Amazing analysis aunty👏
[I wanted to see your reaction after I posted this, because I know that this is not one of your favourite phrases... 😉 🤣]
Ok coming back the the posts...
I have been here ... off and on... caught on bits and parts of the episodes... but have been reading more of your analysis and the replies on your thread... the content here is definitely more entertaining than what my little laptop screen with a poorly-buffering CN episode is able to offer me!😔
Helena, the rebooted, 4th century BC Version stood out, both as a linking element and a catalyst, and as the strongest and most impressive character on display, not excluding Chandra. Even Chanakya came in second.
What a beautiful start... comparing her to the Helen of Troy...
It is also difficult to understand how, given that Padmanand loves his daughter so very much, he is ready to tie her for life to a ruffian like Malayaketu solely in order to safeguard his throne. Nor why he is suddenly so lacking in self-confidence that he believes he cannot defend his kingdom against Chandra's cobbled together army without Malayaketu's support.
Totally agree and I had the same doubts...
Mujhe pata tha ki aap phir se pitkar aayenge us ladke se, isliye maine teenon ke teenon lep tayyar rakhe hain! Which she then proceeds to slather on him, making him howl in pain.
Oh my God!😆
Battle 2.0: The battle sequence, this time abbreviated, was pretty much the same as before- the balcony and the hilltop bits, with Nandini's infrared night vision, Chanakya's red flag, and Chandra's swordplay.
👏
one was not sure what had happened to Malayaketu!
If they could make someone as gargantuan ad Malayketu unclear' God save the rest!
But the real conundrum was the constantly changing perceptions of the relative size and strength of the various armies, which was nothing short of bewildering.
What an interesting read this made! You notice so much and keep track of it all, periyamma...
Chandra: Angry and vulnerable: Our Chandra, he is a changing, as the poet would say.
For one thing, despite the obligatory kshama yachanas, he is far more argumentative than ever before about the idea of his having to marry Helena. He literally, and repeatedly quotes his guru's words of wisdom back to him, and puts up a stout fight till he is cornered and bested by the wily old gentleman trotting out the unbeatable Mathrubhoomi ki raksha angle.
Nice touch, the underlined...
a Trojan horse, not to speak of the Trojan viruses!
Oh yesss...😉
________________________________________________________________
I was greatly amused by Chandra's vainglorious boast: Aaj tak aisi koyi stree bani hi nahin jo mera dhyan apni or kheench sake!- given that such stuff amounts to tempting the gods, and invariably comes before a fall!
So well put...👏
Bitter breakdown: The part I really loved about Chandra in these episodes was his total breakdown after the loss in the second attack on Magadha. It showed that despite all of Chanakya's grooming and the years of training, this is not a military automaton. This is a flesh and blood human being, still almost a boy, with all the vulnerability that goes with inexperienced youth, not yet tested and toughened in the crucible of failure.
Wonderful!⭐️
As he falls to his knees in anguish, Chandra looks almost demented. Rajat pulls out all the stops in this difficult scene, , unconcerned about his face getting distorted while reflecting extremes of emotion
RT 😎
It it then that help arrives, in the shape of Helena. It is interesting, and revealing, that Chandra has none of the usual masculine ego hassles in exposing to Helena, a woman, his weakness, his crushing sense of failure as a warrior and a military leader, his inability to understand how, despite having everything in their favour before the battle, they had still lost it.
Yes... He doesn't hide his weaknesses/losses from her😊
Instead, there is a sense of genuine comradeship in the way he reacts to her, here more than ever before. It is there in his saying, even as he gently removes her hands from about his face, Jaane do mujhe!, as if he needs her consent for quitting this struggle. He does need it, for she is his partner, and partners do not abandon each other unilaterally.
How beautifully put periyamma (I'm enjoying your choice of words and descriptives... I plan to save those descriptives)
Remarkable reassurance: I loved it when, towards the end of the scene, he looks up into her face, seeking emotional succour and encouragement. His Mujh par itna vishwas kyon karti ho? , is not really a question. It is a plea for reassurance.
Awww😳
As he listens to Helena's words, Chandra's eyes seem to be clinging to hers, to draw from them some of her infectious courage and determination. The seeping back of strength and courage into his own eyes is remarkable. They light up, slowly but surely, like the rays of the sun at dawn peeping over the horizon. The old Chandra is coming back.
The stuff of novels!
Chanakya
When he unerringly scents the presence of a traitor in their midst as the only possible explanation for their failure this time. He decides, not to kill him as a vengeful Chandra would want to, but to use his traitorous links for making him their double agent in the Magadha camp. And secures insurance for the success of this ploy by holding his family hostage for his continued good behaviour.
Excellent ploys by the mastermind, though I totally agree with your take on him sending Chandra as a priest...made no sense!
one beti, the self-centred, disloyal Helena, and the other beti, the sanskaariNandini, whose loyalty to her pitamaharaj makes her the human equivalent of Gandhiji's Three Monkeys rolled into one .
