Confession

[Vikas Bhatt]

I have watched both with closeness since childhood to adulthood and can say that everytime I watch Ramayana, despite it's tacky production values, is a far more absorbing and better of the 2. The core emotional values and performances and scripting was sublimely superior. can anyone forget the self assured cocky arrogance that Arvind Trivedi's Ravana captured so well or can anyone match Sunil Lahiri's arrogant and angry Laxmana? As a kid, I loved Mahabharata, because it looked less tacky and for it's episodic action [jeez it looks so equally tacky now]. But on hindsight now I feel it was more crappy. There was no soul, no storytelling, no strong charateristic [except Krishna played brilliantly by Nitish Bhardwaj]. You don't feel empathy even with the heroes Pandavas and wonder why Krishna allowed so much nonsense to happen when he could have wrapped everything up. Most lead actors are mediocre and can hardly act. They go through two-three expressions standard at most. A few episodes in Ramayana maybe a drag [the long Rama-Sita Marriage part, for eg.] but it's better watch everytime I see it. The values and human connect and storytelling are pretty good and make even the tacky indoor feel compelling to watch. They look surreal after a point. But you feel the emotion everytime you see a tear in Rama's eye, or Laxmana leap to blindly put his life on the line for his devoted brother. You can identify with the characters unlike the so called better crafted Mahabharata.

[Texy]

Anyone have watched Byomkesh Bakshi?

wow watched byomkesh bakshi directed by basu chatterjee after looooooong time!!! what a show.... compared to all the crappy indian detective shows on indian channels nowadays

[Aaku]

After watchin em,read THE GEETA ! Its beautiful :D

[patriot]

^ Agreed 100 %. Each and every character of Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan is etched in my memory. If you must watch the Ramayan watch it entirely. Who can forget Hanuman portrayed by Dara Singh ? The emotions that Ramanad Sagar's Ramayan gets out of one is simply unmatchable. There is so much to learn about Dharma. Each episode is a lesson. As a kid I used to love watching it for the arrow wars with those superb war songs, it was a real treat. These days I just love it for the emotion. My favorite short episodes: Indrajit's use of the 3 premier weapons of each of the Trimuti ( Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva ) on Laxman and their subsequent reverence of Laxman. Indrajit realising he was facing Lord Vishnu's incarnate. gDLB_G4hP-8&feature=related Ram telling Vibhashan poetically why he doesn't need a chariot. 8Qz5nZMpF2w&feature=related

[Vikas Bhatt]

Wow. Thanx for the upload. When I decided to buy a DVD set I bought Ramayana and not Mahabharata. Ravi Chopra's Mahabharata version is plain stupid, neither a good action drama nor good at it's storytelling in the end.

[Vikas Bhatt]

Spiritually speaking Bhahgwaad Geeta is pretty much the essence of Hinduism ... and its covered in the Mahabharath epic. There is simply nothing else that comes close to Mahabharath and it also coincides with the last Avatar of Vishnudev. Some of the characters in that serial are surreal. As far as connection goes ... there is a very tiny part where Hanuman hands out a lesson in humility and ego to Bheem who is cocky about his strength. Other than this there is no connection as the two episodes are set in different yugas. Hanuman is ofcourse eternal .

There is a heavy connection. But Ravi Chopra cut the most intrinsic details and those connections in a bid to make a commercially appealing action oriented fast paced series that ruined the whole epic completely in the end. Are you aware that Jamvand's grand daughter was married to Krishna? Or the fact that when Balrama's arrogance over his strength grew and the maya of arrogance started engulfing him, Krishna invited Hanumana to Dwarka where Hanuman challenged Balrama and humbled him thereby breaking his ego and vanity and freeing him from that maya? Or the fact that Hanuman's long desire to see his lords Rama, Laxmana and Sita once more was fulfilled after this incident in Dwarka where Krishna, Balrama and Rukmini showed Hanuman their previous selves of Rama, Laxmana and Sita to fulfill his desire? There are other continuity aspects like Parshurama [whose bow Lord Rama broke to win Sita's hand] was the guru of both Bheeshma and Karna in Mahabharata with it's own sub-plots. Mahabharata is too big and too many grey characters make it murky making it unfathomable.

