Vichitravirya is captured by the Panchal King and is about to be punished for burning crops when he is rescued by Bhisma who turns up all gung ho, and pulls some extraordinary moves to rescue the hapless prince. Some other inaccuracies that I can’t help noticing are the way the battle scenes have been shot. And yet her sisters are shown to be demure, more than happy to go along with Bhisma to marry a man who, as stated above, is weak and a drunkard and it seems prone to burning fields as well!
However, the Amba that is depicted in this new serial is just plain annoying! When she is introduced, she burns down a field in order to meet her beloved King Shalv. I have always sympathized with Amba because of the way she was treated in the epic. Yet another characterization that I was unhappy with was Amba. This depth and complexity of their relationship has not been explored in the current serial. Her marriage to the king may have been based on a terrible sacrifice by Devratha but for all intents and purposes, she was loyal to the throne to the end and eternally grateful to Bhisma. Satyavati has been represented as an ambitious and selfish woman whose sole aim is to secure the throne for her progeny and yet the Satyavati of the texts was very different.
The story of Shantanu and Ganga reduced to a couple of hasty scenes. Entire sub-stories have been glossed over. However, I still get frustrated by the apparent lack of research that has gone into re-making this epic. The more recent attempt by Star Plus is, while not perfect, at least watchable. The first one was the disastrous attempt by Ekta Kapoor (Kahani Hamare Mahabharat Ki), which infuriated me so much that I stopped watching it after the first few episodes.
Recently the Mahabharat has been adapted twice for TV. BR Chopra's Mahabharat was shown on TV in the 90s and I was subsequently glued to the television every sunday with my entire family. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the Mahabharat.
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