Folks,
The best in Mahakumbh very often comes at the very end, and so it was this last week.
Rudra, Tiwari and Charles have drawn a temporary blank in their campaign to locate the nagas and rescue Shivanand. They are left with a discarded snake kainchuli deliberately left there by Dansh to confuse them. His stratagem works for the latter two, but not for Rudra. When Tiwari wants to move on, Rudra stops him, his gaze focussed in the far distance, or perhaps inside himself.
The naga hideout swims first into his ken, with a drooping Shivanand all trussed up. His antar chakshu scans the whole of the lair, and then it moves on. Now it is the Mahakumbh it sees, and the three nagas carrying the bombs and placing them in Sectors 7, 16, and lastly, 34, right on the Ganga banks at the Sangam.
He tells the others of this, and Tiwari at once orders his subordinates at the Mahakumbh site to evacuate all these 3 sectors. And Rudra starts moving fast, not towards the naga hideout, but back towards the Mahakumbh.
Both Charles and Tiwari protest at once: Tumhare Baba? - Shivanand ki jaan khatre mein hai aur der nahin karni chahiye. The protests continue even after Rudra points out that at the Mahakumbh, lakhon ki jaan khatre mein hai, aur hum aur der nahin kar sakte. Not even after he asserts, with perfect justification, that Agar Baba se poochte to wo bhi yahi kehte ki unse pehle humein Mahakumbh ki raksha karni chahiye.
Tiwari still demurs: Mahakumbh mein forces ko inform kar diya hai , aur ab tum Shivanand... Seeing the way Tiwari's forces were overwhelmed by the potentially murderous stampede at the time of the panchasvi snan, he has high hopes now!😲 That too in a situation that would be infinitely more dangerous, involving, as it does, 3 large sectors, and one of them at the Sangam itself. This is not to blame the Mahakumbh police or the volunteers, who do a magnificent job all thru the event, but merely to point out the impossibility of such an instant mass evacuation without massive casualties.
It is then that Rudra asserts himself, and in no uncertain manner. He turns to face the other two, and his voice gains vazan and authority. The normally gentle tone is now sharp, like a whiplash, and it demands instant and unquestioning obedience.
Is samay aapke saamne Rudra nahin, Garuda Pramukh khada hai, jiska faisla yeh hai ki humein kisi bhi keemat par visphot hone se rokna hai..
His eyes, narrowed, look far away to a distant horizon where there are things only he can see. His face is taut but not tense, he seems in a way assured, clear in his own mind as to what he has to do.
Coming of age: Rudra the Garuda Pramukh, their mukhya yoddha, Mahakumbh ka Maharakshak has, finally, come of age.
He has finally understood the truth of his father's mool mantra: Parivaaron ke rakshak hote hain.. Rakshak ka koyi parivaar nahin hota, and so when the chips are down, he can make his choice without either doubt or hesitation .
We are thus no longer surprised when, even as Charles is saying fatalistically, Zinda rahe to phir milte hain! , Rudra he tells his two fellow garuds : Visphot nahin hona chahiye bas! Hum sab ko zinda wapas aana hai.
No ifs and buts and maybes about it; they have to stop the explosions from taking place (whereas Tiwari would have been content with the shaky prospect of preventing or at least minimizing the casualities), and they have all to come out of this alive. It is as if Rudra is projecting his own inner confidence, and his certitude that they will prevail, into the other two, willing them to do all that he needs of them, without hesitation and without the least fear of failure.
Of such right stuff are leaders made, and Rudra the Maharakshak has found himself just in the nick of time.
Dansh may sneer about the 4th box being a gift from him to Rudra. He might pooh pooh his Guru's warning : Wo (ie MB, for whom Drish seems to have a very healthy respect and even fear!) uske saath hai, uski taaqat kitni bad gayi hai, uska andaaza bhi nahin hai tumhein.. with a contemptuous repartee: Use bhi kahan andaaza hai meri taaqat ka?
That he, Dansh will decimate all those whom Rudra seeks to protect, so that Akela hi khada rahega.. Apni hi raksha mein laga rahega.. He might boast of his game plan: Use aisi paristhitiyon mein dalo ki wo apni poori taaqat laga de..Rudra ka mujhe saalon se intezaar tha.. Kasauti par kaskar dekhna yeh hai ki wo kis laayak hai..
