Folks,
While watching, and rewatching, Episode 3 of Yudh, what struck me was its resemblance to a witches' cauldron, and the Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble... that is the standard description of it in the fairy stories. The surface of the liquid in the cauldron seethes, bubbles surface from below, float for an instant, and then disappear again. Steam rises from the brew, no one knows whether it is poisonous or benign. No one knows either what lies beneath that seething surface.
So is it now in Yudh. Let us take the various strands one by one and see where we are with each, after our struggle to keep pace with the tight scripting and the even tighter editing. Thanks to the latter, scenes like the one of Anand in the jail trying to find out who had recently visited the three qaidis who blew up the hospital wing, end ambiguously. It is only from the next conversation, with Yudh congratulating him, that we gather what Anand has managed to dig out about them. Tracking such stuff is one of the minor pleasures of watching Yudh!
The Santa Claus mystery: One would logically assume that the chap who made the CD, now assumed by Yudh too to be a fake, and then passed it on to Mona, was either planted by Anuj Malik to trap Yudh into taking a step that would discredit him publicly, or that the chap had some axe to grind, some enmity of his own against Anuj.
As a matter of fact, it is the latter, but that emerges only thanks to the sketch of the Santa Claus and Anand's contacts within the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation). One wonders, however, how this innocuous Nikhil Pardesi figures in their database at all, given that it is only for crooks, not for honest citizens!
Next, after running this Nikhil down to earth, Yudh and Anand, though they now learn that the CD is not a fake, are still as far from a solution to their present problem as ever, for Nikhil will not divulge his reason for helping Yudh out twice, nor will he go public with his evidence against Anuj. After all, he did all this to sink Anuj, not to help Yudh.
The duo are thus still as far away as ever from finding the link between Anuj and Nikhil. When this link suddenly emerges, the way it is found is due to pure, blind luck. This is what is called serendipity.
And what is it? Not revenge, not greed, not rivalry. In fact, none of the usual suspects. Which is how life works.
It is something as old as the hills and as fresh as dew on the grass in the mornings. It is love. Illicit love, to be sure, between Anuj's wife Mamta and Nikhil, but love nevertheless. And now, with a baby on the way, Nikhil's keenness to get Anuj out of the way and in jail is acute.
As is Mamta's, and to achieve this, no treachery can be too risky for her. She has no sense of guilt about her liaison, and so her face, whe n she is greeted by the Municipal Commissioner when returning from a tryst with Nikhil at the Excalibur Club, is smooth and unruffled. Refreshingly unlike the guilty look on the face of erring wives in our standard TV fare!😉
It is this sense of urgency that makes Nikhil cave in when Yudh, looking like a figure of doom, arrives at this doorstep after having, thanks to Nayantara's artless prattle, stumbled on the key to the puzzle. And makes him hand over the camera with the incriminating footage, which, in another ironic twist, is actually Anuj's, obviously brought to Nikhil by Mamta. Delilah would have applauded her!😉
Incidentally, on the two occasions when Nikhil opens the door and finds Yudh there, the menace conveyed by the latter's body language, without a word having been spoken, is immense. Pure Amitabh Bachchan, in fact, just as in the explosive precap, where he sweeps things off the table in rage and roars, power radiating from him as it used to do in the old days.
The wages of sin: The perfect illustration of this would be Anuj Malik. He has no moral compunctions about the dead and the wounded in the hospital wing collapse if it means he can get his own back against Yudh. And the Municipal Commissioner, who was probably denied a bribe by Yudh at some point, eggs him on from the sidelines.
So what does Anuj Malik do? He sups with the devil, in short an underworld boss, and gets the explosives planted thru him. When, to his great surprise, the CD surfaces, he deals with that too by citing the fact that the 3 goons were all in jail at that time, and relaxes cheerfully with tea on the lawn.
But he does not understand that dealing with the underworld is like handling a do dhaari talwar. The underworld boss spews fire and brimstone at Anuj, who is clearly rattled at his nice scheme threatening to blow up in his face. So disturbed does he look that even the normally cocky Municipal Commissioner loses some of his smiling calm and looks worried. KK Menon handles that little vignette beautifully.
As Anand begins to probe the whereabouts of the 3 qaidis on the crucial night, it seems that either
Anuj, or the guilty police officer used by the underworld boss, panics, and has them all killed in a fake encounter. I would lean towards the latter option, for it is the police who would get to know of Anand's probing immediately.
This, and the revelation, thanks to Nikhil handing over Anuj's camera to Yudh, that the footage on the (now genuine) CD was in fact from Anuj's camera, must have made the underworld guy see red. For he would naturally have concluded that Anuj had himself had that recording made , to use against him later, as blackmail, to be able to use him in the future as well.
The wages of sin in this case are a bullet, that finds Anuj on his own doorstep. From the precap, it seems that he has indeed been murdered.
