Mahakumbh 13-16: The plot thickens - Page 4

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear,

I have always liked instant retribution, especially since it happens so little in real life. And when the bad guys are bashed up with ruthless efficiency coupled with a kind of clinical detachment, as was the case here with Rudra, I love it. I loved the teen Rudra's spectacular wrestling bout with that Mahabali even more than this one.

Yes. I completely agree. A little tidbit - Siddarth is a national level gymnast. The action director has put his gymnast skills to good use during the fight scenes with Mahabali.

One knows that he is very strong, preternaturally so, thus it does not look fake, like Dev Anand beating up a dozen baddies! And Gautam is compact and has a toned physique, so he can make it look credible. Now I want that MLA's son to be bashed up on Monday. Let us see!

Dev Anand beating up the baddies 🤣

True - the fight scenes don't look out of place in this story. Honestly, they seem like a breath of fresh air.

As for khoye paaye Pandey, he is a namoona, and most entertaining in his greasy villainy. Yes, the bit you have cited was very funny. I wonder whether even the Swami knows what all Pandey can get up to.I was in stitches thinking of what would have happened if that cow had moved,and precipitated Pandey's phone in front of the Swami's feet!

🤣

If Balivesh ever found out about his having betrayed his lies to Grierson, Pandey will instantly pass from his present Cyclopean state to a Miltonian one of total darkness (sacrilegious as it might seem to bracket Pandey with Milton even in such a restricted context!).

If that were to happen, it would not only be retribution for betrayal but also for killing Maimui.

One request: please hit the Like button when you happen to like anything I write as a standalone post. I keep track of the Likes for my pieces, and would not like to miss out on yours!

I did, before typing out my comments 😊

Shyamala Aunty

Mahakumbh 18: A cruel twist in the tale

Folks,

This is a mini take, for I have just about 30 minutes to do it in. Of course there is more to come next Sunday!

Last night's episode was all about Gautam's Rudra, who has now completely internalised his grief and the trauma of such a terrible loss. This was evident immediately after he fell on his knees, like Hrithik's Altaf in Mission Kashmir, and howled in unbearable agony. From that point onwards, Rudra was almost throughout like an automaton, and this very lack of emotion hinted at the depth of his suffering.

This frozen quality was carried over into the utter blankness of his eyes in the precap, as he regards Maya's mama, the Sinister Swami.

To my mind, Maimuyi's death scene was not well enough done. It somehow lacked, except in one part, of which more below, the emotional heft of Udiya Baba's passing. Perhaps this was because there was too much of incoherent talk from her side, and I could not make out even 20% of it. The silences that spoke in their earlier scenes were drowned out, and Maya's endless Mai, mai!! began to grate on the nerves.

But the heartbreaking quality of the relationship between Maimuyi and her bachuwa, whether with the teenage Rudra or this one, came thru with full force in the bit where she asks him to call her Mai. I am not the crying kind, but my eyes were wet as Rudra complied and hugged her with frantic, desperate love.

Later, in Gautam's still, wordless, frozen agony as he goes about the funeral rites, the emotional vazan of the narrative was regained. The point where he wipes his wet hands in her pallu was the high water mark, so poignant, and that too without a single word spoken.

Whatever his merits as a convincing actor, the scene of Pandey and the dying Maimuyi was disgusting. And as with the scene of his blinding by Swami Balivesh, it had NO place in a 8 pm telecast of a serial meant as family entertainment. The way he was shown twisting the trishul in her wound made me want to stick the trishul into the director. Ugh..

This apart, the whole chase and murder scene was totally incredible, and stretched the boundaries of artistic licence, of natakiya rupantar, to breaking point. There was no police, no autopsy of the murdered person's body, no FIR, nothing. It cannot happen even in a remote village in India today, not to speak of a city like Varanasi awash with mobile-wielding citizen journalists, that a bunch of thugs chases an old woman and kills her in broad daylight in the centre of the city without anyone bothering about it, least of all the police. It is ludicrous.

And then Rudra cremates the body with no one even bothering to inform the police!

Whatever the script-related compulsions, above all of getting Rudra to Prayag and the Mahakumbh, I feel very strongly that it was a bad mistake to have so abruptly knocked Maimuyi out of the narrative. With her passing, the emotional core of Mahakumbh has also been knocked out, and the fallout of this ill-considered decision will become apparent all too soon.

The Maya conundrum stayed intact, given that the previous day's precap was repeated last night. I am still half of the mind that she is an unknowing accomplice of her Mama, but I am sure Gargi will protest vociferously against my cutting Maya any such slack!😉

Bye for now, folks! More soon.

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Mahakumbh 18: A cruel twist in the tale

Folks,

This is a mini take, for I have just about 30 minutes to do it in. Of course there is more to come next Sunday!

Last night's episode was all about Gautam's Rudra, who has now completely internalised his grief and the trauma of such a terrible loss. This was evident immediately after he fell on his knees, like Hrithik's Altaf in Mission Kashmir, and howled in unbearable agony. From that point onwards, Rudra was almost throughout like an automaton, and this very lack of emotion hinted at the depth of his suffering.