All of which only betrays an inner insecurity, a gnawing sense of unease, that eats away at him from inside. And rightly so, for in the end, it is Rudra, the compassionate protector, who will prevail.
Rudra's inner growth: While the above scene marked the finale, so to speak, of Rudra reaching the full stature of the Garuda Pramukh, there were already, after his metamorphosis of the week before, a number of indications that this was on the way.
Clear about their goal: Rudra had clearly lost all his uncertain, fumbling, melancholic ways, for all that the dangers facing them have only got worse. He is now confident, farseeing, tactically shrewd, decisive, and very forceful in formulating their end goal, the very thought of which used to put him off in bygone days.
Naagon se amrit kalash ki raksha karna hum garudon ki niyati hai..Hum saat garud milke chalenge to naagon ko paatal se bhi dhoond nikalenge (which might be more than just a rhetorical flourish, seeing that Dansh talks of his chemical bombs being filled with pataal lok ka sab se zehreela zeher!).. Once Shivanand has been rescued from the nagas - and Rudra has not the slightest doubt that he will be able to achieve this - Hum saathon garud phir se milkar naagon ke khatre ko hamesha ke liye mita denge.. Naagon ko Mahakubh ki dharti ki dhool chatwaani hai..
The contrast between Rudra - who, even after having had so many of his dear ones murdered by Dansh and his cohorts, only wants to teach the naagas a lesson and to keep the amrit away from then - and the vicious murderousness of Dansh - who is prepared to kill untold millions of innocents only to show Rudra up as an inadequate Garuda Pramukh and thus boost his own ego as the Naga Pramukh - could not be more searing. It is probably meant to keep the colours of the two, the main protagonist and the main antagonist, not just distinct but very sharp and devoid of any shades: dazzling white and pitch black.
Knowing the enemy : Rudra was getting to be good at this. Once he has managed, thanks to his new powers that lead him to the secrets of Shivanand's garud locator, to pinpoint the place where his Baba is being held prisoner, he realises that he has to move fast. Naag banjaron ki tarah hote hain, ek jagah tikte nahin.. Humein jald se jald wahan pahunchna chahiye.. And then Naag jahan bhi jaate hain, unki kainchuli se nishaan chhod jaate hain..yeh unke liye shraap, humare liye vardaan hai..
He notes MB's valid warning that the very fact that he was able to spot the location of the nagas might well be a chal on their part, but he is the leader and he has to act. If he were to be bogged down in suspicions, no matter that they might be justified, and does not follow up the lead he has now got, he might never get anywhere. A leader weighs up his options and then chooses one, which is what Rudra does now. All that weighs with him at the moment: Baba ko chudana hai..
Enthusing the troops: He has also become a very effective motivator of his fellow garuds. Once MB has done with identifying the locations of each of the 7 in the composite figure in her painting*, and notes, finally, Garudon mein alag alag shaktiyaan hain; sheegra apni apni shaktiyon ka aabhaas ho jayega.., Rudra begins his pitch to the troops.
Ab bheeshan sankat aata hai, tab us se ladne ke liye ek vishesh vyavasta janam leti hai. Hum sab aisi hi ek vishesh vyavasta hain. Then the absolute need for unity: Ek bhi garud saath nahin hua to hum kamzor pad sakte hain. Isiliye hum sab ko ek ek ki shaktiyon ke saath ek hokar apne lakshya ki or aage badhna hai. Humein har paristhiti mein amrit kalash ki raksha karni hai..
*NB: This painting is strongly reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man , a figure that features prominently right at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code, except there the legs are spread our whereas here they are together.
A decisive tactician: Rudra now has his priorities right and he does not miss a single trick. Thus, before setting out to rescue his father, whose presence is vital for the garuds, he does not forget to safeguard the Second Book by placing it in MB's custody. She might remind him of a missing task, but it is he who remembers it at once. Thus, pending the location and acquisition of the First Book, this one will be safe.
