Vikram Aur Betaal Part 11 - "Whom Will the Princess Marry?"
Vijay Arora as the Birdman
Puneet Issar as the Brave Man
Satish Kaul as the Vaid
Vijay Kavish as the Weaver
Mulraj Rajda as the King
Rama Vij as the Princess
Short Summary: Once the princess decides to leave her palace and go around and visit places in her kingdom. On her way she meets a Birdman who understands and talks with birds. Impressed by his unique skill she asks him to come to the palace and teach her too. She then meets a Weaver whose woven cloth is very fine and has good export demand. She wishes that she could weave with such ability. On her journey ahead she falls ill and is hence treated by a Vaid (Doctor in Hindi language). Looking at the philanthropic work he does, she expresses that she too wishes to leave her palace and help poor people just like he does. On her way back home, she is attacked by dacoits and a Brave Man saves her. Back in her palace, the King decides that she should now get married and announces that all suitable Grooms can present themselves.
Question: Of the Birdman, Weaver, Doctor and the Brave Man who will the Princess marry?
Answer: Vikram replies that the Princess will marry the Brave Man as with him she would always be secure. Other attractions she had for other men would not last long enough.
Vikram Aur Betaal was a television programme that aired on DD National. The series contained stories from Indian mythology that aim at teaching kids life lessons while entertaining them. The concept of the program was based on Baital Pachisi, a collection of tales about the legendary King Vikram (identified as Vikramāditya) and the Vaitaala, a ghost analogous to a vampire in Western literature.
Vikram Aur Betaal is based on Betaal Pacchisi, written nearly 2,500 years ago by Mahakavi Somdev Bhatt. These are spellbinding stories told to the wise King Vikramaditya by the wily ghost Betaal.
At the beginning of the frame story, Vikramaditya king of Ujjain receives, among other visitors, a mendicant who presents the king a fruit on every visit. In the fruits are later discovered orbs of ruby. Upon this discovery, the king resolves to visit the mendicant, who arranges a meeting under a banyan tree in a cremation ground beyond the city, at night, on the 14th day of the dark half of the month. At the meeting, the mendicant requests that Vikramaditya bring him a corpse suspended from another tree, with which the mendicant might achieve occult power.
Upon Vikramaditya's doing so, the corpse is identified as Betaal, the ghost, who narrates a story to the king, concluding that Vikramaditya must answer a moral question pertaining to the story's characters, on pain of his own death; and upon his answering the question, Betaal returns to his tree.
