Folks,
I felt that this title would be appropriate since there were just 2 strands in the tale that stood out in the last week.
One, the Rudra-Maya love story, that blooms like a lush tropical flower even in the midst of the valley of death, and has by now been, deliberately, elevated to near mythical status.
And two, the approach of the storm that will herald the mahayuddh between the amrit and the vish, between jeevan and mrityu, with the fate of all mankind hanging in the balance.
Everything else was secondary, whether it was the restoration of Ganga to the heart of her family as Daadi's uttaradhikaari in the Brahma Nisth Panth, the Shivanand-Ganga punarmilan, Shivanand's desperate hunt for the First Book, the debacle with the Sri Santh Panth, with a faint divide appearing between Naanu and his son Balivesh, the revelation that even the powerful, confident Cardinal in faraway Poland was feeling shaky and insecure or, finally, the comic relief provided by the Punnu-Charles contest to decide who is closest to Rudra.
Le grand amour: So let me start with the first, the grand amour of Rudra and Maya. In French literature, the concept of a grand amour, or great love, is one where the two lovers are each a half of the whole, ie each the poorak of the other, who would be adhoora without this other half. And the two invariably know this from the very beginning, and this is what lies behind their desperate longing to be with each other.
Now, even the most die-hard romantics among you will agree that the Rudra-Maya relationship was nothing like this till a couple of weeks ago. I cannot remember when I last saw such a supposedly intense love story, manufactured, as the saying goes, from whole cloth. It looked and sounded as if we were being asked to believe that what was between the two was love, because Utkarsh had decreed that it should be so!
Maya's role exaggerated: My skepticism is not because of the time when Rudra half-strangled Maya, and the other time when he threatened her that if she did not leave him and Maimuyi alone, and did not stop talking of taking them to Allahabad, he would kill her. One could argue that extremes of both anger/hate and love are very close to each other, with a fine dividing line that is easily crossed at the right time.
It was more that when he came to Allahabad, Rudra was obsessed by the need to take revenge for the killings of Maimuyi and Udiya Baba, and he thought he would be able to do that at the Mahakumbh. Then he found his family, one by one, first Daadi, then his Baba and now his mother. Bar this last, Ganga, his being reunited wit the other two had nothing to do with Maya.
Despite this, Rudra tells his parents, when he is seeking their ratification of his decision, and Maya's, to get married: Jab hum adhure the, Maya ka saath humein apne parivaar tak le aaya. Ab Maya ko saath lekar, hum apna parivaar poora karna chahte hain. Nice, high-sounding, and romantic, but alas, far from accurate! And in the meantime, he has clearly forgotten all about taking revenge for the murders of Maimuyi and Udiya Baba.
By the way, I wonder if Rudra has any idea of who actually poisoned Maya, and whether he thinks that the 'Veshes were guilty of that too.
Rank ingratitude: Then again Rudra tells Maya, in her hospital room, that he feels complete only because she has come into his life. Ok, let this pass. But he goes further and deliberately downgrades his bond with Maimuyi in order to elevate the one he has now with Maya.
Bachpan se hum akele the. Maimuyi, Udiya Baba the hamare saath, phir bhi lagta tha ki hum akele hain. Bahut pyar mila unse, par phir bhi lagta tha ki hamari zindagi adhoori hai.. Par tumhein paakar lagta hai ki hamari zindagi ab poori hai. Na wo ajeeb khalipan hai, na wo akele hone ka ehsaas.
To my mind, this smacks of rank ingratitude, to even compare a mother figure who loved him more than even his real mother could have done, who protected him fiercely from the whole world, who lived only for him for all those 24 years, with a new found love that is barely weeks old, and then find the former wanting.
This in a country where the mother is ranked higher even than God! It was distinctly unappealing, and what is more, totally unnecessary. Why could Rudra not have simply said that he loves Maya beyond anything else, without bringing Maimuyi into it and ranking her lower in his life than Maya?
And what of the rest of his family - his Daadi, his Baba, his mother? Did he not feel whole and no longer alone after getting them back? There is not a word about them, as Rudra keeps his focus on Maya and Maya alone.
