Product Details

• Actors: Erika Alexander, Maurice Bénichou, Amba Bihler, Lou Bihler, Urs Bihler
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Image Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: November 26, 2002
• Run Time: 318 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006LPEG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #137,818 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Peter Brook's The Mahabharata" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Famed Royal Shakespeare Company director Peter Brook helms this multinational production of India's greatest epic myth. A seemingly simple tale of two sets of semidivine brothers vying for the throne spirals out to include wider themes of fate, free will, and the problems of behaving dishonorably to preserve the greater good. The film, adapted from Brook's stage production, uses a presentational style, with the epic's narrator slipping in and out of the action and characters stopping to address the camera. The international cast and simple costuming add to the timeless, dreamlike feel of the story. The Mahabharata does an excellent job of reverently presenting a cherished myth without losing the passion and excitement of the story. The DVD edition includes "The Making of The Mahabharata," an interesting look at both the layers of meaning to be found in the story and the challenges in adapting it for a Western audience. --Ali Davis

Product Description

One of the great masterpieces of world literature comes to vivid life in an elaborate production from acclaimed theater and film innovator Peter Brook (Marat/Sade, Lord of the Flies). This collection of ancient Sanskrit stories (composed into the longest book ever written) comprises a series of enlightened fables at the heart of countless beliefs, legends, and teachings; indeed, its very title means "the great story of mankind." Brook and award-winning writer Jean-Claude Carriere worked for eight years to develop this epic concerning two sides of a royal family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, whose struggle leads to a fascinating voyage of emotions, contradictions, and dreams, filled with subplots which are alternately comic and tragic but always gloriously entertaining.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ABRIDGED VERSION!!! 1/2 of the content has been cut!, December 4, 2008

By 

S. Mitchell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mahabharata (DVD)

This is a heavily abridged version of Peter Brook's wonderful film. About 1/2 the film has been cut from this version. I owned the VCR version of this movie which is 325 minutes long. I had assumed this was a long-awaited reprint of an out-of-print classic. Instead, this is a HEAVILY abridged (170-minute) version of the show.

I bought this as a birthday present for my husband, after five minutes of watching painful cut after painful cut, we had to turn the film off. I will be returning it ASAP.

I have NO IDEA why the studio did this.

Amazon.com should mark this as an ABRIDGED VERSION.

I can only hope that the studio comes to their senses and released a version of the DVD that is the full 325 minutes, because the VCR tapes I bought 14 years ago are wearing out...

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indian philosophy come to life, October 30, 2002

By 

M. Lilliquist (Bellingham, Washington USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peter Brook's The Mahabharata (DVD)

This excellent multinational production of the Mahabharata feels almost Shakespeaerean at times - the language so eloquent and poetic, the themes so profound and universal, the action so epic. Truly great literature brought to film.

Briefly, the Mahabharata is a tale of two rival sets of brothers, cousins to eachother, each born into royalty and with divinely guided paths in life. The result, however, is a great war, death, destruction, but a final glimmer of light preserved. Vishnu after Shiva.
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Peter Brook's five-hour version of the Mahabharata is theatrical, philosophical, spare, poetic. It is rendered in gentle, nearly monochromatic hues and with often silent backgrounds, interspersed with periods of hauntingly beautiful music. The actors are gifted, if a bit too grand and mythic in their presentation. As in the written versions, the characters motives are seen to be, in turns, grounded and human, and unearthly and enlightened.

Such a powerful mix, and such a penetrating vision of life -- all from over three thousand years ago!

I highly recommend this film, anbd the special features of the DVD make it that much more valuable.

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captures the essence of the Mahabharata, February 25, 2003

By 

puthupa "puthupa" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peter Brook's The Mahabharata (DVD)

I too grew up hearing stories of the Mahabharata and watched this adaptation on the BBC a few years back. This is theatre at its best, and it truly captures the essence of the Mahabharata. The stories and concepts are all covered, but those who are expecting an all Indian cast wearing traditional garb will be sorely disappointed. Hinduism is a way of life, a faith of choice and plurality. These ideas are reinforced with a multicultural cast. When I first heard that it was not an all Indian cast, my expectations for the play dropped dramatically, but I can assure you, what Peter Brook has done is astonishing. I look forward to watching this with my children, though after they have been inundated with bedtime stories from the Mahabharata.