By Hindustan Times
The Warrior Prince has probably the most most gorgeous images I’ve seen in an Indian animation film in years. In a spectacular sequence, Arjun shoots an arrow through a golden fish to win Draupadi’s hand in marriage. The Chakravyuh army formation also gets stellar treatment within the climax. Director Arnab Chaudhari, referencing Japanese anime and manga, has created a visually rich film with an epic sweep.
Sadly, the characters and narrative don’t have the similar strength. The Mahabharata is among the world’s great stories, brimming with courage, romance, deceit, betrayal and tragedy. The characters are heroic but additionally damaged, twisted, fallible — the torment of Karna, the fitting man at the wrong side, and the craze of Draupadi have transfixed successive generations of Indians. On this telling, however, all of them become as flat as Arjun’s washboard abs. They have got no distinctive characteristics, except perhaps the Machiavellian Shakuni mama, who's short, wheezy, and within the time-honoured traditions of villains, laughs uproariously as he makes Yudhisthira lose his kingdom and his family in a lethal game of dice.
I’m assuming that everybody who goes to peer Arjun: The Warrior Prince will already be acquainted with the tale. So the pleasure lies within the telling. The primary half moves like a ponderous history lesson. The narrative picks up pace within the second half however the film never soars. Oddly, for an animation film geared toward children, it also features some startling violence, with headless bodies making appearances within the battle scenes.
Still Arjun: The Warrior Prince is a breakthrough for Indian animation. I only wish the storytelling itself were more animated.
