Chandra Nandini 56-60:Dawnbreak - Page 5

Hello Aunty,

First of all, Happy New Year. Wishing you good health, good health and more of good health!

I really missed your posts. Feels wonderful to read your latest. I loved the last week's episodes and yesterday's episode as well.

I loved the cute bathroom scene between the leads. It was handled nicely. It didn't feel romantic neither the titillating sort. It was a nicely executed humorous scene. In the end, the awkwardness between the two was adorable.

And what to say about the agar main chandra nahi hota scene...marvellous. I agree with you that Nandini was very bland in the scene. I was watching Iqbal yesterday. Shweta is very good in the movie. She is such a charming kid in that movie. I guess she needs a good director. Like Siddarth Nigam who was phenomenal in Mahakumbh. I thought his performance never reached the MK-level in CAS (at least of the random episodes/scenes I watched).

I also liked two other scenes from the past week. One is Chandra's aristocratic walk after he winds-up the issue of the daasis. Rajat never looked better. And Chandra has come a long way - from a warrior to a king. The other scene was when Nandini instinctively looks out for Chandra when she has to sleep next to Giridhar. Chandra is not yet her sanctuary, but for now she derives a great deal of security from his presence.

Chandra-Nandini's story has moved nicely in the past few episodes. They do make quite an adorable jodi. And the one thing that I really like about them is the fact that they are good-humoured. Chandra can tease her and she doesn't react with bitterness. By the way, does Nandini know that people who are loved the most are teased the most 😉? In that scene where Nandini wakes up to find herself sleeping on Chandra, I for once was scared about SKLL repeating! Thankfully they decided to do a rip-off from DDLJ!

Coming to yesterday's episode, I was actually laughing when Nandini spoke about her revenge and the fact that she wants to take revenge as a yoddha. All the time that she has attacked Chandra, it has been in the most un-warrior like fashion. At this point of time, her talk of revenge is only an excuse/justification to herself why she wants to keep Chandra safe during their journey back home, and a justification for going against her father. In the Peeplivan attack scene, she had already given up the thought of causing Chandra harm, she stopped her father from attacking Chandra. I loved that scene between Chandra-Nandini after the duo manage to kill the robbers. There were no dialogues but their faces spoke a lot about their current relationship status.

Take care Aunty. And please don't strain yourself. 🤗

Originally posted by: sashashyam

P

Once again, a very Happy New Year Periyamma 🤗

I can see that the first week (Touch wood) has been good with both the episodes and the strength in your fingers... I hope it stays that way...

I have withdrawal symptoms when I am away from the forum and from you for a while.

The feeling's mutual...

script yo-yoing

scenes were bogged down in a sea of often crass melodrama, centred for the most part on Malayaketu's villainy and Chandragupta's strange credulousness in swallowing his pretensions, echoed even more strangely by Chanakya. It was only with this last week that the light of dawnbreak has begun to spread over the script, the actors, and the show as a whole.

👏

-The latest montage is very nice, with the classic pose beloved of royal portraiture:the graceful, bright-eyed queen in the front, a very slight smile quivering on her lips, and the remote, cool king just behind her, eyes level and unreadable, mouth firm and unyielding, the whole pose that of one totally in control.

Beautiful description as always

We are free at last of the nari shakti and nayi soch affliction of a solo Nandini montage of the chimerical warrior princess.😉

🥳

Nayi soch affliction 😆

-The title chant. Blessedly, this does not exist. After months and months of enduring Jodhaaa Akkkbar!, or Ashoka hai, Ashoka hai!, it is a real relief to have a silent montage!😉

😆

- It is Chandragupta who gives the bhashans -

- nor has any attempt been made as yet to show her as determinedly flawless

In fact, it is he who dominates most of the time. He admires her courage and her intelligence, pushes her to use the latter and come thru the very tough exam of the Takshashila gurukul, and lauds her as a sampoorna stree, but this is without any of the sense of subordination of the hero.

Chandra often teases Nandini with relish, and she is left without any comeback. And his handling of her fits and starts is masterly!

-The comic segments abound, and he attacks them with lip smacking relish; the mischief that bubbles in his eyes as he comes out with sabse mahatvapoorna, snaan kaun karayega? 😉

Mischief bubbles in his eyes? Whatta description!

