Folks,
The title of this post was a no-brainer, for the only thing a trot - remember my last but one post, Plot on a trot? - can evolve into, if things move so fast, is a gallop.
The mandala maxim: For those getting ready to lament the ahistoricity of last night's goings on, as Chandra and Chanakya put into practice the Kautilyan maxim of the mandalas - shatru ka shatru mitra hota hai - form a coalition of the enemies of Magadha, and start picking off the smaller allies of Magadha one by one, my advice to them would be to chill. For, after allowing for the extra abbreviated shorthand method of proceeding so evident in this show, most of what was shown last night was pretty much what seems to have happened.
The 1990 Chanakya, which is the last word in authentic research on this subject for a TV show, which I am currently watching for the third time in 10 years, shows the whole coalition building process in much the same fashion. Of course, not being burdened with an amar prem gatha waiting impatiently in the wings,😉 the writer, Chandraprakash Dwivedi, who also played Chanakya, spread himself luxuriously, and footage be damned! There were endless meetings with representatives of the various janapadhas, republics and kingdoms, there was prolonged plotting to distance the subservient kings from their loyalty to the foreign rulers, there was a convoluted exercise to set the most powerful of the Uttarpada kings bar Magadha, Parvateshwar aka Porus of Kekeya, against Magadha by holding out the lure of the overlordship of the whole northern region. There was also a much greater degree of importance given to stirring up public hatred of the foreign rulers and those who kowtowed to them, like Ambhi of Takshashila, or would not fight them, like the Nands of Magadha. And all this moved very fast, over just 3-4 episodes, or 3 hours of screen time.
Chandra Nandini could not have afforded all this cerebral authenticity, which was accompanied by a total disregard for entertainment value and for the TRPs. So there is no point in asking for the moon! Besides, I doubt if even those clamouring for historical authenticity would have had the patience and the tenacity to last thru that Chanakya!😉
This said, the central, crucial role of Chandragupta, as a fierce, unbeatable warrior, and as a charismatic leader who could enthuse his followers to do or to die with him, was exactly the same in that 1990 saga as it is here. It was then, and is now, literally, a one man show, with the genius of Chanakya behind the scenes keeping his boy wonder going.
Reversed sequencing: Yes, the current sequencing is ulta, for here, the defeat of the Macedonians is now going to be shown much ahead of time, as a means, for our two Cs and their allies, of conquering Magadha.
But the latter was always the first goal of Chanakya. Both for personal reasons and, even more so, because the control of Magadha was essential for the formation of the united Akhanda Bharat Rashtra, which he saw as the only means of preserving the cultural and spiritual identity of Bharatvarsha, and protecting it from future foreign invasions.
Future because, historically, by this time, the Unani rule had been emasculated and in effect driven beyond the Indus, thru a combination of Chandragupta's military skills and talent for propaganda, and Chanakya's stratagems, with the full backing of all the gurukuls across Uttarapad, the whole northern swathe of the country. Here, the emasculation is shown as a result of the splitting of Alexander's empire and his army after his death.
This sequencing switch is clearly for reasons other than cerebral.😉 By the time Nandini comes along as the Third Wife, the CVs want Helena already installed in Chandragupta's anthahpura (happy, Sandhya?😉), radiating contentment at the fulfillment of the deepest desire of her heart, viz. to show Malayaketu where he got off by becoming the queen of Magadha, and to take revenge on Nandini as well by destroying her family.
Of course, Helena being Helena, things are unlikely to stop there, but I am pretty sure that even if she sets herself up as Guru No.2 for Chandragupta, she will not try to lord it over him. She will be, as she was in the Greek camp, his dependable, though very likely also demanding partner. And a strong and determined opponent with whom Nandini will eventually have to contend.
Now for the fun part of this unexpected plot development.
