Originally posted by: sashashyam
Folks,
-The purely political: This is the choicest of single malts, outdoing even the best Glenfiddich ( a prized unblended whisky) in its purity and its fiery taste.
In the show too, this angle is the creme de la creme. The 2Cs make such a great combination and both the actors are sans pareil. (Khushi...look here...look here...i'm incorporating aunty's choice terms😃)The 'Rajkumar Sushim' is fading out from my ears as are the treacherous looks from my eyes. Adi told me that the actor is good. But i thought that i could never see Chanakya in the actor who portrayed Khallatak so convincingly. But how wrong i was.
And RT...kya kehna. I was also wrong in assuming that he couldn't compete with Jalal in the looks department. ( Anji...are you reading this? For double confirmation) His profile in the horse ride with Nandini held firmly was an image, that can flash upon that inward eye and be the bliss of solitude. Just like Jalal's image during the thunderstorm and during episode 31 and the aarti and the ...okay, i'll limit the list.
To wit, the duo of Chandragupta and Chanakya, with their unflagging zeal and their commitment to their mathrubhoomi, and their logical, daring yojana for ousting both the videshis and the desi villain, Padmanand, and seizing the throne of Magadha for Chandragupta. Zeal, and a ferocious loyalty to their cause, unsullied by any personal feelings of the debilitating kind.
These two define ambition and resourcefulness combined. They have an unspoken understanding that they implement anytime. Outwitting the Greek soldiers was a very good example. More action than words! Hope this quality of Chandra is retained to the end unlike Jalal's diplomacy which vamoosed after 100 episodes.
-The purely personal: This is Padmanand and his fierce love for his daughter Nandini. This love governs all that he does, and the vulnerability that is the inevitable concomitant of love clouds his judgement, especially as regards Malayaketu, so that he does not even recognize his own kind of philanderer who can respect no woman.
Padmanand is shaken by the recent apharan of Nandini and Avantika's and Mura's pronouncements that Nandini is going to pay for his evil. Probably that is why he rushes to give her an added security, and a whipboy in case something untoward does happen to her. He certainly has reached the break point of worry for his daughter worried if she will suffer for his sins. So he sees nothing beyond a strong kingdom.
The two Cs: The Chandragupta-Chanakya scenes were, this time, more businesslike than soaring to lofty heights of idealism.
The duo are extremely methodical, with some secret, reliable means of communication for setting up their rendezvous, and fallback plans for coping with unexpected dangers, as from the spying mercenary soldiers, and disposing of them with ruthless efficiency. This, I now realized,was why Chanakya was shown doubling up as Chandra's fencing master, for he needs to know how to cut throats in an emergency!😉
In the Gurukul system, the Acharya taught everything, from warfare to economy to morals to languages. Dronacharya did. But Takshashila is supposedto be a University. Were students assigned to single teachers?🤔
Their systematic reporting and assessing system is also admirable.
Chandragupta's body language, eyes lowered as usual in respect most of the time and hands crossed in front, is perfect, as is the implicit obedience in his Ji, Acharya! But he is now surer of himself, and does not hesitate, after having provided the situation brief on Alexander's troops, to speak up in favour of an immediate attack when the Macedonian's troop strength is at its lowest. That he is, here as earlier, more rash and enthusiastic than wise - which is but natural in one so young, a mere fledgling - is made clear to him at once by Chanakya, and he assimilates the new tasks assigned to him, to be performed simultaneously, with silent acceptance.
Their scenes together are a treat to watch.👏
But that was in 1991 on Doordarshan. Not in 2016 and on Star Plus. So if that was a longhand narrative, this one has to be in shorthand! Still, the detailing shown thus far is impressive by the standards of a commercial show.
True.😕
Rishyasaringa: I am sure that all the certified romantics in this forum would have been on tenterhooks, their breath held in almost unbearable anticipation, as Chandragupta, saddled (pun intended!) with the unenviable task of conveying the unconscious Nandini back to her quarters, rides back with her in front of him, cradled in his arms, her (corkscrew) curls blowing across his face and her body slipping in his grip, forcing him to hold her even tighter. 😉
By the time he carries her to her bed, intending to lay her down and leave, but has to struggle with her recalcitrant necklace that seems intent on holding him back, leading to an extremely close close-up (of their noses, to be precise😉) things must have reached fever point.😆😆
I couldn't help imagining how Jalal would have reacted in a similar situation ( With his famous smirks for sure). Kudos to RT for bringing such different hues and touches he gives to the different characters he portrays. 👏
As I watched Chandragupta in this sequence, he reminded me of no one so much as Rishyasaringa, a young rishi celebrated for being well above the common run of humanity. So detached from all personal emotions, and so pure of heart was Rishyasaringa that when he entered a desert, the rain instantly came down in torrents and the barren land bloomed anew.
😊
Chanakya's child: He is not merely admirably detached, is our Chandragupta, but he is also devious with a capital D. Nowhere is this revealed more clearly than in his handling of the haughty, autocratic Helena. In their 3 scenes together, it is fascinating to watch him manoeuvre himself from the position of a useful minion to that of a confidante, and a pillar of support to her in her darkest hour.
This was the highlight of the week's proceeds.
But it is in the second scene,with a distraught Helena who is hysterical and close to an emotional breakdown, that the true genius of Chanakya's brilliant pupil becomes evident.
