A ONE OFF TAKE ON THE MONDAY EPISODE NO.146
My dearest friends,
No, no, don't get scared! I am not making a repeat appearance like an operatic prima donna!😉
The fact is that five weeks after I quit, I was coaxed and cajoled by a young friend into watching the Monday night episode No. 146 of Chandra Nandini, mainly for the Chanakya-Chandragupta scene. I did that to please her.
In the manner typical of her age group, she did not stop there.😉 She asked for my comments on the scene and the sword fight. Having begun this exercise, I thought I might as well tell her what I felt about it, and I sent her a mini review. Next she began pressing, predictably and most energetically, for my mini take to be posted here.
I am doing it now to get her off my back, 😆and I have warned her that this is a one off exercise, and I am not going to re-start posting on this pathetic show.
With this reassuring preamble, here goes with my candid opinion on the episode. I hope this is of some interest to those still hanging in there and watching Chandra Nandini to the bitter end.
Apart from the Chandragupta-Chanakya scene, the rest was a total bore. In the swordfight scene, Nandini's CGI jumps and somersaults were so comic - like a performing monkey - that one could focus on nothing else, and Rajat's face was covered.
What I really liked there was not his expressions, or as much of them as one could see, during the bout, but the very ambiguous look on his face as he leaves, saying that he has never seen her being ready to give up her life for anyone. There was a hidden bitterness behind the sneer and the sarcasm that came thru very well.
As for the guru-shishya scene, it must have come primarily a huge relief, I expect, and the general reaction would naturally have been conditioned by that fact.
This element apart, it was very well done - for all that the whole scheme seems too roundabout and unduly complicated for me - and Chandra's samarpan was touching. I liked Rajat the best at the very end there too, his face looking much better in that common man's costume than in the ridiculous new haircut, mukut and stubble they have given him now. His eyes literally glowed.
But even so, this is still not Rajat at his best. He can do much, much more, and he has done it again and again in this show as well. The micrometer shifts of expression, what I used to call his MS PPT presentations. There was no scope for any of that in this episode.
The script is so bad now, especially in the Chandra-Nandini scenes, and with this new look, which does nothing for him. It is as if they had set out to make a very handsome young man look unappealing.They do not succeed because his bone structure is so good, like a piece of Greek statuary, but what possessed them to clip his lovely, wavy locks and reduce them to this thatch? 😡
Let us see if the script improves and Rajat gets the chance to get back fully to his old self. I am sure he will, the CVs willing.
All this said, this episode reconfirmed the wisdom of my quitting when I did, for Mura and Dadi set my teeth on edge even more than they used to in the old days. Helena's coiffure, even without the corkscrew curls, looked way too large for the Mukhya Maharani's mukut, which was perched on top like an undersized small hat.😆Apama continues to look like a badly tied sack of potatoes.
Finally, this might shock many here, but I did NOT fall in love with Baby Bindusara They could surely have got a handsomer kid, like the delightful ones in the Johnson Baby ads? This one looks dropped on his head, having probably taken after his mother!😉
Shyamala Aunty/ Periyamma/Akka
Edited by sashashyam - 8 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
