This is more of a heads-up than a review, and yes, I realize it’s a day late. But here it is.
I’m not sure how I first twigged to Devo Ke Dev . . . Mahadev, which is an Indian TV series about the doings of the gods, specifically Shiva. To be perfectly honest, even watching it with English subtitles, I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but the core story seems to be about one Prajapati Daksha (Surendra Pal), the son of Brahma, who rules a city and is very proud of himself for creating “civilization,” which to him means a society governed by rules. He decrees that Vishnu will be the only god worshipped in his city, and commissions a large idol to be installed in the temple. When it comes time to move the idol into the temple, however, it won’t budge – that is, until Daksha’s daughter, Sati (Mouni Roy), surreptitiously adds a “shiva linga” to the grouping.
Shiva himself (Mohit Raina) is busily renouncing the world, and seems to spend most of this time meditating – except that he keeps getting pulled into the here-and-now to deal with Daksha – and Sati. There’s a strong and very obvious attraction between Sati and Shiva (of course), and the seeds of the conflict between Daksha and Shiva are fundamental: Shiva is a “vagabond,” a renunciate who has no concern for the world or its rules, and Daksha is all about rules and stability.
I’m really taken with this one, not for the story so much, but for the presentation – visually, it’s gorgeous, the actors are by and large very attractive, and the music, which is a constant, is thoroughly engaging – it actually carries a lot of the story.
One part of the fascination is that this is a very different way of presenting a story – there’s not really very much dialogue, but there are a lot of meaningful gazes – in that, it’s really pretty melodramatic – and there’s the music. It’s a whole different set of assumptions about storytelling, and I’m intrigued.
You can find the first 37 episodes with English subtitles here.
Shiva himself (Mohit Raina) is busily renouncing the world, and seems to spend most of this time meditating – except that he keeps getting pulled into the here-and-now to deal with Daksha – and Sati. There’s a strong and very obvious attraction between Sati and Shiva (of course), and the seeds of the conflict between Daksha and Shiva are fundamental: Shiva is a “vagabond,” a renunciate who has no concern for the world or its rules, and Daksha is all about rules and stability.
I’m really taken with this one, not for the story so much, but for the presentation – visually, it’s gorgeous, the actors are by and large very attractive, and the music, which is a constant, is thoroughly engaging – it actually carries a lot of the story.
One part of the fascination is that this is a very different way of presenting a story – there’s not really very much dialogue, but there are a lot of meaningful gazes – in that, it’s really pretty melodramatic – and there’s the music. It’s a whole different set of assumptions about storytelling, and I’m intrigued.
You can find the first 37 episodes with English subtitles here.
No comments:
Post a Comment