Saanjha snaan (Episode 60):

Chandra and Nandini trying to bathe in the same enclosure while strictly preserving the proprieties, which had me, and you too, I am sure, rolling in the aisles.🤣

It was like a slomo version of a Charlie Chaplin classic silent movie segment, all the more effective for being wordless.

👍🏼

There is Chandra's monastic effort to keep his word and not look back at Nandini in her deshabille, no matter how she drags her feet on the cold water snaan, or what sort of mess she creates with sandalwood paste or whatever it is that she drops.

Adorable... and even more adorable to read what you've written...

This reaches its comic apogee when she slips and lands, as usual, on top of him, and he, catching an unintended glimpse of her undies, is shocked into promptly and tightly closing his eyes, and refusing to open them till she has taken herself off. 😆This was such an unexpected inversion of the genders in this kind of scene that I was in stitches!

😲 Periyammaaa...

The way in which Nandini periodically reaches out backwards and prods Chandra's midriff to attract his attention. The way in which she nods obediently after he has dunked her in cold water, and then proceeds to do what she could not get herself to do till then, take a really cold bath!

Have you watched Dangal, Periyamma... Hanikarak patidev😆

I am not going into what must have had 90% of the female viewers in ecstasy: the thoroughgoing display of the results of Rajat's very serious gymming over several months. It has clearly been very effective,

☺️

And as for me, I was pleased to see, with his bedsheet dupatta now reduced to manageable proportions and leaving both shoulders free, that he looks extremely trim and sleek.

The case of the missing sheets😆

Finally, the look of total relief on both their faces when they have got thru the ordeal in good shape, with Chandra looking the more relieved of the two! 😉

🤣

I will pass over the rest of the episode, noting only that Nandini's ability to shut out the raging confusion stirred in her mind by Vakranaas' instructions that she should lead Chandra to his death, and to focus on the exam, and that too so successfully, was admirable. And that Chandra's barely suppressed pride in her excellent performance was delightful.

Very nice😊

A split level tour de force (Episode 58):

The two lead actors played off each other exceedingly well. If, by the end, Chandra seemed to have won out, after all Rajat is a master of nuance, and the director highlights this with endless close ups of his micrometer changes of expression.

Playing off each other? That's the best kind of 'chemistry'

Again... I love the way you've worded all of it..😳

There is the initial awkwardness, the hesitant sidling up to a deliberately standoffish Nandini, the desperation in his face when she marches off with her books and he is left facing a dead end.

Sidling up... I have never come across this usage... and had to look it up.. 👏

The way in which he finally screws his courage to the sticking point (with apologies to Macbeth!) and, like a rider taking a high fence in a rush, launches abruptly into an apology. The way in which his awkwardness wears off as he begins to speak about the imperatives of rajadharma under such circumstances.

Amazing analogy👏

Kyonki, Nandini, tum mein wo saare gun hain jo ek sampoorna stree mein hone chahiye..This too as a matter of fact statement, made as much to himself as to her. The recounting of all which he had admired and still admires in her, her loyalty to her loved ones, her courage on the battlefield and off it... Yeh sab ek achche raja ke gun hain..

This part might have come across as a very sudden development in their relationship.. if it were not for the part that about his delivering the exquisite lines levelly & impersonal that described his stance before this...

In that para, I was blown away by the elegiac repetition and this part -

the gaze not so much penetrating or probing as matter of fact for the most part, but at the very end, with a hidden regret in them that looks almost like longing.

👏

Parantu ab in baaton ka koyi arth nahin hai, kyonki main Chandra hoon aur tum Nandini ho..Shayad is jeevankaal mein sambhav nahin hai..Satya yahi hai ki hum donon ek doosre ke shatru hain, the, aur rahenge..Satya yahi hai ki hamare bhagya ko koyi nahin badal sakta..

To remind us and themselves that this was meant to be a hate story... because still, and in large part, their story does not seem to convey the extent of hatred that the promos made us believe it would... the duo have reconciled with each other very quickly - almost as though Chandra is losing hope of a good companionship in his other wives and now seeks Nandini for sensible companionship, if nothing else...

The Henry Higgins avatar: The sudden , 180 degrees change of tone from the above to what follows immediately afterwards - for Chandra is in the same costume, so it has to be on the same day- is startling, and is left unexplained. However, as the latter half of the episode is as superb as the first, one hardly cares!

Making do with what we've been served?

