By now, most of those frequenting this forum would be aware that I am, to put it mildly, not fond of Ms.Roxanne (as a card carrying feminist, she should of course retain her Ms.). 😉😉
Nevertheless, I watched the apparently compulsory Alexander-Roxanne scene tonight (which was actually a variation on the classic menage a trois, or household with a threesome) with attention. Kyonki pata nahin kab koyi dilschasp cheez nikal aaye!
So far, Roxanne has paled in comparison to Alexander whenever they've shared the screen and I felt it was even more accentuated in today's episode, especially in those few seconds where she shares the screen with Olympias. They are both way out of her league acting wise. Heck even Sunny played Philip wonderfully considering it was his debut show. There is no way I can picture this Roxanne being a junior Olympias as was probably the case in real life. 😕
Apart from Alexander, who looked as if he was just back from a vacation in Saint Tropez on Bill Gates' yacht (and I am sure 80% of the young ladies here would have been drooling over him😆 ), and the fact that Ms.Roxanne had not yet located a second expression😉, I found the rest entirely predictable. But there was one thing I could not get at all, though my IQ is respectable, and one thing that really disturbed me.
Yeah, Rohit has become really tanned. Must be shooting outdoors the whole time. All the night scenes they've shown recently were shot in the day and then edited with a darkening filter.
The Murga Mystery: Taking the first one first, what Roxanne said was that the murga mistakenly assumes that the sun rises because of its crowing. She then goes on to draw a distinction between afsane and reality, which she states that human beings should be able to grasp.
The consensus here is, and rightly so, that she is calling Alexander a murga, though she promotes him to the status of insaan when she is winding up with her wisecracking. Accepting this, her jibe makes no sense at all. 😲
What is the sunrise for which she sees the Macedonian murga as falsely claiming credit ? Even more incomprehensible,which afsane is she talking about? Alexander has won in Greece, Persia. Syria, Egypt, and Mesopotamia fair and square, and he has untied the Gordian knot. She herself used to parrot the title Shah-e-Asia when she addressed him before he was unwise enough to marry her. So what afsane and what haqeeqat is she lecturing him about? 😡
She is trying to belittle Alexander in every way she can, especially in the aspect that counts most: his invincibility in battle. He won fair and square every time, but she makes it sound as if the reports of his incredible conquests are merely "tales" or legends - afsaane. Also she is taunting him for claiming to be the son of Zeus instead of a normal man. I think she was saying that this claim of Alexander's is an afsaana too, not the haqeeqat that he believes it to be. She's using that one anomaly in Alexander's career - where Puru managed to hold a sword to his throat - as the source of her daily dose of poison. That would never have happened in real life so she would have had nothing of the sort to taunt him with but that's what we were forced to endure in the Puru in Persia track so what can we do?
Alexander's taking the bait and throwing out some of his own and my favorite line of his today was
Logon ko ehsaas to ho ke maila chaand nahin, dhool unki aankhon par he.
He's asking her to wake up and she'd better do so before it's too late. Tab tak wo Barsine se shaadi kar lega. 😆
I loved Olympias' amused expression and I think she knows that Roxanne will fall for her son faster than she realizes, despite her resentment towards him. I think when that day comes Roxanne will just show up wearing the pearls and Alexander will know. 😉
I felt that when Olympias says zehr ko zehr hi kaatta hai she meant that Roxanne's sharp tongue will be neutralized by the sharp words she is bound to hear from Alexander once he snaps.
Roxanne and the Porus red rag: Now for what disturbs me. Alexander is all wrong in the way he handles her. He goes on and on taking covert digs at Puru and Roxanne, like a riled little boy asserting to the girl who praises his rival: Just look out! I am tops and no one dare mess with me! So there!!
It's all about his pride and ego now, and while these have served him well in the past, it may just work against him by clouding his judgement in the most basic things. I frankly think he should not be giving her so much importance to her face. He should go about his work quietly and efficiently and let her see the results for herself. In the process, he shows her clearly how far she, and her dilchaspi in Puru's exploits, rile him. Apart from the evident folly of this juvenile carping, and the handle he gives her to give him even more of a chabi, there is a serious matter at issue here that Inlieu had flagged, and it is this.
Yes, she is winding him up - perfect description.
