Spoiler alert: Not just misleading, Mohenjo Daro is a violent assault on history

MOHENJO DARO TITLE SONG | Hrithik Roshan & Pooja Hegde | A.R. RAHMAN, ARIJIT SINGH | T-Series

The movie Mohenjo Daro is neither exceptional nor entirely bad. But you will have to leave your brain at home to return from the theatre without a headache.

Unfortunately, I went to watch the movie with a thinking cap on my head as I have a keen interest in the history of the Indus Valley Civilisation. I have read some 50 books on the subject, and written one myself.

Also Read: Turn the Indus Valley clock by 2,500 years. Now what does that mean

The biggest - rather horrific - flaw of Mohenjo Daro is that it presents not only a misleading but a totally contradictory image of the great civilisation. One of the salient features of the Indus Valley Civilisation was its adherence to peace; some 50,000 items have been excavated from the archaeological site of Mohenjo Daro, and not one of them is a weapon.

In stark contrast, Ashutosh Gowarikar"s creation is filled with violence, corpses hanging on bamboo sticks, and sinister conspiracies in the royal court. The film not only shows the use of swords, but their smuggling as well. It depicts cannibalism as part of Indus Valley culture despite the fact that it was the most liberal of the three major civilisations of the ancient world.

I have been to the Mohenjo Daro museum, and I can assure you that the movie doesn"t even have a shadow of the artefacts showcased there. There"s no evidence of sprawling mansions, forts, temples and imposing monuments in the Indus Valley Civilisation, unlike in the case of its other contemporary great civilisations - Egypt and Mesopotamia. Yet, the movie is set in the background of grandeur. It makes a mockery of history by showing a man-made water reservoir larger than even the modern day Bhakra Dam. In fact, in the move, this reservoir eventually brings about the destruction of the city of Mohenjo Daro. (G*d only knows how the rest of the civilisation perished then!)

Most historians are of the opinion that while the Indus Valley Civilisation might have lacked in scale and grandeur, it was truly accomplished in art. One does not get such an impression from the movie, though. Likewise, the peasants, a hallmark of the civilisation, are missing from it. Gowarikar could at least have shown a glimpse of the wells made with wedge-shaped bricks -- some of which still exist - and the sophisticated drainage system.

First published: 13 August 2016, 23:13 IST

Source: http://www.catchnews.com/culture-news/spoiler-alert-not-just-misleading-mohenjo-daro-is-a-violent-assault-on-history-1471109467.html