The swar change operation would have thrown an ENT specialist into a fit😉, but the smile of pure pleasure on Chandra's face, as he watches Nandini's reaction to her new voice, is reflected in her eyes.

Again.. 😆 a delightful scene... even more delightful to read!

Equally delightful is Chandra's tutoring her on the haav bhaav, bartaav, chaal, chalan, dheel dhaal and the other traits of the male of the species, and on how she has to absorb these traits so thoroughly as to pass off convincingly as a man.

Thankfully, they paid attention to these points and didn't do away with it...😃

If Nandini's initial exaggeratedly swaying gait - which is hardly the way she walks normally! - is played for laughs, Chandra's admonitions to her as she learns to walk like a man: Bhaybheet kyon ho?Haath seedhe, seena baahar, kandhe chaudhe, chehre par tej! , and the way in which he launches her on the path like a battleship, are so funny that one is in tears of laughter.😆

Finally, as she masters the male gait, and Chandra, arms crossed proudly, approves: Ab tum chali ek purush ki bhanti! , I was irresistibly reminded of an exhausted Eliza Doolittle finally mastering The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain!

😆

And as Nandini's stance, arms crossed exactly like her mentor's, mirrored Chandra's own, their new found camaraderie lit up the screen.

Newfound camaraderie: Romance = first spoon of milk with a dash of well-cut pista halves: Rasmalai

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Apart from the magisterial manner in which Chandra handles the guilty auctioneer of the 3 daasis - looking at him from under level brows with eyes as hard as agates and as keen as those of an eagle - and the genuinely comic turn he gives to his brief exchange with an angry Nandini immediately thereafter, which has been discussed already, there was nothing much till they reach the ashram.

Has any other actor been fortunate enough to be showered with such descriptions... eyes like agate, keen as an eagle ...

you direct the scene for us through your words!

How pliable and obedient to his dictatorial instructions apni Nandini has become by now! This extends to the way in which she nods her head like an abashed schoolgirl when he tells her not to get to puffed up because the entrance test had gone off so well.

🤣 How cute!

Durdhara's fall.

-Chandra simulates the grief of a man who has lost his unborn child most convincingly. I was reminded of an even more moving rendering of similar grief by Jalal after Ruqaiya's miscarriage, but then I reminded myself that it was a real loss and real pain that time. Now it is fake, and yet Chandra manages to make it look almost real even to those like us who know the truth.

Excellent comparison👏

-The Chandra-Gautami confrontation. He handles it all with assured, calculated assertiveness, with no raising of his voice, either when he is explaining his stratagem or when he finally confronts the ranting Gautami. The expression on his face , as he tells her that her plan had failed, is inimitable. His eyes are as bright as those of a bird, half pitying, half alight with quiet triumph.

👏 RT again!

Episode 56: Blatant betrayal

Chandra suddenly producing Malayaketu like a magician bringing a rabbit out of a hat.

😆

It is quite startling, the way in which he moves from a request for a tel maalish - for a moment I thought Dabur Amla had joined the list of sponsors!😆 - to a display of such overt, effortless physical sensuality that no wonder poor Nandini must have felt the ambient temperature becoming uncomfortably hot! 😉He clinches the matter with the wickedly teasing Mujhe to lagta hai ki tumhein mujhse prem ho gaya hai...Tum bhi mujhe bhaane lagi ho!!

☺️

the switch in Chandra's eyes, from the seductive to coolly contemptuous assurance, is more than dramatic.

And he roars at her from a foot away, lips drawn back in a savage snarl: Jis se mera sparsh nahin saha ja raha hai,wo mere liye chintit hone ka dhong kar raha hai?. With that, Nandini is summarily relegated to the category of those he would not trust, not now, not ever.

One feels like clobbering him for his credulousness where Malayaketu is concerned, but in this segment, in terms of the performance, Rajat's Chandra is tops.

It seems like the CVs cannot decide where or how to put him 'shaatir' wise... initially, he was the ever-obedient student that only did/followed what Chanakya thought up...

now he seems to use his brain - but only where Nandini is concerned!

Achilles' heel: With Nandini, Part 1 is important for one revelation - from the horse's mouth, aka Chandra himself- that explains a lot of his future actions.

Na jaane kyon, tumhein rota hua dekhta hoon to mujhse saha nahin jaata!

