Chandra Nandini 11-12: A Greek farce - Page 9

Thank you, Shailaja, but I think it will take another week at least for my eyes to recover. If they would, in the meantime, just feel less gritty, I would be grateful!😉😉. Anyhow, I shall try and manage that triptych post tomorrow and you can all read it on Monday.

I agree completely with your part in blue.

Let me also cover the other points you have made here with unaccustomed (for me!) brevity.

- I am with you wrt Padmanand. He is no cartoonish villain, but a very strong and dangerous antagonist. He might have gained the throne thru perfidy, but he has been able to build a very strong military machine and to keep it running. What we see now is only the part of him that is turned towards his daughter, like the moon towards the earth. The other, dark side of him is intact.In the end, he will go down all guns blazing.

- Regarding Nandini, your first theory, though far more interesting, will never materialise. She is not
Avantika. She is the titular heroine, so she has to become a pattern card of perfection in due course.Even her plan to murder her suhaag will be explained away as hatred due to what he did to her daddy dearest and her bhaiyyas. Whence the current almost frantic depiction of the pita-putri prem.

So you had better reconcile yourself to option B!😉 In any case, Nandini is shown as extraordinarily self-centred and constitutionally incapable of guessing what the other person is feeling. Witness her strange conversation with a visibly distraught Helena. It was surreal, her mindless chirpiness, without even, apparently, looking at the other woman's face, which speaks volumes. So she might well have extended this all round blindness to her daily life as far as daddy dearest was concerned.

As for Dhananand, he is exactly like Padmanand for the present, showing only his benign side, especially towards his wife. The other, evil side is still there. I am waiting to see if he actually ascends the throne before Chandragupta attacks, as is the standard narrative. Here, Padmanand is so much more colourful and dominating a character that I do not think the CVs will replace him by this colourless son of his before the destruction of the Nanda empire.

One last point, the one you had asked me about Chandra's sister and their mama. She will undoubtedly turn up eventually, but not to get an army for Chandragupta. That army is going to be put together by Chanakya and Chandragupta exactly as was shown in the 1990 Chanakya, though it is shown as happening a trifle too easily.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: shailusri1983

Wish you a very happy Deepavali Aunty. Sorry to hear about your ill health. I wish you a speedy recovery! Chandra was lending Helena a shoulder to cry on for his own purposes. I actually think the better of him for it because this lad knows where his true priorities lie.

But I know another thing also. When Chandra eventually marries Helena in future, he will not respect her the less for knowing all that he does about her. He will treat her with respect and never hurt her self-esteem the way Malay did. He will always be her good friend and companion. This shoulder for her to cry on will always be there after their marriage. For some reason I feel that Chandra and Helena will be better companions and comrades than Chandra and Nandini though they might never ever fall in love with each other.


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Not inadvertently, my dear Adwitiya, but very deliberately, with all the skill of a consummate magician who does not let the left hand know what the right one is doing.

Besides, anything he can get done against Malayaketu thru Helena would not be for personal enmity alone, or even largely so. He hates Malayaketu and his father as traitors who have sold their motherland to the foreign invaders.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: shailusri1983

So true! One cannot look too much into the future of any relationship. Anything can happen! But for now, Helena is Chandra's Brahmastra just as he is Chanakya's Brahmastra. Moreover she is like a double edged sword and cuts both ways for Chandra. She can help him against the Greeks and against Malayketu, and indirectly against Nand and Nandini because she has an axe to grind against all of them.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Next in line for sheer performance was Padmanand. He was very impressive in his impassioned scenes with Nandini. Helena was also surprisingly convincing, and she managed the last segment with Chandragupta very well, with seething rage twisting her features as she speaks of revenge.

Shyamala Aunty

What a khichdi of brisk comments you have dished up, my dear Adwitiya! I am glad you liked this one.

Yes, here it was Chandragupta and Chanakya who had the best lines, but that is not enough. The actors have to know how to deliver them. If you gave similar lines to Nandini, it would be a test case to see what she makes of them.

As for Helena's lingua, she speaks almost pure Urdu, which is of course derived from Persian. So, as I had written to Neha a little earlier on this thread, If one can presume so much of logic on the part of the CVs , they might be attributed the kind of language she uses to the years she must have spent in Persia before moving on towards India!

Malayaketu is an unmitigated disaster, hamming away to glory all the time.

As for Tun Tun bhabhi - your 'mega comedian' for her is accurate both literally and figuratively! - I must confess that I thoroughly enjoyed that paan imbroglio. It was, for once, really funny.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: durgeshnandini

That was some beautiful piece of work, considering the overall state of the episodes, which persistently remains average. The leads and the their respective portrayals are overall consistent, it has unsubstantiated Shweta's monopoly in this aspect - Chanakya and chandra continue to get the best written dialogues, judging by the fact that they are almost completely 4th century Urdu free!! Helena speaks in an inimitable medley of Hindi and Urdu - probably a reflection of the various countries they passed by! But however much I may stuff my tympanic aperture with stuffs of cotton ball, Shweta and her Shaadi, still penetrate my ear drums.

Malayketu, and his unprincely demeanor really gets on my nerves after a while - he suits the role of a crown prince as much as he suited the role of a gurukul attendee. But Tokas rules as he emotes the varying degrees poised emotions , blends obedience to authority that comes naturally to him and the best of dialogue writer seems to have been reserved specifically for Chanakya Chandra scenes.

Shweta, who has won accolades for reflecting Bharatnatyam as she stutters about, her center of mass distorted due to her jewel box avataar - continues to be as you have defined - so seamlessly embroidering Hindi into English, natkhat and nadan - persistent again!

Our mega comedian, Gautami bhabi in association with her Arya Dhan persists about gobbling bettle leaves to sweetmeats whatever may come her way! South you see not much has really changed so far 😉

See you soon,

Adwi.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Not inadvertently, my dear Adwitiya, but very deliberately, with all the skill of a consummate magician who does not let the left hand know what the right one is doing.

Besides, anything he can get done against Malayaketu thru Helena would not be for personal enmity alone, or even largely so. He hates Malayaketu and his father as traitors who have sold their motherland to the foreign invaders.

Shyamala Aunty

Dear Shymala Aunty...😃

Just heard Durdhara makes an entry too... 😲

Aunty I can very well see my option two for Nandini materializing on the show. But this girl is an Emma Woodhouse of Emma and Catherine Morland of Northanger Abbey at the very least, if not for my favorites, Lady Macbeth and Catherine de Medici. Even if she had the same report card as those two Austen heroines, it would not be anything great or good to brag about for her excellence of character. These two young ladies had their own inimitable set of flaws.

Looks like we will not get an Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice in Nandini. I wonder how blind and conditioned a person can be by circumstances as this girl is. Any sane person would have sensed something wrong in the icy coldness and aloofness of Helena. This girl just blusters along as blind as a bat. Jodha used to resemble Fanny Price of Mansfield Park, another Austen heroine in her moral priggishness, an affinity to fish out a lecture out of her pockets in every five minutes, judgemental nature, and frog in the well mentality. Looks like Ekta and Co. know their Austen well.

Happy diwali to all,may you be blessed

Maybe that is the reason nand did not bring avantika as she might not approve of malayketu she think like a queen and maybe she would sense something is amiss or their intention of this marriage is nothing but for political benifit,nand doesnt think like a king only enjoy what comes with it