Originally posted by: sashashyam
How's your eyes now, Periyamma? Better?🤗 Finally managed to catch up on the last 7 episodes I'd missed..
and didn't want to comment on your review before seeing them...
I loved reading the information about the battle of Hydapses... very informative!👏
I am hesitating between beginning with the luminous scene, in two parts, between Chandragupta and Chanakya,
👏 luminous it was!
or with all the rest, which oscillated between the purely ludicrous and the merely amusing.
😆
I was so weary of trying to decipher what the (pseudo) Macedonians, especially Seleucus, were trying to articulate in our Devanagari that the moment Helena opened her mouth, I was ready to fall on her neck in sheer relief!
😆 but as you'd mentioned, seems like she's been influenced by our culture and hence her command of the language...plus, if she's going to be here for the next 1-2 years.. the Indian audience cannot be expected to put up with a Selucian dialect 😆
Her love is absolute, and Malayaketu, with his glad eye already wandering towards the wide-eyed Nandini, had better look out😉. Hell, the old saying has it, hath no fury like woman scorned. Or deluded.
so, she's teamed up with Chandra for revenge.. common enemies make for good temporary friends as they say!
The only amusing part of the whole was the sight of Malayaketu, a hunk of well over 6 feet, cowering behind a girl as she took on the tiger.😆
Ramachandra... 🤣
Helena cannot be blamed - the one to which Alexander the Great, the world conqueror, belonged, and later acknowledged even by the Romans as the fountainhead of European civilization.
Exactly... actually, I wished Helena didn't put herself down by roaming around in those places uninvited unwanted... for a glimpse of Malayketu... though in spite of all that, she seems more queenly than Nandini does despite her paltan and the BGM!
it was shown as a draw, But not without a sideways, patriotic jab at the Greeks by showing Helena attacking Nandini when her back is turned.
Typical😕
I was honestly dumbfounded when the two then suddenly decided to become best friends. What this portends, especially for our poor Chandragupta - all too soon to be sandwiched between these two vixens, with Durdhara as his third headache - remains to be seen. If I was in his place, and was faced with this dire prospect, I would have taken sanyas and become a Jain monk 2 decades earlier!😉😉
🤣
As for the precap, I cannot imagine who would have had the intention, and even more so the guts, to kidnap this amazon of a Helena.
Amazonian Helena was standing like a damsel in distress now😕 effect of change in clothes???
It reminded me, in a curious fashion, of Bhuvan, Aamir's character in Lagaan, and the British Resident's sister who taught him all the secrets of cricket.
I loved this reference so so so much - I loved that movie
jauntering across the country when the baby looked almost due is more than I could make out, but perhaps she is not expecting at all, and is "like that only".
She's just plump with a love for laddus and hatred for all things ghostly periyamma
Many here are complaining that Nandini does not walk with the easy grace of a princess. But last night, she proved that whatever she might lack in the royal graces, she has a good bit of regal arrogance. This was on full display when she stared unbelievingly at Dushyant aka Chandragupta when he proferred her paayal,smirked triumphantly as he had to go down on his knees to fasten it around her ankle, and finally looked across with patent pleasure at her father, who had been the one to force Chandragupta to do that.
I didn't find that scene too unbelievable actually
She is generally over-dressed, and those cork screw tresses and curls, even when she was doing Mayurbhanj Chhau moves with a sword around that bejaan putla
Acting wise, she was really good the other day when she was assuring her father that she wanted to be his greatest strength and fight his enemies. The closing shot of her face was striking.
Chandragupta: Irrepressible bravado ?: Having clobbered Chandragupta soundly two threads back for babbling his secret plans to a strange daasi, I am now impelled, and not just out of a purely humanitarian impulse, to defend his repeat performance in Alexander's tent.
I defended him earlier... but it's getting too much now
Bareback rider: But before I get to that, let me dispose of the charge that the scenes of him riding to Parvathak territory to insinuate himself into Alexander's camp were not looking convincing, given that Rajat is a superb rider.
Oh he looked quite convincing as a rider to me... I think the readers were complaining of the fake riding shots with him and Nandini together 🤔 and I've heard of the without-saddle research-reference to the original chanakya too 😊 Well done CVs on this one...