😉

His parting line voices the hope that this shiksha would teach her to ascertain the truth about himself and about her father. But as she insists on having the last word, raising tear-filled eyes to his, he is once again pushed on to the backfoot. As he leaves, he looks distinctly troubled and uncertain.

Nandini already seems half-bowled over by a man who is meant to be her archessst enemy😆 and the man who killed her *gasp* Pita Maharaj... when she DOES come to know the truth about her father and that Chandra is not all that bad... me fears, she might start doing a Helena on him.. then again, our heroines are never allowed to 'desire' our heroes in that way🤔

Episode 54: Aversion to prem

Well, most of the episode looked and sounded as if there was nothing else on everyone's minds but to emphasise that Chandra's hriday had gone AWOL a long time ago, and stayed that way😉Chandra too underlines this conviction by sending up a heartfelt request to the Almighty to keep prem as far away from him as possible. 😉😉

Forced much?

An amusing snippet: When the priest, at Chhaya's wedding, asks the kanyadaan couple to come forward, Nandini automatically moves forward, coming up short only when Chandra calls on Helena to do the honours with him. Kya baat hai!😉

But why not Durdhara? Odd.

Helena, because she is his first wife (in the serial) - Patrani

Nandini, because she started accepting, even taking for granted the fact that they stick together stay together - for hate or for love

Episode 53: Nil

Episode 52: Double domination

She is really in the right, and what he says in the end - that her revenge was over the minute he defeated Padmanand and Malayaketu and she thus became what she had wanted to be, the Maharani of Magadha - is a fudge. There was a second part to his agreement with her, to bring Malayaketu to her feet so that she could take her revenge on him, and this part has now fallen by the wayside. Chandra has now learnt the fine art of sophistry. Instead of honestly accepting his having abandoned part 2 of the programme in his sandhi with Helena, he traps her in a web of words, that ends up making her look unreasonable and a hindrance to his functioning as the Samrat.

When he concludes by stating, with a cold emphasis in his words which is reflected in his eyes and on his face, Ab tum Magadha ki Maharani aur meri patni ho.Tum apne pati aur Maharaj ke nirnay ka sammaan karo!

Masked villainy that is!😉

From that moment onwards, the equation between them is changed for good, and Helena realises that. This is reflected in every scene between them from now on, as she stoops to coax and win him over, while ostentatiously affirming her total solidarity with his aims and her support for them. Never again will she make the mistake of trying to take him head on.

No no... never say never.. the CVs might twist her as they wish... when they need the screaming banshee... a Ruqaiyya replacement... she'll be back!

Episode 51: Violent grief

I did not like the physical shoving and hurtfulness at all, especially as Chandra had seen with his own eyes how Nandini had tried her level best to save Satyajit's life, and this should have moderated his anger towards her personally. But he is too far gone to draw such distinctions.

Maybe like the typical 'Narcissist' - by that point he is angered by his own foolishness over that entire episode but takes it all out on her... I do hope they don't make him into that kind of hero either - the one who inflicts bruises on his wife only to her nurse her back to health in the middle of the night..
Just a strong hero would do - one who doesn't take a slap sitting down (verbal or physical), and one who doesn't have to keep meting them out either, to prove his dominance!

What an amazing way to catch up on these 10 episodes 🤗

I thoroughly enjoying reading the comments too - Shreya's, Sri, Sandhya's, Shailaja's and Periyamma's👏

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Two, I liked the way in which, at several points during the final round of the exam and the award ceremony, Nandini turns back repeatedly towards Chandra seeking support, reassurance, and appreciation. Which he provides each time.

See this behaviour can also be used to explain why she steps forth during the Kanyaadaan scene... Even though she was (briefly????) having a chorus group cheering her, she seems to find a real sense of being herself with Chandra (runs to him for support/runs to him to fight with) Reminds me of the relationship between my two sons... they need each other - to fight the worst fights and share the best secrets!

She does that just after Jayant's name is announced as the third selected candidate, and she moves to take her place between the other two, when Chandra lifts his hand in the abhaya mudra as if to bless her and reassure her.

I don't know why this made me go ROFL😆

And again after she is declared the winner, exactly like a child coming first in class and looking to the parent for his reaction!

the dynamics of this couple are unpredictable, exasperating, illogical and unusual in equal measure - maybe that's what will sell them to the viewers in future...

when Jayant's name is announced as the third selectee (sic!), his mouth relaxes very, very slightly in a trace of a smile, and the eyes reflect the same feeling. It was fascinating.

