Originally posted by: sashashyam
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Folks,</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">I must confess straightaway
that I am, after more than 14
hours, still in a bad mood. This is because I was forced by the CVs to fall back
on my far inferior Option B (see my last thread) - of Chandragupta being
arrested and meeting his mother in jail, and then escaping from the prison -
instead of the far more impressive one of his outwitting both Padmanand and his
darling daughter thru some Chanakyan stratagem that I had hoped that he would
have up his sleeve (or on his choga, seeing that he has no sleeves!😉).
</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Well, he had nothing up his choga, as we all saw, and he was not
even able to guess that the daasi who could fight so well might, just might not
be what she said she was.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Irresponsible folly: This irritation is not just because the second option
is melodramatic and hardly cerebral. It was, and is also because it showed the
apple of Chanakya's eye in a distinctly
poor light.
</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Here is a young man sent by his mentor with a vital mandate: to absorb as much of the security and other
secrets of the Magadha regime and of their capital as he possibly could. Besides, this young man is generally as tightlipped as could
be; he hardly speaks unless absolutely necessary. But what does he do once he
gets to Pataliputra? </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">He does stick to his task in
the beginning, but at a crucial moment, he stumbles badly. Like an irresponsible and foolish novice at the spy trade, he
reveals his core objective to some random daasi in Maha
Padmanand's palace. And for what? No reason of any kind that one can make out. It
is not that he has been smitten by her
looks and is boasting to impress her. It is plain and simple folly of the kind
that one does not expect from him. How does he assume that the daasi will not at once report what he
says about his wanting to seize Magadha to her mistress? </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">What kind of spy is this? Le
Carre would have disowned him in an
instant. It is, to put it bluntly, unbelievable that Chanakya's prize pupil would
commit such a monumental blunder. 😲</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Magnificent redemption: However, I must also concede that very soon
thereafter, our boy wonder redeemed himself magnificently. Given that I already love him dearly, this was a major relief!</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"> He was, in the whole of that heart-stopping
sequence in the throne room for the swayamwar, splendid beyond the power of any words that I
could summon up to describe him. But let me try, and do bear with me if I fall short of your expectations!</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">As he watches Padmanand
stride into the room, Chandragupta's gaze is
fixed on him, and it is level, cold,
and unforgiving. Apart from his own ugly early memories of Padmanand, his
Acharya's words echo through his mind,
and they are unequivocal. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Tum manushya nahin, yantra ho, Chandra, jiska
niyantran mere haath mein hai. Tumhare jeene ka ekmatra uddeshya hai Magadh ke raja Nand ka vinash. Nand hi tumhare jeevan ka ekmatra lakshya
hai.. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">When he sees Nandini and
realises the trick that has been played on him - and she is staring at him in
patent triumph - he must have felt an
inner shock, but there is not even a flicker of any emotion in his face and his
eyes. Such is his self control. He looks across at her, his face still and his eyes narrowed, but no more than usual.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">When Padmanand invites him
to be the first in the competition,
Chandragupta smiles slowly, very slightly, like a polite guest looking forward to a
feast, but taking care not to look too greedy. 😉</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">A warrior sans pareil: That is to say, without an equal.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">When Padmanand mentions his taking his father's
blessings, what must have been crushing blow falls on Chandragupta. Does he
show the kind of reaction 999 out of a
1000 would have showed? No. His chin
comes up, and his gaze is even more level than usual. There is no other
reaction. No shock, no alarm, nothing. He is able to absorb this
development, which pulls the rug out
from under his feet, demolishing his whole plan of action and exposing him to
immediate and deadly danger, as if nothing had happened.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">This is the ultimate in
detachment, of the kind of nirmohi yogi of a warrior that Lord Krishna speaks of in the
Gita, one who knows neither fear nor joy, neither pleasure nor pain, but only his lakshya.
</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Chandragupta is like lambent fire sheathed in ice. His inner core is always still, and underneath this stillness - which shields his
intellect from paralyzing panic - his
mind is ceaselessly assessing the situation, testing possible openings,
weighing their possibilities. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">When Parvatak asserts that this is not his son, there is a
very faint smile on Chandragupta's face. When Padmanand baits him about
this, this broadens into a wide
smile of pure amusement, as he exclaims: Nissandeh!