They aren't making it subtle, are they?😆
For Helena is neither a devil nor a paragon of all the virtues. She is just human, with all the grey areas that this implies, and a female at that.
No she is not... and that's what makes her interesting like you've elucidated further on, about the intent behind her saying yes' to this marriage alliance!
Helena-Chandra 1:
He is unsure of what to do and how to handle her, and this shows in his hesitant, shuffling body language. Helena is in control throughout.
😆
This begins when she laughs at his opening Tum yahan?,
Chandra did a Jodha Begum!😆
When she rolls over suddenly, as if to make room for him at her side, and leans back with negligent grace, her head propped up on one arm, Chandra looks absolutely petrified. Rajat is splendid in this very unusual cameo of a bashful and most reluctant bridegroom!
😆
I would have dearly loved to have seen Chandra's reactions to any amorous advances from her side , but alas, this bride has no time to waste on such trifles. So she clears away the jasmine flowers, and the map of Magadha appears. I am sure pure, blessed relief must have flooded thru Chandra's whole being at the sight, but nothing of that shows on his face as he settles down for the strategy session that follows.
Oh Lord, I could not stop laughing!
I'm finding your reaction to the scene even more cute and hilarious than the scene itself!
She lowers her head in shame when, during the later post mortem session in their tent, Chanakya notes that even the Greek forces that were already there backed out of the fighting when the reinforcements did not turn up.
👏
No man could have asked for a stronger, more determined, more effective and supportive partner.
What an observation! Politician Strategist Wife!
Your favourite combination she is... isn't she periyamma?
she shows her mettle when she does not grab his arm to stop him from dashing his fist agains the rocky ground, but absorbs the blow with her own palm.
Diffusing it... rather than stopping it👏
With a kind of protective, tactile affection; the way in which she holds his face in her hands, as if that grasp would exorcise his inner demons and drive them away, speaks for itself.
It is not just that she consoles him in his lowest moments. That is the less important part. What is vital is that she manages to cut thru the fog of depression enveloping him and to get thru to the real Chandra.
This is a special ability that Helena seems to possess, at times even more than Chanakya does.
Beautiful analysis... especially the way you've worded the underlined!
With Helena, Chandra is not weighed down by a feeling of guilt at having, as he perceives it, let his guru down, as would be the case with Chanakya. It is more of a relationship between equals, and so her pep talk gets thru to him more effectively.
Sandhya has noted this well😉
The power of one human being to connect so deeply with another is always a mystery. It cannot be dissected and explained, not always, and never fully. Like love, it just exists, that is all.
It is the ability of one person to heal the emotional hurts of another, sometimes simply by being there
You've used this phrase to describe Akbar and Heera too, do you remember Periyamma
When he comes to the murder of his father by naapit Nand, and the imprisonment of his mother for so many years, his lips are drawn back in a snarl, his voice thickens, his teeth are clenched in barely suppressed fury. His head moves in savage, staccato gestures and rage hoarsens his voice even further.
Chandragupta's eyes are fixed in a fanatic glare, and he looks up, as if to seek divine endorsement for his pronouncement...
The handsome, square face now looks thin and peaked, like that of an eager bloodhound out for the chase and the kill. It also reflects - in the over bright eyes and the almost feline look in them, in the almost wolfish smile that twists his lips - the pride of birth, the exultation in his royal lineage, that now surges thru Chandragupta's whole being.
I was reading a fictional masterpiece here - RT would be proud to read something like this on him!
Splendid catharsis:
Amidst this terrible outpouring of helpless misery that was wracking him, it was heartwarming to see the two who care the most for him right now, Chanakya and Helena, rush to the side of a visibly broken Chandra and help him carefully back to the tent, wrapped up in Helena's shawl, which she instantly whips off and puts around him in a quick, protective gesture.
This snippet summed up their joint standing in Chandra's life, the unfailing source of moral and physical support for him whenever he is in need of it.
Excellently put⭐️
he lets her have it with both barrels, so to speak.
Oh la la
he blames her for the arrest of his foster parents. Wrongly, but how would he know that? He would assume that she had been playing the same role that she had played during the swayamwar.
When he does that, every line is dripping in venom and savage hatred for her father and now, by extension, for her as well. It is as if telling her about what he has in store for her provides a kind of instant satisfaction, of catharsis, for him.
My question is why does he even go to her room to ask her this? What purpose does it serve? Except the dramatic effect of course..
He calls her a moorkh for not realizing the truth about her father, noting that she would realise it some day.
Much needed dialogue...
Nandini only mentions that Chandra is us Mura ka beta, completely leaving out his father's name and his lineage. It seems to have barely registered with her.