Even if the nagas were to raid Shivanand's secret hideout (and Dansh is aware of the existence of this library and of the Book, for he pointedly demands both of Shivanand) , they will find nothing, for the book will be gone, and they will not know how to operationalize the Garuda Position Detector
NB: Rudra is aware of the location of this Second Book, as also of the existence of the missing Book, thanks to his inner data bank, of which Shivanand once said to him Tumhare bheetar wo gyaan sanchit hai jiska tumhein anumaan bhi nahin hai. The scene of him teaching the kid Rudra about the power of the Gayatri mantra, and also that that any bit of knowledge he cannot recall is not lost, but is hidden inside him and can be located once more, was charming.
Rudra also knows that he cannot go into battle without all his fellow garuds being fully prepared. Whence his remark to MB: Yeh ladayi ki shuruat hai. Baki sab garudon ki shaktiyon ko jagrut karna hai. He is going to get an excellent chance to do this in the race next week to stop those 3 chemical bombs from exploding.
No wonder MB says that Shivanand would be proud of his son. What she does not say, but which is self-evident, that she is if anything prouder of her shishya!
Rudra, as the leader, is quick and decisive in assigning duties. He takes only the DM and Charles with him for Operation Shivanand, and leaves it to Thappadiya Mai and Katharine to babysit Maya. By doing so, he unknowingly spikes Katharine's chances of getting to know his plans.
But what Rudra does not know, that Katharine is still linked to her old mentor and boss, Greyerson, is no secret from the sarvagna MB. It was delightful to see the knowing, amused sideways look she casts at Katharine, who seems lost in thought without moving away with Thappadiya Mai to Maya's room. And to hear her murmur to herself: Main jaanti hoon tu kis se bhaag rahi hai. Jitna hi bhaagegi, utna hi tere peeche aayega!
Bhavanaon ki shakti: The scene of MB seeing off the three -Rudra, Charles and Tiwari - with the aarti, tilak aur aashirwaad, was moving and impressive, especially when she noted that the tilak was from Ganga, and the aashirwaad from Daadi, besides shub kaamanaayein from the other two, Punnu and Sahadev. By doing so, she blended all those whom Rudra had lost into herself, and made him feel that they too were there for him and the others.
Even more telling was her wise dictum: Naagon mein maanyata hai ki garudon ki sabse badi durbalata unki bhavanayein hain (even Shivanand repeated this to Prof. Rao after the fiasco of his first attempt to recruit Rudra to the garud fold, because of Rudra's obsession with Maya). Ja rahe ho to unhein yeh dikhake aana ki yehi bhavanayein garudon ki sabse badi shakti hain. Naagon ko yeh afsos ho ki yeh shakti unmein nahin hai. As her bright eyes hold his, Rudra nods his assent.
It reminded me at once of Harry Potter's greatest strength, the one that Voldemort, with all his unparalleled magical powers, lacked: the ability to love. Of the compassion that spared the life of even the wretched scoundrel Wormtongue, a generous gesture that came back to benefit Harry later. Of Severus Snape's unrequited but unparalleled love for Lily, which triumphed over death, both hers and then his, but managed to give Lily her heart's deepest desire, the safety and happiness of her son Harry.
Here, for Rudra it is the ability to love humanity at large even more, when it came down to a choice, than his personal loved ones, and thus to choose the lives of the kalpavasis over the life, if need be, of his Baba. If and how this courageous choice will later bring him an unexpected blessing remains to be seen.
A faultless take: All thru, as he grew step by step into the role of the Garuda Pramukh, Gautam's Rudra did not make even a single misstep. That he looked snazzy throughout is a minor bonus😉, but it was the rest that counted.
He was always controlled, low key, quietly determined, his clear, wide eyes reflecting an inner calm and certitude even as great danger threatened. He never gave way to panic even when he saw his father drooping over his bonds, his head lolling in a manner that would make a son's heart grow cold with fear.
There was leadership, yes, and a confident one, but no bravado, no strutting and posturing. There was decisiveness, yes, when needed, but not in an abrasive manner; he explainsthe reasons for his choice as best he could.
