Have headed to the comp by default after watching the animated film on Mahabharata. Cartoon Network. Yesterday I watched an episode of its Krishna series. And liked it. Krishna -- the animated version is good, despite its shortcomings. It's characters look Indian. The saddest thing about Mahabharata animated, is that its makers did not care much about the research aspect. Athletic bodies of men that remind you of Hollywood heroes, pathetic costume sense -- check the skin-tight tops, lack of style, stark difference in body language, a Draupadi who looks like more manly and it only makes you want to look away. The game of dice becomes Snakes and Ladders in Mahabharata. Jungle huts stand over bamboo stilts (nothing wrong with it), but we thought bamboo stilt huts are found only in the North-East where constant flooding makes its demands on housing structures!
Indians have a different body language, a different sense of style, aesthetics and gait. What is more concerning, is that this is what the children are watching. Why are we clamping down a Western body language on them, and making them believe that's the thing?
What a contrast from the Sundays when life centered around Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan and B R Chopra's Mahabharat! They were not perfect, but were at least Indian enough to be watched by Indians. And we children still relate to them visually.
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