Three, the lovely little snippet where he offers her his hands as a stirrup to help her get on to the horse. It was a very unusual, yet not at all a lover-like gesture, more one of a friend to another. I loved the way in which she looks at his linked hands very seriously, then places her hand in his and guides his hand to the neck of the horse, so that he can help her get on to its back. Chandra is clearly taken aback, but his expression is hard to read. I never expected such an imaginative bit to pop up out of the blue!

I loved this part👏

Four , I loved Nandini's extended internal debate about the ethics of her supporting her pita maharaj's ambush scheme. It is not clouded by any romantic sentiment, but it is dispassionate, fair towards Chandra,and is finally decided on the basis of her personal code of honour as a yoddha. Incidentally, she fights well, with strong, horizontal slashing strokes.

Interesting twist/take on a female lead by the CVs... that much I'd have to concede.. I wouldn't go so far as to call her refreshing yet, since we don't know how far the CVs can keep her different from all the other standard scripted heroines on TV today

The real purpose of this sequence, apart from inaugurating a series of failed attempts by Malayaketu to assassinate Chandragupta, will be to make Nandini realise that regardless of her determination to secure pratishodh for the killings of her brothers, when push comes to shove, she does not really want Chandra to die.

👏

A supplementary pay off will be that Chandra's near death encounter will bring the angry, sulking Chanakya back post haste to Pataliputra. He will be ready, given that she would have been shown to have saved Chandra's life, to forgive Nandini for the heinous transgression😉 of having forced him to go back on his MCP principles and acknowledge her vidya!😆

😆

Both Dawnbreak - part 2 and the mini post were wonderful pieces filled with powerful descriptions, sharp observations and perceptive analysis👏. I don't tire of reading and re-reading your posts. There is so much beauty in your writing, aunty.

My favourite bits in...

Dawnbreak - Dwitiya

...the magisterial manner in which Chandra handles the guilty auctioneer of the 3 daasis - looking at him from under level brows with eyes as hard as agates and as keen as those of an eagle...

...he contents himself with regarding her from below, eyes dancing with wicked mischief as he asks her where she is going, and then smiling with smug satisfaction when told that she is going to the ashram to give her exam.

...to the way in which she nods her head like an abashed schoolgirl when he tells her not to get to puffed up because the entrance test had gone off so well. Cute😆😆

His eyes are as bright as those of a bird, half pitying, half alight with quiet triumph.

...the way in which he moves from a request for a tel maalish - for a moment I thought Dabur Amla had joined the list of sponsors! - Your wit 😆😆

...the initial wide-eyed incredulity, giving way to the dawning realization that yes, he is to become a father, as his eyes fill with tears of joy. Then the widening smile, as he blinks the tears away , and sheer wonderment at his good fortune suffuses his face. Finally, the wordless joy in his eyes as he smiles even wider and embraces Durdhara.

...his eyes are bright and commanding, indeed demanding, and the firm, level voice, plus the finality in the words, silence even the tempestuous Helena.

The eyes clouded by grief and loss, and in the end, when he is forced to yield to his guru wrt Dhananand, lips that curl in sudden disgust. As the flames of the twin pyres cast a ruddy light on his face, his eyes look cold and vengeful.

Mini post

...turns back repeatedly towards Chandra seeking support, reassurance, and appreciation. Which he provides each time.

...and she moves to take her place between the other two, when Chandra lifts his hand in the abhaya mudra as if to bless her and reassure her. And again after she is declared the winner, exactly like a child coming first in class and looking to the parent for his reaction. Cute cute 😆😆

...the way in which she looks at his linked hands very seriously, then places her hand in his and guides his hand to the neck of the horse, so that he can help her get on to its back. Sounds like a bit of lovely and surprisingly imaginative writing indeed.

...apart from inaugurating a series of failed attempts by Malayaketu to assassinate Chandragupta.. 😆😆

...to forgive Nandini for the heinous transgression 😉of having forced him to go back on his MCP principles and acknowledge her vidya! 😆😆

I've said this before, and say it again - the CVs of this show are very lucky to get this sort of fabulously incisive and insightful feedback for their work. Wish they'd have the sense to make use of it.