Reappearance of Olympias

Originally posted by: LawlessLawyer

Well I have got a new title for the CVs.ImpactKillers.Coz they love to kill the impact of every scene and track.

One of the most crucial points in the stories about Alexander and Porus was their confrontation after the Battle of Hydaspes.

I was thinking that despite all their distortions,alterations whatsoever they wouldn't mess with this scene.

But after Alex and Puru's premature meeting in Faras the scene won't have the same impact.

Now coming to Olympias,I adore Sameksha.But I admit that this was certainly not the way I wanted her back in the show.She could have appeared in Alexander's imagination.And at the end if they did show Alexander's death they could have shown Olympias receiving the news and mourning.

But now even that won't have the same impact anymore.

Sameksha is playing Parminder in Khichdi.But I guess she is working in both the shows simultaneously.

No, no, my dear, don't fret yourself to flinders over this! It is not worth it.

Listen, morally, Olympia is a monster. She does not flinch at doing anything, no matter how wicked it is . However, her redeeming trait, apart from her steely will and her resourcefulness, is her boundless and unconditional love for Alexander, a love so great that even her tremendous ambition on his behalf is subordinated to her desire to have him stay alive. She is not interested in her place in history, only that he should come back safe to her.

So now she has landed up in Faras to make sure that he does not flout the High Priestess' warning and her own expressly stated desire, and push off towards Bharat regardless. Any mother would do that. She has probably been bugging him about it in her letters and he must have beed dodging the issue, so she has smelt not a rat but a raccoon😉, and has come over to make sure in person that he does not play hooky and go where the gods warned him not to go.

He knows what is cooking the minute he sights her. Remember that she did not promise to write to him daily. The promise was only that he should do so. Thus any gaps in her responses while she was in transit would not have been noticeable to Alexander, and in any case time is an elastic commodity in Porus 😉. So he is exasperated and angry at being treated like a child and told not to do something.

He was even angrier and ruder when he quarrelled with her for having bewitched Arridaeus and addled his brains (not that he ever had too many of them!). That time, I felt that he had gone too far. But their relationship is like a very strong elastic band; it stretches farther than one would think it possible, but it does not break, and it rebounds as strong as ever.

Alexander's temper is all the more ruffled now because, just before Olympias arrives, when he is sharpening his sword and thinking back to his last encounter with the High Priestess, the whetstone slips and he cuts his palm. It is not explicitly stated here, but clearly that is a bad omen. He is affected by that - maybe, just maybe the old lady was right? - whence his attempt to seem extra relaxed when Hephaestion arrives.

Both these sources of exasperation put together make him blow his top. I agree fully with your take on his reference to his feeling hurt, all the more so because it is his mother blocking him. But he has to understand that no one else will lose so much as she will if anything happens to him.

Rohit was remarkably good in that scene, but Alexander is driving himself into a corner thru sheer obstinacy. See, was it not he who told his mother - when he wants to leave Macedonia for Epirus to escape the death sentence Philip has pronounced against him - that to take a leap forward, one has to take some steps back? Why then does he insist now that once Alexander has put a foot forward, he cannot withdraw it? Flexibility is the hallmark of all the great commanders, and Alexander was perhaps the greatest of them all. It is his ego that is shackling him now.

Bharat, for this Alexander, is not just another land to be conquered, it has become an all consuming obsession. Obsessions can take you to unprecedented heights, but not all obsessions are safe. This particular one has made Alexander fret far too much over a lanky Bharatiya who challenges him but whom he can crush at will, only because, in Puru, Alexander sees a Bharat that seeks to block and flout him.

Now he is going to make a cake of himself with his gladiators. 😲I only hope that after all of them have been pounded to pulp by Puru - severely damaging the image of Macedonia in the eyes of the Farsi multitudes - Alexander does not think of entering the arena himself. But I have an uneasy feeling that this is exactly what he will end up doing.😲 I cannot at all understand why he has to walk into the arena to meet Puru before the events start; which king will do that? I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen, except that I am not going to like it.

As for Olympia meeting Puru to assess him, yes, perhaps. But she would probably advise Alexander t to have him executed promptly. Na rahega baans, na bajegi bansuri. And from the purely political point of view, I would agree with her. Why Alexander does not do that, and instead insists on all this tamasha beats me, unless it is the need, that I had cited on my last thread, for him to win and to be seen winning, at all costs.

I don't see why you are fretting about Sisygambis, who is not even there. 😆 It is not as though she was feeding Alexander maa ke haath ka khana, and Olympias stormed in and threw the thali away! Actually, Olympias used to warn Alexander, in her letters, about getting too close to Sisygambis, but he naturally disregarded her admonitions. Boys will be boys! As for Roxana, that is an attraction of a very different kind, and I don't think Olympias is going to try and sideline Roxana after she appears. Aur phir Bactria to door ki baat hai; abhi is tamashe to nipat lein!😉

Alexander meeting Anusuya, now that would be something. She would probably feed him the same, bilious orange laddoos she is stuffing into that kid's mouth. 😉

I won't quit Porus even for that, for I want to see how they handle the battle of the Hydaspes. The Zhukov version or the traditional one? The Oracle of Delphi ko bhi jhutlaya nahin ja sakta, hai ki nahin? To Alexander jung ke maidan main haar nahin sakta. Maybe Puru will make an ultra long bhashan and Alexander will run away just to escape it!😆

As for Olympia (Sameeksha) 's other show, it was a splendid 65 episode series on the 1897 battle of Saragarhi. She was the wife of Havildar Ishar Singh (Mohit Raina in a magnificent performance) the leader of the 21 brave men of the 36th Sikh Regiment of the British Indian army who died facing, and holding off, about 12000 Orakzai Afghan tribesmen. The Orakzai finally took the fort of Saragarhi, in what was then British territory adjoining Afghanistan, after suffering much heavier losses themselves. So the serial was called 21 Sarfarosh: Saragarhi 1897. It aired on the newDiscovery Jeet channel. Sameeksha was superb in that little role, strong, aggressive, very supportive of her husband, and extremely intelligent. She also looked very good. But that series is over now.

OK, this should be enough to make you a bit more relaxed, or so I hope!

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: inlieu

Me too! I thought Sameksha was done shooting for the show and kept wondering if she'd already shot in advance the scenes of mourning Alexander which the makers would telecast later.

I guess all that speculation was pointless.

And yes, the Alexander-Porus meeting will not set off the fireworks that many of us were so looking forward to. All I can hope is they use the "reunion" in India to show something good. Perhaps I'm just asking for too much! 😕

I do have to admit that she still looked amazing in her anger today! What a fabulous actress! I ❤️ her and Olympias' character so much!!!