Porus 140: The Murga Mystery

Meghna333

@Meghna333

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Posted: 7 years ago

Thank you for another post aunty! I was eager to watch Roxanna since Alexander was introduced, I am highly disappointed with her attitude towards Alexander. O never liked Barsine, but now I really want Alexander to marry her 🥱

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ananda29

@ananda29

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Posted: 7 years ago

#12

Ok ok ok Aunty...it is just that, after looking at the episode you seemed cross for whatever reason.

I too sometimes, nevertheless, I do enjoy reading your entertaining thoughts and sharp analysis and also the salient points raised by other viewers on this serial.

Besides, there are other questions in my mind with regard to Alexander's mission/motive.

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tahera vejlani

@taherav

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Posted: 7 years ago

#13

Originally posted by: sashashyam
My dear Ayesha, Inlieu, Taherav & Sweety,

I loved reading your delightful responses, and especially the very detailed takes by Ayesha and Inlieu.

I would have wanted to reply, to the extent that I could manage, to each of them. But I was not in very good shape today to start with, and I have, moreover, used up my fingers doing a post, as requested by Taherav, about Alexander's hair, eyes and the scent given off by his body😆😆😆, and then responding to Ananda29, which needed doing. By now, I cannot do any more today, my fingers are beginning to move sideways and cramp up. That is also why I have not made a single comment on any thread bar the hair and eyes one!😉

I have some points to add to the wealth of material that you have brought up, so I will do something tomorrow, as an omnibus response. I am very worried for Alexander. With such a wife, he has no need of enemies!😡 At least Rohit had a nice birthday. Now let us see what happens to his character!

Shyamala Aunty/Di

Take care Aunty! Your posts are worth the wait! 😃 Oh you have replied to my query regarding Alexander's physical appearance and body scent 😆..let me check it out!!

Kudos to Ayesha and Inlieu as well to be able to write such in depth analytical posts 👏...I could never do one of those 😔I guess I just don't have the patience and frame of mind to sort all my thoughts together...

Oh and Aunty about you getting excited to see one, live elephant at least at the end of the episode...loll don't get too excited because I think it was a CGI elephant 😛😆😆

Edited by taherav - 7 years ago

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InsaneDivine

@InsaneDivine

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Posted: 7 years ago

#14

The title of this post and this whole thread is so interesting and funny...

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sashashyam

@sashashyam

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Posted: 7 years ago

#15

My dear girls,

As I noted above, I have read all your posts with much interest, especially those of Ayesha and Inlieu. I have just been watching the Friday episode for the second time to clarify a few points for myself. I shall now put down those points, in no particular order, for you to consider.

1) Roxanne is, if not afraid, at least somewhat nervous of Olympias.

When Olympias says that she has heard that Roxanne refused a beautful gift from Alexander (that three strand pearl necklace is, for some odd reason, displayed in the royal tent, as if it was in a jeweller's window!😆), Roxanne looks decidedly uncomfortable and at a loss for an answer. She should have been left to stew in her own juice and try to find an appropriate response to her mother-in-law, for Olympias does not look as though she will let go without one. But Alexander, stupid chap, butts in at the crucial moment with his jibe about her nazar, and Roxanne is let off the hook. 😡

Though Olympias lets her down lightly this time, when she says that she hopes they will both soon speak with the same voice, she is looking only at Roxanne, and under the sweet surface, there is a hidden warning. I am waiting to see what Olympias does if Roxanne goes too far in baiting Alexander. She can be brutal, and she will be direct in her attack.

Morever, I am not sure Sony Olympias likes Sony Roxanne. She must have welcomed the marriage hoping that it would divert Alexander's mind from Bharat, but that has not happened. And now Roxanne is being snippish with the apple of Olympias' eye. She is bound to react adversely very soon.

2) Following from the above point, why had Olympias been brought to India by the CVs? They are scatter-brained, agreed, but not to such an extent. There is some plot point coming soon where her presence will be necessary. I can't even guess what that could be, unless it is to help Alexander handle this termagant he has committed the folly of marrying. Can you think of some reason?

3) I have been studying Roxanne's face closely to see if I was not being unfair to her: maybe she had a few expressions on show after all! 😆But nope. There was not a single new one. All through the murga scene, she looked exactly the same, and that was the same look that she had during the pearl necklace scene with Alexander the day before. Which is, in its way, quite an achievement!😉

4) Coming to Porus, he tells Chanakya and the rest that Alexander 's real aim in seeking an agreement with Takshashila is to get at him, Porus. Which probably leads to the scene in the precap where Chanakya is telling Alexander that Ambhiraj would be prepared to hand Porus over to him.

In the earlier part of the precap, Alexander is listening to Chanakya talk about the agreement with his head slightly on one side and a somewhat sceptical look on his face that reassured me.😉 But when the second half of the precap came up, and the handing over of Porus was mentioned, that sceptical look had disappeared, though there was no eagerness on Alexander's face. My spirits fell! Let us see what actually happens, for precaps are notoriously deceptive, often deliberately so.

But this is not my main point, which is this: how does Alexander know that Porus is in Takshashila? Secondly, does he know who Porus is, ie that he is the crown prince of Paurav Rashtra? I think not. So, Porus' assertion that Alexander's main aim is to get at him, Porus, and imprison him sees like kite flying.

Alexander might well, after Puru's shenanigans in Persia, really be as keen to get hold of Porus as he is to conquer Bharat. But that desire can have nothing to do with his dealings with Takshashila now, for he cannot know that Porus is near at hand in Takshashila.

5) Inlieu, kapti means crooked, full of kapat, ie deviousness. Now Porus asserts that Alexander will extend a hand of friendship (to Takshashila) and then stab (Ambhiraj, one presumes) in the back. I fails to see on what basis he makes this statement.

Far from stabbing anyone in the back, Alexander is fiercly hostile to such underhand dealings, whether within his own family (Olympias and Arrihdaeus) or involving outsiders (Bessus and Darius) . There is no reason for him to abandon this code of conduct when he is in Bharat. It is Chanakya and Porus who are planning a completely devious deal.

6) Again, Puru now tells Chanakya that Alexander's main weapon is not spears or swords, but fear. This is of course part of Alexander's tactics, as he notes after the sacking of Thebes. But to state, as Puru does, that he defeated the Persian empire thru this fear is nonsense.

Darius was defeated by Alexander's superior military strategy tactics at Issus and Gaugamela, and the latter was one of the most brilliant of Alexander's victories from the tactical point of view.

Moreover, while he is in Persia, Puru is struck by the 18 foot Macedonian sarissa, seeing it as a superb weapon, and by the light armour that makes the Macedonian troops more mobile than others. He did not then talk of the fear factor as Alexander's most effective weapon!

7) Finally, my dear Taherav, that is not a CGI elephant. It is a real one. CGI is expensive, and a real elephant can be hired for much less, I would imagine!

But the comic aspect of that snippet is that Puru seems to have got this brainwave just then, and he plans to stud his army with elephants as if war elephants could be bought off the shelf in a department store. 😆Training them takes time and effort, and any such overnight induction of untrained elephants into Porus' army would be a sure shot recipe for disaster.

Incidentally, the 10th century Chozha emperor Rajaraja Chozha (Chola) was an expert in training war elephants.

Shyamala Aunty/Di

PS: After watching this Chanakya in action, I must say that no one can beat Manish Wadhwa's magisterial Chanakya in the 2012-13 Chandragupta Maurya. He sets the gold standard for

Chanakya on screen.

Edited by sashashyam - 7 years ago

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luckySnow

@luckySnow

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Posted: 7 years ago

#16