When he stops in the palace corridor a little later, and laughs silently, the welling bitterness in that laughter sears the screen.
Mura's unwavering courage in the face of the direst threats from Nand has been repeatedly on display in the past. But this time, she outdid herself, facing down - with cool disdain, and a litany of all his recent failures against Chandra.
She is the most powerful actress of the lot!😊
Her father's daughter: It has often been noted here that Nandini, because of her low social origins on her father's side, is found lacking in the kind of behaviour expected of royalty. Last night, she proved this in spades, as she suddenly landed up on Mura, and proceeded, for no visible reason, to taunt her about, as she asserted again and again, the impending death of her son in the next battle.
I have read your analysis and replies in your thread on this subject and realise how much you despise her now😆
Amusement crept slowly across her visage like an incoming tide, as her eyes lit up with secret gladness. rock-like conviction and utter calm: the faraway look in her eyes is like that of a seer who can see into the future, and what she sees is justice being done at last.
I love the way you describe facial expressions!😭
Manu's maxim that wives, like drums, benefit from beatings.
Is that what Manu's maxim dictates- I didn't know...😕
The promise that she gives never to demand any rights as a wife from him, and his own solemn warning to her Ab jo tune kaha, use jeevan bhar smaran rakhna! A finger wagging at her to emphasise this point, Aur mujhse bhi ek pati banne ki aastha mat rakhna! , come jointly under the category of "Famous last words"!
😆
The lost hriday: Oh, I almost forgot! The hriday that, Chandra now insists, he does not have, because he extracted it from his chest cavity and crushed it under his heel. That implies two things.
One, that there was a 4th century BC successor of Sushruta ( the first known surgeon in ancient India,who is placed around 600 BC) around in Patalgram who performed this extraction for our hero.
And two, since the aforesaid cardiac apparatus has been destroyed, there will be nothing for our heroine No.1, Nandini, to discover in due course. She will have to manufacture it from scratch!
😆
Durdhara-Chandra-Helena: Chandra is fast developing a comfortable equation with his wife. Witness the way in which he takes her to meet his childhood friend, Durdhara, and announces, with placid amusement,that he has married her!
😉
Durdhara falls on Chandra's neck - which was rather odd in that era, even if they had been childhood friends
Agreed!
Later, at the Chandragupta-Durdhara marriage, Helena is shown standing there and showering flowers on the couple. Her face is still and unreadable. It is not to be expected that she would like this sudden addition to their menage. But she is above all a pragmatist, and she must have realized that this was unavoidable for purely practical reasons.
This said, given that Chandra and Durdhara will get on very easily and light-heartedly with each other, as they have always done, Helena might start feeling left out. It remains to be seen how Chandragupta handles this, or indeed if he understands this at all.
Like most others here have said, Helena is going to become the third wheel... that is what her character is being geared towards... unfortunately...
Chanakya: Less than impressive:
our guruvar here resembles nothing so much as a brood hen laying eggs one after the other. No wonder that Chandra reacts with some exasperation, and responds to Chanakya's last gripe with ab prashna ka samadhaan bhi aap hi batayiye!
Nothing but delay tactics for a build up to the finale!
Bizarre expedition: Then again, WHAT is Chandra expected to discover during that very risky venture into Pataliputra on which Chanakya sends him, over-ruling his strong and logical protests? That Nandini is the apple of her father's eye, the one he loves more than himself? He could have guessed that during his last outing, when he kidnapped her, for if this was not so, he could never have got away because he had her as a hostage.
What was the tearing hurry to interrogate that duo right there and then, in front of the whole assemblage?
Poor direction... All of it! but as you'd noted it was all just so CGM could find out how he came to be CGM!
It makes no sense at all, but then it has only one purpose, as I had noted on my last thread ( one of the exceedingly few occasions when I got a plot prediction right!)
Yes, you were elated about this Periyamma... weren't you? Did I remember reading about opening a champagne bottle somewhere?
End game:
Chandragupta has finally, after a very hard fought struggle, managed to get the better of the gigantic Malayaketu.
Earlier, they had seemed more or less evenly matched. Even after he has been unhorsed, Malayaketu manages to trip up Chandra - who descends from his horse for a reason which I at least failed to grasp!
😆
Perhaps in tune with that ferocious mood - wanting to wreak bare-handed vengeance on his foe - he discards his sword and rushes at Malayaketu. The impact when they collide is like two mountains crashing into each other. When they then headbutt each other repeatedly, and blood trickles down their foreheads, it is as if this is the preparation for a blood sacrifice. But by whom and of whom?
The answer comes almost immediately, as Chandra, who bares his teeth in a vulpine snarl, is picked up and tossed to the ground by Malayaketu. But before his enemy can move to the kill, Chandra somersaults in a full circle, with a lithe grace that owes nothing to VFX, and kicks Malayaketu backwards. He then grabs his opponent, heaves his huge body up, literally over his own head, roars again like the predator he is at that moment, and dumps it on the ground with a resounding thud. End of Malayaketu.
