Aśoka

Aśoka

MAIN CAST:

Shahrukh Khan -- Aśoka

Kareena Kapoor -- Kaurwaki

Sooraj Balaji -- Arya

Rahul Dev -- Bheema

Ajith Kumar -- Susima

Hrishita Bhatt -- Devi

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW:

Today, Aśoka is best remembered as the emperor who spread Buddhism throughout India. But he wasn't always such a peaceful man: in his early days, he was a bloodthirsty warmonger. Aśoka shows the titular character's transformation from "Aśoka the Evil" to "Aśoka the Great," a transformation that came from love.

FILM -- 4/5

It's obvious from the opening scenes that Aśoka was shot with painstaking precision and had a huge budget, and it pays off. The film is beautiful to look at and a pleasure to watch; the editing is great, the picturizing is amazing, the choreography is some of the best I've seen, and the costumes...oh, don't even get me started on the costumes! The dialogue is well-written, although it loses a bit of its power when its translated in to English. Vitashoka's speech to Aśoka at the end of the movie--along with the emperor's journey through the carnage he has caused shortly after--will bring you to tears. The few humorous moments, especially the slapstick comedy, are funny in both languages, largely due to the use of physical humor instead of puns and a cameo appearance by Johnny Lever. The film was criticized by Indian reviewers for its portrayal of Aśoka, which is admittedly highly fictionalized, so if you're one of those movie-goers who can't stand factual inaccuracies, you might want to avoid Aśoka.

CHARACTERS -- 4/5

I'll be honest here: I can't stand Kareena Kapoor. While it's true that Bollywood is rather nepotistic and most actors get their fame handed down to them by a famous relative, most of those actors have talent, or manage to work up something resembling talent after one or two bad films. Kareena reminds me of an Indian Paris Hilton, both physically and as an entertainer. She has the uncanny ability to ruin any film she stars in. That being said, she does much better in Aśoka, giving Kaurwaki life and vibrancy. Her face still doesn't do it for me, but her acting is above average and she looks hot when she dances. Shahrukh Khan is, as always, unbelievably sexy; in fact, he's probably the hottest visual in the movie, with the bindi and eyeliner adding to his appeal. Shahrukh manages to portray Asoka as a dynamic character who changes from a spoiled brat to the man who would spread Buddhism throughout India. There are several moments where even King Khan comes off as being exaggerated, but they're mere inches in the landscape of an awesome performance. Shahrukh has great chemistry with both of his co-starlets. The supporting cast is one of the film's best assets. Tamil actor Ajith Kumar plays Asoka's jealous brother quite well, and Rahul Dev's performance as General Bheema is vastly underrated. Of particular note is the young actor playing Prince Arya, Sooraj Balaji, who has more emotional appeal during his 30 minutes on screen than most adult actors can muster throughout an entire 3 hour film.

MUSIC -- 4.5/5

Musically, Aśoka is divine. The hits include "San Sanana," which is great fun and is picturized over a spunky Kareena Kapoor, and the beautiful "Roshni Se." "Aa Tayar Hoja" is nice to listen to and is super sexy in-film, but it sounds way too modern and doesn't quite fit in the grand scheme of things. The best song is "Raat Ka Nasha," while the most forgettable is "O Re Kanchi," though it is by no means a bad song. In general terms, the music is good, but it offers nothing new and has trouble expanding on traditional aspects of filmi songs. Sometimes the lyrics in "O Re Kanchi" are absolute crap, although the poetic beauty of "Roshni Se" tends to make up for that. It wouldn't be such a big deal in a Hollywood film, but any Bolly fan worth their weight in gold bindi knows that one of the most important aspects of a Bollywood film--if not THE most important factor--is the quality of the music, and Aśoka's soundtrack is a slight mar on the film as a whole due to its brevity and ocassionally awful lyrics.

OVERALL -- 4/5

This Bolly flick has more style than an LA fashion designer, and the fast paced action combined with great music and a pretty love story will keep you coming back for more. The downsides are the rare but obnoxious moments of overacting, the vast historical inaccuracies, a lack of replay value, and the inability of an English translation to live up to the original Hindi dialogue. Aśoka has its flaws, but it is definitely worth a rental, and I even mustered up the money to buy a copy.

TOTAL SCORE -- 16.5/20 (great)