Deliberate babbling:
See, his goal is to find out as much as he can about Alexander's plans , his battle techniques, and his overall approach to the subcontinent of Bharatbhoomi. This cannot be done by functioning as a cook in Philip's kitchen. Nor can he ingratiate himself with Helena unless he finds some way of catching her attention by standing out from the other ordinary servants. At the same time, he has to be non-confrontational and non-threatening, for otherwise he will be summarily punished.
To an extent this part holds good, but overall it's making his character appear silly... especially when he was preaching those soldiers just outside her camp...they could've shown it happen elsewhere when they're away...
At the same time, he deflects any punishment, that such pronouncements would otherwise have attracted, away from himself, by attributing them solely to Chandra, Chanakya's pupil in Takshashila.
He did get punished eventually... and thanks to Alexander not doing away with him immediately, he's still alive... had to be rescued by Helena... Chanakya needs to tell him off soundly for this!
Chandragupta-Chanakya
Part I-: Target Magadha: This segment was truly fabulous- both for the splendid lines, and for the actions and reactions of the two protagonists. It would be impossible to say, as both Chanakya and Chandragupta demonstrated anew the unique strength and the symbiotic nature of their bond, which of the two came out on top.
These two are 👏
I was struck by Chanakya's almost casual order to Chandragupta: Apne sainikon ko tayyar karo.. shastra tez karo! It thus seems that they already have some sort of army available to them, possibly drawn from the many disaffected deshbhakt sainik from both Ambhi's kingdom of Takshashila and Porus' satrapy ( after his defeat) of Kekeya, who detest the foreign suzerainty over their lands.
In fact, in the 1990 Chanakya, it was shown that even many of the Indian mercenary soldiers, whose loyalty was only to their paymaster, were so disgusted by the wanton cruelty of the foreign soldiers towards the common people of the lands they had overrun that they quit and joined the rebel forces being constituted by Chandragupta and his associates.
Interesting! that's what they're trying to show here, though less convincingly... they could show CGM do it with more finesse... like strike low... but strike hard... when the iron's hot!
Anyhow, all concerned - except Maha Padmanand himself and the brainless Malayaketu -
😆
Chanakya's face, turned towards the fire, seems frozen, as if he could see, in the dancing flames, the dark future of his beloved Mathrubhoomi under the heel of the foreign conqueror.
What a beautiful description
And as Chandragupta, seemingly lost in a trance of his own, does not respond, a half pleading , half disturbed appeal: Kya hua, Chandra? It is only when Chandragupta comes out of that strange reverie and murmurs that Chanakya's face and eyes relax in exultant relief:
👏
It is a compliment from the CVs to the viewers that they did not, at this point, insert a flashback to the patriotic perorations of Shishunaag and Suryagupta.
😆
With a protective, affectionate arm around his protege's shoulders, Wo raja tum banoge, Chandra, kyonki tumhare pas khone ke liye kuch bhi nahin, aur paane ke liye sab kuch hai!
He is using the boy for his means and for the greater good, but does not hide it!😊
Time alone will tell if Nandini, now so intent on becoming her father's sabse badi shakti, will one day become the same for Chandragupta or, as Padmanand says of himself, his one and only durbalta.
Time or CVs?😉
Part II: Target Alexander: One has to note that Chanakya never overreaches himself; he has his feet always firmly planted on the ground of reality. So he does not dream of defeating and destroying Alexander, only of dissuading him for going deeper and deeper into Bharatvarsh.
How well noted👏
NB: There is one version of pre-Mauryan history where Chandragupta actually goes to Alexander's camp to invite him to attack Magadha. He is dismissed and barely escapes being executed, the real Alexander not being anything like as benign as this one, and subject to drunken rages. The Greek historians called Chandragupta Sandrocottos.
They're following that route now... with the engagement and Helena for added masala😃
the gravy we make for special festival dishes. There are two main kinds of gravy: the smooth one, and the Thousand Islands variety, full of odd, mysterious lumps on and below the surface, which add to the fun of tasting it, for one never knows what one is going to bite into.
I'm hungry now
they twist and turn and tangle themselves (howzzat for alliteration?) into each other, making four blends, each with distinct ingredients.
Nice alliteration!😛
-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.