I SAW this entire scene without actually seeing it!😊
Chandra looks up at the sound of Padmanand's scream Naaa...iii!!, his eyes alight with anticipation.
Up on the hill, Chanakya smiles.
👏
Amazing agility: As his soldiers position themselves, one after the other, at intervals, their shields held horizontally aloft, Chandra, running across the battlefield to gain momentum, leaps on to the first shield, and then leapfrogs from one to the other till he is just above the level of the galloping Padmanand. Who is so bemused and taken aback by this sudden apparition that he does not even think of reacting till he is knocked off his black charger. Lovely stuff.
Wow!
The timing of vengeance: He beats back a rush by Nand's sons with the same, brutally effective circular sweep of his sword.
His eyes narrow down to mere slits
As they square off once more, Chandra sends the heavy Padmanand reeling
His muscles tense under the strain as he leans back farther and father. His eyes looks almost insane with fury and bloodlust as he lets out a full throated roar:
The shot of them surging in from the right, hitting the wall of the enemy formation and plunging into it, was the most striking battlefield shot I have seen so far in Indian TV.
I am going to watch this just because of your description!
I am not going into her hi fi battle outfit, which was not much different from the general male ones from the front, but looked totally impractical from the back, seeing that it had none! Back, that is.
Ramachandra😆
Psy battle: a startling throwback to the norms of a dharmayuddha -
Typical villainy
Chandra's face crumples in pain, a vein pulses in his throat, and his eyes are lowered, But then the tide turns, and the smile vanishes as Chandra begins, suddenly and unexpectedly, to laugh. The words are dipped in vitriol, but the mouth is still wide in a smile as he turns around and returns to his ranks.
Fantastic! 👏
here he is like a man possessed, thirsting to wreak a vengeance that is both patriotic and personal, and thus far more ferocious and reckless than ever before. A matchless, unbeatable warrior, against whom no one and nothing can stand.
And again👏
Stepping stones to victory:
Chandragupta is a great warrior, but Malayaketu and Maha Padmanand are very strong fighters as well. So it was good that Chandra is not given a walkover in either case, and instead, it is shown how difficult it is for him to prevail over each of them. It is this that makes his ultimate victory in both cases all the more impressive.
The sweet taste of victory when the fight is not a mere tussle, but a battle instead!😉
Chandra has to fall back on Malayaketu as a more effective bait to winkle Padmanand out of his lair.
Interesting!
In absentia: OK, folks, that is enough of matters military. Yes, I know that I have not said a word about Nandini, but that is because I cannot think of anything worthwhile to say.
The forum seems to now be stewing and simmering in both, empathy for her and hatred against her... I read the discussions and I can start seeing the divide. A month on, one more dupatta-pulling act... and members will be equally balanced on both sides!😉
Helena and her junior sauten - no other adjective fits Durdhara as well as this one!
I agree!
Helena is like a lioness, Chandra par kewal mera haq hai!
Indha line... yengeyo ketta maadri iruuke!🤔
Chandra's naive statement later to Durdhara and his smug comment will soon prove to be ill-founded.
😆
Helena, for all his regard for her as his margdarshak, will soon find, if she pushes him beyond a point, that he is no rabbit like the unfortunate Argus. Chandra too will find out that his earlier concerns about matrimonial stresses and strains were justified after all, but probably not just yet. Not till his equation with Nandini changes drastically.
Drama... TRP... Aunty 😈
Durdhara is a sheet of glass that has been thoroughly treated with Windex: transparent, gleaming in the light of the sun. One cannot find the least spot of anything dubious soiling the perfection of her simple, unaffected nature.
😳
Chandra: Show stealerThe indulgent affection with which he watches her open laughter as she plays the cowrie shell game with him. The wide smile on his face after he has finished reliving their childhood skipping game with her. The at times wide eyed, at times mock serious, but always amused look on this face as she tells him about her fear of Helena, and then declares that unlike the common run of queens, she will not fight over him with Helena.
Awww
And your reference to Sholay?😆
Finally, the gentleness with which he pats her head in parting, once outside her tent, stands there for a moment with a reminiscent half smile on his face.
Durdhara, it is clear, will be his oasis, his refuge from the storms that he might face in life. The only one with whom he can be relaxed and, even if only briefly, be free of care. A refuge that he is, tragically, to lose all too soon.
After all of this cuteness, it is sad that she will die... but at least this will be one stand-out aspect in which CN cannot be compared to JA...and durdhara cannot be made a Salima!
Once again, Amazing analysis aunty 😉
Just kidding..😆.
Enjoyed reading your takes thoroughly Periyamma 🤗 and so, I wanted you to know each and every word and line that made it that enjoyable for me!
