WAR
Bhishma, you've launched these attacks...
and you've been thrown back.
By what sorcery? You, whose strength is legendary,
you, the only stranger to death...
...are you on our enemies' side?
They have Arjuna and Bhima against me,
Krishna is their guide.
Bhishma loves battles,
the cries, the frenzy... Blood feeds his pride,
yet he pities those he fights.
Let him withdraw and I will take his place.
Yes. If you have fear or pity, withdraw.
The man who is about to die sees all the trees covered with gold.
You are going to die.
I saw Bhima hurl himself towards me crying:
I'll kill you! I'll kill you!
Bhishma, you have failed me.
Now I demand victory.
Tomorrow will be my greatest battle.
Leave me alone.
Drona, ask your son to leave.
Do you love your son?
Yes. He's all I have.
I saw a stranger in a dream. He cried out: I bear Drona's death.
Did he say why he wanted to kill me?
He said you know.
No one knows why he has to die.
No one. Except you, Bhishma.
Is it you, Amba?
As you see...
I wait for you every night.
I know.
Stop hunting me across the earth.
Accept to be at peace at last.
I bring you strange news.
No one wished to fight against you. Alone...
...I climbed to the snows that cover the roof of the world,
seeking to know how death can outwit death.
In the icy fog, in the biting wind,
for twelve years I stayed upright and reached on one toe,
waiting for the voice of a god.
I turned into rock,
I became snow.
After twelve years a voice rang out, commanding:
"Gather bark, twigs, musk".
I did so. "Make a pile of dry wood". I did so.
"Rub flints together, light the wood,
"Wait until the flames hide the sky".
My eyes open, I threw myself into the fire.
My skin crackled.
The smell reached my nostrils, I chocked...
I was in pain, I cried out.
I'm dead, Bhishma.
- You are dead? - Yes.
So you lost your desire to kill me?
No.
In death's grey zone, I waited for my new strength.
One single image before my eyes:
yours, Bhishma.
I burned myself for you
and now I knew another birth.
Here is my second surprise:
I'm taking part in this battle and I'm now a man.
What is your name?
I have a man's shape, a man's sex.
One thing is sure, it never wavers.
In the depths of my heart, a woman's heart...
...there's only you.
You alone, for all time.
My name's now Sikhandin.
Sikhandin
Bhishma,
After nine days of battle victory eludes us.
Our chariots are smashed,
our finest horsemen beheaded.
Death and blood spurt from your hand, and we are drowning in them.
Bhishma, how can we defeat you? You must tell us.
As long as I'm alive, that's impossible.
You must kill me first.
But you can choose when to die.
How can we kill you?
No one can kill me as long as I carry my arms.
And if you lay down your arms?
Yes, if I lay down my arms and I accepted to die, yes, then you could kill me.
Who could make you lay down your arms?
You want me to die, Yudhishthira?
You are asking me to die?
You brought us up. How could I want you to die?
Yet you must understand.
As no one can kill you, the massacre will continue until no life remains.
Yes, that's true.
I've made my decision.
If you can't help us, Bhishma, I will stop the war.
No.
There is a man fighting in your ranks,
the only man capable of killing me.
- Who? - Sikhandin.
Yes,
if I saw Sikhandin before me, I could not fight and he could kill me.
Why?
No. I'll say no more.
Kill me if you wish,
but grant me the secret of my death.
Arjuna...
put Sikhandin in the ring tomorrow, tell him to raise his bow and strike!
It's lawful to kill an old man,
when he comes towards you bearing your death.
Do you recognise me?
You are Sikhandin.
Go close to him. Only you can kill him!
My hand shakes.
How can I kill this immense old man!
His spirit has already left him. Attack him!
Go close to him!
I can't raise my arm!
Amba! In memory of a long past day,
I now bring this slaughter to its end.
Arjuna and Yudhishthira!
Listen to me!
My body drops away,
it's wounded and it's dismayed.
The day and the moment have come.
Throw your arrow. You threw yourself into the fire to kill him.
Why does he call me Amba?
Why such hate? I can't remember.
Shoot an arrow. Don't let him take back his life.
I can't.
Shoot an arrow.
The precise arrow that kills me, Sikhandin, is not yours,
you didn't shoot it.
It enters my flesh like a snake.
It's Arjuna's arrow.
All my life, he's been my guide.
Is he dead?
Not yet, but he will die,
and others will die.
Your friends, your sons,
they will die because of you.
You didn't kill him,
he decided to end his life.
