The day of the birthday of Ashutosh Gowariker, in defense of his controversial Hrithik Roshan-starrer Mohenjo Daro | Bollywood



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At the top of the list of many filmmakers Bollywood can rightly be proud to be Ashutosh Gowariker. His past works, including Lagaan and Jodha Akbar, will certainly be in the top 100 Indian films of the last millennium. Gowariker's works are characterized by meticulous research, objectivity, brilliantly set decorations and are professionally led. He remains one of the most important members of the Bollywood Theater Club. Even the topics that he chose are not the ones that many have addressed in the past, for example the love between the Mughal emperor Akbar and his wife Rajput, Jodha, was part of the folklore, but no one really considered it a movie idea. His next project, Panipat, will also address an important aspect of history: the defeat of Maratha's forces against the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1761. His slogan reads – great treason. This brings us to the important question: what has happened? And this is an important question to ask.

It was this question that led him to delve deeper into the mystery that presided over the destruction of Mohenjo Daro's dead) and the history of civilization itself. His Hritik Roshan-starrer failed at the box office, but he remains an important film for the questions he poses. So, for his birthday today, we come back to the controversial film.

Hrithik Roshan playing Sarman, an indigo farmer, in Mohenjo Daro.

It is said that Gowariker had the idea of ​​making a film on the subject in question, while he was shooting for Lagaan in Bhuj, Gujarat. After much research, he invited experts in archeology and, after learning about it, gave life to a story. His film was filmed and heavily criticized, mainly around Kabir Bedi's main helmet, Pooja Hegde's choice of clothes, Hrithik Roshan's tanned look, and perhaps even the end itself.

Still, the debate is significant. tries to recreate the civilization of the Indus Valley. The film is in 2016 BC AD and as its slogan indicates: Before the British Raj, before the Mughals, before Christ and before Buddha, there was Mohenjo Daro. The careful research and the years of activities on the different sites of the Indus Valley civilization in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana by Archaeological Survey of India (and previously on several sites of Sind Pakistan ) put the date of its history on the civilization of the Bronze Age (estimated at about 3300 BCE).

The story of Gowariker lies in this phase of this culture. So it's fiction? A work of Gowariker's imagination? Well, the story of love between an indigo farmer from a village called Amri (a true site of the Indus Valley, now in Sind, Pakistan) who falls in love of the pretty girl of the city, Chaani, daughter of the high priest and betrothed to the son of the chief of the grand council of elders, who heads Mohenjo Daro, certainly is. But the feeling and the atmosphere of the place and the context of the story are rooted in reality.

Speaking of inaccuracies in the film, including Kabir Bedi's headdress, which was an object of jokes on Twitter, Gowariker told HuffingtonPost in an interview, "Historians and archaeologists have a lot of heated debate between them They did not agree on many things, but I had to follow and take a position as I did, and everything that was shown in the film, including Kabir Bedi's headgear, is absolutely The fact is, the film will be screened next week at an annual archaeological convention that will be attended by some renowned archaeologists at the same time. University of Wisconsin They want to watch it because of the historical accuracy of the film. "

Kabir Bedi as Maham Chief in Mohenjo Daro.

Speaking of Scroll, he also explained that the creation of the main characters Sarman (Hrithik) and Chaani (Pooja) Hegde) was rooted in reality and yet a creation of his imagination. It was quoted as follows: "The civilization of the Indus Valley was not included in popular culture, apart from what was discovered during the excavations. And that gave me more freedom to create my characters and my story. For example, we saw images of a figurine of a man playing drums and dug up. It's been the inspiration for Sarman, played by Hrithik Roshan. The figure of a dancer of the site was my inspiration for Chaani, played by Pooja Hegde. I've taken a lot of artistic liberties with the appearance of the characters – after all, I can not show nudity for the sake of reality. But I did not take liberties with architecture, culture.

The character of Pooja Hegde, Chaani, symbolized the goddess of fertility.

To make sure that his imagination was faithful to the research available on the subject, Gowariker gathered people who had been in the subject since He has brought Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, an eminent expert from the Indus Valley Civilization, from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (USA), to India, and made him meet a group of Indian archaeologists and unveiled the minutest details.They would have sat on a board.No wonder, when we look at the film, which is obviously obvious, it's the city, its architecture, his urbanism corresponds to the data available.

Speaking about the process, he told the Indian Express, "When I weave a story, I have to choose interpretations." When historians choose interpretations they are dialect ically opposite, if one says south, the other says north. It's not possible to gather everything in the movie. I had to choose. I chose the interpretation of Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I chose his theory because I understood the best and because I did not believe in the theory of the Aryan invasion. "

" I spent two years conducting research. I invited Jonathan Mark Kenoyer to visit me in Mumbai. In addition to him, I invited five other archaeologists, including RS Bisht, former director general of the Archaeological Survey of India, and Vasant Shinde, professor of archeology from South Asia. , and organized a seminar with them. After that, I plotted history and got their approval. Once the decor was built in Bhuj, I took them all to visit. I have therefore worked very closely with them, knowing that their work is very valuable for the film.

Then the seals. Although the script of the Indus Valley remains to be deciphered, the seals certainly tell us a lot about the culture. The National Museum website describes the bull and a person in yoga posture, "a man in" yoga "posture surrounded by animals, suggesting that it might be" Pashupati ", an early form of Shiva ". seen in the history books of the school. The same goes for the unicorn, a symbol that Gowariker integrates into his story. Sarman continues to see him in his dreams. Then, the five-headed multi-animal seal will also pique your interest.

Seals from the civilization of the Indus Valley.
(Harappa.com)

The Indigo (neel) trade is another example. The Victoria and Albert Museum on its website mentions that Indigo (Indikos in Greek) is cultivated in India since 2500 BC. He says, "The blue dye was so closely badociated with India that the ancient Greeks took its western name – indikos (indigo) – from the country itself. The civilization of the Indus Valley knew the red dye with fixing agents (mordant) around 2500 BC. J.-C. "

There are many cases like this: Did the civilization of the Indus Valley have leaders or was it governed by a council of elders? Was it a series of invasion by the Aryans who destroyed it?

In retrospect, it can be said that Gowariker must be praised for the sheer audacity of his dream of creating a story from nothing but seals, figurines and digs.

The author tweets @mniveditatweets

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First published: February 15, 2019 16:09 IST

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