Pending wages:It remains to be seen, as we proceed, what the wages of sin will be for the Municipal Commissioner, who is not just corrupt, but brazen and arrogant in his corruption. Witness the taunting way in which he calls Yudh to alert him to the CD being declared fake, by the simple expedient of declaring that there was no way the 3 goons could have left the jail, where they were serving sentences for the last 4 years, to do what they were shown doing in the CD. For good measure, the Commissioner adds a parting shot about the power of big moneyed corporations like Shanti Constructions to manipulate things in their favour.
But I suspect that unlike in the case of the hotheaded Anuj, for the reptilian Municipal Commissioner, Nemesis (the Greek goddess of retribution) will take her time. But when she does get to him, the mills of God, as the Bible says, will grind exceeding small.
An innocent abroad: This would be Rishi, stranded in a highly uncomfortable environment with the new mining project of the Shanti Mining Company. He is a spoilt kid, fixated on his video games and his creature comforts, with neither the ambition nor the drive to succeed.
Still, his philosophical take on rights and ownership, as between the Naxalites and the machchar on the one hand, and the outsiders wanting to industrialise the region, in this case by extracting its natural wealth, on the other, is amazingly thoughtful and unexpectedly wise.
As is his impulsive foray, to the despair of his aide, into a game of cricket with the local kids, and his offer to equip a full cricket team for them. The young Naxalite woman watching this interlude between Rishi and the kids looks curious and amused, and I am sure this will play a role in Rishi's future as the in charge of the mining project.
I only hope the script neither over simplifies nor sentimentalizes the Naxalite issue, which is by now far from being a simple case of ruthless exploitation on the one hand, and helpless suffering on the other.
Old sins cast long shadows: This would be Gautam, Yudh's mentor, who now faces a long belated enquiry, headed by the Vigilance Officer Jeet, for some violation of the rules that he had committed decades ago.
That this enquiry is politically motivated is a given, and it would clearly never have been launched now but for the opportunity to drag Yudh too into the matter. This new blow, one more source of tension for the already beleaguered Yudh, was reminiscent of the way in which the US Internal Revenue Service was often used by Presidents like Richard Nixon to settle scores with their enemies. I am sure there must be any number of such examples from Europe and the UK as well.
We have to see how the personal angle, that Jeet is now the husband of Yudh's former lover Gauri, fits into this scenario as the series progresses.
Special vignettes:
- Another heartwarming scene between a chastened Yudh, now regretting that he overruled Anand and publicized the CD now declared fake, and an instantly supportive Anand. The very strong protective feelings Anand has towards his friend and boss came out clearly as he rushed to assure Yudh that what he had done to protect his mining project bid, and Rishi's future (how he reached this conclusion about a Rishi whose heart is anywhere but in that project is not clear, but let that pass!) was perfectly justifiable.
I doubt if Anand himself believed this, but the important thing for him at that moment was to keep Yudh from blaming himself and suffering from a loss of morale. For the same reason, he strives to convince him that the negative fallout from the CD scandal will be minimal. He also agrees with Yudh's ruling that even Dharmendra Malik cannot be trusted.
Altogether a very moving scene, though devoid of any overt sentimentality, which seems to be the standard in this serial. Wonderful!
- The Joker this time encouraging Yudh by stressing that inside him, as inside every human being, is ek geet, ek sur, ek taal, jo insaan ko raasta dikhaata hai, mazboot karta hai, as the one thing that can save him now. Yudh looks less stressed out after this piece of hopeful advice
- Yudh looking down at his wife Nayantara, recovering from an attack of high BP. He might not love her as he loved Gauri, but there is, in that long look, concern, caring, and a sense of belonging.
- Yudh not hesitating even an instant before deciding, once he learns about Nikhil's affair with Mamta, to blackmail him into helping Yudh turn the tables on Anuj Malik. This was the most natural thing for Yudh to do, given the very high stakes for him and his firm, and one cannot fault him in the least for resorting to blackmail. What he does not know is the fallout for Anuj Malik, thanks to his underworld links, of which Yudh knows nothing. But then what happened to Anuj was Nemesis at work!
- The revelation of the reason for Ranjan's grudge against Yudh . He believes Yudh could have saved him from the 11 year jail sentence, but chose not to do so. So he feels justified in filching a large amount of money from a drawer in Yudh-Nayantara's room. But he is not entirely devoid of familial attachments; he turns down a proposal from a criminal acquaintance of his to kidnap Rishi for ransom.
I expect this opportunity will be availed of by the Naxalites instead!
Question of the day: What was that mini scene of the underworld boss lurking near Nikhil's doorstep, only to disappear as Nikhil approaches his hiding place?
Shyamala B.Cowsik
NOTE: One request: if you liked my post , please mark it with a Like. This is a new forum and I would like to know who are those who like my posts and are my regular readers.
All things Korean
Current Affairs