Unconvincing and overdone: Besides, given the Rudra-Maya back story, it all looked and sounded very odd, for all that Gautam brought out his best languishing-in-love looks, with his soft, melting eyes and his tender, indulgent smile, and Payal strove mightily, with tired eyes and a fading voice and endless sidelong glances like a dying duck , to keep pace. . Pity she was not given a gasping for breath scene, which is her forte, and this despite all that hay around! 😉
The problem was that despite the ladlefuls of treacle liberally poured over the whole - Charles and Punnu like a kind of comical Greek chorus to cheer Maya up, Daadi proclaiming, to much wiping of eyes, that till the the wedding,which should be celebrated khushi khushi, was over, no one would shed a tear (our resident watering pot, Ganga, looked positively alarmed on hearing this😉), the filmy banter about the wedding preparations, and lastly Rudra managing, God knows how, to fulfil every last one of Maya's kwahishein - I at least simply could not connect with any of it, though Sooraj Barjatya would have applauded with all his heart!
Three standout moments: A correction. There were three passages, amidst all this mush, that I loved.
One, Rudra's refusal to despair, his serene face and calm-eyed conviction that he could and would prevail even against death. As when he comforts his mother: Tu chinta mat kar. Hum Maya ko kucch nahin hone denge. As she listens to him, Daadi's eyes light up with pride in her grandson, and also a renewed hope.
Two, the soft side of Shivanand, the pride of a doting father in his son, which is revealed as he says, with swelling pride: Ek samay tha jab tumhein kandhe par bithate the, taki oonchayi se tum door tak dekh sako. Ab humein dikh raha hai ki tum hum sabse kitne oonche ho gaye ho! And as he looks over Rudra's shoulder at Maya, his whole face lights up with a beatific smile of pure joy. A smile of instant, warm acceptance, of her, and of the love that has made her part of their family.
Three, Daadi's ramrod straight stance, her unbending dignity and her unshaken courage even as she sees her hopes for the future collapsing about her. Not for her Ganga's endless weeping, and lamentations about how Rudra would take it.
She is of a doughtier breed, is the old lady, and this was clear once again later, when she says Dukh aur dard to sabke jeevan mein hota hai. Lekin us dukh ki vedana ko hum hanskar jeeyein ya ro ro kar, yeh hamare haath mein hota hai, and asks everyone there to rejoice in the happy event and not to wail and weep. And as she says this, her voice dims and catches in her throat in a suppressed sob. Surekha Sikri's Daadi is always superb, but this time she surpassed herself.
She also has a sense of fairness, and the gift of gratitude.When she walked up to Dr. Rao in the hospital, and thanked him for all that he was doing, hamari aapsi matbhedon ko bhoolkar, for hamari bachchi, I almost stood up and applauded
And then there were some very beautiful lines that Rudra utters to, whom else, Maya.
Jab bhi tumhein dekhte hain to lagta hai ki maano phir se tumse pyaar ho jai.
Ghar wo hota hai jahan se hum nikalte hain, wo jahan humein pahuncha hai.. Ghar yani parivaar. Ghar yani tum..Tum hamara ghar ho, Maya. Aaj hamari har khushi, zindagi jeene ki har wajah, tum se hi shuru hokar tum par hi khatam ho jaati hai.
Saansein to hum sab ki gini chuni hain, Maya, par khushiyaan to anginat ho sakti hain na? Isliya aaj se saansein mat ginna, bas jiyo!
Ab na kisi soch ka bojh hai na karmon ki chinta. Sirf hum donon.
Shakespeare would have developed an inferiority complex faced with such lavish paeans to a grand passion!
But it is Gautam's Rudra who manages to infuse these lines not just with sincerity, but with deeply felt emotion. With his belief in a love that can go beyond time and space and yet remain true to itself. The infinite gentleness in his eyes and his touch, the caring, the protectiveness, and above all the confidence that he seeks to infuse in Maya, confidence that no matter what, they will never be separated, all this reaches out not just to Maya but to the viewers as well. And even hardboiled sceptics like me were almost convinced that this is indeed an amar prem kahani. Almost, but not quite. If he had had more effective support, I might have been fully convinced!