To wit, the duo of Chandragupta and Chanakya, with their unflagging zeal and their commitment, unsullied by any personal feelings of the debilitating kind.
👏
-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.
Exactly!😕
-The political operating thru the personal: This is Malayaketu, with his dream of dominating all of Bharat, not by his valour or his talents, but thru the back door, by seducing power (Helena) or marrying into power (Nandini), in the hope of then using that power to get Magadha first, and the whole of Bharat later.
And like he has the means/skills/brains to keep the Empire under his control after that😡
-The personal that has now become political: This is Helena, whose blind love for a foreigner leads her to disgrace (happily secret) and heartbreak. These are then transformed, with discreet but very effective encouragement from Chandragupta, into a raging flame of hatred that will now seek revenge on Malayaketu (and on Nandini as well) through political, and perhaps military means as well.
I loved this scene Periyamma.. 👏
Nandini? : You might be wondering where Nandini is in all of this. The short answer to that is: nowhere much at the moment.
Will be nice if she remains that way 🤣
at times to be extraordinarily self-centred, dense, and constitutionally incapable of perceiving what the other person is feeling.
Except in any scene concerning daddy
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!😉
😆
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!
Yes... his famous pose with the 'Yes Master' expressions
Chanakya - who, in his disguises, reminds me, oddly enough, of Nana Patekar 😊- is not just strict with his shishya, curbing his unwise enthusiasm and giving him precise and detailed instructions, but also demanding.
Nana Patekar???
His question is sharp and almost angry: To use maarne ka avasar prapt nahin hua? But his affectionate admiration for Chandragupta still peeks thru, though the latter does not see it.
I didn't see it either 😭
Chandra's army: The way in which Chanakya bullies the reluctant king of an unnamed kingdom into merging his forces with the ragtag medley of gwalas, dakus, kabilewaale aur vidrohi , might have seemed highly unconvincing. But there is a reason for it.
Oh no... it was quite convincing... how else could one build an army from scratch??
As Prem (myviewprem) has correctly pointed out in my last thread, it actually took Chandragupta and Chanakya 7/8 years to conquer the Punjab, and then another 2/3 years to attack and conquer Magadha. In between, there were battles lost, after which Chandragupta had to flee to save his life. It was only after nearly a decade and a half that, even with the combo of Chandragupta's military genius and Chanakya's unrivalled strategic and tactical genius, the two of them were able to prevail.
😲
If the CVs had started showing all those machinations and failures, and the slow progress of the Chandragupta-Chanakya combine, the TRPs would fall below 1 very soon, threatening the show's continued existence! 😉The present TV viewing public lacks the attention span demanded by such long drawn out and painstaking narratives.
That I agree... though it could still be shown a little slower... no?
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. 😉
For a second, I imagined I was reading M&B here...
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.😆😆
Reached more fever-point for me here than it did there... I don't like that la la la music... I can't take them seriously with la la la
Alas for these dashed expectations of some garama garam romantic action! For our boy wonder is - right from the moment when he stands looking down at Nandini in a resigned, weary fashion, preparatory to lugging her on to his horse, till the very end, when, after finally extricating himself from her necklace and his arm from under her head, he leaves without even bothering to pull the coverlet over her - nothing if not detached.
Omg ... it didn't strike me... but thank God he didn't tuck her in ...😲
He brushes her wayward curls off his face, and keeps her from slipping off the horse with unfailing patience, but without the slightest sign of emotion. Even when his face is less than three inches from hers, with her breath mingling with his, there is no sign of his feeling any attraction, even involuntary, towards her, nor the least hint of longing in his eyes.
The M&B chapter continues... you have graduated from G and PG to 12+ periyamma.. 😆
If at all he feels anything, it is only, as his parting soliloquy reveals, regretful wonder about the vagaries of fate that had forced him to help the daughter of his enemy because she was, at that moment, asahaay, helpless.
What a beautiful paragraph... especially the underlined words
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.
Interesting!
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.
Devious? I would say Chanakya is devious.. CGM has a long way to go before he can master that art
by sounding like an almost foolishly candid loudmouth, who thus need not be feared in any way, even while reassuring her of his discretion regarding her liaison with Malayaketu, he gains entry into the Greek army, with his goal of learning Greek battle tactics now well within reach.
This is how I originally thought too... till the last episode...