Finally, when it came to the crunch, without the slightest hesitation, and almost as a matter of course, he did his father and his guru proud by choosing the lives of millions of unknown human beings over the life of the only member of his original family still left to him, his beloved Baba.
And the best was that he did it not like a martyr, but with infectious energy, the will to succeed that was equally infectious, and the determination not to do or die, but to do and to stay alive. For a crusade like this one needs not martyrs, but survivors who can both win today and live to fight again tomorrow, and Rudra the Garuda Pramukh is one such.
Dansh: what could have been: You know, folks, the more I see of the handsome Rahil as Nag Pramukh Dansh, the more I am saddened by what the character could have been but is most emphatically not.
Dansh could have been a fascinatingly grey character, driven by memories, of the kind cited by his guru, of his race being oppressed and humiliated by the garudas down the ages. Someone who is intelligent without being foolishly vain, who can out-think almost any enemy (bar one, of course!) with cold calculativeness. Someone who is silky smooth and suave even in his villainy. In short, a fitting antagonist to Rudra's protagonist.
Instead, we get this relentlessly OTT megalomaniac, resembling nothing so much as a villain out of the James Bond books. Whose fits of insane sounding laughter end abruptly in sudden grimness. Who drugs himself on the latest and best in the way of zeher for his kicks, though I have to concede that he does the withdrawal symptoms well, like Maya and her asthma attacks😉!
Who embraces the container of a "chemical bomb" that can kill over 30 lakhs each as if it was a girl he desired. Who babbles about doing something different and exciting, but then goes back to the same old poison (whoever heard of a naag injecting poison into himself? ) saying that Purani cheezein niraash nahin karthin.
Who complains that the laboratory, where they plan to extract all of Shivanand's secrets by mapping his brain, is not yet ready though time is running out, but is yet so much a slave of his uncontrolled rage at being defied by a prisoner that he almost kills Shivanand with torture and poison injection in defiance of the sober advice of his guru. And would have actually done him in but for the irruption on the scene of the appalled Leela, thus calling a halt to Dansh's interrogation session. If he had killed Shivanand, the harm to the naga crusade to get the amrit would have been immense, but Dansh seemingly cannot stop himself even when so much is at stake.
NB: I wonder what Drish meant when he says Jab tak hum laut aayenge, lab tayyar ho jayega. Come back from where, and when?
Hardly a guru-shishya bond: Dansh is in fact a very poor advertisement for his so-called guru. If, as should be the case, a guru is to be judged by his shishya, Drish would not get even passing marks.
What is worse, the relationship between them is, even formally, hardly like a guru-shishya one. Dansh shows Drish only the bare minimum of the respect due to a guru, and the only time he even seems to consult him before making a decision is when he looks across at him, and agrees to Greyerson's proposal only after getting Drish's imperceptible nod.
Given all this, the self-congratulatory pronouncement by Naanu's Guru Maharaj that Drish would lead the nagas in the mahasangram against the garuds looks like a bad joke! But the Veshes are yet to realise this, so Balivesh's obeisance to Drish is even more humble and obsequious than that of the Guru Maharaj.
Dansh does not consult Drish before embarking on his monstrous plan to murder over 10 million innocents just to humiliate Rudra the Maharakshak. He simply faces him with a fait accompli. Nor does he heed the eminently sensible advice of Drish that it is far more important to preserve Shivanand alive, so that his brain can be mapped, than to vent his rage on him and end up killing him.
What it all reminds one of is the uneasy relationship between an ineffective governess and a pupil who has outgrown her control. So Drish ends up bleating ineffectually: Dansh, haath jalaa loge! Dansh, aise kyon karte ho? when he finds him injecting poison into himself. And looks on in mute horror as his ex-pupil plans a genocide calculated to outdo the Holocaust.
If the character is OTT, the way in which he is played is even more OTT. As I prefer subtlety in all things, even in villainy, Dansh is not doing my teeth enamel any good! 😉
He is so black, blacker than black, that no possibility of his redemption remains, and he will have to be samharofied by Rudra in the final battle, just like the asuras in innumerable tales. So flat and predictable.
Question: Why does the naga pramukh have to do push ups, that too Salman fashion?
