The Dark Herald Recommends: Mohenjo Daro

The Dark Herald Recommends: Mohenjo Daro

Yes, it’s another Bollywood movie

You have to be into archaeology to really enjoy this movie.

When I loaded this one up I was at first a little disappointed. The grand spectacle of Raj Putana was missing. In fact, everything looked pretty cheap but then I saw almost everyone was using stone tools and they looked pretty authentic. That was when I took a real interest.

It took about a minute of internet searching to discover that this production company really sweated the details. Pretty much everything you see is based on things that were discovered a the Mohenjo Daro dig site. The buildings, the temple, the senate chamber, the Great Bath, all of them were recreated from artifacts found at the dig site.

This film takes place in the third cradle of human civilization, the Indus River valley circa 2500 bc. Which makes the city contemporaries with The Old Kingdom pyramid builders of Egypt, the Royal City of Ur, and Minoan Crete.

The story itself is another variant on what I am coming to call the Osiris Mono-myth. The vindicating son avenging the death of his father, the lawful and just king. Then assuming his place on the throne. The only thing missing was the usurper being his uncle… and also his father wasn’t actually the king of Mohenjo Daro, he was the Senate Chief but hey, close enough.

So our hero’s father was overthrown and killed and the usurper plans to expand his rule with the ultimate weapon of the day, copper weapons. The son arrives about then.

I’m afraid The Osiris Mono-myth, is really more of a cautionary tale for usurping uncles in the real world. After all when Richard III took the throne what was the first thing he did? 

The movie itself is the usual Bollywood Adventure-Romance-Comedy-Action-Musical-Drama. If you are into that you won’t be disappointed.

I’m afraid the part I found a little off-putting was casting Hrithik Roshan as the lead. Don’t get me wrong I like the man’s work. Think of him as a Cary Grant who can actually sing, dance, and really act. He can do it all. He has a charisma that puts Henry Cavill to shame. And he almost pulls off playing a kid in his twenties but the moment he is paired with the lead actress who actually is in her twenties the illusion is shattered like a christmas tree ornament being hit with a baseball bat.

Apparently, there was also a real-world problem the film had with the Hindus themselves. Mohenjo Daro itself predates the current pantheon. Those gods are supposed to be eternal. And they ain’t there in Mohenjo Daro. There was a bunch of proto-gods, and an almost recognizable Siva, but there was also some zoolatry worship going on. The *unicorn-bull was esspecially prominent throughout the movie.

The Hindus were not cool about this.

However, if you are into sword and sandals movies, Bollywood dance numbers, and archeology you are in for a treat.

The Dark Recommends with Enthusiam

*The unicorn-bull might have been based on a subspecies of the Indian Rhinoceres.

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