Bharat Ek Khoj - Reliving India with its heros

This is a really wonderful work.

I would like to place it among other great works like Ramayan (by Ramanand Sagar), Mahabharat (by B R Chopra) and Mirza Ghalib (by Gulzar).

I lived with every character as I went through the episodes. I mourned with Babur on the death of his young son. I celebrated with Akbar when the Mughals won Gujrat. I felt Shivaji's humiliation in the court of Aurangzeb and Tipu Sultan's misfortune when French betrayed him.

The actors are amazing. No one could have played their parts better than Om Puri (as Aurangzeb), Kulbhushan Kharbanda (as Akbar), Vijay Arora (as Jahangir), Naseeruddin Shah (as Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj) and one and only Roshan Seth (as Nehru).

I could not complete without praising the wonderful music compositions. Not only the background scores and the title song but also the in-between folk songs that played the most important role in connecting with the viewers.

Hats off to Shyam Benegal for giving us this master piece.

A must watch to all the students and admirers of Indian history.

Ek Ruka Hua Faisala

Ek Ruka Hua Faisla



To overcome once prejudices, to think beyond the limits of the known and to observe the reality as-it-is, without any presumptions of the observer are virtues possessed by very few people.

Many scholars like J Krishnamurthy have even called this practice as the greatest form of meditation one can do. This sounds true, since most of us all are so prepossessed with our knowledge, that the reality in front of us is always shadowed by the images projected by our mind, our thoughts and our accumulated concepts.




"Ek ruka hua faisala" is a story of such 11 men, who are all biased in their decision over a legal verdict, a murder case. The twelfth person in the group was an indifferent guy who tries to convince the group by his rationale thinking. It's decided that until any consensus is reached within the sequestered jurors, they all have to sit together and listen to what others are saying.

The movie left me thinking behind, the way I view things myself, the way I take my decisions, where does this promptness to do something comes from, am I ever reached at the reality before judging the activities of mind as right and wrong. I think most of the times it never happens.

The life would be much different if we are able to observe the things without the burden of our past knowledge. I hope in that case, we may as spontaneous as a little child and might have reached more closer to the reality then.



All the performers have done their part exceptionally well, particularly Pankaj Kapur, who played a stubborn middle age man.

I have watched some of his movies like "The Blue Umbrella", which left an impact of his performance on me. And this knowledge was with me all the while I was watching him again, listening to the dialogues he delivered.

It seems once again I have seen what I wished to watch, I have appreciated what I was prepared to appreciate and the distinctness between the observer and the observed is lost again.




The movie is a master piece, the story and the concept behind needs to be observed.

A must watch for all those who need some healthy food for their thoughts.