Part B of Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata was intriguing and
comical. The dice game that was
portrayed in the written version of The Mahabharata was as intense as the
movie; yet there were differences that can be pointed out.
Yudhishthria displayed the same desperate behavior in the movie
as he did in the written prose with one exception. He acknowledged that he was a terrible
gambler. Yudhishthria continued with his
plans of participating in the dice game and showed his weaknesses of not being
able to possess self control. What I
found interesting is that the king’s wife Dhritarashtra, was very vocal during
this particular scene. She interrupted
the game by asking Yudhishthria if he wanted to end the game before he bet the
freedom of his brothers and wife. Yudhishthria
being a person who does not possess any self control wished to continue the
game and lost.
When it came time to bring Draupadi to the court after the
game of dice ended, Dhritarashtra again was not quiet when it came to sharing
her opinion on the situation. In both versions, Draupadi questioned the right of husband to gamble his freedom if he had already lost his.
Draupadi's thoughts: A man cannot sell something when he does not posses the right or freedom to do so, and if Yudhishthra was
already a slave then what possessions could he give?
Unlike the film, in the written prose the men of the court
argued against Draupadi and in so many words wanted her to stay in a woman’s
place. It was a child who spoke up for Draupadi’s freedom and logically
explained the circumstances of the matter.
In the film, Dhritarashtra made the decision as to Draupadi
being sold as a slave, and believed that it did not make a difference whether
her husband was a free man or a slave at the time when he gambled her freedom away.
Throughout this part of the movie, Dhritarashtra played both
sides of the fence when it came to her children and husband. She is a manipulative character.
"The Mahabharata" written by R.K. Narayan (1978)
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