Matrimonial sequencing fiasco: I was halfway to ordering a laurel wreath by express delivery (small size, which could be paid for with Rs.100/- non-demonetised notes!) for Shailaja, under the mistaken impression that she had hit the jackpot on the matrimonial sequencing sweepstakes (please see my previous post). I of course had ended up flat on my face , as usual, 😉having placed Durdhara at No.1, Helena at No.2 and Nandini at the lucky No.3. But it seems that Shailaja was as much off the mark as I was, for she too had put Durdhara at No.1,and Nandini at No.2.
So there were no winners, and no need for any laurel wreath either. Good! Kam se kam kuch paise to bach gaye!
OK, now for the key sequences, in no particular order.
-Agony of failure: Chandra's gut wrenching misery at his defeat, and the waste of all his efforts of years, the hopes of his guru, and the sacrifices of his followers, comes thru fabulously. As he hacks away at the woodpile in an effort at catharsis, his hands bruised and bleeding with the brutal force he deploys, he like a man possessed. When he throws down the axe and, his whole face contorted with helpless misery and uncontrollable grief, cries aloud: Itna bada prayas, vijay ke itne nikat the, phir main haar kaise gaya??? , one's heart goes out to him in empathy.
Rajat's profile is at times even more eloquent than his front face shots.
Later, in a delicate, exquisitely conceived snippet, when he holds the water drop that has suddenly dropped on to his face and, looking up at the sky, wonders aloud: Kehte hain ki jab akaaran aakash se paani gire, to samjho koyi ro raha hai. Parantu is samay mujhse dukhi kaun hai? he seems suddenly like a boy, so very young and so very unhappy.
So deep is the trauma that has possessed Chandra that not even all the ringing exhortations of his guru about the need for a king to be sthitha pragya, even tempered at all times - labh mein, haani mein, jai mein, parajay mein, sukh mein, dukh mein - and to turn every defeat into a stepping stone for eventual victory - Apni haar ko haar nahin, hathyar samajho. Yoddha wo hai jo har haar se seekhta hai aur har seekh se jeet tha hai - seem to barely penetrate thru the all pervading gloom that surrounds him.
Not till Chanakya's last homily - not to let the pain of their defeat, and the wound that it has caused on Chandra's psyche, heal and be forgotten, kyonki yeh peedha hi tumhein antim vijay ke sukh tak le jaayegi - finally gets thru, and Chandra reacts with a ferocious oath never to let the wound of their loss and defeat fade away till he has conquered Magadha.
I agree with Devki that the significance of the use of the term for a wound here is not literal, but figurative.My initial take on this was wrong, and there is thus no need for us to worry about septicaemia, not to speak of streptococcus and staphylococcus getting at our poor, dear boy! 😆
Needless to say, I loved the brief but fierce set to between Chandra and the quartet of soldiers from Magadha, that ends in all four of them stretched out cold and dead on the forest floor. But Chandra's wound opens up again in a fierce, yet despairing declaration: Nand ke sipahi the. Maine sab ko mar diya. Wo jitne bhi bhejega, main sab ko mar daloonga!! It takes all of Chanakya's moral suasion to get Chandra to agree to their moving on, suitably disguised.
-Garam roti se seekh: I did not think much of Chandra's so-called disguise, which consisted of nothing more than a layer of tan. Chanakya was of course very well camouflaged. But that is not the point here. The point is the seekh our two Cs gain from the remarks of a simple village woman, who is teaching her son how to eat a hot roti without getting his fingers burnt.
Now there are many versions of this tale, which resembles other Eureka moment tales recounted about heroes in difficult situations. One has a plateful of hot rice, another, the one flagged by Sri, has a hot dosa. Perhaps the choice of item depends on the region where the tale was being recounted, the dosa version for the south, the rice version for the east, and the roti version for the north and west!
I was struck by two points in the Balaji version. One, the peasant woman goes into far too much of military detail about the campaign to capture Pataliputra, right down to the recent defeat having been due to Malayaketu attacking from the back, which, she stresses, could have been avoided by Chankya and Chandra moving to conquer the peripheral areas before attacking the centre. It was not at all convincing. The traditional versions of this story do not have any of these implausible frills.
