Episode 202: Kaun pissega?

I look forward to your comments.

Traveling today so will be late with reviews. Won't get a chance to watch the episode until much later so look forward to live updates if possible. 😉

Today's episode had a lot of action comedy and magic. Yesterday it ended with Porus and Alexander glaring at each other and that continued today. What was interesting to see was Porus towering over Alexander, just like the real one was said to have done over the real Alexander. Maybe this is the only historically accurate thing they've shown us about their encounter. 🤣

They both went to mount their horses, and boom! Out of nowhere Clietus was next to Alexander! Where on earth did Cleitus come from? Now I know why he was missing all this time. He went to make friends with Bhairav to learn the art of apparating so that he could get to the forest ASAP. 😆 Alexander ended up in that location in the forest because of the diversion that Bamni had created, so how did Cleitus find him there? This Cleitus is just not intelligent enough to do something like that. 😆

Alexander only left a few soldiers with him, but didn't Porus and Dasyuraj kill them all? The PR people are very generous. After ambushing Alexander they gave him time to organize his soldiers into perfectly aligned ranks. 😆

Cleitus ko dekho, itna maar khaane ke baad bhi yahaan aa kar apna dimple dikhaane se baaz nahin aa raha hai. 😲 I remember a scene in Faras where Cleitus 1.0 was telling Alexander that the enemy forces were much larger and he looked like a serious general there. This Cleitus 2.0 was just telling Alexander that Porus killed off a lot of the Macedonian soldiers and now he had a larger force than the Macedonian one, but he said it in such an easygoing tone, as if it's a joke. Kya mazaaq bana kar rakha hai legendary Cleitus ka?! Of course, Alexander taunted him again, asking him why he thought Porus would keep his entire army there.

What kind of a useless general is he? After fighting alongside Philip for so many years and then Alexander, he still doesn't understand his Shah's battle tactics. Alexander explained to Cleitus that he told Porus about Anusuya's life being in danger as the "start of a new maqsad".

@EtherealRati, if my previous arguments are still valid then this dialogue of a naya maqsad proves that he came up a strategy just then, and that he didn't know anything about what was going on in PR beforehand. Just to reduce Porus' advantage of a bigger army, Alexander came up with a plan on the spot to use words to try to distract Porus, so that he would send some people to PR and then Cleitus could follow. He found out about Anusuya and Laachi fighting because Porus told him about that and he used this information to find a way to make Porus worry about their safety.

Alexander knew that with Hasti injured, it would most likely be Bamni or some general taking some soldiers away from the forest and heading straight to the PR palace to help Anusuya. Basically, Alexander, who's good at thinking on his feet, assessed the situation, and tried to come up with a quick solution there on the spot, similar to what he did when he was ambushed by the elephants or when he was lured into the PR court by Chanakya. There was no pre-set plot by Alexander to kill Anusuya (at least not until the CVs screw up the story further).

I wonder if Alexander even knew about the Sindh army and the other one whose name begins with P before this jungle face-off. He would be seriously outnumbered by all these forces, including Bamni's soldiers. What I want to know is, if the Bharatis have all these men available why do they even need help from Faras? They seem to be outnumbering Alexander's army any day.

Porus asked his father to go to PR with his men and the Sindhi force, but not before he gave his people a motivational speech, followed by Alexander giving one of his own. What was interesting was the contrast between the messages of the two kings.

Porus rallied his men to fight for the honor of the country, telling them that the future of the country was in their hands, that they had to hold steadfast that day, that they had to defeat their enemies and kick them out of the country. Bamni beamed with paternal pride.

On the other hand, Alexander told his Macedonia ke jaanbaaz, that the time had come that they had been waiting for, that they were to fight with josh and junoon, so that they could capture the sone ki chidiya (and some other Urdu words that I couldn't really make out). He also told them that after winning this war, there would be one flag in the entire world: Macedonia.

Alexander really needs to make up his mind. Sometimes he says Yunani parcham, sometimes Macedonia! That must be confusing for his men, too!

Olympias was remembering everyone's words about Porus defeating Alexander and getting frustrated. She was wondering what was taking her son so long to get there and why he hadn't been victorious yet. She's been locked up for way too long, it's starting to mess with her head. I won't be surprised if she's stuck there till the end of the "final battle" (whatever it may be) so that they can show her changing her mind about Bharatis later on, as Chanakya had wanted.