Dickensian death throes that weren't: To revert, one credibility issue was that despite Shivanand's affirmation that the poison, whose effects resembled the Linchi (??) syndrome, would produce a slow and painful death, there was not even a twinge of pain on Maya's face as she did the blushing bride act in full. Weariness, yes, but pain no, not even shortness of breath, not to speak of messy things like vomiting blood. She was talking and smiling and walking around, not to speak of the boat ride, where she merely subsided gracefully into Rudra's arms. This is decidedly not the way a dying person behaves.
It is a bit thick to expect us to swallow a poison that allows the victim to do all this, despite the ominous talk of rapid and extensive blood clotting, before collapsing picturesquely during the saat phere. Probably the naga vish too was adulterated, this being not 1869 but 2015!😉
The man-marrying-his-dying-love track has been done to death in books and in films, but the dying there was neither so sanitized nor so conveniently timed. The Solitary Reaper was never before so considerate as he is to Maya!😉
This prolonged passing away of Maya was in fact straight out of Dickens, like the death of his young heroine, Nell, in The Old Curiosity Shop. In those days, the ships carrying magazines from England with the latest chapters of this novel used to be received by anxious crowds at the American ports, and when his "dear, gentle sweet Nell" died, it was said that all of America wept.
It is going to be something like that with the Mahakumbh viewers come Monday. I do not cry, but I shall preserve a respectful silence and await her resurrection!😉
Mythic status & a resurrection: The Rudra-Maya prem has by now been, willy nilly, elevated to the status of the mythic tales of all encompassing love, those of Laila-Majnun, Shirin-Farhad, Heer-Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal, or, if you want to go abroad, Romeo- Juliet. Except that all of these end in tragedy, with the lovers being united in death.
But, judging from a barrage of hints - Rudra's solemn pronouncement Chahe humein jo bhi karna pade, is bar hum maut ko bhi haraakar rahenge!, Maya herself affirming that Jab tak tum humein jaane ke liye nahin kahoge, hum kahin nahin jayenge.., and Shivanand's remark to Rao about the extent of Rudra's powers and that Is bar usne Maya ke liye mrityu se ladne ka nirnay le liya hai.. - this will not be the case here.
Shivanand might intone, in the Thursday night precap, Rudra, Maya ab nahin rahi.. but we can be sure that our boy wonder will do a gender reversal of the Savitri-Satyavan story, and drag his Maya back from the very gates of Yamalok.
There is a lot of supplementary evidence for this, apart from the quotations above . For one thing, to fit in with the leit motif of our tale, the parallel with the samudramanthan, before the amrit emerges, there has to be the deadly vish, and it is Rudra Shiva who has to deal with it by absorbing it himself. As the Neelkanth, obviously, and Shubha has tied this up with the blue colour of the naga vish.
But the clincher, cited by Shruthi, is (the astral) Maimuyi's offhand objection, when Rudra wants to go away with her, that Rudra has to deal with the poison threatening the world by becoming Neelkanth. Her garudastra vs nagastra angle too fits in perfectly here, since Rudra is also Garuda No.1. Talk of multitasking! The Tridev would be really impressed!!😉
For all eventualities, folks, I have sent a box of e-tissues to Shruthi, and have more ready for anyone else needing them😉. As for me, as noted above, I am not going to go all weepy come Monday, when Maya collapses artistically during the wedding. I am waiting for all this senti stuff to be disposed off, so that we can get back to the nitty gritty, viz the second part of my title, The Gathering Storm.
The Dark Forces massing: No one could put it more convincingly and ominously than Shivanand when he tells DM Tiwari: Ek bahut bade toofan ki aashanka hai..Manon amrit aur vish ka sangarsh ab jeevan aur mrityu ke beech ka antim mahayuddh ban jayega..Samay aa gaya hai..ab Rudra hi rakshak hai is Mahakumbh ka.
This last week, however, it was brought home to us that though Rudra might be the eventual Saviour, it is Shivanand, a true karmayogi, who is the real merudand of the garudas.
With his deep knowledge of the old lore that tells him that the First Book, which is with Greyerson, is vital for the full understanding of the gyaan in the Second Book that he has. With the practical knowledge of arcane matters like the Rithambara pragnya, that provides the explanation for Thappadiya Mai's very special gift, and of why it will be vitally important for the garudas in the end game.
