:
Shah Rukh Khan,
Shah Rukh Khan,
Kareena Kapoor,
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Santosh Sivan,
Santosh Sivan
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: 
: First Look Pictures
: Foreign, India
: 150 min.
: Hindi
: English, Malay
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Cinematographer turned director Santosh Sivan follows up on his acclaimed 1999 opus Malli with this sweeping historical epic. Asoka, the emperor of the Mauryan dynasty between 274 and 232 B.C., was famed for having unified much of modern-day India and for raising Buddhism from obscurity to the ranks of a world religion. Early in his life, as Emperor of the region of Magadha, he waged a brutal campaign against the neighboring fiefdom of Challenge, leaving the land bloody and ravaged. The war paid a toll on the young king; having realized the full horror that he wrought, Asoka renounced violence and turned to the spiritual sanctuary of Buddhism. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
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| it's all in your head
by dpowers
June 3, 2005 - 8:39 AM PDT
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4 out of 6 members found this review helpful
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those of you who got to the end of star wars: revenge of the sith and felt the emotions behind the story's main event weren't all in place might want to check this out. this trip from innocence to wisdom is better told and in my opinion more engaging.
in favor of this way of telling such a story are asoka's beautiful, experienced, well-instructed performers replaying the kind of epic historical morality play that has been in the brains of south asians for centuries. the hero's yearning is lavishly and clearly presented. when the horrors in his heart drive him to lash out at the world, the power of the emotional show makes this terrible moment all yours.
working against, in terms of walking off the street and getting into it, are the subtitles, and that it has the usual poetic breaks - song sequences - of an indian movie. they are applied to digging into the emotions of the moment in the story and are sometimes quite startingly abstract compared to the direct, physical nature of the general presentation.
anyway here is a historical drama, played out large with feelings instead of spaceships. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.37)
63 Votes
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