</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Thus would Abhimanyu, even
when encircled by his Kaurava enemies, have
looked: unafraid, unfazed, and almost
casual in the face of death.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Liquid lightning: The sword fight between Chandragupta and Dhananand
that follows is all swift cut and thrust and parry, and for an aficionada of the noble art, it is over
all too soon. Chandragupta fights like liquid lightning, now here, now there, whirling and bending and
kneeling and rising faster than the human eye
can follow. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">I loved watching the
changing expressions on the faces of the
Nand parivaar, especially Dhananand's
almost vocal cheerleader Nandini. She looks more like a member of the crowds at
a Roman gladiatorial contest than a princess born, who would have maintained a
dignified stillness. Only Avantika is queenly, unmoving and remote, while, in a
very odd aside, one of the Nand brothers is actually chortling😉 when Dhananand
is slashed again and then again by Chandragupta. Nandini's giggles have by then given place to frozen
shock. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The end comes suddenly, with
a backwards kick that sends Dhananand reeling. I wish it could have been a fencing trick instead: a
feint, then a gliding thrust that gets under the opponent's defence and goes
straight for his heart. The coup de mort
, the thrust of death. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">But the CVs like VFX jumps,
so Chandragupta, both swords in his
grasp, jumps high into the air and almost spears Dhananand with them. Almost,
not quite. How I wish he had killed him
then, as he is going to do later in any case!</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Ultimate insult: Then, even before the assemblage has recovered from
the shock, comes the coup
de grace, the master stroke,
from the winner. He declares, looking across at Padmanand with a smile that is
part amused, part anticipatory, that according to the rules of the swayamvar,
the winner in this duel had the right to marry the princess.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">But, and here his eyes shift
and he looks at Nandini with barely veiled contempt, he adds Main yahan vivaah ke uddeshya se nahin aaya
hoon. And then, as Padmanand's fist curls in involuntary fury, comes the ultimate insult: Mujhe yeh sambandh sweekar nahin hai! </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Nandini's mouth twists in
anger as she is led off by her mother,
and no wonder. She has not only seen her supposedly invincible brother defeated roundly in fair combat by an
impostor, but her hand has been
unceremoniously rejected by the same bahuroopiya. It is not to be borne!😉</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Indomitable resilience: What follows is more mundane and entirely
predictable: Chandragupta being thrashed with a whip by Padmanand, (who
presumably carries a whip around his waist all the time for any eventuality!).
What elevates this scene above the pedestrian is the indomitable resilience and
raw courage shown by Chandragupta as he
takes the blows without once crying out in pain.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The flashbacks to the young
Chandragupta counting the slaps inflicted on him by his foster father highlight
a point that I have not written about so far.
This is rarely the case when child artists are cast for a role, but the
young Chandragupta has the kind of face that could easily have grown into the
older one. The resemblance is striking, undoubtedly more a piece of serendipity than of informed
choice!😉</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The more Padmanand whips
him, desperately seeking a reaction, the
greater is his frustrated rage at his unmoved victim.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Aapne kisi ko itni peedha nahin di hogi jitni maine
sahi hai.. Peedha se bahut purana sambandh hai mera!..</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">As Padmanand thrashes about in impotent fury, Chandragupta, physically on his knees, nonetheless towers over him in the spirit. In a sudden switch to the
demeaning tu form of address, he threatens him: Maine kabhi kisi ka rin apne
sar nahin liya..tera bhi chukaoonga.. Tu bas ginti smaran rakhna..</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">He is smiling slightly even as he is being
dragged away by the soldiers. What I could not understand was this: why does
Chandragupta not retain, if not both, at
least one of the two swords he had in
his grasp as the end of the duel? Then he would have has some minimal means of self defence.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The Houdini act: OK, you folks who have been wondering about the title, here we are!
Harry Houdini was one of the greatest magicians of all time, and his
favourite trick was getting out of a locked box into which he had been dumped,
arms and legs tied. Our hero is not stuffed into a locked box, but he is dumped in the open prison,
his hands firmly tied behind him. So the parallel is close enough to justify
the title. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">This was the part in the
episode that pleased me the most, for it showed
how Chandragupta has become an extension of the mind of his mentor, adding
to that his own acute intelligence, his
unquenchable courage and his never say die spirit.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The manner in which he not
only gets his hands free, thanks to his incredible resourcefulness in pinching that soldier's kataar even while being
dragged off in such a battered
state, using a sudden fake stumble against the man, shows
how, no matter how dire the circumstances, his mind is always at the top of the game.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Then comes the Kautilyan
deviousness that he has imbibed from his guru: the samadhi vidya that can help him hold his breath deergha samay tak, and then the other maxim, to adopt the look of the enemy in order to
escape from the enemy. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">He implements both very
successfully, but what one cannot understand is this: where did the beard and sideburns come from? Unless
he carried a set of facial hard inside his choga
for all eventualities, like
Padmanand with that whip!😆</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">The seeds of
hatred: Anyhow, let us
pass over this blooper, for our boy is
free at last. And ready to take his benefactress with him to freedom. If she
had agreed, they would have both sneaked out quietly, the soldiers on the outer
perimeter would, in the time honoured manner of all night watchmen, been fast
asleep at that hour of the night. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">But she does not, and I
would not blame her for that. She has
been so ill-treated and abused for so long, that the only belief that keeps her sane is that her son will come
one day to rescue her, and take her away with honour. From this it follows that she has to be there when he arrives, so it stands to reason that she cannot run away
before that happens. It is now a monomania,
and there is no arguing with that.