Mutual respect; mutual dependence: Two, I was pleased that it was Chandra who cottoned on to the immediate relevance, for them, of the woman's criticism, and not Chanakya. Also that he was then able, after a kshama chahta hoon, Acharya, to state bluntly that Hamari yojana mein dosh tha.
I was even happier that Chanakya then had the candour and the grace to acknowledge his tactical error, concede that Yojana banana mein bhool ho gayi hai humse, and go on to stress the need for a new soch, which would change their fate. Adding, his eyes fixed on a still downcast Chandra's face with compelling conviction: Aur is nayi soch ke saath, bhavishya hamara hoga, Chandra!!
Slowly, very slowly, Chandra's chin comes down in assent. He is ready for the nayi soch.
What this passage makes clear is that they are not a puppet master and a puppet, our two Cs. They are a guru-shishya combine, in which each respects and needs the other. Chanakya does not feel in any way diminished by his having conceded his error of judgement, nor does he resent Chandra having pointed it out. It is a unique and wonderful bond that they share.
What follows was, as noted above, a speeded up version of the salami tactics depicted in the 1990 Chanakya. Chandra has now finally managed to put the trauma of defeat behind him as he vows to conquer Magadha: Is bar na koyi humein rok payega na hum kisi ko rokne ka avasar denge! But words are not the same as deeds, and it might not have been as easy as Chandra asserts it would be, but for Helena's sudden irruption on the scene.
A dream offer: More even than the crucial help she offers Chandra, the breathtaking self-centredness of the offer, and her blatant disloyalty towards her father and her fellow Macedonians, what is striking about Helena in this sequence is her ability to infuse self-confidence and a fresh determination in her Sandrocottos.
For even after all the improvements in their strategic situation of late, Chandra still does not seem confident of making it against Magadha with the forces now at their command, and this is reflected in the depressed tone in which he tells her about his failure in the battlefield.
Helena's reply could - in its force, its logic, its total conviction that if he followed her advice, he could and would win - have been a(n Persianised version of a) pep talk from Chanakya himself.
Haar jeet se kahin zyada zaroori hai hausla aur himmat.Mujhe lagta hai ki isi hausle ke saath tum Magadh ko jeet sakte ho...Isi kamzori (the lack of a large army) ko poora karne ke liye aayi hoon main..
Then the clincher: Meri baat maane bina tum sapne mein bhi Magadh ko nahin pa sakte! Hum donon ka raasta Magadh ho kar jaata hai.. Soch lo!
More even than Chandra, it is Chanakya - who is as clear-headed, as ruthless, and in his own way as self-centred as Helena - who sees the force of her arguments and the value of the vital help she offers. So he goes one further than even the lady, and presses Chandra to seal this deal for keeps by marrying Helena. Chandra seems less than eager to give this new balidaan, but does he have a choice?
The curious thing here is that Helena - who, in her readiness to betray her father and her countrymen to get her heart's desire, resembles no one so much as Medea, the fierce enchantress and queen of the Greek hero Jason, but for whose help he could never have secured the legendary Golden Fleece (if interested, see footnote at the end) - has no idea, as of now, of marrying Chandragupta. Though she might have come around to proposing it soon - for how else could she have become the queen of Magadha? - here it is shown, as it happened historically as well, to be Chanakya's idea. Poor Chandragupta was clearly barely consulted in either case!😉
Biwi No.1 : Of naapit Nand, that is. Sunanda - not so appropriately named, for there is nothing auspicious about her as the Su would indicate - resembles no one so much as the madam in a kotha, complete with the pan daan and the eternal pan chewing, the acid tongue and the casual arrogance of one used to handling gundas and putting them in their place. Anyone who has seen Mandi would immediately recall Shabana Azmi's masterly take on this character. Sunanda is no Shabana Azmi, and is far more negative, but she is quite acceptable.