[patriot]

I also love Ramayan because I love pure, unadulterated sanskritized Hindi. Not the Urdu trash we here in Hindi movies that passes of as " Hindi ".

[Vikas Bhatt]

For me Ramayana works on many levels - Bharata's reunion with Rama at Chitrakoot after Rama's exile was one high rollercoaster of emotions, Dashratha's suffering, Indrajit's equally strong devotion to his father Ravana even when he goes to embrace death in his final fight with Laxmana knowing well his end was near, Vijay Arora's powerhouse performance as narcissistic and arrogant Indrajit, Vibhishan's guilt when he watches each of his powerful elder brothers meet their death at Rama's hands, Angad's confrontation with Ravana in the latter's court, Rama still seeking Kaikayi first on return to Ayodhaya despite the injustice she meted out to him. Classic. Even the Uttara Ramayana thought of as the slowest drag back then is a beautiful watch. Sita's struggles as Luv-Kush grow up, their emotional appeal to their father in Rama's durbaar etc. very powerfully directed. You feel it flow in your self as you watch it.

[Vikas Bhatt]

After watchin em' date='read THE GEETA ! Its beautiful :D[/quote'] What is your opinion of beautiful Geeta Basra, Bhajj's girlfriend? B->

[patriot]

Best episode in Ram Anand Sagar's Ramayan was Hanuman singing the Bhajan in Ashok Vatika reciting her story on a tree top, so that she does not think that Hanuman is some form of Ravan but a genuine messenger and bhakt of Shri Ram. Uehx-RGbHqI

[Vikas Bhatt]

The biggest faux pass was Chopra ignoring the first meeting between Arjuna and Hanuman and what happens after Karna's death. When Arjuna started feeling maya and got arrogant and egoistic of his being the best archer in the world, Krishna asked Hanuman to help Arjuna come out of it. When Arjuna visited Rameshwar he belittled in his blind ego of how Rama wasted time building a rock bridge when he could easily have built an arrow bridge. Hanuman challenged Arjuna to build one that could take his [Hanuman's] weight and when Arjuna's arrow bridge failed to survive Hanuman's weright did his maya and arrogance break. Arjuna's ego gets the better of him after Karna's death once again. After the great war, Krishna asks Arjuna to get off his chariot and step at a distance. When Arjuna does so, Hanuman leaps off from the chariot's flag and the chariot explodes. Krishna tells Arjuna that the chariot suffered many killer blows and was held intact by Krishna and Hanuman. And despite the might of these two, Karna's arrows were strong enough to push the chariot back by 2 steps. Thats how strong and good a warrior he was and this makes Arjuna see Karna with a new awe and respect and in a new appreciative [compared to earlier dismissive] light. So many such intrinsic scenes that delve deeper in the root of so many characters was ignored by Chopra in Mahabharata.....

[Aaku]

What is your opinion of beautiful Geeta Basra, Bhajj's girlfriend? B->

Focus ! :whack:

[b555]

go for mahabharat rajiv.. its really interesting and stands among all time legendary shows u r gonna watch those dyaanand sagar`s shows only na?

[Vikas Bhatt]

Focus ! :whack:

Jeez, I discussed quite a lot of Rajiv's questions. That was my commercial break. Break to banta hai yaar.....

[Vikas Bhatt]

go for mahabharat rajiv.. its really interesting and stands among all time legendary shows u r gonna watch those dyaanand sagar`s shows only na?

Chopra's Mahabharata may not be that bad, but is hardly a legendary show. Ramayana broke the ground first and set the trend. Everyone knows the Mahabharata and Ramayana story so the question is do these shows take you to the depths of these epics and did they do justice to why they were made? Ramayan does justice to it's key concept and story, Mahabharat was not so. This might be individual preference but there is a huge difference between the two. If Rajiv asks me, I would suggest watch both - 1st Ramayana and then Mahabharata to get the whole picture. Surprisingly Sagar's Krishna explained Mahabharata's story and characters better but was really too slow, boring and long drawn to sit through the whole unfortunately.

