Arjun: The Warrior Prince (2012)

The story is based on the early life of the Prince Arjuna (Yuddvir Bakolia), loosely taken from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The story-line begins with Arjun as a nine-year-old boy and follows him until he grows into the warrior that the world knows him as.

It explores his life with his brothers in Hastinapur, his training and education, and his ultimate discovery of the warrior within himself. The movie begins with Uttar, the young prince of Viratnagar (Kingdom of king Virata), asking a maid (Brihannala) to tell him a story. The maid narrates him the story of Arjun. Pandu was the King of Hastinapur. He left the Kingdom to his brother Dhritrashtra and went to the forest for penance, with his 2 wives. With the blessing of the Gods, he had 5 sons. Pandu dies after that and Kunti (Ila Arun) (the elder wife) brings the kids back to Hastinapur, while the 2nd wife Satis. The Prime Minister delivers the kids to the ashram of Guru Drona. Arjun was a student of Drona (Ravi Khanwilkar), and that he learned the art of warfare from him. He was more skilled than all the students of Drona. None of his own brothers, nor his cousins - the hundred Kauravas - could equal him in the art. Duryodhana and the other Kauravas despised the Pandavas, for they feared that they might usurp Duryodhana's throne. Duryodhana had a rivalry with Bheem (Ashok Banthia) and tries to kill him several times by poisoning him or throwing his unconscious body into deep river waters. But Bheem survives. At the royal tournament, Duryodhan props up Karna to face and challenge Arjun as the best archer of the world. Arjun is a kid but wants to face Karna. Drona intervenes and stop this by saying that Karna is not eligible to fight Arjun. Bheeshma (Vishnu Sharma) advises Dhritrashtra not to do injustice to Yudhishthira, in his love for his own son. Else war is inevitable. When the king Dhritrashtra grew older, the rivalry between his sons the Kauravas and the Pandavas intensified. Twice, Duryodhana (Hemant Mahaur) attempted to kill all the Pandavas but failed. One time by sanctioning a tribal Susharman to build a combustible palace for his cousins at Varnavrat. But the Pandavas manage to escape the raging fire. Bheem finds and kills some of the tribal. In the meantime, Arjun won a Swayamvar (Arjun and Bheem heard about it from a travelling group of ascetics. Yudhishthira thinks that Pandavas can challenge Duryodhana if Panchal King's army supports them), and married the daughter of the King of Panchala, Draupadi (Rajeshwari Sachdev). The Pandavas return to Hastinapur triumphant. To avoid further conflict, Dhritrashtra proclaimed Duryodhana as the crown prince of Hastinapur, and asked Yudhishthira (Brijesh Jha) to be the king of a distant unkempt territory of the empire. Lord Krishna (Sachin Khedekar) meets the Pandavas in Khandavprastha and tells them to create a powerful kingdom with their hard work. They are attacked by Susharman and their tribal bandits, but Arjun and Krishna fend them off. The Pandavas construct a lavish Kingdom in the space of a few short years and invite the entire world for Yudhishthira's coronation. Duryodhana, who loathed the Pandavas, hatched a conspiracy with his uncle Shakuni (Vijay Kashyap) and won all that belonged to the Pandavas in a betting game called Chaupar. After losing everything, Yudhishthira bet his own brothers and Draupadi, and even himself. Draupadi was insulted in front of everyone, but Arjuna could not say anything because Yudhishthira was the king, and the king's words are the last words. Dhritrashtra feels Duryodhana went overboard and orders that the last dice be re-played with revised terms. The Pandavas, according to the rules of the game, had to go into exile for twelve years and an Agyatavasa for one year. While all the Pandavas go one way, Arjuna travels North to do Tapasya. Before leaving, Draupadi makes him promise that he will take revenge for her insult. He then leaves, and does Tapasya, during which he earns a bow from the Lord Shiva (Aanjjan Srivastav) after passing a series of test from him. The story then shifts back to the present day Viratnagar. It is revealed that the Pandavas are spending their secret exile, or 'Agyatavasa', there, and are noticed by some of the spies of Duryodhana. According to the outcome of the game, if any one of the Pandavas is found before the end of that one year, the Pandavas will have to again go for a twelve-year exile. The spy informs Duryodhana that the Pandavas are in Viratnagar. So, he launches an attack on Viratnagar with the help of his bandit friends. The king of Viratnagar leaves to thrash the marauding bandits. However, that is the bait. From the other direction Duryodhana's army comes, and it seems that the young prince of Viratnagar is the only one who is left to fight. Uttar's maid drives the young prince's chariot to the field, but the prince, distraught by the number of enemies, flees. The maid stops him and reveals her true identity: the maid (Brihannala) comes out as Arjun. Arjun retrieves his bow and makes prince Uttar drive his chariot. The warrior massacres the army and emerges victorious and at last Arjuna alone defeats all Kaurava warriors including Bhisma and Drona.