Review: In animated series ‘Kurukshetra’, the ‘Mahabharata’ epic as a spectacle

After the animated film Mahavatar Narasimha on Netflix comes the animated series Kurukshetra. The Hindi show is centred on the 18-day war fought between the Kaurava and Pandava cousins in the Mahabharata.

Kurukshetra imposes a neat mathematics on a highly complex text, which is also one of the greatest studies of family honour, greed and the futility of vengeance. The first season comprises nine episodes dedicated to nine characters, among them Arjun, Yudhishthira and Abhimanyu. The second season will cover the other nine characters.

The epic has been heavily simplified, with the narrative alternating between battlefield scenes and flashbacks to the inciting incidents that result in members of the same clan baying for each other’s blood.

While the emphasis is on computer-generated spectacle, a prologue gives an early hint that Kurukshetra aims to be more than visual sleight of hand. A voice, speaking words written by Gulzar, observes that the truth has many shades. The fallout of the Kurukshetra war, which is measured in the loss of values as well as lives, still haunts us all these centuries later, the voiceover adds.

The series includes a 101 on the Bhagavad Gita treatise – Krishna’s advice on the meaning of duty, action and righteousness delivered to a waffling Arjun who balks at having to fight and...

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