[Vikas Bhatt]

Byomesh Mukherjee was a different cup of tea. But the best detective serial in India still remains the original Karamchand......Pankaj Kapur as the stylish, eccentric and weird carrot munching detective with Sushmita Mukherjee as his brainless dumb secretary were in a league of their own. Not even Pankaj Kapur himself could match his ownself up in a sequel 2 years back.

[Vikas Bhatt]

And the mother of all sitcoms still is Ye Jo Hai Zindagi and the mother of all soap operas the period drama Buniyaad..... There were other entertaining good shows if someone here remembers in the good ol' DD days other than Malgudi days and it's spinoff Swami & Dekh Bhai Dekh. - Mr & Mrs [Jayant Kripalani & Archana Puran Singh - a modern sitcom of a working woman and her housekeeping busband] Ek Do Teen Char, Kacchi Dhoop [bhagyashree as a teenager before Maine Pyar Kiya on TV] Aa Bail Mujhe Maar [Amol Palekar] Karamchand, Paying Guest, Ados Pados, Issi bahaney Idhar Udhar, Indradhanush - The first genuine Sci-Fi show that talked of time travel and clones [Akshay Anand a huge teenage sensation back then] [The last 3 made by director of Dekh Bhai Dekh - Anand Mahendroo] Also can't forget Didi's Comedy Show, Spiderman, He-man and Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot..... Shyam Benegal's Tamas [based on India's partition, a real violent reality depiction of the times] & Bharat Ek Khoj were both informative and compelling. Chanakya was good. The Sword Of Tipu Sultan sucked. Also how many of you guys remember the very bad Sigma - a rank pathetic copy of the original Star Trek series? Did I forget the equally tacky yet entertaining Mungherilal Ke Haseen Sapne, Nukkad, Vikram Vetal, Dadaji Ka Daiscope, Dada Dadiki Kahaniyaa and Singhasan Battissi? Chunauti was the ultimate college campus serial talking of all issues ranging from student politics to drug abuse. Subah was another good series with drug abuse and rehabilation at it's core.

[veer]

Mahabharat is an epic and hats off to Legend B.R. Chopra for pulling this off.. it was a hard subject.. you wont get lost if you watch Mahabharat before Ramayan.. Btw, anyone remembered NEEV t.v series? it was about college students in hostel.. awesome show.. I cant find it anywhere on net..

[punjabi_khota]

amravati ki kathaayein :woot:

[Rajiv]

And the mother of all sitcoms still is Ye Jo Hai Zindagi and the mother of all soap operas the period drama Buniyaad..... There were other entertaining good shows if someone here remembers in the good ol' DD days other than Malgudi days and it's spinoff Swami & Dekh Bhai Dekh. - Mr & Mrs [Jayant Kripalani & Archana Puran Singh - a modern sitcom of a working woman and her housekeeping busband] Ek Do Teen Char, Kacchi Dhoop [bhagyashree as a teenager before Maine Pyar Kiya on TV] Aa Bail Mujhe Maar [Amol Palekar] Karamchand, Paying Guest, Ados Pados, Issi bahaney Idhar Udhar, Indradhanush - The first genuine Sci-Fi show that talked of time travel and clones [Akshay Anand a huge teenage sensation back then] [The last 3 made by director of Dekh Bhai Dekh - Anand Mahendroo] Also can't forget Didi's Comedy Show, Spiderman, He-man and Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot..... Shyam Benegal's Tamas [based on India's partition, a real violent reality depiction of the times] & Bharat Ek Khoj were both informative and compelling. Chanakya was good. The Sword Of Tipu Sultan sucked. Also how many of you guys remember the very bad Sigma - a rank pathetic copy of the original Star Trek series? Did I forget the equally tacky yet entertaining Mungherilal Ke Haseen Sapne, Nukkad, Vikram Vetal, Dadaji Ka Daiscope, Dada Dadiki Kahaniyaa and Singhasan Battissi? Chunauti was the ultimate college campus serial talking of all issues ranging from student politics to drug abuse. Subah was another good series with drug abuse and rehabilation at it's core.

some of them are on Youtube , I also ordered yeh jo hain, last year