Answer: Why, for the delectation of young lady viewers, and so that Balivesh can gape in awe at the 7 headed naga chinna on Dansh's back!😉
Incidentally, I wonder when we are going to see the nagas as real snakes, and not as mostly faceless grenadier guards all identically togged out in black.
Leela: confused and confusing: I confess that I do not know what to make of this lady in black tights any more. I liked it when - even though she conceded that she could not escape marriage to Dansh, and would, after the marriage, be loyal to him, as it was her destiny - she protested volubly to her father that Dansh did not and would not love her, that he would treat her merely like "a lifeless decoration" for the interior designing of his life. I chose to overlook the point that as far as one had seen of Dansh, interior decoration would be the last thing on his mind, any more than it would have been on Gabbar Singh's!😉
But after the scene of her running after Dansh bleating Bas 2 minute ke liye meri baat to suno! , like Asha Parekh in a 1960s Shammi Kapoor film😉, I simply did not know what to think. What does she mean by saying that if she had been allowed to handle Shivanand, she would have got all the information they wanted from him prem se? It is beyond ridiculous.
When she assures Dansh that he would have no reason to get violent with her because naagon mein bewafaayi nahin hoti, ie that she would never betray him, she seems to have lost, and in fact to have voluntarily abandoned the power over him that her tantalizing inscrutability had earlier given her. I had then written of her, admiringly, that she knew both how to keep Dansh at a distance and on an invisible leash. Now, I am not at all sure of either.
If Leela is eventually going to be Rudra's helper among the nagas, the only support for that hope comes from Dansh's bitter statement: Par main jab bhi tumhari aankhon mein jhankar dekhta hoon, mujhe chetawani milti hai ki kisi na kisi din tum mujhe dhoka dogi. Let us hope this turns out to be a bhavishya vaani!
Katharine: a question mark?: Folks, I cannot do much more, so I shall keep this brief. I personally believe that the drama that Katharine enacted with an angry Greyerson was a nautanki calculated to lull his suspicions, and make it possible for her to maintain a line into the Greyerson-Nagas camp. As a clever double agent, she can always feed inconsequential information about the garud camp to Greyerson and maintain her bonafides, while actually helping the garuds.
I base my belief on the attitude towards Katharine of the all-knowing MB. As I had noted above, MB is in the loop about Katharine's continuing link with Greyerson. Thus her murmur to herself: Main jaanti hoon tu kis se bhaag rahi hai. Jitna hi bhaagegi, utna hi tere peeche aayega!
Now, if MB had not been sure that Katharine, whatever her present compulsions, would not actually harm the garuds in any way, she would never have refrained from exposing her. Maybe MB is confident that despite the pressures from Greyerson for feedback about the garuds, and perhaps also Katharine's own conviction that she is a Chosen one, she will come to see the light soon and switch her loyalties totally to the white clan. And MB has to be right about the kadi jo garud ke sar ko dhad se jodti hai, as about all else!
So I shall, while giving Ms. K the benefit of the doubt for now, wait and watch.
The Veshes: Third fiddle: Their totally subordinate, and subservient role vis a vis the nagas was even more pronounced this last week than before. They were left looking on helplessly while Greyerson prevailed over Drish's initial resistance, an managed to have a tete a tete meeting with the Naga Pramukh himself. Not just that but, on the strength of the technological resources his side could offer the nagas plus the evident benefits of a garud- mole at his command, he even managed a handshake with Dansh to seal their deal. He would have been well served if there had been some of the sabse zehereela zeher adhering to Dansh's fingers! 😉
Greyerson's weakness: Lastly, despite all of Greyerson's brave pronouncements, he is far more dependent on Katharine that he is prepared to let on, for she is his trump card vis a vis the nagas. If she were to jump ship and leave him, and thus the nagas, clueless re: the goings in the garud camp, Dansh would probably kill him. So if one were to look around for weakness, Greyerson is the candidate of choice.
This, folks was more of an effort of will than anything else. I hope it will pass muster!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
PS: For those wondering why I have not e-clobbered Utkarsh for those horrible torture scenes, it is because there is no use breaking my poor head against a stone wall. But I have asked him if he is a closet sadist!😉
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
Arjun
Cricket
