I used to watch Indian movie since the times of TV-Series Mahabharata and since then, there are lot of Indian movies in television in my country, Indonesia (although all of them is dubbed to Bahasa Indonesia). To be honest, I'm not an India movie lover. I hate the dances which always interrupt the movie, which unfortunately is the trademark of Bollywood (Don't mention 'Kamasutra' :-p). Every time the the TV show Indian movies, I always changed the channel because I almost never wanted to see it.
That's the reason why Asoka is the Best Indian Movie. I turned the TV on, and Asoka was on the channel although it has already played for, perhaps 15 minutes. The first Indian movie which attracted me to watch it, not because its story (i.e Mahabharat and Ramayan) but because the quality of its picture. In the first minutes I saw it, I couldn't say whether the movie is a bollywood movie (hey.. I watched the dubbed version.. except the song and dances, instead of Hindi, they speak 'Bahasa Indonesia' in my television :-p) Asoka, was also the first Indian movie I ever watched which the song and dance were so unified which the story and hence, I didn't feel of being interrupted. That was a good record for a man who always went to toilet every time the dances-and-song began.
The other thing that should be praised and also the only thing which was an original idea in the movie was the 'Three guys and a Girl'. Funny guys and the funny things they did was common both in Bollywood and non-Bollywood movie. However, usually, they are integrated with the whole movie. In Asoka, the funny three soldiers and a girl were actually a different story which can be removed from movie. However, removing those scenes would made the movie incomplete because those scene actually a hidden narration which explained the situation of the scene after them.
A similar scene can be found in Indonesia culture, to be exact: Javanese Culture. There are "goro-goro" sections in every wayang kulit (shadow puppet) show, which usually have punakawan (servant) and sometimes a soldier of enemy. The scenes is used to tell jokes to entertain audiences after heavy story and to tell the moral story and explain why the characters did such and such. From all movie I ever watched (bollywood, Hollywood, hk-movie, Japanese, France, Italian, Iran), these concept only be found in Asoka.
The disappointing things in this movie were:
1. the first narration after the little-Asoka scene which was actually unnecessary since the 'three guys' and a girl has described it more clever and succinct,
2. the kalari (or kalaripayatt, an ancient martial arts from Kerala) wasn't emphasized. The first time you saw it, you would think the movie maker try to imitate China kungfu which they didn't. Because the fight were only about jump and dodge. The slow-motion made the situation worse. You wouldn't think Kalaripayatt as a unique martial arts if you only see it from this movie, and hence, the movie was failed compared to Only The Strong (Capoeira) and Ong Bak (Muay Thai). Choosing kalaripayatt was actually an error due to the story was set in Magadha and Kalingga but the Kalari can only be found in kerala (South India),
3. the last narration told us Asoka had spread Buddhism to other countries. It didn't tell something that I found it to be interesting. Asoka symbol was in India flag,
4. the movie didn't tell us why Asoka choose Buddhism instead of other religion such as Jainism, as the base of his idea of peace, but lot of movie based on real character did the same mistake such as 'Motorcycle Diaries' (err. Mexico? Argentina?) or Gie (Indonesia). The Chinese ( Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and "Emperor and The Assassin") were better in describing the reason.
In the end, it was a good movie, but it wasn't good enough.
That's the reason why Asoka is the Best Indian Movie. I turned the TV on, and Asoka was on the channel although it has already played for, perhaps 15 minutes. The first Indian movie which attracted me to watch it, not because its story (i.e Mahabharat and Ramayan) but because the quality of its picture. In the first minutes I saw it, I couldn't say whether the movie is a bollywood movie (hey.. I watched the dubbed version.. except the song and dances, instead of Hindi, they speak 'Bahasa Indonesia' in my television :-p) Asoka, was also the first Indian movie I ever watched which the song and dance were so unified which the story and hence, I didn't feel of being interrupted. That was a good record for a man who always went to toilet every time the dances-and-song began.
The other thing that should be praised and also the only thing which was an original idea in the movie was the 'Three guys and a Girl'. Funny guys and the funny things they did was common both in Bollywood and non-Bollywood movie. However, usually, they are integrated with the whole movie. In Asoka, the funny three soldiers and a girl were actually a different story which can be removed from movie. However, removing those scenes would made the movie incomplete because those scene actually a hidden narration which explained the situation of the scene after them.
A similar scene can be found in Indonesia culture, to be exact: Javanese Culture. There are "goro-goro" sections in every wayang kulit (shadow puppet) show, which usually have punakawan (servant) and sometimes a soldier of enemy. The scenes is used to tell jokes to entertain audiences after heavy story and to tell the moral story and explain why the characters did such and such. From all movie I ever watched (bollywood, Hollywood, hk-movie, Japanese, France, Italian, Iran), these concept only be found in Asoka.
The disappointing things in this movie were:
1. the first narration after the little-Asoka scene which was actually unnecessary since the 'three guys' and a girl has described it more clever and succinct,
2. the kalari (or kalaripayatt, an ancient martial arts from Kerala) wasn't emphasized. The first time you saw it, you would think the movie maker try to imitate China kungfu which they didn't. Because the fight were only about jump and dodge. The slow-motion made the situation worse. You wouldn't think Kalaripayatt as a unique martial arts if you only see it from this movie, and hence, the movie was failed compared to Only The Strong (Capoeira) and Ong Bak (Muay Thai). Choosing kalaripayatt was actually an error due to the story was set in Magadha and Kalingga but the Kalari can only be found in kerala (South India),
3. the last narration told us Asoka had spread Buddhism to other countries. It didn't tell something that I found it to be interesting. Asoka symbol was in India flag,
4. the movie didn't tell us why Asoka choose Buddhism instead of other religion such as Jainism, as the base of his idea of peace, but lot of movie based on real character did the same mistake such as 'Motorcycle Diaries' (err. Mexico? Argentina?) or Gie (Indonesia). The Chinese ( Zhang Yimou's "Hero" and "Emperor and The Assassin") were better in describing the reason.
In the end, it was a good movie, but it wasn't good enough.