With his karmayogi's striving for detachment from anything that would distract him from his goal - be it his much loved Ganga's pleadings or the crisis now affecting Rudra's life.
And above all with his laser sharp mind that can see the Why? of all that is happening to them, and analyse it clearly no matter how scary it is.
It is Shivanand who understands the reason why the poison attack, that too with a vish chosen for inflicting a slow and painful death, was not made on any one of their family, but on Maya. It is he who explains to Rao that it was clearly meant not only to spread aatank among them, but Rudra ko todne ke liye. Whence his anguished refrain, mostly to himself: Maya ko khone ka dard Rudra jhel nahin payega.. Wo toot jayega..
The interesting thing here is that unlike Greyerson, who has the First Book, Shivanand does not know the prophecy that two of the garudas will be emotionally weak and can thus be neutralized. But he grasps, on his own, that what the dark forces want is to cripple Rudra's resolve.
Appalling lack of security:Incidentally, both Rao and Tiwari seem to walk in and out of Shivanand's underground hideaway as if they were taking a walk in the park. And he invariably has his back turned to the staircase, and seems to have no inkling that anyone is standing behind him until he is addressed. Such a lack of security consciousness is appalling😡, and it would serve Shivanand right if he turned one fine day to find that it was Balivesh or Greyerson who was standing there! Surely there could be some camouflage of the opening, if nothing else, and an alert mechanism that would go off once anyone comes to the head of the stairs?
The arrival of the nagas : Another ominous conclusion that Shivanand is forced to draw: Agar yeh vish Mahakumbh pahunch gaya hai to naag bhi Mahakumbh pahunch gaye honge.. as desperate as the garudas get at the amrit at this Mahakumbh for which they had been waiting for so many, many years. Rao , the most knowledgeable of the White Clan after Shivanand, ties this in immediately not only with the poisoning of Maya, but with the re-use of an unknown poison that had been used once before, exactly 144 years ago at the 1869 special Mahakumbh. How he unearths these ancient records is another mystery.
Incidentally, 1869 was also the year Mahatma Gandhi was born. .
The scene of Rao arranging for the secret analysis of Maya's blood samples thru the CFSL (the Central Forensics Sciences Laboratory) without letting the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), the CFSL's boss, into the loop, was excellent. Tiwari's calm competence, and his total samarpan to what his guru wants of him, were admirable. This is true faith, which asks no questions once it is convinced of the essential dharma of a person or a project.
Mr.Blue Eyes: The blue-eyed naga, togged out like Mr. X in a dark trenchcoat and a hoodie (tailormade for making him stand out in the crowd instead of merging into it😉), was suitably sinister, but how could he be sure of finding the general ward section so deserted throughout the time he was there in Maya's separate cubicle?
NB: This separate cubicle, necessary for the plot, is another mystery, for when Rudra is sent by the doctor to get the medicines, Maya was not in a separate cubicle, but in the general ward section with many other patients all around. But when Mr. Blue Eyes turns up, she is quite separate from the rest. Clearly a continuity glitch.
Also, why does Rudra have to understand the prescription? It is surely for the chemist to do so. This is merely a device to get Rudra back to Maya almost in time to catch the killer, and set the scene for another long, and of course unsuccessful chase. I was disappointed about that, having set my heart on having Rudra wrestle with the naga! ________________________________________________________________________
To revert, once the killer has completed his blue poison injection, why does he hang around for so long, thus almost ensuring that he collides with Rudra on his way out? It could not be for checking the readings of the monitors to ensure that Maya is sinking, for the blood pressure one shows a perfect 120/80 throughout!😉
The Dark Clan: Confusion abounding: Now let us think this thru logically. The Dark Forces have 3 components: the saptanagas, the Secret Society, at present represented by Greyerson, and the Sri Santh Panth of the Veshes, now one short.
The Veshes: They know about the nagas from their Guru Maharaj, and Greyerson knows about this from them. But we have not yet been shown either any joint planning between the nagas and the Veshes, perhaps thru their Guru, or any similar co-ordination between Greyerson-Katharine and Balivesh-Naanu.