As for putting a gunda in his place, she, to my great delight, does precisely that to Padmanand, whom she apostrophises constantly as naapit. She also mocks his inability to dispose of her, thanks to some secret she has that he apparently needs desperately to know. So she brandishes this trump card in front of him, like a carrot in front of a recalcitrant donkey, but just out of his reach, to make him trot. 😆
It must be something very serious even for such a confirmed criminal as Padmanand, to make him, after some vain blustering each time, fall in line with her advice. She is also, one has to concede, very clever and persuasive in getting him to accept her point of view, much more so than the cowed down Avantika.
The hapless putri: As daddy dearest's feet of clay begin to show, poor Nandini is driven to unaccustomed tears. And helpless rage at the lascivious Malayaketu, who is clearly hellbent on humbling her in every way possible.
I am waiting to see what she does to save that unfortunate daasi from his clutches. Probably hold a knife to his throat!
Her duel with him was much better then I had expected, despite the ridiculous Christmas tree get up she sported for fencing practice.And if some of those ghastly corkscrew curls had been chopped off in the fighting, why, she would have only looked better!😉
Startling innovation: I must, at this point, flag a major change introduced last night by the CVs.
Now, it is the standard practice for the RK Films logo stance (RK standing for Raj Kapoor) to be used for a pair of would be lovers: the girl bent as far back as can be managed over the man's arm, and staying that way for a loo...oong moment, their eyes locked in a presumedly romantic gaze. In reality, the girl must be hoping he does not drop her suddenly, and the man must lamenting Kitni bhari hai! Ise dekh kar iski vazan ka andaaza hi nahin lagta!😆
Now for the revolutionary change I had noticed. This is the first time that I know of that the RK Films logo stunt has been used for the villain and the heroine!!
Pre-Mauryan bookbinders: For all those, including yours truly, who believed that the pothis of this era were all palm leaf manuscripts, there was news last night. It was shown that proper bookbinding, in what looked like leather, was already available in the 4th century, for the book that Nandini was reading, and Malayaketu tosses away vindictively, could compare favourably with medieval specimens of the bookbinder's art that appeared over 1800 years later! I am rushing to inform the Historical Society of India and the National Museum in New Delhi about this momentous discovery!
OK, folks, this is it for today. Please do not forget to hit the Like button if you think that is warranted.
This post has already taken a lot out of my fingers, but I will try and respond in brief tonight to the comments on my last thread.
See you on Saturday next. Au revoir till then!
Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di
PS:All the photos used to illustrate this post are courtesy my dearest Anjali. Thanks a ton, child, but I need more!
NB: Medea: She was an enchantress, the daughter of the King of Colchis in modern day Georgia. Colchis was the home of the legendary Golden Fleece.
Medea's role in helping Jason get the Golden Fleece began after he came to Colchis, to claim his inheritance and throne by retrieving the legendary prize. Medea fell in love with him and promised to help him, but only on the condition that if he succeeded, he would take her with him and marry her. Jason agreed.
Medea's father, King Aetes of Colchis, promised to give Jason the fleece, but only if he could perform certain tasks. First, Jason had to plough a field with fire-breathing oxen that he had to yoke himself. Medea gave him a magic ointment with which to anoint himself and his weapons, to protect him from the bulls' fiery breath. Next, Jason had to sow the teeth of a dragon in the ploughed field. The teeth sprouted into an army of warriors. Jason was forewarned by Medea, however, and threw a rock into the crowd. Unable to determine where the rock had come from, the soldiers attacked and killed each other. Finally, Aetes made Jason fight and kill the sleepless dragon that guarded the fleece. Medea put the beast to sleep with her narcotic herbs. Jason then took the fleece and sailed away with Medea, as he had promised.
The rest of the story, after the love story of Medea and Jason sours, is best left alone! One devoutly hopes that Helena does not do a full scale Medea on Chandragupta!
Cricket
Kumkum Bhagya
Tum Se Tum Tak
Sampoorna
Jhanak
