My dear Arshi,
As neat as a pin, this one, with every single relevant point in place, and a nice compendium of the quotes of the day as a kind of bonus!👏 It was a cracker of an episode, I agree.
My two bits worth.
If one has to have a villain, he or she should be, well, villainous on a grand scale, not in the sleazy, downmarket style of khoye paaye Pandey. So I was pleased that Naanu Devesh not only trumped his son by sensing Maya's presence behind the curtain, but also handled her hackneyed, 1980s film heroine style declaration that she would reveal their asliyat to all and sundry (I gritted my teeth audibly when she trotted that out😡, nullifying the brownie points I had just then given for not dropping that thali with a resouding clang!😉) with admirable and telling aplomb. Without turning a hair or raising his voice, he spiked her guns completely. Baap to aakhir baap hota hai! They are dirty rotten scoundrels, the pair of them, but they belong to the upper echelons of crime and sin.
Yes, Maya was much better than usual, she is always good in her scenes with the inhaler, as you have noted too. In any case, I cannot improve on your crisp take on Maya last night!👏
I loved Daadi, who I am sure is going to be with us for a while yet. She is not a rakshak, I feel, but she is an original, and a delightful old lady, with very strong opinions of her own. Thus, I had some reservations about her blaming Shivanand for the disaster that befell their Panth and family, feeling that as a member of the family who were the guardians of the amrit, she should have put that mission first. But as often happens in this tale, her point of view has been explained last night.
As you have noted, she feels, and that is a perfectly valid point of view, that the healing powers of the Saraswati Kund, the garuda chinna on her husband and her grandson, these are all holy manifestations of the blessings of the Almighty, which should be accepted with becoming gratitude, not analysed as Shivanand was doing. It follows, for her, that what happened was the punishment meted out by the Almighty for such sacrilege. I do not agree, but one cannot really fault her either.
Of course she has no idea as yet that Rudra would put any bulldog to shame in sheer, fierce tenacity, and he intends to punish the killers of his beloved Maimuyi. Daadi will learn about all this soon enough.
Now the most significant revelation she made to Rudra was that the Saraswati Kund had dried up well before the 1989 attack by the 'Veshes on the Sri Sant Panth ashram. I had assumed that the drying up was after the attack, but now it clearly preceded the attack. A very intriguing point, that.
As for Rudra, apart from the relief of moving away from the OTT rage scenes at all, I love the intriguing, cunning, smoothly and unhesitatingly devious plotter we have now, which is indeed a seamless progression from his interactions with Maimuyi and his daadi. There is no point arguing about the rights and the wrongs of it, all is fair in love and war, and this is war.
Earlier, I was struck by the look on his face as he was watching the Naanu go off to do the pooja, accompanied by his somewhat dismayed son Balivesh. It was full of anticipatory satisfaction at what was to come, going by his plans. Like a tiger watching his next prey, prey that is all unaware of its fate.
Another such shot, which I had pointed out in an earlier post, was when Balivesh was telling him, in Naanu's underground lair, that Pandey would be in front of him within 72 hours. The eyes were bright and full of bloodthirsty anticipation. I could almost see the tiger licking its chops!
As for Katharine and her satellite phone pal, it is clear that she is not part of Prof. Rao's group, even clandestinely, for he is spying on her. That leaves only
(a) the Secret Society, that is to say, in Prayag, Greyerson, or
(b) if she is a rakshak, as seems to be widely surmised, maybe there is yet another group of "good" foreigners, the ones with whom, as daadi tells Rudra last night, Shivanand was in constant contact, who are seeking to bring the rakshaks to the Mahakumbh and brief them about their mission.,
(c) A third option would be a combo of these two, that Katharine is a mole, or double agent, for the second, good group, pretending to work for Greyerson and the Cardinal.
One thing is for sure, she is not what she seems to be. We have to wait and watch.
Shyamala
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