The steady, strong protectiveness that he extends to her in her darkest hour, and his concern for her reputation.
Yesss.
The perceptive wisdom of what follows: Bahut chand hain jo aapko rota dekhkar royenge, anyataa sab aap par hansenge. Aur dosh aapka nahin hai, dosh prem ka hota hai jo insaan ko durbal bana deta hai. Jeevan mein agar jeetna hai to swayam to prem se kabhi na haarne dein.. Aaj prem ghrina mein parivartit hua hai. Kal usi ghrina ko aap apni shakti banayein, aur uska upayog karein.
He says all this with an absolutely deadpan face, his eyes still and unemotional. He does not offer sympathy or empathy, for that is not what she needs at this moment.
Exactly. So well defined.👏
Nor does he try to diminish the social distance between them in the least. He maintains his distance from her even as he helps her climb out of the slough of despond into which she was sinking helplessly.
This last is essential to ensure that once she has recovered her composure, she does not resent the fact that he was a witness to her moment of shameful weakness, and ends up distancing him, and the memory of those moments, from herself, which would have been disastrous for the plans of the 2 Cs.
How perceptive! True. Had he tried to take one step further, he might have lost his goal. He is very careful in his tightrope walk. He was distant understanding and assuring. Exactly what a proud girl like her needs.
It was a high wire act, as they would say in the circus, and Chandragupta pulls it off with admirable panache, like a seasoned artist tackling a delicate role. For the truth is, contrary to the facile conclusion by some that he helps Helena out of the sheer goodness of his heart, Chandra does not console her out of sympathy. He sees her emotional breakdown as a golden opportunity to gain her confidence, which is his real goal.
Doesn't that make interesting material instead of the standard issue dhudh ka dhula hero types.
In their third scene together, when she is bitterly remarking Koyi bharose ke laayak nahin hai!, Chandragupta, with admirable presence of mind, seizes the opportunity thus offered him by the forelock, with a low key but rock solid assurance of loyalty.
Kintu main hoon. Yadi aap chahein to aap mujhe apna vishwas paatra samajh sakti hain..Main kabhi aapko dhoka nahin doonga..Maine aapka namak khaya hai, uska rin sada mere sar par rahega..
Hrre too he cites his loyalty to have sprung from his namak ka udhaar, that would assure her superiority in rank and keep her pride intact.
Padmanand: Love without limits: No other term would be adequate to describe what the ruthless Maha Padmanand feels for mera hriday, mera jeevan, mera sammaan, his beloved Nandini. This has been dinned into the viewers from the moment of her birth, but nowhere has this obsessive, all encompassing love been more tellingly depicted than in these episodes.
And it is Arpit Ranka's magisterial performance in his scenes with Nandini here that makes us forget, if only for a brief while, the ugly truth of what Padmanand really is - a heartless, evil tyrant who knows nothing but what he wants, and seizes it without the least qualms of conscience, which is in any case an appendage he is not burdened with.
Instead, we see him only as a father who loves his daughter more than he loves himself. A father who has been made vulnerable by this very love, and the fear that he might not be able to ensure the best possible life for the apple of his eye. A father who does not hesitate, when he realises that his daughter does not want the bridegroom he has chosen for her, to bear the humiliation of having to bend before a weaker man, and break his word to that man by cancelling the marriage decision. A father who openly threatens his would be son in law with total destruction should his daughter be unhappy in this marriage. A father who demands the assurance from his jamaata that he would love Nandini more than her father loves her.
This is, in itself, a huge triumph, and for the actor more than for the CVs.
Agree completely. Arpit is convincing both as the ruthless truant and the doting dad.
What escapes me, in all of Malayaketu's drunken babblings about Nand ka Magadh aur Nand ki beti donon meri mutthi mein honge!, was how, given that Nandini is not an only child of her father, but has not one, not two, but fully nine brothers, who would be Padmanand's natural successors on the throne of Magadha, the Yuvaraj of Parvatak hopes to gain control of Magadha for himself. If he imagines that despite Padmanand's overt threat, and his follow up line, Meri baat ko halke se mat lena!, he can ill-treat Nandini and thus blackmail her father into submission, he needs to have his head examined!
It make no sense at all, whence the title of this section.
Maybe he thinks he can pull off a Sharifuddin.
But I must also add that Helena was surprisingly convincing, and she managed the last segment with Chandragupta very well, with seething rage twisting her features as she vows revenge.
Helena is luckier than most such women, in that she has Chandragupta, aka Dushyant, to help her pick up the pieces of her shattered self-esteem and regain a measure of at least outward composure. But her innate tendency to depend on another for succour, and to believe in his assurances - whether those of Malayaketu earlier or of Dushyant now - will persist. She will now switch all her faith from her deceitful lover to this new, unassuming, undemanding tower of strength, and she will use her influence to promote him in Alexander's army as much as she can. Chandragupta ki to chandi lag jaayegi!
And what will she do when she learns that Dushyant has tricked her as well.
Pot pourri:
-You might be surprised at this, but I enjoyed the kissa paanwale bhooth ka. Especially because of the despairing look on Chandragupta's face as disaster strikes out of the blue and, as he believes, his whole masquerade has been exposed because of a shining plate that is as good as a metal mirror😉. Tun Tun Bhabhi was also priceless.
😆
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