NOTE: Edited to correct some errors detected after watching the episode again. Did I not say that it needed rewatching!😉
Folks,
After watching the first episode last night, I felt that Yudh, if it continues on these lines, is going to be even more demanding a watch than the best serial that I have seen on Indian TV so far, Yashraj's superb 2010 series on the international drug trade, Powder. For that was, at most levels, a relatively simple, if marvellously crafted cops and robbers story. This one is a complex morality play, and one has to listen very carefully to the spoken lines so as not to miss anything vital, for much is not shown, but only hinted at in the lines.
A magisterial Yudh: Amitabh Bachchan has done many films like this - Rann, Aarakshan, and so on, and Dibakar Banerji's Shanghai, though not his, was also in this genre. And then, for an actor of his stature and experience, this should be a cake walk, he can do it in his sleep!
Or almost. In the opening sequence, the way in which he handles his body, and checks the responses of each part as he is still struggling to wake up - it was like an MS powerpoint show in superb interpretation. Amitji is obviously enjoying himself.
The lesser lot: The side characters - and I would not slot Yudh's right hand man, Anand, in that category - are very promising, Just take that sleazy Ranjan, Yudh's wife Nayantara's brother. As the boy, Yudh's son Rishi (?), mentions to Anand, he has just been released after 11 years in jail. For what, one does not know, but I remembered Nayantara trying to peruade Yudh to meet him by asserting that he was now a reformed character- woh ab sudhar gaya hai! Some sudharna! The minute he is out and free, he heads straight back to his old haunts!
The part where that Ranjan is still vehemently claiming that shady joint as his property, till Anand informs him that if he continues to do so, the police will arrest him as the owner, was very funny, but also very subtle. Decidedly, Yudh is for a niche audience, not for the masses.
The other half: The key, but as yet missing element of Yudh's "family" Gauri - his other wife, or just his lover? - is yet to be shown. Yudh clearly does not live with her, but with Nayantara. And it is only recently that his daughter from Gauri has learnt about his being her father. Still, I have the feeling that the emotional core of the tale will lie there. Yudh's tremendous affection for his daughter - his eyes brim over with tears of both gladness and regret - hints at that. And Sarika, whom I last saw in Parzania, should have plenty to dig her teeth into as Gauri.
The Joker : The Joker motif is usually used to represent death, and here the Joker recurs at every street crossing as Yudh is driving away after the consultation where he learns how close to death he is.
It thus seems that the Joker is a manifestation of Yudh's state of mind at that time. It is also revealing that when he is looking for Tarini is the doomed hospital building, the Joker rushes past him again; so the death motif recurs with each appearance of his.
Yudh's doctor, incidentally, is a rare specimen in India; he speaks to Yudh about his condition with the brutal candour of a Western specialist, always wary of medical malpractice charges later!😉
Yudh's moral code: It was not at all clear, at least to me on one viewing - and Yudh is going to need repeat viewings if one is not to miss something crucial - why Yudh accepts what he is told, by an unknown man, about the impending collapse of the hospital, and rushes to tackle it on an emergency basis. He somehow realizes that it was not a practical joke, but how? It could just as easily have been a prank warning.
It was clear from his conversation with Tarini that the hospital was one of Yudh's earlier projects, whence his ringing declaration in the precap that he will not take any slur or stain on the name of his company. This is the only way in which a professional can reiterate his integrity and responsibility. The much younger Adiytaraj Merchant in Yashraj's 2011 Kismat reacted in exactly the same way in a similar situation. A strong, principled man does not hide or run away from trouble; he squares his shoulders and faces it.
What remains to be seen tonight is whether Anuj Malik, the truculent and vengeful son of Dharmendra Malik, is exposed for his role in bringing the MunicipalHospital Building down.
There are other future threads that are seen as yet only in glimpses, like Yudh's impending foray into mining, against which he is warned by his mentor (his father? Or his father-in-law?) . I loved the old gentleman's comparison of the risks in the construction sector - all above ground and visible - and in mining - all underground and not easy to decipher- besides the surface sar dard from NGOs, unions, politicos et al.
Not that this is going to halt Yudh, who very likely aims at cleaning the sector up. It was revealing that he had originally quit a career as a structural engineer because he could not tolerate the corruption in the construction industry,and it was his mentor who had told him that running away solved nothing, and to tackle a problem it was necessary to become involved in itl
His refrain, that he cannot stop working because there are 10000 people whose livelihood depends on his continuing to work is not just proof of his sense of responsibility towards those who work for him and depend on him. It is also confirmation of the fact that he has no capable successor who can take over if he is incapacitated. This is something that must be constantly preying on Yudh's mind, and making his life even more difficult.
Yudh is perfectly ready to cope with Malik's enmity if it means that the collapse of the weak flyover can be avoided and so many lives saved. It is not clear who finally leaked that piece of damning news about the defective flyover - Yudh says he did not do it, and he would not lie, but perhaps he had someone else leak it for him, for he is clearly relieved that the truth has come out before there was a major accident. There was a puckish streak of mischief in his face as he is speaking to Anand that was delightful to behold.
Yudh's personal moral code of what he will not tolerate - such as Malik trying his best to avoid any publicity for the weak flyover, regardless of how many die in its eventual collapse- are clearly going to be at heart of this tale of the clash to come between moral rectitude regardless of the consequences, and self-serving pragmatism. It is, as I said earlier, clearly going to be a morality play.
It will take us all of the first week to orient ourselves properly, and then it will, I feel, go swimmingly. Maybe they will succeed in training at least part of the Indian TV audience to like something other than saas bahu sagas after all!😉
The Trishul motif: Finally, as has been noted elsewhere in this forum, the name Shanti Constructions for Yudh's construction firm was obviously a nostalgic bow to Trishul, for there is no Shanti to be seen, at least so far, in this lot of characters! But as that was a 1979 film, I wonder how many of the younger lot of viewers would recognise the reference.
This apart, as was clear from The Making of Yudh, the serial has very likely been crafted as an affectionate tribute to the genius of Amitabh Bachchan by two ardent admirers of his, Anurag Kashyap and Shoorjit Sircar. What a piece of luck for us!
Wisecrack of the day: The Minister's pithy definition of a friend as one who, even when he has the opportunity, does not stab you in the back! The Minister (played by the avant garde director Tigmanshu Dhulia) seems sure to be as morally ambiguous and thus interesting as the tale itself.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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