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.
His sensible advice: Abhi jitna rona hai ro lijiye, par aaj ke baad, kabhi kisi ko apne aansoon ko na dekhne dijiye.
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.
I loved this scene... the most sensible scene of CGM (without Chanakya directly involved in it)
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.
Amazing observation👏
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.
But he does also fulfil it as a humane necessity to tick off (from what he's learnt in the Gurukul)... like how he does when saving Nandini which was not part of his goal... covering Helena in a sheath wouldn't have been necessary either...but that part was humane... the rest of it obviously for his goals😊
seizes the opportunity thus offered him by the forelock, with a low key but rock solid assurance of loyalty.
Yes... and I admired the lie too👏... till the last episode brought that admiration down...
In fact, he plays Helena like a violin - a Stradivarius for choice!- right thru.👏
I read your descriptions about this in your discussions with Saraswathi periyamma
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 -
I totally agree!
Despite his rough and tough features, Arpit manages to project such melting tenderness, such anguished protectiveness, such overwhelming and unquestioning love for this daughter of his that I for one could no longer recall the Padmanand who cut a defaulting taxpayer's throat with his own ustari. Oh, not for long, and the evil Magadha Samrat will be back soon enough when Nandini cannot see him, but for now, the impassioned, all encompassing affection of the father carries all before it. Bravo!!👏
Again, I agree...
Malayaketu: Insane ambition: Malayaketu is a far less complex character than Padmanand, being almost two dimensional, like a cardboard cut out. Nor is the actor playing him such as to be able to go beyond the script and invest his role with shades that the CVs might not have envisaged. So we have a standard issue, cheating philanderer, a brutish thug who slanders and manhandles a woman when she becomes a nuisance.
😆
The most fascinating part of what one could call his vision is that he too, like Chanakya and Chandragupta, seeks to drive Alexander and his forces out of Bharatvarsha. Of course what he plans to do with this newly liberated Bharatbhoomi is different from what they want. He would enslave Bharatmaata all over again, and end up as a worse version of Padmanand.
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!
I am guessing that since Nandini is clearly the darling of the household, and not just of her father, he assumes that if he has the key in his hand, the treasure chest will eventually be his
It make no sense at all, whence the title of this section.
Helena: A woman scorned: I must confess that I was disappointed in the way Helena behaved, both during the stormy encounter with Malayaketu and afterwards.
I would have expected such a headstrong - for she has been pampered too, both by Alexander and by her father - proud woman like her to react with icy but dignified, private rage, and plans for revenge. I would not have expected her to behave like a fishwife, and end up being physically, verbally and emotionally abused by Malayaketu. What she did is precisely what always makes me angry with such women who, facing deception in love, first react like a vengeful fury, and when that does not work, collapse in tears.
It was the initial rage... and after seeing her playing with a tiger like it was a volleyball, I would've been surprised if she didn't fly off the handle there... but, she has got a grip on herself just after that..
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!
Yes... which is why I liked their 'unnamed' relationship from which both are looking to benefit for their own means..
It does seem unfair that Helena is now vowing revenge not just against Malayaketu but also against Nandini, who is not in the least at fault in the whole matter. If Helena had told her whom she was going to meet, Nandini would have insisted on turning the marriage proposal down bluntly, even if she could not have told her father the truth about Helena. But then, as President John F. Kennedy once said, Who says that life is fair?
Yes... and it's human mentality anyway... we don't hate only our misfortunes... we harbour ill will against those who might be unintentionally responsible for it too!
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.
😳
-Why on earth does Dushyant, a servitor of the Macedonian commander, go about with assorted trays of drinks, paan etc. serving the visiting potentates, and constantly exposing himself the risk of being recognized? It is for the servants of the host, Raja Parvatak, to render these kinds of services, not for the servitor of an honoured guest. It is bizarre.
Exactly!
-It remains to be seen what would be the precise, practical significance of Padmanand taking off his suraksha kavach, that had changed his fortunes, and fastening it on Nandini's wrist. These soapy scripts being what they are, it has to mean that Padmanand has now made himself vulnerable. Let us see.
also means, Nandini's amulet/protection has been saump-ed over from Padmanand to Chandra 😉
Made for such a lovely read periyamma... 🤗
Shiv Shakti