</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Nor
did I expect Mura to recognize Chandragupta
as her son at this stage. It is far too soon; that will probably happen only
around Episode 100!😉</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">So Chandragupta he changes
tack, and decides to do something far more daring, and arrogant in its sheer
unexpectedness. He doubles back into the palace, and ends up in the anthahpuram, the quarters of the royal ladies. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Now, as he stares across the
room at Nandini, there is a cold anger in his eyes that was not there before.
The seeds of the hatred he will come to feel for her in the years ahead, as he
learns about his parentage and all that goes with it, have been well and truly
sown. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">By the precap, he has taken
her hostage, and is threatening the apoplectic Padmanand with seeing her arthi if he did not step back. Get set for a Three
Musketeers style escape tonight , folks!</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Nandini: Ankita
has been gently reprimanding me, on my last thread, for being too harsh on
Nandini. This was because I had expressed the fond hope that Chandragupta takes
her along a hostage part of the way, slung across his saddle like a sack
of potatoes, and once he is far enough away to feel safe, dumps her
unceremoniously by the roadside, preferably in a nice puddle of mud. A free mudpack, in fact!😆
</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">She had then proceeded to
mount an eloquent defence of the bachchi,
saying Bachchi hai to bachpna to rahega na! </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Now I am
not fixated on any hostility per se to this Nandini, nor do I lose sight of the fact that she
is daddy's girl, and so oblivious to all
his faults (though I really do not see how she has heard nothing about his
cruelties towards his subjects in all these years. She must be like Gandhiji's
Three Monkeys all rolled into one!😉😉) . But I feel what I feel on perfectly valid
grounds, which are independent of the kind of
deliberate blindness that produces Nandini's resistance to what her
mother wants to tell her.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">I have so little patience
with her because she is a silly girl, like one of the inane heroines of the old
Hindi films who used to behave exactly as she does now. She is not childlike; she is
childish, and the two are quite different. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">This Nandini has nothing
remotely princess like about her. Look at her giggling when the other princes voice their
dismay at what they see as an unfair and impossible condition for the swayamwar. There is no dignified reserve
about her. Princesses do not
laugh at their invited guests. That is it.
Nor does a princess behave like a cheerleader in public, in the
presence of so many high ranking guests. She does not bob her head up and down and smirk openly
as she waits to see a man slaughtered in
front of her eyes. A princess does not behave like a
member of the crowd at a Roman gladiatorial contest, which would be most unseemly in someone
of her rank and upbringing. Look at her
mother, for a contrast. She betrays no emotion almost till the end.
One more point. Chandragupta is not
caught because of Nandini's cleverness,
and I hope she is not, like her father, patting herself on the back for that. He is caught because that Raja Parvatak turns
up at precisely the wrong moment. If this had not happened, Chandragupta would
have brazened his way thru the
interrogation by Padmanand, and won the competition without being exposed, and then refused the sambandh. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Nor is there any wonderful about Nandini not running away when
the escaped bahuroopiya suddenly appears before her. A princess is expected have the pride of
her birth, if nothing else (for all that she is only a murderous barber's daughter.
Wonder if she knows that. I expect not!). She is not a daasi
to run away in fright at the sight of a strange man. This said, Nandini does not look coolly defiant. She looks terrified. </font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">All this is not to say that
this Nandini cannot improve, and let Shweta
live up to her reputation as an actress of note. But for that to happen,
she will first have to get out of this dream world in which she
has cocooned herself, not just
ignorant about the real world outside
but, it would seem, deliberately shutting
her eyes to it.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">OK, folks, this is it for now.
I am sorry to be so late with this, but I was not free at all today till 1 pm. Unfortunately, the real world does not let me
forget it!</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">See you again soon. For now, please do not forget to hit the Like
button if you think that is warranted.</font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif"></font>
<font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di </font>
