Episode 1 Review-Underwhelming?

So, I finally caught the first epi online- it airs on television later today in my time zone but I was so stoked for this that I could not wait for half a day!

Hmm i liked the overall episode .Of course it cant be compared to BR chopra's show that is a class apart nothing can ever compare to that.But it was still good.But even in the original father and son union is rushed.I mean even in that it happens in a few minutes only.The only thing they really cut was ganga and shantanu's love story.On other hand i loved the background score.But yeah title track with the characters wasnt required since they have ommitted numbers of important characters like other pandavs,dronacharya etc

I wasn't going to compare this to B.R.Chopra's version. I was confident this would be better. However I think I was wrong after watching episode one.

I think, what's the point of remaking an old story, if you don't intend on making it better than the original in every way?

Their story telling is weak. Good costume, special effects, set, casting, etc. but weak story telling. They completely cut out Ganga and Shantanu's marriage and Shalya (Amba's prince).

Also Devrat's promise was made to Satyavati's father not Satyavati.

i don't remember much of the BR version, so when I saw the boat scene, I got very confused and didn't understand what was going on. Had to google and then started watching the episode again 😆

As children we all have listened to stories. The first time we hear a story and love it, the second time we would not be so pleased if the narration deviates especially at places where we were impressed. The first impression is etched in our mind. It's very human. Here I am not comparing with old MB. Because Mahabharata is not a new story or we didn't need the old MB to know it. The tales were all over our childhood. My 8 year old son, who has not seen old MB asked why the story opened with satyavati and not Ganga and her children drowned, because he has listened to MB ever since he started listening to stories. Therefore omission of shantanu Ganga story did leave a bad taste. IF rules, alright, but comparison is part and parcel of our life. No one is spared, not even governments. You compare something with the other all your life. We need not make derogatory statements about the show or actors, but asking to refrain from even citing the old show, kind of sounds very immature to me. A reader who is very intolerant to comparison has been blowing hot where ever the actors from the previous show are lauded. Does a statement like 'no one can enact DON better than Amitabh Bacchan' take away the charm of SRK? I don't understand.

Originally posted by: epiphany.

I agree with you on a couple a your points:

1) Satyawati stole the show indeed. 😳

2) You should be more patient, yes.

It wasn't underwhelming to me. The story was indeed pacing real fast. You'd expect them to normally just cover Ganga's bit in the first episode. But then, they did it all quite differently. There was no mention of Ved Vyasa and instead, Krishna did the narration. So, I believe we should just give them a few more episodes before we decide if their retelling of MB is any good.

Always good to read critical evaluations, no kidding. 😃

Epiphany.

Originally posted by: Sabhayata

Hmm i liked the overall episode .Of course it cant be compared to BR chopra's show that is a class apart nothing can ever compare to that.But it was still good.But even in the original father and son union is rushed.I mean even in that it happens in a few minutes only.The only thing they really cut was ganga and shantanu's love story.On other hand i loved the background score.But yeah title track with the characters wasnt required since they have ommitted numbers of important characters like other pandavs,dronacharya etc

i agree some of point , due to limited episode ganga shantnu n bhishma n statyvati story is rushed but pace will be good wen pandavas enter ,krishnaji should have been either in begning or end not in between editor has to work overall epi was good for me i was focussed more on krisha scenes