BOTTOM LINE
Worthy Finale to Mahabharata Crash Course
PLATFORM
Netflix
RUNTIME
4 hours 30 minutes, 9 Episodes
What Is the Show About?
The Kurukshetra war is nearing its end. Karna wages a final battle and Bheema is eager to settle scores with Dushasana. The conflict culminates in an ultimate showdown with Duryodhana, followed by Ashwatthama’s devastating final massacre. The women mourn their losses, Gandhari curses Krishna while Yudhishthira is coronated as the king, marking the end of an era.
Analysis
An aspect that helps any story endure over ages and surpass barriers is its interpretative quality. The dilemmas within the characters in such a tale represent the chaos within every mortal. There’s a rich, layered past defining their actions. The victories and the failures are never absolute. The tale is dense yet offers a sense of nothingness, a paradox the Mahabharata uniquely validates.
Kurukshetra, Netflix’s first attempt at presenting Mahabharata in an animated format, opened to widespread applause with its first set of nine episodes. Not only are the visual aesthetics respectable, but the show does a commendable job of bringing the not-so popular mythical characters into the spotlight, capturing the dense nature of the epic through appropriate, accessible dialogues.
The second set of nine episodes (the 18 episodes being indicative of the 18-day-war?) sustains its winning momentum, building on a solid foundation. It brings to light various dimensions of the war, its necessity, the brutality, the idea of dharma, moving beyond the black and white representations of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The storytelling is rich, dialogue heavy and still precise.
Like the earlier episodes, the intention of the creators is unwavering. They only seek to build upon the core themes of the epic, without any drastic re-imagination. In times when any alternative take on epics can turn a touchy issue, the element of caution is understandable. In every episode, the makers race against time to squeeze in as many layers of the story as possible.
While most retellings of Mahabharata, more so in the visual medium, have explored the epic through the lens of one particular character in the past, the canvas of a battle like Kurukshetra opens up many avenues for the storyteller here to give a voice to a wide range of characters. Krishna’s discourses too, more than the characters themselves, feel directly addressed to a neutral spectator.
The show provides the space to explore conflicts within characters like Shalya and Kripacharya. Though occasionally dialogue-heavy, the creators establish the defining traits of the characters through crisp visuals of the war’s events, almost as if they were in a tearing hurry to encapsulate ‘everything you need to know about Karna, Bheema, Kunti, Bheeshma…’
A timely addition is the Stree Parv episode which emphasises the emptiness in the lives of women at both ends of the war, with dialogues bringing multifarious perspectives of the deadly clash to the fore. The ending, in particular, connects the dots succinctly, answering all the hows, whys. It’s understandably heavy and philosophical, but that’s the only way one could have gone about it.
The violence borders on the gore at times. Was it really necessary to showcase Bheema bathing in Dushasana’s blood after the bitter tussle? In certain situations, you wonder if the makers could have adopted a more leisurely approach to unraveling the layers; there’s only so much you can absorb at one go (especially for a first-time viewer who may not be familiar with the Mahabharata).
Given the notoriousness associated with television and cinema adaptations that have twisted the epic’s essence beyond repair in recent years, prolonging the obvious, Kurukshetra is a breath of fresh air (its issues are minimal). Director Ujaan Ganguly and creator Anu Sikka can hold their head high with the standards they’ve set for the epic in terms of the visuals, writing, crispness and execution.
Kurukshetra is a Mahabharata crash course that speaks to its audience in a contemporary cinematic language, doing their bit to be an Amar Chitra Katha tale set to motion.
Highlights?
Captures the many layers of Mahabharata.
Excellent dialogues.
Technical execution, visuals.
Drawbacks?
Always in a rush to cram every possible dimension of the character.
Feels heavy, exhaustive at times.
Music feels slightly over the top (in a few situations).
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes
M9 Reviews vs Box Office: Simple Q & A Guide
Kurukshetra Netflix Season 2 Review by M9
