Originally posted by: sashashyam
Mahakumbh 78: A contrary view
Folks,
I could as well have titled this In defence of MB, for that is what I felt like doing after watching an episode that had many here up in arms about MB's excessive violence towards not just Shivanand but also the other 3 garuds, her haughtiness in refusing to explain anything to her fellow garuds, and her generally dictatorial behaviour.In short, the consensus seemed to be that MB had flipped her lid.
I do not believe any such thing, nor would I accuse MB of excessive violence. Let us take the shindy in the library first. The whacks given to the 3 garuds in the library were straight out of the 1960s mythologicals, especially the blows with a (magic) staff, that used to have kids in whoops. 😉What was there so serious about that?
Yes, MB could have explained a bit more to the garuds, and perhaps even she seems to be falling prey to the TV soap mantra: never explain even the simplest things in time, and end up fomenting misunderstandings galore.
Rudra falls short: MB does try to explain her modus operandi to Rudra, but does not manage to carry conviction to him, partly because it is his father who is being thrashed so hard, and partly because Rudra turns out, in a crunch situation, to lack the samarpan towards his guru, and the faith, the vishwas, the shraddha, in the guru, that are the hallmarks of a good shishya.
As Shreya (sp108) has put it beautifully in a post on Arshi's latest thread,
Here is Bhairavi who gave you enlightenment, who made you see the true purpose in your life. She gave you punarjanma. Have faith in her. Without Shraddha or faith in the Guru, no one can reach a higher level of understanding. And why doesn't Rudra question himself - can he have more compassion than his Guru? No. Absolutely no. If Bhairavi is beating up Shivanand, it only reflects her compassion. But what kind of Shishya are you who can't see the compassion and concern of your Guru?
I agree with her cent per cent. But then Rudra has always been a weakling in the spirit, unable to think a thing out for himself, swayed by instant emotions, and always having to cling to someone else's mind in order to be able to formulate his own ideas. The sole exception to this rule was the bombs incident, but it now seems to be the exception that proves the rule. In this, he resembles the invariably mahaan TV soap bahus, except that he is the wrong gender! 😉So it not surprising that at crunch time, he is found wanting.
Instead, he is, as usual, facilely emotional, babbling about insaaniyat and how he cannot see anyone in pain. I begin to wonder why they ever made him the Garuda Pramukh. It is ironic that his first sally into insaaniyat is directed at a non-insaan, the naga mole Leela.😉
Sinister hint about Shivanand: Besides, so overwrought is he that he does not even grasp a key point in what MB told him, a point that struck me. If he had grasped the significance of her warning, it would have been crucial to his under standing of what is really going on.
This is about MB hissing at him not to discuss the Two Books in front of Shivanand, for then they would not be safe.
For that one instant, as Shivanand's face was shown in the gap between Rudra and MB, I spotted a fleeting look of sly satisfaction in his eye, as if someone else were looking out of his eyes and observing the MB-Rudra spat with malicious satisfaction.
The next instant it was gone, and I wondered if I had imagined it. But after factoring in MB's warning to Rudra, I am sure that I was correct. Even otherwise, Shivanand's weeping and moaning and yelling seem greatly overdone.
I now feel it was all a sham, and that Dansh's poison is slowly eviscerating the garud in Shivanand and replacing with a sinister substitute, a naga mole. I have not seen the latest promo, but I am told it hints at something like this.
If this is true, the blowback of Rudra's lack of faith in MB will be terrible, for then he will face an enemy in his own camp, his former Baba. It might then be almost too late. But only almost , as this is a fairy story, not real life!
The pitayi: But as for the beating Shiva got, it was nothing, but nothing compared to the way in which Dansh murdered Daadi, with intense relish, and then killed 2 gagged victims in cold blood just to addle Shiva's brains. Not many here were bothered with that truly sadistic violence, whereas MB's
pitayi seems to be raising a lot of hackles. I cannot comprehend this.
In fact, after the first shock to the viewer, it seemed to be straight out of the (invariably violent) Tom and Jerry cartoons. I was in stitches, and for two pins I would have given the relentlessly OTT Shivanand a couple of whacks with that
lathi myself, for boring me half to death😉 - though not on his head, poor thing! Here they are with just 42 episodes left, and almost 2/3 rds of an episode, spread over yesterday and today, has been devoted to a snivelling, weeping Shivanand!
Then again, we know that MB is acting for the good of the
garuds, which is a crucial factor.
Need for faith : I do agree that it looked very off-putting simply because the perpetrator was MB, the epitome of wisdom among the
garuds. But for that very reason, should we not avoid reacting like Rudra and condemning her out of hand?
Given that she is wise and all knowing - something that she has proved repeatedly in the recent past - and that but for her presence and her powers, the
garuds, beginning with Rudra,
would be in an even sorrier state than they are now, should not Rudra have had more faith in her? if she does seem to be thrashing his Baba with what looks like unacceptable harshness, should he not have tried to find out
why she is doing this?
It looked to me too strange that one can leach poison out of a person by beating him, but Shreya has pointed out that "when Bhairavi is beating up Shivanand, he tries to put all his strength to break the shackles. And that gives Bhairavi hope and she continues beating him up. It is the poison which has made him unaware of his powers. And Bhairavi is beating the bhoot/poison out of him".
Even without noting all this, Rudra, who owes his
punarjanma to her, should have never assumed that she is doing wrong. On the contrary, he should have taken it for granted that there
had to be a valid reason for what she was doing and he should have asked her what it was.
But he does nothing of the kind, and literally drives her away with a
Garud Pramukh ka aadesh. He will soon find out the consequences of his lack of faith.
Red carpet for the naga mole: Rudra then proceeds to commit his first new folly: accepting Leela into the
garuda fold, and ordering his fellow
garuds (minus MB) + Rao to forget who Leela is and where she has come from, but you can bet your bottom dollar that
she will not!
So I was right and Dansh has smuggled her into the
garud camp, after slapping her hard enough to draw blood and make it convincing for her to pose as a
shoshit abla naari, no,
shoshit abla naagin. Now there is a chap who knows what he wants and how to get it. The
garuds, headed by Rudra, know neither.😲
The Naga tunnel: Drish has started drilling in the Mahakumbh area, which reminded me of
Ocean's Thirteen and the tunnelling under the Las Vegas casinos. Well, we mock our scripts, but there, they mentioned specifically that they had brought the Chunnel tunnelling drill. Can you imagine that digging under a casino? The whole gaming floor would have collapsed first thing. But they were not at all bothered with that huge bloomer in the script!😉 Nor, it seems, were the audiences that made the film a hit!
Shyamala/Aunty/Di/Akka 
Udne Ki Aasha
Kumkum Bhagya
