one of my absolute favorites!

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Ashoka is one of the great characters of India. His symbol, the Ashoka chakra graces the Indian flag. This movie takes this character and tries to turn it into a Bollywood hero/heroine/villain sob story and fails miserably.Yes, the music, cinematography and costumes are good and that's hardly sufficient. The movie fails at multiple levels. 1. It depicts Ashoka as a man guided by blind emotions that sway from defiance to obedience to mother to blind love to attempted forgiveness to sadness and depression to rage and anger and to blood lust and finally back to feeling sorry for oneself without ANY attempt at true regret. What evokes "dharma" in this man is seeing his lover hurt on the battlefield??? Really?? The battlefield is surrounded with corpses, blood and widows while men are being whipped ceaselessly by his army and he claims to suddenly discover "dharma"? 2. There is ZERO attempt to show any precepts of Buddhism which is what guided the real Ashoka. Reciting Buddhist chants is NOT Buddhism!!! 3. The story is completely disjointed and ridiculous juxtaposition of stories that lead to no meaning except this man allowing himself to be jerked around from one situation to another! 4. The India of the Gupta empire time is very unlikely to have had scantily clad women dancing around seductively. Ashoka's wife Devi is supposedly a Budhist and she's dressed to show off all her feminine assets. That's not what a princess would have done in her day! 5. The battle scenes are almost childish and pathetically filmed. Even older, black and white movies had better battle scenes!Epics based on Indian history deserve far, FAR better than this sorry excuse of a film. By all means make formula Bollywood films of boy meets girl type but do not defile historic characters in the process.

The people who like the plot, like it because King Ashoka's life and philosophy were great. The movie is stupid! Acting specially sucks. Ashoka's life deserves better than a stinking heap of irrelevant music sequences , bad actors and illogical dialogs. Bollywood has produced far better movies on history and this is nowhere near them. Ashoka's change of perception was supposed to be the awesomest and most inspiring part of the movie which they ruined with shallow approach. Neither the dialogs nor the visual aspects have been successful in that. As an actor SRK looks better because other actors are even worse than him. Few scenes like his mother's death, his wrath and violence and his post war visit of the battleground are OK but don't make the movie any better.A whole universe of Indian heroes and philosophers need to be revealed to the world, who till date are buried under darkness. I am expecting movies with more depth in future.

Asoka (Without Sorrow), 2001, 171min, Dreamz Unlimited If you like Sparta 300 and Gladiator, you will love this movie. Writer-director Santosh Sivan set out to make this loosely historical epic young Emperor Asoka, one of the India's greatest emperors of the Maurya Dynasty from 273 BCE to 232 BCE.Though the story is largely fictional, Sivan uses actual historical figures and tells the story in the context of the events of the day. From its opening moments detailing Asoka's trust for the sword to the sumptuous splendor of the battlefield defining the skill of Asoka's swordsmanship, the visuals of the film Asoka are simply breathtaking. Blending an eye for detail in production design, Sivan brings the long-dead civilization back to life like no other Hindi film has done before. First and foremost, a big round of applause to not only Sivan for orchestrating this enjoyable historical jaunt and evocative cinematography, but also Manish Malhotra for the gorgeous costume design and John Kundan Pai for the beautiful production designs. Stunning ancient architecture, strategic use of curtains and lighting, and absolutely stunning garb work with the unique camera angles to bring the ancient era to light. Scholarly issues aside, this is the kind of film that defines the term 'masterpiece'– filled with spectacle and action, and telling a story of epic scope and humanity. Asoka is an enthralling and totally immersing production that will probably be viewed as a Hindi classic paving the way to films like Jodha Akbar.Asoka and Kaurwaki (unbeknown to her that he is indeed her love Pawan), gather their forces for the final show down confrontation known to history as the Battle of Kalinga, whose outcome decided the fate of civilization and destiny of Asoka. A man who began his life as an emperor but ended as a monk achieving what he dreamt of which is to become the greatest emperor in history, that is emperor of hearts. The reticence pays off near the end when screenwriter provides the characters with a provocative and literate debate about the nature of war.Though many will remember the film for its violent and edge-of-your-seat battles, there is a lot of humanity found within this film, which builds up nicely to the film's emotionally satisfying climax. Sivan chooses to devote a fair amount of time focusing on Asoka's worrier Princess Kaurwaki, played beautifully by Kareena Kapoor. Her character is as violent, sensual, and full of intrigue her counterpart Prince Asoka. This complex love relationship between two people from rival kingdoms is expanded upon from its historical reference to portray Kaurwaki as a strong willed and passionate woman. There are few of passionate (I say not enough) moments between Asoka and Princess Kaurwaki highlighted by the music sequences tossed in to balance out the brutal and savage war scenes (not to mention a smoking-hot wet scenes of Shahrukh and Kareena) making the film worthwhile to watch.What raises Asoka above the usual epic drama is not only the strength of its story but power of its performances. More on Isisbollywood RHK

Absolutely loved all that I saw. I haven't seen the first bit, but the last hour and a half is definitely awesome. I don't know if this historically accurate or not, but it is historic enough to give you an idea of Asoka's story, the rise to power, Battle of Kalinga, change to Buddhism, all these are addressed. Everything had the hall mark of a great movie. The grandeur of the Mauryan empire was palpable. Asoka's evil in his rise to power, his ruinous campaigns for the empire were not just seen and heard, but felt. Absolutely awesome was the battle- the scale of the battle, the destruction, the disaster, the hatred and then the repentance, the scenes say it all absolutely wordlessly (Mark the scene where Asoka offers the dying soldier water, and he refuses to take it from the hated Asoka). Karuwaki's "you're Asok" deserves a place amongst the best scenes ever. I could feel the hatred she felt in my throat. The movie is probably somewhere in between Gladiator and The Hero, but absolutely has its own mark, the distinct Indian flavour. Wonder why it isn't more celebrated. Did this really flop in India??? Why??? Its probably one of the best movies to have been made!!!