Review of Asoka

Introduction

After the disappointing film of Phir Bhi Hain Hindustani (1999) Producer/actor Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chalwa would once again make an Indian film not only for Indian audiences but also for the rest of the international market. This time it’s not Aziz Mirza as director, but a south Indian cinematographer/director. The film was launched as “Asoka The Great”, based on the Indian legend of Emperor Asoka.

The film’s production was completed amongst hype within the Indian film industry, as was to be directed by the new showman of 21st century Indian cinema - Santosh Sivan. Santosh Sivan whose camerawork in Thalapati (1988), Iruvar (1997), Dil Se (1998), and Vannaprasantham (2000), and direction in rare art films like Halo (1995), Mili (1998), but above all The Terrorist (2000), would make audiences in awe of his visuals and content. While other Indian directors like Yash Johar entertains, Santosh Sivan inspires.

Alas, when I saw Asoka I felt this is the first ever disappointment from Santosh Sivan as director for me personally. While his visuals are the most stunning imagery to be captured on 35mm film, the film lacks a good screenplay. The film begins like the usual Indian period film produced back in the 1940’s and 50’s. We meet the characters, the mood and tone is placed in audiences’ mind, wonderful set designs can be seen and we then see a minor turning point that places the main character onto his journey. He discovers romance then the film’s main turning point occurs, which heads towards a battlefield war in the climax of the film. This is where the fault lies for me, its not inspiring…its only entertaining.

The film has wonderful performances from Danny, Ajith Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Rahul Dev, & Hrishitaa Bhatt but the screenplay resembles a modern day soap opera with similar themes of love, friendship, loyalty but above all betrayal. With too much exaggerated plot turns, that would make Indian film director Manmmohan Desai proud, and no actual moments of character study the film ends up being ordinary on the surface.

If it had moments to explore certain points in the film, like Asoka ordering his brother’s death, then audiences would be more involved in the film as it would have been far more interesting. It is only some aspect during the second half of the film do we see the effects of Asoka cruelty on ordinary begins. Scenes like one solider resorting to paedophilia with a young girl, the slaying of a child, the rotting dead corpse laying on the battlefield, are harrowing effects of war and mayhem the director touches upon. It is only during this part do we see the environmental study of what would have occurred during the terror of Asoka, before he went on the path of peace and love.

I suspect the depths of character study might have been too much for Indian audiences and their censors, which is why the film-makers opted for a film that only skims the surface. I think film-makers in India are slightly scared since the Bandit Queen (1995) controversy. Some purists in India have argued that the film is a misrepresentation of the life of Asoka as facts are either incorrect or not true. But cinema is a form of entertainment and if it means altering the facts for a better cinematic vision (Titanic, Braveheart – anyone?) then so be it. You can always study books or watch the discovery channel if you want real accounts! Besides the film-makers has always stated that this film is partly fictitious.

Apart from the flawed screenplay, we also have a flawed chorography from Farah Khan and flawed song score on Anu Malik’s part. Many have liked the score and dances, but the songs sound too modern for it to be set in 3 B.C, while the dances look more like a mixture of MTV and the karmasutra! Understandably there are very limited (or no) reference guides to what music or dances was like back in 3 B.C so creativity comes into play. Here the creativity seems to be more suited for a commercial audience, instead of playing with the screenplay and characters. All of the song sequences and dances threw the film of course and it was placed disjointedly, jarring the overall narrative structure.

I do know that the director in fact released a director’s cut version of the film, which edited out a couple of the song sequences. I saw this version of the film on cinema, and it actually made the overall film have a better flow. However this version on DVD is not the director’s cut but the full uncut version. It would have been an excellent feature had the DVD also included the director’s cut, with the interactive aid of seamingless branching.

Despite a wonderful cast, great production values, and breathtaking cinematography the film still lacked depth.

Video

The DVD is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio 2.35:1, which is anamorphically enhanced. The wonderful cinematography is fully retained on this disc. However the picture quality is somewhat a mixed bag. The picture does revel some light compression artefacts, and some film dirt in places. This suggests that the source used was not as clean as it should have been, given that this film was a recent release.

Also the dark details were really poor. Blacks looked too parallel, and in some scenes it was hard to differentiate between Shahrukh Khan’s jet black hair and the dark sets around him. Other minor problems detected were edge enhancement, shimmering and moiré effects. But what disturbed me more was the lack of dark details. The colour saturation was good, and sharpness details ranged from average to excellent in some places of the film.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Hindi soundtrack is good, with much activity in the rear channels during the songs and war sequences. Dialogues were clear and sound effects around the 5.1 set-up blended well with what was occurring on screen. It will please audiences.

However the additional Dolby Digital 2.0 Tamil soundtrack on this disc was in mono, and sounded really bad in places. Dialogues sounded too harsh and at times was inaudible to my ears.

Features

The DVD comes with extras:

International Theatrical Trailer: This is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio that is anamorphically enhanced. The sound is in 2.0 Dolby Digital. Quality is good.

Next up is the making of feature, which has a running time of around 20 mins. This is your basic promotional fluff from the cast and crew. It will please people as some accounts of production are looked upon, but to me it’s just a very long advert.

Following this is another making of feature that looks solely on the big war sequence that occurs at the end of the film. This too has a near running time of 20 mins, and is perhaps the best feature on this disc. Here the crew talk about how the fight sequence was shot. Quality on both features is of digital broadcast quality and as such is quite good, despite a couple of pixilation moments.

We then have a segment called “image gallery with radio advert soundbed”. This is basically promotional material (film posters) shown on the screen while we can hear the radio adverts for the film. The adverts heard on this feature are quite embarrassing, which I won’t be visiting again.

Finally is the biography section on the main casts within the film. We also have a filmography section on the director. The information presented is reasonable and will serve much interested to those wanting to check out pervious films the cast are in, and films the director made.

The optional English and French subtitled used on the main feature is well translated. While the moving menus are nicely designed, and have easy navigation.

Conclusion

This is the first time a major Hollywood distributor in the UK has released an Indian film on DVD. But the result is slightly disappointing as the extra features are not as special, and the picture quality is a mixed bag. However when compared to other Indian DVD’s in the market Asoka is one of the best looking Indian films ever seen on this format, despite its flaws, and would recommend purchasing.