The last precap is very confusing on this point, with Balivesh's ambiguous response to Katharine's anguished protest about Maya's killing not having been part of "the plan": Yeh Mahakumbh hai, Miss Katharine, yahan karodon ki bheed mein apne ajnabhiyon ke beech kho jaate hain!
I have looked at the four frames of that snippet carefully, and the backgrounds, for the two shots of Katharine and the two shots of Balivesh, are unchanged. Since the 4 frames alternate between the two, it seems that what is shown is a single conversation between them, and not slices from the salami that a Mahakumbh precap usually consists of. 😉
So what "plan" is Katharine talking about, given that as far as we know, the poisoning of Maya was a purely naga operation? Of course, it might have been a bit of phenkna by Balivesh, like Naanu claiming the 'credit' for Udiya Baba's death in his retort to Maya's threat to expose them all to Rudra.
But if not, it would mean that he was already in touch with the nagas and he had got Maya poisoned. After all, the naga connection came thru Guru Maharaj, and it might have moved further by now. But if so, why would Balivesh wantonly jettison the trump card Naanu wants him to secure at the earliest for controlling Rudra?
Incidentally, where, I wonder, is Guru Maharaj?
The Secret Society: There seems to be a lot of uthal puthal there, and I am not referring to Greyerson having been reduced to a limp wreck by Shivanand, with his minimal but brutally effective use of force in a splendid, entirely satisfying set to.
The Cardinal's message to Greyerson was intended not only to take him down a few pegs and puncture his sense of self-satisfaction (largely defensive, for Greyerson is really afraid of his Boss), but also to hint at two major developments. One, that tumhare jaane ke baad, yahan bahut kucch badal gaya hai. Does this mean, as Arijit speculated, that there is now dissension within the SS Board on how to handle the ongoing effort to get at the amrit? Two, Mahakumbh mein bahut kucch ho raha hai jiska tumhein koyi andaaza nahin hai. Does this refer to the nagas, and if not, to what exactly?
The Cardinal's repeated assertion that it is not safe for him to talk over the phone seems to imply that he too proposes to join this three ring circus at the Mahakumbh very soon. He will, if nothing else, add some patrician elegance to the present set up!😉
No sense of urgency: The question of where Greyerson has hidden the First Book remains. It seems highly unlikely that Greyerson would have entrusted it to the Veshes. Shivanand does not have much time to get hold of it.
In fact, those concerned in the White Clan seem curiously unaffected by any great sense of urgency. Even the 7 garudas have not been lined up as yet - the latest, delightful spoiler that it will be Maimuyi notwithstanding - and as for briefing them about the nature and extent of the threat to mankind and getting them to act as a unit, that is another and more daunting task.
It seems pretty much the same on the other side. The discordant working of two of the three component forces has been discussed above, and as for the nagas, the most dangerous of the three, they are still a big question mark.
Immediate prospects: As we approach the end of Season 1, ideally, the White Clan and the Dark Clan should both be battle ready. Right now, this seems to be asking for a bit too much.
It seems likely that after Maya's anticipated resurrection, Rudra would shed his present reluctance to join his father's crusade, and bring Charles in his wake. With this, and the revelation of Maimuyi as the Seventh Garuda, the White Clan would at long last be complete. But it seems unlikely that a similar exercise could be completed for their enemies, and nothing much more might happen on that side, bar some revelations about the naga descent on the Mahakumbh.
The real masala, and all the action, would then be reserved for Season 2. Which I hope will not be delayed too long, for that carries the risk that a good chunk of the current viewership, unhappily none too large, might vanish because they might all have forgotten the story!
Take 3:
1) Shiva-Ganga: I loved the sheer range of emotional nuances that Shivanand brought to his punarmilan with Ganga.
First, incredulity. He can scarce believe his eyes when he sights her. Then, as realization sinks in and he walks slowly towards her, his face softens and his eyes hold the hint of a half smile. It is when he raises her and wipes away her tears that real joy surfaces. As she asks Ghar chalein? , and he nods his assent, and later when she brings out the sindoor ki dibbi, there is indulgent affection in his eyes.