This frozen quality was carried over into the utter blankness of his eyes in the precap, as he regards Maya's mama, the Sinister Swami.

To my mind, Maimuyi's death scene was not well enough done. It somehow lacked, except in one part, of which more below, the emotional heft of Udiya Baba's passing. Perhaps this was because there was too much of incoherent talk from her side, and I could not make out even 20% of it. The silences that spoke in their earlier scenes were drowned out, and Maya's endless Mai, mai!! began to grate on the nerves.

But the heartbreaking quality of the relationship between Maimuyi and her bachuwa, whether with the teenage Rudra or this one, came thru with full force in the bit where she asks him to call her Mai. I am not the crying kind, but my eyes were wet as Rudra complied and hugged her with frantic, desperate love.

Later, in Gautam's still, wordless, frozen agony as he goes about the funeral rites, the emotional vazan of the narrative was regained. The point where he wipes his wet hands in her pallu was the high water mark, so poignant, and that too without a single word spoken.

Whatever his merits as a convincing actor, the scene of Pandey and the dying Maimuyi was disgusting. And as with the scene of his blinding by Swami Balivesh, it had NO place in a 8 pm telecast of a serial meant as family entertainment. The way he was shown twisting the trishul in her wound made me want to stick the trishul into the director. Ugh..

This apart, the whole chase and murder scene was totally incredible, and stretched the boundaries of artistic licence, of natakiya rupantar, to breaking point. There was no police, no autopsy of the murdered person's body, no FIR, nothing. It cannot happen even in a remote village in India today, not to speak of a city like Varanasi awash with mobile-wielding citizen journalists, that a bunch of thugs chases an old woman and kills her in broad daylight in the centre of the city without anyone bothering about it, least of all the police. It is ludicrous.

And then Rudra cremates the body with no one even bothering to inform the police!

Whatever the script-related compulsions, above all of getting Rudra to Prayag and the Mahakumbh, I feel very strongly that it was a bad mistake to have so abruptly knocked Maimuyi out of the narrative. With her passing, the emotional core of Mahakumbh has also been knocked out, and the fallout of this ill-considered decision will become apparent all too soon.

The Maya conundrum stayed intact, given that the previous day's precap was repeated last night. I am still half of the mind that she is an unknowing accomplice of her Mama, but I am sure Gargi will protest vociferously against my cutting Maya any such slack!😉

Bye for now, folks! More soon.

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

I was also wondering about the police, I thought this is normal in varanasi.Lol!

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My problem is that this vision of Rudra is relentlessly OTT and lacking in nuance. It straitjackets Gautam, who would naturally have to do what the director wants of him, into unrelieved anger and unalloyed surliness, interspersed with killer glares and flaring nostrils. After a while, this gets to be monotonous and tough to take, all the more because, firstly, one knows what the actor can do if he is given free rein, and secondly, one cannot forget the brooding, introverted and sensitive young Rudra, who tugged so effortlessly at one's heart strings with his silences as much as with his eloquent eyes .

Also, to my relief, by week end, his overt OTT raging had been toned down and he was allowed to simply look still and withdrawn, even in anger. But he can do much, much more, and hopefully he will be allowed to stretch his wings as the grown up Rudra. ...

The scene where Rudra, who has first buried himself under the blanket, as if to shut out the memories of the Mahakumbh at which he lost his Baba, suddenly surges forth and hugs his Maimuyi with frenzied force, his face buried in her shoulder and his eyes wet with tears of fear and desperation. He does not want to go to Allahabad, he does not want to go to the Mahakumbh, he will never leave her, he says over and over, the words tumbling over each other in his haste to get them out.

He clings to her not like a young man, but like a child who is afraid that he will be torn away from her and will lose the only support that he has left...

Catharine is pretty but nuts...She is slapped by thapadiya mata and yet smiles at her song..she is typical of those foreigners who are shown in our serials and movies...over friendly and curious ...but I have seen foreigners usually aloof and which they should be..

I too did not like mai's death scene...It lacked depth and sorry to say it was Seema who did not act well..there is too much raw violence in this serial and I feel a bit uncomfortable..

Thank you very much , my dear Yuri.

Yes, it has a lot of potential, and it is a very different kind of narrative, plus some excellent actors. Unfortunately, 2 of them are gone, and now we have only Gautam left, for the girl is passable at best. But there is too much violence shown, and some of the plot developments, like Maimuyi's murder in broad daylight, were ludicrous. Let us see how things shape up.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: yurimehta11

Awesome post Aunty You wrote everything I feel watching MK Its nice show it has potentisl to be included in best shows of Indian TV if they remove some flaws

Thank you so very much, my dear Jyothi. I know that my kind of writing is an acquired taste and not for everyone, so I am very pleased that you enjoyed this one so much.


Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: jyotic74

Superb post...really loved the description of the events and characters. ...