movie was supposed to be a “documentary” about the life of Ashoka! So…of course…. the director and actors were allowed to use their own expertise and skills to give us, the audience a wonderful, enlightening and heartwarming story. Poetic license should not only be welcomed….it should be demanded! In this way if artists are given the opportunity they can rise to the occasion as was proven here by SRK and Kareena Kapoor and the other actors involved in this film.
The only actors I found truly a bit irritating were Johnny Lever & Co. But I have never really liked Johnny Lever anyway ….something slightly grotesque about his kind of humor! Sorry, Johnny! (smile) In conclusion I would just like to say that even I have studied a bit of Indian history and I think that the director and everyone else involved in the film know the documented version of Asoka’s history much better than I do…….. yet they CHOSE to present a more human and therefore flawed picture of the man, his time and his actions.
So I think we can safely assume that they knew exactly what they wanted to say and do. They wrote, created, produced and presented to the public the exact film that they intended to! They had their eyes wide open and not…..wide shut! Bravo! Shirley Marie Bradby (MiraBai Devi Dasi JALEBI http://www.jalebimusic.com http://www.betarecords.com/jaleb