Drona (2008)

Synopsis: For DRONA, director Goldie Behl infuses a story based loosely on Indian mythology with a look and feel that is part pop art, part comic book, and part video game. Aditya (Abhishek Bachchan) has... For DRONA, director Goldie Behl infuses a story based loosely on Indian mythology with a look and feel that is part pop art, part comic book, and part video game. Aditya (Abhishek Bachchan) has been raised by a stepmother who treats him like a servant. Although portents begin appearing to him in childhood in the form of electric-blue rose petals, Aditya does not know that he is actually Drona, the hereditary protector of the universe from the descendants of ancient demons. Before he learns this crucial information, Aditya is recognized as Drona by one such demon, a psychopathic, childlike magician named Riz Raizada (Kay Kay Menon), who plays with marionettes and creates clones of himself only to humiliate and torture them. Not a moment too soon, the warrior Sonia (Priyanka Chopra), a martial-arts whiz assigned to guard Drona, shows Aditya his true identity. Production design enhances the impression that DRONA's characters are moving among levels of a complicated video game. Scenes were shot on location in Prague, where lemon-yellow cars, seas of bright-red raincoats, and Riz's elaborate purple outfits contrast smartly with the city's muted palette; and in Namibia, amid acres of sepia-toned sand. Action also takes place in Indian and Czech palaces and in an eye-popping city of secrets that resembles an updated version of Willy Wonka's factory, where neon-orange doors decorated with silver hands open into nothing. Using medieval and modern costumes, sequences set on horseback and on moving trains, and high-tech visual effects mingled with graphic-novel illustrations, Behl sets the confrontations between Drona and Riz in a world that is simultaneously here and now and in the distant past. After the climactic final encounter, the battle between good and evil--as in any mythological tale--is clearly destined to be continued. [More]

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Kay Kay Menon

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Kay Kay Menon

Director: Goldie Behl

Director: Goldie Behl
Screenwriter: Jaydeep Sarkar, Rohini Killough, Goldie Behl
Story: Goldie Behl
Producer: Shrishti Arya, Sunil Lulla
Composer: Dhruv Ghanekar

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