Chhatrasal Review: Watch this show only if you have enough patience and curiosity to know the history of King Chhatrasal
Chhatrasal Web Series Rating: 2 Stars
Just watched Chhatrasal web series on MX Player. So let’s analyze the cast, release date, story, positive/negatives and at last my personal view on this web series.
Cast: Neena Gupta, Ashutosh Rana, Jitin Gulati, Vaibhavi Shandilya, Manish Wadhwa, Anushka Luhar and Rudra Soni
Director: Anadii Chaturvedi
Release Date: 29th July 2021 (On MX Player)
Duration: 20 Episodes/ 40 Minutes
Story: Series is first historical epic based on the life of the warrior king Chhatrasal of Bundelkhand. Its story was set in the 16th century and narrated by Neena Gupta. After Aurangzeb declared himself as the king of the respective reign after dethroning Shahjahan, he dreamt of ruling the entire Indian territory. But Chhatrasal was a powerful warrior who fought against him to protect his kingdom from his rule. Undoubtedly, Aurangzeb was determined to rule over many kingdoms but king Chhatrasal did war against him to free Bundelkhand.
The story dates back to the 1649. India is ruled by the Mughals. Aurangzeb (Ashutosh Rana) snatched the throne from Shah Jahan, based on his cruelty and fear, not only the Mughal Sultanate but also captured the whole of India. The kings of most of the states are kneeling before the immense power of Aurangzeb without fighting. At the same time, a son is born to Sarandha (Jaswinder Gardner) wife of Champat Rai (Sangam Rai) of Bundela princely state in Bundelkhand, away from Delhi. The name of the baby is Chhatrasal (Zidan).
Taking war skills and knowledge of scriptures from parents, Chhatrasal is growing up that Mughal soldiers attack and kill Champat Rai along with his wife one day. 12-year-old orphan Chhatrasal (Rudra Soni) vows that one day he will avenge the murder of his parents by beheading Aurangzeb. Inspired by the Maratha Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, at the age of just 22, with a detachment of 5 horsemen and 25 soldiers, they take on the mighty army of the Mughals. With time, Aurangzeb’s cruelty and Chhatrasal‘s bravery continue to grow.
How Chhatrasal (Jitin Gulati) following the path shown by his guru Prannath Ji (Manish Wadhwa) frees Bundelkhand from a ruler like Aurangzeb in the future with the help of elder brothers Angad Rai (Manmohan Tiwari) and Bal Diwan (Lokesh Batta), his wife Dev Kumari (Vaibhavi Shandilya), and Mahabali (Bhupendra) help him out in this journey.
Positives
1. Performances
2. Story
3. Background Music
4. Few Moments
Negatives
1. Length
2. Unnecessary Drama
3. Climax
4. Screenplay
5. Direction
Durgesh Tiwary’s View : When I had watched the trailer of this series planned to watch this series because it is based on real story of King Chhatrasal’s valor, bravery and struggles against Aurangzeb.
Chhatrasal is the first historical epic based on the life of the unsung warrior King Chhatrasal of Bundelkhand. Its story goes back to 16th century India when the Mughal empire was expanding under the leadership of tyrant Aurangzeb, who mounted towards Delhi and dethroned his father Shahjahan, declaring himself “Alamgir Aurangzeb”. Around the same time in Bundelkhand, it was predicted that a child will be born who would free his people and bring them back to their motherland. That child was Chhatrasal. He was a hero from medieval India who never lost any battle against the Mughals.
Director has failed a bit in explaining the story to the audience. Most of the series has been shot in chroma due to Covid, but the VFX of the show is quite disappointing. Anadii Chatuvedi has tried to show the story well to the audience, but he could not present it well. Amongst the many issues, the first and foremost would be it’s length. Almost 20 hours of content churned out just to lead us to a battle which lasted barely for a minute with distasteful VFX.
Another jarring loophole which bothered me was the version told in this series does not really match to what is available on the Internet about Raja Chhatrasal on various historical websites. Besides this, editing and screenplay of the show is pathetic as it’s flooded with long sequences and patience-testing slow motion shots. It breaks my heart to write off a show, which clearly has a lot of people’s hard work involved, but there is nothing which impressed me in this series. Maybe the makers had visualized the show in a grand way, but it certainly did not convert on the screen.
My view on this web-series Recommended only if you have have excitement to know the history and have enough patience to watch approx. 15 hours else you can read the story and ignore this series.
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