I loved him.
You're my best friend, yet no doubt you'll see me die.
Arjuna, give me the pillow I need.
Bhishma, can you really die?
I'll remain on this bed
until the day when the sun reaches its zenith,
then I will die.
Arjuna, I'm thirsty.
Karna...
I have always been an object of hate for you.
Give me your hand.
Come.
You betray your nature,
you detest those who have the qualities you lack,
but you are strong and profound,
as strong as Arjuna.
I ask you Karna, unite.
Paralyze the war.
Live peacefully on this earth.
Duryodhana gave me everything.
I will keep faith with him.
Grant me your permission to fight.
I beg you,
speak to me favourably before you enter the world of the dead.
Can you fight without anger?
Without pride?
Yes.
Give me your leave.
Go, then,
join the battle, since life seems to you so trifling,
and set me facing the east,
towards the rising sun.
Karna...
Who's there?
It's me, Kunti.
I remember that day,
long ago,
when in the middle of a tournament you appeared,
glowing, radiant.
What do you want?
I've come to find you,
to hold you by the hand to take you with me.
Your voice draws me deep into the past,
back to my childhood,
the sound of your voice.
I feel a hand on my forehead.
Often in my sleep, a veiled woman would come to me.
Are you still a dream?
Why does the mother of my enemies suddenly make me a child?
Come with me.
Rage, hate, passion for victory,
they all seem false like fevers at night.
Where do you want to take me?
Over there, to the other camp, towards those lights.
- Towards my enemies? - Yes.
- Towards Arjuna? - Yes.
- And there I'll find my mother again? - Yes.
She rejected me from the very first.
She put me in a cradle, gave me over to a river.
The cruellest enemy couldn't have done me so much harm.
She never gave me her mother's tenderness,
her warmth.
Kunti... Tonight, for the first time,
you are concerned with me.
Why?
I want to give you back your rights, your position.
It's not true.
You know I intend to fight and you're afraid I will kill Arjuna!
Karna... You are my son,
my eldest son.
You're born of me.
Your mother asks your pardon.
I was so young...
Go and join Arjuna.
When you are united, everything will be possible.
Give me your hand.
Come with me towards the lights.
I'm the son of a driver.
What you have torn, nothing can repair.
Leave me alone,
naked once again,
on this...
...great...
...red...
...river.
Go!
Kunti,
I can do one thing for you.
I will not kill Yudhishthira, I promise you.
I will not kill Bhima. I promise you,
nor the twins, sons of Madri. I will not kill them.
I will only kill your son Arjuna,
for one of us must die.
Him or me.
In that way,
after the battle
you will keep the same number of sons.
What do we hear?
What's this noise?
The army lights up the night.
Thousands, thousands of flames.
The shining rises from the earth.
They are even fighting at night?
It's as though the trees of a forest
were covered with glittering flies.
The earth is burning. It's like the last night of the world.
They must be stopped!
They must be told to respect the rules!
Vyasa, go and tell them!
Karna is going to destroy us!
Arjuna! Where are you going?
I'm returning to the fight!
I don't advise you to face Karna tonight.
The iron spear he clasps in his hand is for you.
He's been keeping it for yourself for a long time.
It's a divine spear that can't fail to kill.
What can save us?
It's a trick of darkness we need.
No one can stop Karna, except...
Who?
I'm thinking of Ghatotkatcha,
the son of Bhima and the Rakshasi.
He swore that one day he would arise to save his father.
Here I am. Where is my father?
Fighting. But he's wounded and threatened.
Who's threatening him?
Karna. Listen carefully, Ghatotkatcha.
None other than you can stop the driver's son.
Karna's power is terrifying, but it's not equal to yours.
Demon of eclipses and illusions,
you are your family's last defence.
In the secret of darkness,
offer Karna to the gods.
Describe Ghatotkatcha.
His eyes are blood, his beard green,
his mouth a gash like the gate of death.
He is cross-eyed, vast bellied
sharp-toothed.
His flag drenched in blood, it's crapped with a wreath of guts
and its pinnacle is a vulture
whose wings touch the sky.
Night increases my power,
elephants piss with fear.
And Karna? Where is Karna?
He prepares to fight.
You won't escape from my hands alive!
Ghatotkatcha heaps,
he howls into the clouds...
He calls down a rain of trees,
a hail of rocks!
He has a hundred bellies, a hundred heads
then he shrinks into a finger.
And Karna?
He shoots blade arrows,
reptile arrows.