Danger ahead: Alexander has had very little experience of handling women, and Roxanne is a particularly tedhi specimen of her sex. So now, when he should have been adopting a cool, slightly distant approach, he shows any detached observer that he has lost all sense of proportion vis a vis both Roxanne and her favourite, Porus.
He detests Porus much, much more now than after he had held him at swordpoint in Persia, and that is because of Roxanne, and his burning desire to
(a) impress her with his invincibility and
(b) get hold of Porus and teach him a very harsh lesson so that Roxanne understands her folly in hero worshipping Porus.
This is likely to make Alexander so eager to get Porus any which way that, while assessing the offer of an alliance with Takshashila brought by Chanakya, all the red lights that would usually go off in his fabled grey cells go on the blink, and he walks straight into Chanakya's trap.
I fear this too, as you know, though somewhere deep down I feel that either Olympias will warn him or he will find a way to emerge as the winner despite this setback, exactly as he did when he stopped Barsine from escaping. I think this will also be his wake up call and cause him to be more aggressive towards Taxila and his war strategy. Or maybe, just maybe, the CVs will surprise us and Alexander will see good sense before it's too late.
This would confirm the widely held opinion that his obsession with Roxanne warped his sense of judgement, and made him less astute, and less capable of thinking four steps ahead, as he was wont to claim.
Whether or not he falls into Chanakya's trap, I'm already uncomfortable with the fact that he is derailing from his primary goal of conquest for glory and focusing instead on conquest for proving his worth to his wife. He does not need to prove anything and she will batter down his self-confidence to a dismally low level at this rate if he keeps letting her. He is here to rule the land and not go for Puru's head. 😡
Chanakya the infallible: This is a given in all the representations of Chanakya in our TV serials and films. Given this, I don't see Swastik deviating from this unwritten rule. Which means that Chanakya's plot has to succeed, and Alexander has to be taken unawares for the second time running, letting Porus wreck his supplies and kill his men in a sneak attack.
This will of course enrage Alexander still more, and the effect of this white hot rage on his decision making and his military tactics can hardly be good. To add fuel to the fire, there would be Roxanne mocking him openly for this setback at the hands of Porus😡. All in all, a very bad situation for Alexander seems to be in the works.
If this happens, then what I want to know is, will this be the wake up call he so badly needs? Because Alexander can fight against all odds and as he so very wisely told Arrhidaeus during their arm wrestling match in episode 26
woh aakhri pal hi hai jo shikast ko fateh mein tabdeel kar deta hai.
Stupid me, I'm still hoping he wins the war in his usual honest and fair manner despite all the scheming by Chanakya and gang.
The question is, according to Roxanne's logic will she never give him her love if he, for some reason, ends up losing the battle? Where does that leave her? She is said to have been pregnant and miscarried in Bharat, though I doubt we'll see this. She can only taunt him up to a point after which he will tire of the games and withdraw from her (and probably marry Barsine to get some mental peace as she will treat him far better! 😆)
Double faced Porus: I was not surprised at Chanakya's stand on kootneeti. That was his consistent, trademark stand on strategy and tactics against any enemy.
Nor was I taken aback by the oh so honorable and preachy preachy Porus setting out to launch yet another sneak attack against Alexander and his army. After all, he had done the same thing in Persia, when Alexander had not yet made any hostile move against Bharat.
I think this is what had bothered me most about Puru's actions in Faras. He was pre-emptively attacking Alexander even though Alexander had not done anything to Bharat or its citizens. He knew of Alexander's intentions but intentions and actual actions are two very different things. It would only make sense to go on the offense against Alexander once he set foot in Bharat, as the real Porus did. But who am I expecting sense and logic from? 😡
It did not matter to Porus then that the conflagration that the Pauravengers launched so mysteriously must have killed a large number of innocent Persians,and destroyed a lot of private property. How was that any better, morally, than Hephaestion's and c***eus' attack on them after they stoned the Macedonian soldiers? I am not holding my breath waiting for answers.
The CVs never intended to depict Puru as a gray or flawed hero, so these misplaced ideals of his and warped sense of morals send the wrong message to viewers about the central character, about what an honest good hero should be like. If they want to portray him as a pure white character, then his actions must be above reproach. What message are they trying to send? That honesty and hard work, tadbeer, have no value and will never give you victory against sneaky plots and peeche se waar? Ugh, after all the moral policing that Puru and his mother have been doing in this show, this thought nearly causes the bile to rise up my throat. 😡
The CVs are, in my opinion, wrongly justifying Puru's past and future actions by using the Chanakya card, i.e. since Chanakya is suggesting this, then Puru and gang are excused from every past "crime", saat khoon maaf, etc. Chanakya's role was all about politics and strategy, not about being a good person as per Puru's previous lectures.
