Your thoughts on Asoka (editted to add review)

desigal90 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#1
I was just watchign Asoka to destress from midterms and damn! IT was a hella good movie! I dont remember it all that much coz I wasnt into bollywood back in 2001 to such an extent and I didnt watch it properly. But now that I watch it again, goodness, the soudntrack, the haunting melodies, the battle scenes, the dialouges, emotions, storyline. And most of all THE PERFORMANCES! Srk and Kareena gave one of hteir career best perforamnces in this movie, but it went unnoticed.
Spoiler Alert: If you havent seent eh movie, dont click thi
At 7:35
Beautiful performance from both of them, and the background score makes me wanna cry 😭
Srk emotes without the need for any dialogues and kareena's dialogue delivery is fantastic. You can just feel her hatred when she screams asoka.
Cant believe this was just her fourth movie. God bebo, why the hell are you doing these tashans, if this is what you're capable of??
Anu Malik at his peak! God knows what happened to him after that.
EDITTED:
I found htis member's take on Asoka VERY interesting. Infact, this is what prompted me to watch it again!
"I have no idea why this movie flopped. I just watched it for the first time (I can't really remember what prompted me to get it, maybe the fact that some rated it as SRK's best performance and I wanted to see what that looked like Smiley) but it was beyond gorgeous! So I'm a sucker for movies that LOOK good, it's probably pretty obvious by now, but I found that this movie had so much more than good looks.

Let me start by saying that yes, it is SRK's best performance that I have seen to date (better that Chak De IMO, it's way more layered! Chak De used to be my benchmark for him). Secondly, I loved Kareena but that comes as no surprise because I am liking this woman more an more these days. The scene at the end when she tells him "You're not Pawan, you're Asoka", the way she says Asoka just killed me softly: so much hatred, so much resentment, so many feelings in the way she says that one word! Whew! Intense! Thirdly I'm not sure what it's called (I have yet to get the soundtrack) but that song with the two of them in the water after Asoka thinks Kaurwaki is dead and he's sleeping and dreaming about her, my God, it's stunning!

But the best part about this movie other than the visuals, is how everything is a metaphor, nothing seems to be random. Starting with the obvious choice of horses for Asoka: snow white while he is a prince and still pure at heart and pitch black when he turns into the ruthless emperor. And going on to the more subtle ones. My favourite is how he cannot find Kaurwaki even when she is standing in front of him in the fighting scene. He can't see her until he has regained his humanity, later on when he is shaken from his senseless world.

I thought that was very well done, and I liked how the moment he becomes the dark Asoka, the dreams about Kaurwaki stop haunting him: as if he cannot be with her even in his dreams because he has lost that part of him that made him human, the part of him that was capable of love. And he never sees her again until he gets reunited with that side of himself. It reminded me a bit of a book by Italo Calvino about a knight that gets physically split into two halves one of them entirely bad the other entirely good. But neither of the halves can have a proper existence because they can't live without each other. It's a similar idea here, I think: she was his good, or his strength to be good. And I think it's lovely how Devi tries to do exactly that and almost succeeds but maybe she fails because she was just too good - there was no evil in her to make her a strong enough match. At least that was my take on it (I only read a few of the pages in this thread, so I wonder if anyone else saw it the same way, but I probably will come back and read the whole thing in the next few days).

I have a feeling this is one of those movies that seems loaded with metaphors the first time you see it and then every time you watch it again you find new ones that you never even thought of... I'm getting excited just at the thought of it... can't wait to watch it again!

And to end this on a trivial note: I never thought I would find SRK hot, but he comes pretty close in this one. As for Kareena, she looks absolutely stunning in the fighting scene at the end when she is wearing that black outfit and she is killing everyone trying to get to Asoka - I could not take my eyes off of her! Who cares that she didn't have a proper armour on - this was way hotter Smiley

And trivial post scriptum number 2: I finally realized why I can't stand SRK crying: it's the sniffling: if only he could cry more quietly, I'd be won over, but the siffling always ruins the moment for me Tongue I know... I'm so superficial "
Edited by desigal90 - 16 years ago

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plasticpolaroid thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#2
not only did it deserve to flop but everyone involved in making of that movie deserve anywhere between 5 lashings and 100 punches in the face
plasticpolaroid thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#3
and btw desigal i don't mean to offend, please don't leave the forum


again

i apologize in advance :(
desigal90 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#4

No no, its cool, haha, plz dont think I'll take off if you disagree with my statements, I swear, haha.

Just a few members attacked me directly simultaneously and the negativity became too much. That's what happened but other than that, plz feel free to disagree.
I would like to know why you didnt like Asoka. I think that compared to the movies coming out nowadays, its actually a masterpiece. Its got a story to begin wtih, lol.
I cant stand the tashans nowadays, haha.
RiyaK09 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#5

Originally posted by: plasticpolaroid

not only did it deserve to flop but everyone involved in making of that movie deserve anywhere between 5 lashings and 100 punches in the face

OMG I laughed soo hard reading your comment! But I have to say, I agree with you.
desigal90 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#6
Aww why do you guys hate this this movie so much? I thought it was a great movie. 😊
RiyaK09 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#7
It was a BAD portrayal of history. Everything from costumes to acting was overdone.
desigal90 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#8
Oh yeah apart from that, haha. Just viewing the movie on its own, just the movie itself. Like I thought it was very well made. A lot of effort put into battle scenes, dialogues, locations, acting.
I know one criticism is historically inaccurate.
plasticpolaroid thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#9
well at least brainless mindless action movies can be forgiven..

but to make a movie with half baked plot based on historical characters and historical events and then change the main characters into some sexed up weirdos with bad acting, add some horrible "item song" and then Johnny Lever's horrible comic relief..

that was just blasphemy.. i didn't see any point of that movie
desigal90 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#10
OMG! HAHAHA! JOHNNY LEVER! WTH was his part anyways? I saw no purpose whatsoever in puting his character there at the gates. Complete waste of space!

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