Ghatotkatcha becomes ferocious animals...
Karna exterminates them all!
Our armies are crushed! Swift, kill him! Kill him with your launch!
No, he must save this launch for Arjuna!
He can only use it once!
Only once!
Swift!
Kill him!
Nothing can resist this vicious demon!
Men are dying by millions!
If you hesitate for one more moment, we're lost! Quick! Hurry!
No! He must keep his launch!
Why? Why? Why?
Ghatotkatcha! My son!
My son! Why?
Why?
Why are you rejoicing?
Ghatotkatcha is dead.
Tonight we grieve and you, you dance and laugh. Why?
Ghatotkatcha has just killed Karna.
What are you saying?
No one could resist Karna as long as this launch was in his hands.
Now Arjuna, you can kill him.
Did you throw Ghatotkatcha into the fight knowing he was going to die?
Karna is like the sun.
You can't fix your eyes on him.
His arrows are his rays.
Now he's reduced to the simple condition of a man.
Yes, Ghatotkatcha has saved you.
To preserve your life I've sent him to his death.
Tonight I'm breathing in joy.
I was born to destroy the destroyers,
and I became your friend out of love for the world.
Father, you really know how to destroy the Pandavas?
Yes.
I know it.
I don't believe you.
If we can draw Arjuna away from the battle,
I grant the victory.
How can you draw him away?
Why, a trick!
Father, these men whom you formed,
whom you trained and brought up, whom you said
were amongst the most beautiful flowers on the earth...
...are you ready to trick and slaughter them?
Your son has asked you a question.
You don't answer...
You said you loved the Pandavas,
that you wished for their victory.
Now you must organize their death.
Is your loyalty and your commanders' pride strong enough for this?
What's your decision?
I know the way.
An attack from the north?
Yes, a savage attack.
It's a trick of Drona's to draw Arjuna away from the centre of the battle.
But no one can imagine the consequences.
You've always told me Drona cannot be beaten.
Today he will bring victory to my son!
Yes. You will have a glorious day
and your victory will be your defeat.
Someone will die today because of you,
someone whom all the world loved.
Father! Father, where are you going?
They're attacking from the north. I'm going to throw them back!
Take me with you!
Abhimanyu, you aren't old enough for war.
We are going to swim in blood.
I'm your son and I'm strong. As strong as you.
Are you afraid to grow old in my shadow?
Why leave me yawning in a tent surrounded by women?
I need to fight! Take me with you.
Abhimanyu, your place is here. Out of the way.
Abhimanyu, Arjuna's favourite son,
conceived with Krishna's own sister,
Abhimanyu will die.
Drona is advancing.
Look! He's in the centre of his iron disk.
He's crushing everything!
He will grind us to dust!
Who can break it open?
- Only Arjuna. - No.
I can do so too.
Abhimanyu, you know how to force the disk?
Yes, I know how.
Arjuna gave you the secret?
No. But before my birth, as I lay in my mother's womb,
I heard my father speak of this secret.
And you remember what he said?
Word for word.
Abhimanyu, we are lost.
The disk will destroy us. Your father is far away.
- I plead to you... - He' s almost a child!
A child I may be...
...but I'll attack Drona's iron wall.
I'll crack it apart!
My family needs me.
The entire earth today needs me!
Fetch me my arms.
Abhimanyu, these words are not your own...
The glory makes you blind. Go back to your mother. This could be your death!
Without me it's death for everyone!
I know the special secret and I have miraculous powers!
Only, in my mother's womb I didn't hear all the secret.
What exactly did you hear?
I heard how to force a way into the disk,
but if the disk should close...
...I don't know how to come out.
Open up a breech. That's all we need, a breech...
...and we'll follow you.
Open a breech. I'll be at your heels.
Quick! The disk is approaching!
I'll lead the troops like a flame.
All the armies will follow me.
Arjuna is my father,
and the thought of him comes to my aid.
Drona will kill him.
Vyasa, prevent him from fighting!
I can't.
I'm going to break open your disk!
Your slaughter ends here!
Bhima! Watch where he goes!
Abhimanyu, do you want to die?
Yudhishthira! The breech is open!
Follow me!
Bhima! Here!
Bhima! Help us!
Bhima! Yudhishthira! Where are you? Follow me!
Bhima! The disk is open! Come to me!
- Come! - I can't!
The air's hard!
There's an invisible wall!
Drona, you seem fascinated by your extraordinary strength!
The iron disk shattered by a child!
Drona, where is your promise? Are you in love with our enemies too?