As he is embracing her, there is a sense of utter peace and smiling contentment on his face never seen before, not even when he sees Rudra after 24 years; then his reaction was far more turbulent. He clearly loves his wife, and his protectiveness towards her showed when, after Maya's condition is revealed, he goes first to Ganga to comfort her.
He is bubbling with unaccustomed optimism after getting her back in his life: Aaj main aur kucch bhi maangta to shayad mil jaata! This persists as he smilingly listens to the preamble to her request, and it is only when she gets to it that wariness surfaces.
No, he is not going to give Ganga what she wants. For one thing, he thinks that his mother (what is her name, by the way? I still do not know it!) is using Ganga as a ventriloquist's dummy, and he is right.
Finally, there is the questioning look with which he gently pulls down her folded hands, the curious expression in the closing shot, concerned and perhaps even a little amused.
All in all, a magisterial display of the actor's craft.
As for Ganga, she was sweet but standard issue, as she has been to date. Shruti Ulfat is undoubtedly experienced and competent, and she looks charming. But she has done little till now except cry, something that she does assiduously and ceaselessly.
I had hopes that Ganga would bring Shivanand the emotional support and affection that he lacks so badly. But it seems that she is not going to do any such thing.
I was disappointed that she did not even think of asking her husband, as she did at once with her son, what had happened to him in all this while, not to speak of what he was engaged with right now. She seems to me to be playing the school head girl to Daadi's headmistress!😉
I hope this is not going to continue, for that will reduce Ganga to a cardboard cutout. Surekha Sikri's Daadi might make me grit my teeth quite often, but her face and eyes speak volumes and she is always compelling viewing. This Ganga seems straight out of a typical saas-bahu serial, the only novelty being that here both the saas and the bahu are against the beta/pati!😉 The way in which the two of them commiserate with each other about his "delinquent" ways was exasperating!
2)Daadi at the Sri Santh Panth: Here, what struck me the most was Balivesh's escalating folly in not cashing in on Daadi's unbelievable offer to hand over the Saraswati Kund to the Sri Santh Panth. 😉
I was ready to burst a bloodvessel over that😡, seeing all the hungama she had been making earlier over the Rao-Shiva anusandhan in the Saraswati Kund making that pavitra sthal apavitra. Presumably she thought Balivesh & Co, would have tins of Rin or New Improved Wheel to cleanse themselves of their accumulated sins first before setting foot in the Kund!😉
Be that as it may, Niyati saved Daadi from the consequences of her own folly, with Balivesh's endemic foot in the mouth disease, in Naanu's absence, giving Shivanand the perfect opening to scotch the disastrous proposal. Wonder of wonders, Daadi did not shush him and make a repeat offer, but allowed herself to be gently led away. I was in a state of shock for a full five minutes after seeing that!!😉
3) Shiva-Tiwari: First, after Tiwari had informed Shiva about the high security alert due to the sighting of suspicious and unidentified persons at the Mahakumbh, there was the empathy in his voice and words as he went on : Yeh samay aapke liye bahut kathin hai, par himmat rakhiye. Aap hi hain jo Rudra aur aapke poore parivaar ka sahara ban sakte hain.
It was a heartwarming display of understanding and caring from a comrade in arms towards the man who has , till now, received very little of either from his own family or even a friend like Sahadev Malla.
Then there was Shivanand, the introvert, opening up for once, and revealing his innermost thoughts, his core dilemma, for the first time to someone whom he has got to know only recently. Yahi to vidambana hai. Ek or hamare bete aur parivaar ka dukh hai, to doosri or Mahakumbh mein karodon logon par mandarata nagon ka khatra.
It is a dilemma that he would never reveal to Rudra, fearing that it would weaken Rudra's already faint resolve to join in the crusade to protect the amrit. And no one else, neither his sanctimonious mother, nor his unimaginative wife, either knows or cares how he suffers because of these clashing pulls on him.
But here is this near stranger, and fellow crusader, who will understand. Who will not condemn Shiva when he, as he must, chooses the greater good of all of humanity over the needs of his family. For he would, in Shiva's place, have done exactly the same thing.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Indian Mythology
Hindi TV Shows
