A member from bollywhat forum gives an interesting review on Asoka!
Now I feel liek watching it...ALL OVER 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 "
Kumkum Bhagya
Tu Dhadkan Main Dil
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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