What I do have a problem, and a serious one, with is Porus accusing Alexander of winning by underhand tactics, without even an iota of concrete proof for this statement,which is a downright falsehood. The same goes for Chanakya calling Alexander a kapti Yavan, which too is totally false, but at least Chanakya has the excuse that he does not know much about Alexander. Porus does not even have that excuse.
If Puru had even reflected upon his mistakes in Faras, I would have been a little appeased. Also, if he truly does believe that Alexander uses underhanded tactics, then his own capitulation to following Chanakya's ways should make him understand that if indeed Alexander had done such things he would have been "justified" as per the teachings of Chanakya's school of by hook or crook. Puru would have no right to label him a bhediya.
The guy really needs some "me time" to reflect upon what he did and what he continues to do. Too much hypocrisy can destroy the very clean soul that he brags about. No wonder Puru jumps so quick at the idea of using whatever means Chanakya suggests to weaken Alexander. He seems to lack conviction and foresightedness.
What does kapti mean, by the way? 😳
Alexander never adopted any shady tactics, he did not ape Darius in raiding the enemy camp stealthily and wreaking havoc there, and he always fought a fair battle, confident in his strength and sticking to his principles. It does not lie in the mouths of Porus and Chanakya to malign him falsely, and accuse him of using the kind of crooked tactics they are going to resort to right now.
Of course, not. The makers are just doing this to justify those two's underhanded actions and any further sneaky attacks they plan, a la tit for tat. Never mind Faras, which is far away, about which they may also have heard "afsaane" of Alexander being unfair, but what about closer to home in Bharat where Alexander has done nothing of the sort? They would have actually heard about it if he had, but all they received was a by-the-procotol message asking Taxila to surrender. Also, where was this sense of indignation about underhanded tactics when Puru was more than happy to get Barsine to betray her father several times?
I'm glad that Ambhikumar objected on the grounds that it is against the rules of war and this alone made me think that he might be instrumental in making the pact with Alexander later on. That guy doesn't speak much but often talks sense and I can see him being a wiser king than his cousin Puru.
I know they've distorted history a lot, but surely when it comes to Bharat, they cannot show Taxila joining Paurav Rashtra to beat Alexander?! Those two kingdoms were never allies and in this show too, Ambhiraj's "loyalty" to Paurav Rashtra is very fragile. Right now, it's a cease fire but I think deep down Ambhiraj is not happy with Paurav Rashtra getting the spotlight and leading the rest to make key decisions. He had very rightly warned his son not to be sucked into Puru's harebrained schemes en route to Faras. Puru nearly got them all killed, and they would have been, had Alexander not let them escape. When push comes to shove, I totally see him opting to surrender to Alexander when they realize the folly of Puru's actions, in exchange for something. If the CVs show this of course. 😕
The po*nography of violence against a woman: If I have to watch any more of the vile Shivdutt in action, I shall throw up😡. Methinks Swastik and the Porus CVs like seeing helpless women being beaten up, dragged by their hair, banged into hard things, and finally dumped in a brothel. Whence this sub-title. And if Siddharth Kumar Tewary thinks this sort of garbage will boost the TRPs, he could not be more wrong. They are more likely to plummet even further.
But perhaps they don't care any more about the TRPs, and the Shivdutt horror is the Revenge of the CVs against the disobliging viewers who refused to boost Porus!
It is very late, so I am not touching on anything else, except that I was pleasantly surprised to see one, real, live elephant. Now to hope that there will be more of them, caught from the wild by apna Puru and shanghaied straight into the battle. Ayesha's very practical advice to Puru is bound to come in handy in that situation.
I'm not even going to talk about these scenes because I now skip all the PR segments, especially those featuring Shivdutt. My time is too precious! 😉 But Sid T needs to realize that when you have a few days left before the end of the show, you need to provide the best material possible to go out with a bang and not let your magnum opus fade out.
That is it! Count your blessings, folks!😆
My usual reminder: If you agree with me on most of the above, do press the Like button.
Shyamala Aunty
Bade Acche Lagte Hai 3
