Chandra is a do or die kind of warrior. Chanakya gave the signal for retreat. It was Chandra who unheeded it and kept on fighting. Chanakya of course had to barge in to stop Chandra and drag him away. I know it reflects very poorly on his generalship. A good general is not just one who is a brave warrior, knows to fight well, has knowledge of the vyuhs,etc. He should know when to attack and when to beat the retreat.
Even in attack, he should be aware of how to wreak the maximum damage to his enemy army with minimum damage to him and his soldiers. He should know which are the weaklinks in the enemy army and target these spots while taking care to protect his own weaklinks from the enemies. He should strike when the iron is hot and cool his heels when it is cold. Basically he should do a good SWOT analysis of both his and his enemy armies.
It is not something Chanakya can run every moment in the battlefield to teach him exposing both of them to danger and sure death. He will not have all the time in the world to assess his situation and act. He has to make his moves, and the right ones while he is on the job.
For a difference, just see the cool and calculated way in which Nandini assesses the situation and plans her moves. Seeing the speed with which Chandra is advancing, she sends her specially trained women's contingent to delay his progress until something concrete can be done or reinforcements are at hand(Malay actually comes with his army) turning the tide in Magadh's favor.
But at least her diversion gives Nand and Sons opportunity to beat the retreat if the worst comes to the worst. I wonder if Chanakya and Chandra will build their own women's contingent taking a leaf out of this. Taking this a step ahead they can plan their contingent of Vishkanyas to make this squad even more lethal and effective. Nandini comes out of this war scoring several brownie points in her favor.
My only crib, Shweta though acting well is emoting too much. It could be kept a bit subtle and understated. Rajat is doing fantastic in that aspect. He is giving the right expressions in a balanced way, not more, not less!
Chandra knows fighting but he should curb his tendency to rush headlong into something without weighing the pros and cons. He has to fasten his learning curve as a good general. He is just a good and brave warrior now, not a general. These are the small things that differentiate a soldier from a leader. I was really impressed to see the cool and clinical way in which Nandini was strategizing regarding the war in the conference hall before her father and Amatya. When she finds their Plan A almost flopping due to Chandra's speed, she comes with a Plan B.
But anyways I was not expecting the Chanakya-Chandra combine to win this time. They were barging headlong too early into the battle. They will do well the next time after they introspect and reassess what went wrong this time. According to history also, they fail the first time in their direct attack on Magadh. Then they revamp their strategy and start bringing the borders of Magadh under their control before they launch their final attack on the capital Patliputra.
Edited by shailusri1983 - 8 years ago
Jhanak
Shiv Shakti
