In my opinion, the great epics ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ have been beaten to death through the media in several forms in this country. 

The different versions by different authors found the shelves of the book stores and media interpreting the events, characters and philosophy in many forms and shades. Some heroes are depicted with grey characters, some villains are lauded for their valor and events have been expressed in varying forms with twists and turns with a purpose. 

After Ramanand Sagar’s ‘Ramayana’, which became very popular, a few years later, another serial with Sita as the pivotal character was telecast, but it never received much acclaim or publicity. There were other branching stories also appeared and disappeared. Mahabharata’s case turned out to be different. A very long epic with innumerable characters and equally mindboggling numbers of supporting ones was recreated two or three times after BR Chopra’s ‘Mahabharat’. 

Alas… none could match the first ‘Ramayana’ by Ramanand Sagar and the first ‘Mahabharat’ by BR Chopra. 

They were first of their kind, and apart from that, the narrative was gripping and appropriate artistes were chosen, and the dialogues were simply superb and powerful with expert screenplay, even if you watch them today. The dramatic scenes were well handled without any overshoots or gimmicks. 

In recent times, I happened to watch a recreation of ‘Mahabharat’ in one of the popular OTT channels fully created by AI and graphics. It was looking perfect technically, if at all, some credit should be given for the efforts taken, but the content was far from even satisfactory. As I expected, that was withdrawn because of poor viewership. I am not surprised. Just technicalities alone cannot elevate something which carries several of life’s aspects from affection to atrocity, hatred to valor, story to philosophy, all couldn’t be just replaced by sheer technical expertise and computer wizardry. 

The recent massive trailer of the new-gen ‘Ramayana’ with Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi once again demonstrates that it is a massive assault of technical, and computer graphics and AI wizardry, with the view that they can take the audience to ecstasy. Surprisingly, there is not even a trace of the major character of Ramayana, Hanuman is totally absent in the trailer though one gets to see the flashes of Jadayu, the eagle. 

I am sorry. The previous miracle may not happen again. 

Because an epic with a profound purpose and meaning cannot be replaced by just excess deployment of technicalities. 

Take for example, the story and success of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Baji Rao Mastani’. The grandeur was equally compensated with a powerful screenplay, dialogues and acting of a straightforward love story with visual grandeur. Can that be repeated once again?

Success cannot be expected or repeated by rehashing the already successfully visualized and made epics, just by adding overdose of technicalities. 

Last word, but I say this with perfect conviction; those two serials are still remembered and will be remembered more for their dialogues and acting than anything else.