Babhruvahana, like Arjuna at the beginning of the Kurukshetra war, faces a moral dilemma. Can he risk harming his parents? While Chitarangada alerts Arjuna to shoot an arrow at their son and take advantage of Babhruvahana’s momentary lapse due to a sense of devotion towards them (as Arjuna did with Karna), Uluci, the Naga princess and yet another abandoned wife of Arjuna’s, reminds Babhruvahana of the teaching of the Kurukshetra battle that in the battlefield there is no space for feelings even towards parents. What Babhruvahana must do is to establish his mother’s good name and thereby his own character. This film captures this conflict spectacularly. The eerie parallels with the moral dilemmas of the great Mahabharata battle aside, here all the familial relationships (in particular, strong mothers and dutiful sons) become exaggerated and demand our attention.
Dr. Rajkumar
as Arjuna / Babruvahana
B. Saroja Devi
as Chitrangada
Jayamala
as Subhadra
Kanchana
as Uluchi
Vajramuni
as Vrishakethu
Ramakrishna
as Krishna
Sampath
as Kauravya
Thoogudeepa Srinivas
as Thakshaka
Bhatti Mahadevappa
as Chitrangada's Father
Shakti Prasad
as Neela Dhwaja
Shani Mahadevappa
as Hamsa Dhwaja
Rajanand
as Minister