Kill him!
I'm alone in the middle of the disk,
and the disk is closing.
They're all around me: Karna, Drona, Ashwattaman.
Come closer!
Break his bow!
The bow's broken.
Break his sword!
The sword is broken!
Father!
Is Abhimanyu dead?
He's lying on the ground...
He doesn't move.
He's like the wind when it dies down.
Those who killed him weep in silence and say:
it's just a child lying on the ground.
Was this our duty?
Why am I greeted in silence?
Normally my son Abhimanyu runs eagerly to meet me.
Who killed him?
Who sent him to his death?
I did.
Only he knew how to force the iron disk.
You didn't defend my son.
We were all behind him, he was leading us to victory,
but the disk closed behind him.
Impossible to break through.
You sent my son to his death.
Arjuna, they're telling you the truth.
Krishna...
...did you let my son die
so as to push me deeper into the fight?
I'm crossing the great era of darkness with you.
This struggle is absolute.
You and your brothers are the world's only light.
Every moment, remember what I told you:
If your heart breaks, closes up...
...if it becomes bitter, dark or dry...
...the light will be lost.
Bhishma...
I've killed a child.
I'm responsible for his death.
What can I do?
How can I go on with the war?
A deathless boy,
very old and very young,
once said to me:
"Death doesn't exist".
What did he mean?
Ask him. He's here.
Are you the deathless boy?
Yes.
You said:
"Death doesn't exist"?
I did.
If even gods make sacrifices so as not to die...
Both things are true.
Poets pay homage to death,
they glorify it in song,
but I tell you, death is negligence.
It is ignorance, and vigilance is immortality.
Death is a tiger crouching in the brush.
We create children for death,
but death cannot devour a man who has shaken off his dust.
It is powerless against eternity.
The wind, life...
...flow from the infinite.
The moon drinks the breath of life.
The sun drinks the moon,
and the infinite drinks the sun.
The wise man soars between the worlds.
When his body is destroyed,
when no trace of it remains,
then death itself is destroyed,
and he contemplates infinity.
All my life I've heard wise people say:
When Dharma is protected, it protects.
When it is destroyed, it destroys.
Are we protecting Dharma?
Sometimes, the only way to protect Dharma
is to forget it.
I watch the fall of kings and I see contempt rise in their place.
Drona, I thought you were my pillar,
but you smiled when Abhimanyu slaughtered my men.
You love Arjuna.
Now will you have pity for his grief, or will you press on for victory?
How can you still hope for victory?
We are dying, we are dying because of you!
I know it. My end is near.
Drona, you're old and feeble.
All that you love is over there, on the other side,
and in the depths of your heart you hope for defeat!
You insult my father! I'll tear off your head!
Stop, Ashwattaman! Throw down that weapon!
Karna! Ashwattaman!
What madness is possessing you?
Without your promises of victory, I would never have launched this war!
You suspect us of being other than we are,
and we accept to die for you.
Halt! Don't go near my father.
I am Vyasa.
What are you looking for?
I'm not looking for anything.
I'm watching over your father in his last sleep.
Who will kill him? Tell me!
Do you see that shadow?
It's Drishtadyumna, Draupadi's brother.
Each time your father sleeps,
Drishtadyumna enters his dream and says to him:
It is for this that I am born, and you know it,
because you are afraid.
My father has no fear.
He never committed the slightest error.
He's destroyed his life.
Your father was a Brahmin,
a holy man, so poor he couldn't even buy you milk,
but he was ashamed
and he used all his power to become a terrible warrior,
the hardest of men.
He was born for a life of peace,
but he chose war.
That was his error.
Why don't you sleep?
Father,
why did you tell the chiefs you were going to die?
No one can defeat you.
Drona!
Why did you agree to rest?
Why not follow your advantage?
Because I'm tired, I'm old...
You've often told me so.
Ashwattaman...
I'm giving you the northern army. Your men are waiting.
Drona, the day breaks.
Take up your arms.
Arjuna!
I'm losing all hope of beating Drona.
He will massacre everyone. He's become war itself.
How can we make him lay down his arms?
There's just one way.
Drona's only son is his own life. He must be told that Ashwattaman is dead.
He'll be so discourage, so desperate that he'll drop his weapon.
But Ashwattaman isn't dead. It would be a lie!
I know.
I don't agree. Find anther way.
Wait.
There. It's done.
I've killed Ashwattaman.
Who?
An elephant called Ashwattaman. I've killed him.