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SidT hired a very good set of actors for this show and even set up a decent back story for most of them. He spent millions on the sets and training, but the show has been hurt by poor writing. The CVs are to blame for this, not the actors or the characters. They have shown too many contradictory things.
Yes, I love Alexander. His character grew on me as I watched more episodes because of the actor's performance, but the fact is that when I first saw the promos I didn't really care about his side of the story. I didn't know the actor and I wasn't interested in the Macedonian tracks. To me they were the invaders, based on the promo. I only wanted to watch the show for Porus, to learn more about him and his journey and how he faced the mighty Alexander. It was ok initially, but then things just became confusing with the PR-Faras tracks. For me personally, that is the saddest part of my experience with this show. I am still quite disappointed because like many people, I want to be able to appreciate and enjoy the tracks and the journey of the titular character.
I still can't believe that over the course of time, I've come to only watch the show for Alexander. Sometimes I fast forward the PR tracks too if they drag. It's almost silly to watch a show in anticipation of the measly 2-3 minutes given to Alexander, who was never treated like a parallel lead despite the montage. If Alexander had been played by a less competent actor, I would have not been able to continue with the show.
Despite the wonderful scenes I've had the good fortune to watch Rohit perform, I will still regret the CVs' failure to capitalize on the potential of the PR track because I had huge expectations from that. The first few episodes with Anusuya and the PR-Taxila conflict had me hooked, but the CVs could not sustain it.
They should have had more interactions with Taxila, but those actors and the track disappeared after a point. Ambhiraj was always made out to be nothing more an out an out villain. Which is such a waste because he is a king who wants to focus only on Taxila and protect his people, his enmity with PR notwithstanding. Gurpreet is doing a really good job in portraying this shrewd king.
The actor playing Ambhikumar also had a lot of potential. They built up hype around the masked archer intiially but they didn't give him many scenes, until they came up with the Taxila chapter. I am actually quite enjoying the interactions between Alexander and the Ambhis. I will say for the nth time, that Ambhiraj is the only (currently living) consistent character on the show. I wish he had been utilized better because he has a good knack for statecraft. It is this very fact that Alexander is using against Taxila and that Ambhiraj is using against Alexander, which seems much more realistic. Chanakya not siding with them added a new dimension as well that could have been better explored.
Same thing with the Dasyus. We stopped seeing them on the show after a while, and that was another mistake. We know they are pirates, but what else? We didn't get any moving stories about them until Sumer died but even with that they didn't dig deep enough. Neither Sumer nor Laachi had proper tracks of their own independent of PR, and the CVs never bothered to flesh this out. That's why Sumer approaching Alexander to make an agreement seemed odd to most of us because it appeared to come out of the blue without a strong basis.
The reason that a lot of great sagas work well over hundreds of episodes is that characters, even small or supporting parts, are well written with a definitive arc and interwoven tracks. SidT had a great opportunity to do this, but sadly that never materialized. Shivdutt is another example of a character who had legitimate reasons for holding a grudge, but these were never explored or justified. Being the elder brother he didn't take power, but the reasons were never elaborated and his feelings of resentment were not expanded upon sufficiently. He just became a one-dimensional villain who everyone wanted to see dead. Instead, he could have been used for intrigue, suspense and for holding the puppet strings of other characters because he was smart enough to make some good political moves and tough decisions that Bamni failed to.
I loved Ripudaman's character and the actor playing that role was wonderful. They killed him off for no good reason. They should have kept him alive to continue to train Porus and maybe take on the role of advisor the king. They could have shown Porus' preference for Ripudaman over Bamni as his father (figure) with interesting philosophical and emotional conflicts.
Bamni is the only character I've liked on the PR side from day one because of the fact that he had always been presented as a king with a good heart who lacked the strength and foresight to be a fearless leader. He also showed much growth, learning to pay more attention to others around him, putting an end to injustice, and most of all, acknowledging his own shortcomings. After abdicating the throne, which was a very wise decision, he is doing his best to be a good father, husband, and warrior now.
Anusuya was presented to us as a warrior princess whose goodness worked against her. She ended up losing her child and her mental balance, roaming around PR for so many years. How does that even make sense? It is unbelievable that no one spotted her. Anyway, after she was reunited with Porus, I never saw her imparting her values to her son. We just assumed she taught him about patriotism. Save for a couple of incidents, she did not get to exhibit her warrior skills or teach Porus anything. You can assume it happened off-screen, but given the fact that the PR track gets 80% of the screen time this doesn't make sense. The writers just didn't create enough room for her character to grow.
Porus is still more of Ripudaman's son than anyone else. Speaking of which, we don't see Hasti's mother anymore. After all the grudges that she had against Porus, how does she feel about all the sacrifices she had to make over the years? She's the queen mother of Sindh but now she's disappeared, only to be seen in Dasyu flashbacks.
Porus should have had his own journey elaborated depicted on the show. How he comes to terms with being a king, moral and philosophical conflicts, dealing with other kings, learning statecraft, especially from Chanakya, training his army, and so on. But we got none of that! The writers have been inconsistent with this character. They needed to give him some tracks that were not related to Alexander that showed his growth, but none of that happened. The niyati/muqaddar angle forced a lot of situations that ruined several tracks for viewers.
Let's not even get started on how they dragged the Darius tracks and his over-involvement in the PR affairs, but at least his character had some depth. So did Barsine from time to time, but then she became a mouse for a while. Worst of all, her mother, the wife of Darius has not been given any screen space. They didn't even show her being introduced to the PR family when they were taken to the palace after being rescued by Porus. The Farsi royal ladies have been through a lot of turmoil, having lost their patriarch, king, independence, and home. Yet there's no insight into their lives and how they are feeling about the current situation, just a couple of lines thrown here and there.
Then there are things like: how does Alexander even get filmed with jewelry where the "gold" is fading away, or his hair is looking constantly unkempt, or some characters like Ambikumar have varying hair length in different episodes? Come on! These are the basics of production.
I can go on and on, but that's the gist of it. It's the writers who are to blame for all these missed opportunities, not the characters or the actors who are doing their best. When SidT/Swastik announced a 260-episode magnum opus, they should have ensured they had enough material for it. I think they did, but just failed to use it well. It shows a serious lack of planning.
Kumkum Bhagya
