The Quest for Power, The Dance of Death. Review on Agnivarsha

I read a few days back that Agnivarsha received a standing ovation at the Commonwealth film festival in Manchester and was keen to see the movie ever since then. Its based on a play by Girish Karnad with the same name I guess.

Agnivarsha is a period film said to be set in the times of Mahabharata, though I never heard about it in the past. Now before I start the story , let me tell you all, I was very confused as to how should I present the story, as if I dont reveal the plot in detail, the story will not make any sense. The story is so complicated that I had to edit this review 5 times and following is the shortest version I could reach.

The movie opens with a kingdom, where there has been no rain for the past 7 years resulting in a drought with people starving, no crop and suffering. The king decides to hold a Mahayagna (a big prayer) to please lord Indra, so that it rains. Parvasu (Jakie Shroff), a renowned priest is selected for the coveted work of conducting the Yagna. He is married to Vikhasha (Raveena Tandon), who in the past has been in love with Yavarkee (Nagarjuna), Jakie's cousin. Now Nagarjuna, had left Raveena in the past and left for forest to pray to Lord Indra for special powers and knowledge. With Jakie away at Yagna for 7 years, Nagarjuna returns to the neglected (by Jakie) Raveena's life after 10 years of his tapsya and seduces her. While they are making love, they are caught by Arvasu (Milind Soman), Jakies brother and his girlfriend Mithilai (Sonali Kulkarni). Jakies father (Mohan Agashe) comes to know about this and he creates a demon (Prabhudeva) with his spiritual powers, to kill Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna is killed, Jakie returns and kills his father as he thinks his father is a threat to his post of head priest. Mohan Agashes death puts Prabhudeva in a fix, as the only person who could have got him Mukti (The Eternity) is dead now and he would have to hover on the earth forever. Meanwhile Sonali is married off by her father to another guy as they are tribals and Milind Soman is a brahmin. Milind Soman goes back to Yagna to meet his brother(Jakie) who in his greed for power, wrongly implicates Milind for his fathers death on Milind and has him assaulted by kings men. Sonali shuns her husband on hearing about Milind and and comes to his rescue, cures him to pull him out of death. Milind, who aspired to be a theatere artiste since his childhood days, sheds his brahminhood and joins a theatere group who are asked to perform at the Mahayagna. There he perfrms a play which makes Jakie realise about his folly and ashamed, he sacrifices his life by immersing himself in the fire. Sonalis brother and husband reach there and kill her for cheating on her husband (Something similar to honour killings we hear about these days). The yagna is destroyed, but pleased by the play and Jakies sacrifice, Lord Indra (Amitabh Bachan) appears and grants Milind Soman a boon of his choice. At that point of time, Prabhudeva (still hovering) appears and asks him to releive him and ask for his Mukti. Milind wants to bring dead Sonali back to life, but decides to adhere to Prabhudevas wish, thus releiving him. Pleased by his sacrifice of love, Lord Indra grants rain to the kingdom thus bringing back the happiness.

Now, if you have managed to read this far and story has left you scrathing your head, dont worry, nothing wrong with the story, its I who may not have been able to give a good narration. But I beleive, if you see the movie, you could be able to understand it better.

The performances are superb with Sonali Kulkarni giving a mind blowing act. All are good, some very good. Prabhudeva is brilliant with his expressions and the dance of death sequence is something not to be missed. Amitabh is cool in short role as Lord Indra. The director Arjun Sajnani is a theatere veteran, and this is evident from the confidence and theaterical influence present in the performance and presentation of the movie. The love-making sence between Nagarjuna & Raveena has been handled quite sensitively, without making it look obsence.

The movie covers all elements of human nature ie Love, Lust, Greed., Power, & Sacrifice displayed in the most natural manner. A Beautiful movie.

The music is passable. But yes, the dialogues have some words in Urdu, like Junoon, Pool (Bridge), Nafrat, Maaf, which I couldnt digest since it is supposed to be a Hindu Mythological Fiction and these words didnt exist in that era in ancient India. Rest, the movie is superb in all respects and shouldnt be missed at any cost.

Something that I have to try now ....... To see if I can shorten the story narration to facilitate more people reaching the end of the review ;)