Santosh Sivan’s Asoka which is back in theatres as part of the Kareena Kapoor Khan film festival celebrating 25 years of her career, has aged well in parts. It is still fun to watch Kareena and Shah Rukh Khan posing in exotic medieval clothes which now look like something for a costume party where the theme is ‘Mauryan Dynasty as per the Bollywood Dynasty.’
Santosh Sivan is one of most accomplished cinematographers of the country, if not the universe. And he knows it. His directorials are aesthetic marvels, but usually short of breath when it comes to plotting and screenwriting.
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Asoka is a subverted version of history. We can’t even call it historically verifiable version of the life of emperor Asoka of the Maurya Empire who ruled most of the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century. This is Emperor Asoka according to Shah Rukh Khan: flirtatious with his screen mom (Subhasini Ali, former wife of filmmaker Muzzafar Ali), intense with Princess Kaurwaki (who sizzles in the outdoors, like no other princess, before or after), sarcastic with his rival for the throne Susima (Tamil superstar Ajith). This is just SRK in costume having fun with the sword and horse (Pavan, who rivals Kajol as SRK’s best co-star ever).
One can seriously doubt if the real Asoka was anything like Shah Rukh Khan. But after seeing his screen version the original Mauryan emperor would probably revamp his image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzscg6Umdtk
Asoka is an oddity in Kareena’s career: for one she decided to spell her name as ‘Karriena Kapoor’ in the credits of Asoka on some astrological whim. This is the only film where she chose to change the spelling of her name.
Kareena, however, is not the scenestealer in Asoka. It is the child actor Suraj Balajee playing Prince Arya, the heir in exile, who effortlessly steals the show from the entire cast. Santosh Sivan has always been brilliant with kids, as the extraordinary performances by child actors in Halo, Malli and The Terrorist testify. In Asoka he used well-known Telugu producer Suresh Balajee’s little son Suraj to play the important part of Arya, the banished crown prince of Kalinga.
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The royal innocence that little Suraj invests into his part is a marvel of juvenile instincts. When the boy falls on the battleground, saying, "Main roya bhi nahin (I didn’t cry)”, something dies within us.
Asoka is a thing of beauty, though not sure if it is a joy forever. The opulence is there in abundance. But the actors never go beneath their costumes, except maybe Rahul Dev who as little Prince Arya’s protector looks and feels every inch like a Mauryan character.
The rest? Have fun with Kareena and Shah Rukh cavorting in costume.