It was the video cover of ASOKA that attracted me to the film . It claims to be as spectacular as GLADIATOR , a really good epic film I'd seen a couple of days previously. The video cover tells us it's about the Emperor Asoka of the 3rd Century BC though it doesn't claim to be historically accurate. Well BRAVEHEART was farcical in it's accuracy but the battle scenes were good , so that didn't put me off , or the fact that it was subtitled. After all DAS BOOT had subtitles and that's one of the finest antiwar films ever made, so I stuck ASOKA into the VCR expecting GLADIATOR meets BRAVEHEART. I got a disappointing surprise , ASOKA is a Bollywood movie.
I've nothing against Bollywood, films are made as a form of mass entertainment and outside the American industry Bollywood stands heads and shoulders above all the other countries of the World put together which is evidence of its success , it's just that I find them unfocused when it comes to genres. Can you imagine a James Bond film suddenly turning into a musical ?
As for the " Epic " merits of ASOKA itself I was very disappointed. Within the first ten minutes we have a line stolen from CROCODILE DUNDEE and a battle scene stolen from SPARTACUS which isn't as exciting as it sounds. Indeed some the fight scenes are laughable with the camera locked onto the actors faces in a completely unconvincing attempt to hide the fact that there are about a dozen or so actors comprising an army. Having said that the final battle is relatively well done with a cast of hundreds , though it's not all that impressive if you've seen GLADIATOR a couple of days previously.
*****POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS***** My major complaint is the bitter sweet ending which preaches the message that evil begets evil , violence begets violence. It's a poignant and serious message so why did we have 5 song and dance routines in the first half of the film ? And the fact that the musical numbers disappear half way through gives the film in general and the ending in particular an extremely uneven feel. If the producers wanted to make a musical then they should have done so, if they wanted to make a serious epic they should have done so , as it is ASOKA might have appealed to some people but not to me
I've nothing against Bollywood, films are made as a form of mass entertainment and outside the American industry Bollywood stands heads and shoulders above all the other countries of the World put together which is evidence of its success , it's just that I find them unfocused when it comes to genres. Can you imagine a James Bond film suddenly turning into a musical ?
As for the " Epic " merits of ASOKA itself I was very disappointed. Within the first ten minutes we have a line stolen from CROCODILE DUNDEE and a battle scene stolen from SPARTACUS which isn't as exciting as it sounds. Indeed some the fight scenes are laughable with the camera locked onto the actors faces in a completely unconvincing attempt to hide the fact that there are about a dozen or so actors comprising an army. Having said that the final battle is relatively well done with a cast of hundreds , though it's not all that impressive if you've seen GLADIATOR a couple of days previously.
*****POSSIBLE MILD SPOILERS***** My major complaint is the bitter sweet ending which preaches the message that evil begets evil , violence begets violence. It's a poignant and serious message so why did we have 5 song and dance routines in the first half of the film ? And the fact that the musical numbers disappear half way through gives the film in general and the ending in particular an extremely uneven feel. If the producers wanted to make a musical then they should have done so, if they wanted to make a serious epic they should have done so , as it is ASOKA might have appealed to some people but not to me