Arjun : The Warrior Prince

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 25th May, 2012
Time : 96 minutes
Director : Arnab Chaudhuri; Writer : Rajesh Devraj; Music : Vishal - Shekhar
Starring : (voices of ) Yudhveer Bakoliya, Ila Arun, Ashok Banthia, Ravi Khanvilkar, Sachin Khedekar, Vishnu Sharma

Its well made, the animations lavish & good (not upto par with the usual Disney but getting there), its interesting from a kids perspective but… in the interests of stylization / focusing on Arjun, it makes some serious deviations from the actual Mahabharat, it reduces other significant characters to almost being a caricature, (again, just to make Arjun shine brighter) and it also ends quite abruptly

Am not going to go into the story for obvious reasons. In an interesting twist, the story is narrated by a maid to a young prince, who fancies himself to be a fearsome warrior. Through her eyes we see the events unfold, we see the dilemma’s that present themselves in life and in battle for Arjun, we see how bit by bit, he becomes a true warrior instead of merely being a skilled combatant.

The music is very good, excellent lyrics (Piyush Mishra) and great vocals (the likes of Sukhwinder, Shankar Mahadevan amongst others). The quality of Hindi used in the dialogues is also commendable, even though my kids found it a bit hard to follow. There are some fantastic breathtaking moments of animation – the palaces, the scenery, some of the stunts that are really well done. And most of all, I enjoyed some of the questions that are posed to Arjun while he’s growing up. Would you fight your own guru ? How would you abandon fear ? Should you do whats right even if it means disobeying your king ?

However, as a diehard fan of the Mahabharat, I found it really hard to digest the various deviations they made from the actual story- more so given the fact that young children walking away from the movie will feel that is what really transpired. The first meeting with Karan, the swayamvar, the coronation ceremony in Indraprastha, the meeting with Krishna – for reasons not totally clear, they’re shown differently. Also the might of Bheem, the righteousness of Yudhishtra and the valour of Karan are given short shrift, just to make Arjun stand out.

Also, the animation, while beautiful in parts, lacked the detail / depth of Disney or Pixar, which even today never ceases to amaze me. While here they will show a lovely forest, in Disney films you can see an individual leaf flutter in a tree of the forest. I also missed the inherent humour that resides in most western animation features, though Shakuni was probably a good attempt at getting there.

So, while there is a lot going for it, there are, equally, a raft of flaws as well. Just to promote the culture of animated features in our country, though, would recommend everyone to watch this one in the theatre. And to make sure our kids get interested in our glorious epics, would recommend taking them to the theatre as well.