IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

rueben_lys Absolutely loved all that I saw. I haven't seen the first bit, but the last hour and a half is definitely awesome. I don't know if this historically accurate or not, but it is historic enough to give you an idea of Asoka's story, the rise to power, Battle of Kalinga, change to Buddhism, all these are addressed. Everything had the hall mark of a great movie. The grandeur of the Mauryan empire was palpable. Asoka's evil in his rise to power, his ruinous campaigns for the empire were not just seen and heard, but felt. Absolutely awesome was the battle- the scale of the battle, the destruction, the disaster, the hatred and then the repentance, the scenes say it all absolutely wordlessly (Mark the scene where Asoka offers the dying soldier water, and he refuses to take it from the hated Asoka). Karuwaki's "you're Asok" deserves a place amongst the best scenes ever. I could feel the hatred she felt in my throat. The movie is probably somewhere in between Gladiator and The Hero, but absolutely has its own mark, the distinct Indian flavour. Wonder why it isn't more celebrated. Did this really flop in India??? Why??? Its probably one of the best movies to have been made!!!

winner55 One experience every movie fan hopes for is expecting an okay film going into the viewing and coming out with socks knocked off and feet covered with sweat, having just witnessed a miracle. This happened to me only about four times, with The Seven Samurai, the Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West and Carnival of Souls; A Clockwork Orange, One-Armed Swordsman, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Seventh Seal came pretty close. It is notable that nothing known of these films, their genres, they're filmmakers adequately prepare one for seeing these films. I saw the whole Eastwood trilogy by Sergio Leone, and Once Upon a Time in the West still seemed to loop out of heaven unannounced.I haven't yet decided whether Asoka will join the films that knocked my socks off or those that came pretty close. But there's no doubt this is a film for which considerable preparation will still leave the viewer unprepared.As a recent Indian film, I feared this would be a Hollywoodized Bollywood film; instead it is both pure Bollywood and yet attains a coherence, a vision, a majesty and a purity never before seen in a Bollywood film. director and co-writer Sivan has designed a film absolutely true to the cinematic tradition of its country of origin and yet is composed of only the best of that tradition, emphasized and glorified with cinematography indescribably gorgeous, and given flesh, bone and marrow of substance by performances from young actors easily ranking among the best in world cinema, performances leaving the better performances from Hollywood actors of similar age of the same era buried in the dust of missed opportunities. Because the actors here know exactly what Sivan is doing and know what he expects of them and make every effort to deliver to his expectations.I can only guess that the ridiculously low rating of this film at IMDb is due to the number of those who view this film without previous experience of Bollywood tradition, and who might want the Hollywoodized epic I feared. I hope that continued screenings of this film will prove to all that we have a real miracle at hand here, easily ranking with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as one of the great tragic romances buried in an epic as yet ever made.The almost hallucinogenic visionary quality of the visuals, the remarkable and forceful savvy of the actors, the profound and unsounded depths of the script, the world importance of the subject matter, and the audaciously complex interweaving of all these elements - if this is not the film you were looking for, this is still the film you need to see.When we have time again to choose the classics, this will be high on the list.

HeadleyLamarr Asoka is an amazing film of epic proportions that charts the journey of a man from arrogant prince to romantic ordinary man to cruel emperor to penitent reformer. This is a roller-coaster ride set in a time and about a man not much written of in the history books. Most records of the time are in the form of rock carvings that he erected. Asoka is the son of a lesser queen of Bindusara - the Magadh emperor. He is engaged in bitter rivalry with his step brothers and is sent off to live like a common man as his mother fears for his life. There he meets another exiled royal family from Kalinga, falls in love with Princess Kaurwaki and marries her. He is summoned back by the emperor and due to the machinations of the Kalinga minster loses track of Kaurwaki. He is injured in an attack planned by his step brothers, nursed back to health by a Buddhist girl and eventually marries her. After yet another attack by his step brothers he goes on a rampage and kills off his step brothers, then wages a fierce battle with Kalinga. It is at the end of this bloody battle that he renounces war and vows to spread the message of peace.The film ends at the point of his transformation to a peace loving man and is Asoka's journey from boyhood to manhood. Santosh Sivan crafted an amazing film around these few known facts of Asoka's life. Much is interpretation and the film is imbued with a brilliance and depth that I found fascinating. The cinematography is excellent, the settings most authentic in the rock caves, old stone palaces, the unspoilt outdoors. In fact the film is the antithesis of Devdas in how minimalist the settings are. The Kalinga battle is an exhilarating mix of dreamy slow motion and brutal quick action and has maximum impact. All the other fight scenes are outstanding too.The acting is excellent throughout. Kareena is luminous as Kaurwaki - with minimal adornment she manages to look ravishing and gives an excellent performance. She shines as the princess who is learning swordplay, as the woman who is searching for her lover. Shahrukh delivers an outstanding performance as the young carefree prince, the bemused lover, as the cruel prince and emperor and finally as the penitent. This role gives him the opportunity to explore the entire range of his acting repertoire and to do it in an outstanding fashion. "Sushima, I have killed all my brothers, can I sit on the throne now?" will send chills down your spine. Hrishitaa Bhatt is excellent in her small role as Devi, Ajith Kumar gives a fine performance as Sushima, also worth mention are Danny Denzongpa as Virat, and Rahul Dev as Bheema. But the one actor that I will not forget is the child star Suraj Balaji who did an excellent job as the young prince Arya.Anu Malik created some fine tunes for this film - the music is not as pure as it could be but I still love it. My favorite numbers are Raat Ka Nasha Abhi, San Sannananna, and Roshni Se Bhare. Roshni Se is picturized in an amazing manner.All in all, despite all the controversy surrounding this film, it remains one of my favorite epics, a high quality film that is worth many a repeat watch.

rahulthewall3000 Was this a movie? I have seen a lot if Indian movies (natural being an Indian) but I have rarely come across something as bad as this. Truly speaking, Shahrukh Khan simply didn't have the funds to make this sort of a movie. Asoka, the greatest among the Indian kings is reduced to a dacoit, never he does come across as the Empreror whose kingdom spanned across India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Myanmur. The acting was average to say the least. Don't get me wrong, Shahrukh Khan is a great actor and he may be the king of bollywood but he can not potray some one like Asoka on the screen. His best roles have been in movies like Dil to Pagal hai, Dilwale..... and he should stick to that! This was a mockery!