A spectacular, internationally acclaimed epic featuring some of today's brightest stars in Indian cinema Mohnlal and Suhasini along with the traditional Kathakali Masters of Dance. Vanaprasthan takes place while India is still under British rule. Kunhikuttan is born to a low cast woman but is also the secret son of a high cast lord who he is never to meet. As he grows up, Kun wants to become a master dancer but an arranged marriage thwarts his plans. He still travels to perform and meets a beautiful woman of a higher cast with whom he has an affair. History repeats itself when his love affair produces a son. Kun struggles to reconcile his life as a man deprived of both his father and son. While shielding the daughter of his arranged marriage from the world awaiting her: a tragedy he knows all too well from the Mahbharata masterpiece he now must perform one last time in the house of his mistress.

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Arjuna for me is someone who isn't aware of his abilities, but is
used by others for those very abilities. For example, Krishna. But
the battle of Mahabharata was won because of him. So there is an
identity crisis there.

And though Arjuna was married to Panchali, his relationship with
Subhadra was different. It had a deeper, philosophical element to
it. Though Subhadra and Arjun had never met each other, they knew each
other through letters, through people. Both were exceptionally
intelligent. Subhadra, for her part, was a woman with a strong concept
of right and wrong. The two deeply respected each other. Their son,
Abhimanyu, was immensely intelligent, too, having heard the story of
the Chakravyuh while still in the womb. Intelligence, here, had a
philosophical connotation which appealed to me.

This was a beautiful film. Usually I am scared of art films because I
think they intentionally slow down the film which is boring . I prefer
films which are slightly faster in pace and Vanaprastham is not a slow movie.
The music is by Zakir Hussain and the
camera by Santosh Sivan. The DVD is subtitled in English.

4 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Great movie but WARNING a bad DVDOct 01, 2002

This is a fine East Indian film: One of the better films that didn't get a released in the US last year.
BUT the DVD has a distorted image and as a consumer I feel it only fair to let other consumers know that the DVD should be recalled and re-transfered. All the characters and objects look extra skinny and elongated and it is not an artistic choice on the part of the director.
It's a shame because it is a beautiful movie. I recommend you rent it and if the image doesn't bother you then buy it. Or buy the video version, which for some reason has no distortion.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Unusual filmDec 27, 2008
By J. Hastings "s.asianist"
A great film from a little-known film industry. The engaging story of a tortured artist which gives great scenes of the traditional Kathakali performance tradition of the southern Indian state of Kerala.

fantastic movieJun 27, 2008
By Michael Golub
the traditional dress used for the "dance" are something out of a dream..the movie represents a "real" artist going through good and bad times..one of my favorite bolly's