Coming on the heels of Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, 'Asoka' provides further evidence that Bollywood is poised for wider commercial impact beyond its already substantial established niche. Variety 's David Rooney states, 'a sprawling widescreen historical epic laced with Bollywood musical numbers, melodramatic romance, spectacular locations and violent battle scenes.

Prince Arya manages a dying speech before he keels over and that breaks Asoka completely.' Taran Adarsh the famous Indian Film critic, journalist, editor and film trade analyst wrote that 'Director Santosh Sivan has chosen a historical subject, but added his spice and come up with a fairytale kind of a flick.' As a cinematographer, Santosh Sivan's work is flawless. Bollywood style, Asoka finds Kaurwaki and the young Prince Arya of Kalinga on the battlefield. He is also less convincing when, grieved by the loss of life in Kalinga, he renounces violence and vows to spread the message of peace far and wide. He meets Princess Kaurwaki in the forest and then chases her around in a typically Bollywood way. Neil Smith described the film 'with elements of both Gandhi and Braveheart, Asoka is a big, sprawling epic that looks every rupee it took to bring it to the screen.' However, BBC's Santosh Sinha noted, 'It is at this point in the film that Asoka is temporarily lost and Shahrukh Khan the actor takes over. K.S.Chithra, Abhijeeth Bhattacharya & Chorus The soundtrack was very successful and according to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 15,00,000 units sold, the album was the year's one of the highest-selling. Gulzar wrote the lyrics for five songs while one song was written by Anand Bakshi('San Sanana'). Malik stepped in to compose the songs, while Sandeep Chowta was brought on board to for the background score. Rahman was signed in to compose the film's music, but for reasons unknown, he opted out.

The score is composed by Sandeep Chowta while the songs are by Anu Malik. 'These metal jackets are extremely light and comfortable and were made in Madras by more than 50 workers,' she explains. Metal jackets composed of special fibre glass were made for around 4000 members of the cast. For the character of Kaurwaki, (Kareena) we used different designs of tattoos.' The armours and shields worn by the artistes also form an important part of the costume for the final war sequences. There was no stitching involved.' Anu explains 'While researching for the film, we discovered that Body Art was a prominent part of that time. Another piece of cloth was tried around his waist, acting as a belt. During Shah Rukh's forest sequences, he wears square pieces of a blanket-like-material, folded into two and cut in between, to pass around the neck. 'After all, it is a mainstream commercial film. Though Anu agrees that there was no concept of wearing vests during that era, certain cinematic liberties have been taken because Shahrukh did not wanted to shoot shirtless throughout the film. The director, along with principal costume designer Anu Vardhan, started working on the project two years before they started the actual shooting of the film. Shweta Menon as Nandaneshwari, the flower seller.Mithilesh Chaturvedi as Kalinga prime minister.Umesh Mehra as emperor Chandragupta Maurya (Dilip Sinha as the Hindi dubbing voice).Hrishita Bhatt as empress Devi (Ashoka's wife).The final narrative describes how Asoka not only built a large empire but spread Buddhism and the winds of peace throughout the empire.

The film ends with Asoka throwing the sword into the water at the same spot as his grandfather, and embracing Buddhism.

Ashoka full movie torrent