Probably the best thing about the film Asoka (remember those promos of Kareena Kapoor with fish designed eyes, suspiciously looking like the Oriya version of Cleopatra) is its director, Santosh Sivan. His strengths as a cinematographer and a technician with limitless creativity has already dazzled Indian audiences in Dil Se and his other works.

Asoka, however, is a dream; he has been reported as saying. He thought about it since his school days, the human side of a king who gave up violence after winning a long and bloody battle and the role that a nymphet plays in humanizing him. It sounds interesting. But a little difficult to digest is the dance sequence that shows Asoka the Great dancing like Prabhu Deva in an orange scarf (supposed to be the Maurya era's answer to the South Indian angavastram). Surely, he could have fallen in love without imagining dancing around trees (or over bloodied bodies…) Is it too much to expect a great emperor to not make a fool of himself over a dancing girl Kaurawi (however Kapoor she may be). But then the emperors of that era were known to have done it, repeatedly; even monks…remember Amrapali and Chitralekha?

The lady in question, it seems, is a popular legend around Orissa and the love interest of Asoka's life - exactly what Sivan was looking for. After all, this is the story of a man about who very little is known. Of course, except for the fact that stared at every Indian student from their history books down generations, that after becoming non-violent, Asoka The Great built wayside inns and planted trees for weary travelers.

The film has a heavy Tamil presence in terms of the Tamil hero Ajit, who plays the Emperor's impotent brother, which, some feel, is not a very good choice.

The story is based…. on what else, love. But this time it's love against the backdrop of the great Kalinga war in which Utkal (present day Orissa) was totally ravaged. It's a pity that it took a learned man like Asoka a full war and thousands of lives to realize the futility of violence. Would that be wisdom or sheer guilt?

Whatever, Asoka is certainly Shah Rukh's face-saving technique after the debacle of Phir Bhi Dil hai Hindustani. It was the baby of Shah Rukh and Juhi Chawla's Dreamz Unlimited and so is Asoka, one can only hope the company is not jinxed. Or else not even the great Emperor's memories would be able to save Dreamz.