Again niyati ke do mahaan yoddha - Jhelum voiceover says they were both on the same side of the river and that it was yet to be decided who would remain standing and who would fall. Are they considering this forest to be the banks of the Jhelum? The CVs are still keeping us at the guessing game.

The clash of swords between Alexander and Porus looked like a wannabe duel between knights in medieval times. I wish they would stop showing everything in slow motion. One or two shots is fine but not the entire fight! 😡

If I continue my theory of two filming units being used, then it is clear that the one that filmed the spectacular battle scenes earlier in the show did not film the Porus and Alexander jungle scenes today, rather they must have filmed the PR scenes. The horse riding scenes in the forest were ok but it looked like Bucephalus' armor was coming off loose. Is he going to be injured there? Every time I see Alexander riding his horse now I feel sad - I am paying more attention to Bucephalus than to Alexander these days. 😭

The women's sword fighting definitely looked more believable than the men's, less slow motion and much more crisp in terms of contact between weapons. Laachi and Anusuya also just looked much better in action that the men did. The way their scenes were filmed, it looked just like the ones in Thebes. Even though they were fighting in closer quarters, the action looked much smoother than the ones out there in the forest. That lone soldier standing in the corner watching this mayhem at the PR palace wanted to notify Bamni that the PR ladies needed help, but Bamni himself was already planning to make his way there. I wonder if the soldier would be intercepted by the Taxila army or if he would make it back to Bamni on time to explain what was going on there.

Cleitus was so useless! One slash from Bamni and he lost his sword and then fell off his horse. How can Alexander expect him to chase after Bamni and do anything productive after that dismal performance?

Porus is bigger and stronger than Alexander and neatly flipped him over into a somersault, but Alexander then grabbed his foot, stopped his sword and then pushed Porus over while still lying down. Somehow in-between being kicked by Porus and then being flipped over to fall flat on his back, the color of Alexander's shorts changed from black to white.

Alexander got a couple of punches and slashes from Porus. I don't think he could defeat him in hand to hand combat, from the looks of it. Just to keep this going, the CVs will show each of them doing the same to the other, one kick each, one punch each, one sand somersault each, etc. Alexander was less interested in finishing the fight than trying to get Porus to split his army up, so he said:

The message was quite clear for Porus, but his response was difficult for me to understand and probably for Alexander too:

Alexander probably had no idea what this meant or who Mahadev was!

Porus said he'd fight until the last drop of blood - is that what they will show here? Sony Porus fighting until the end like the real one?

Porus just disarmed Alexander with one swing of his sword - it seemed as if Alexander had forgotten how to fight and just stood staring at Porus, only to receive another kick to the chest to fall to the ground, where conveniently a spear was lying there. He picked it up and Dasyuraj came from nowhere trying to take revenge for Dasyurani. Awww! Alexander looked stunned to see him and was probably thinking, why didn't I just have this guy killed? Porus left them alone to continue fighting the Macedonian soldiers, while Alexander was left to fight with a spear, or should I say defend against enemy blows.

Alexander was shown falling to the ground so easily. I would like to think it's because he wanted to give Porus the impression that he was winning so that he could distract him while Cleitus followed Bamni, and not because Alexander was so lame at fighting. If Porus had noticed Cleitus leaving, he would have suspected something. Maybe he will still do so, who knows? Alexander just didn't seem to be fighting the way we've seen him do in all the past battles. For all his yalgaar ho calls, he seemed to be in some kind of fencing match and not a full-on battle. Goodness knows what the CVs want to show.

Porus asked his father to leave, and Bamni urged him to protect the honor of his maa ka rakt (I'm not sure if he meant Anusuya or Bharat here, but the sentiment would be the same). It felt like the final message from Bamni to his son, and maybe something Porus will remember later when he decides to avenge his mother's death? Aditya should do more action shows and movies, he looked great on horseback holding his sword. Sindh's general needs to give Cleitus 2.0 some lessons on how to lead an army.

Alexander defended himself using a spear against Dasyuraj's sword, while Dasyuraj happily gave Alexander a few seconds to look at Bamni leaving and then tell Cleitus to go after him. With all those soldiers crying out loud, how could Cleitus even hear Alexander from so far away?! 😕

Alexander is going to be left alone in the jungle without any of his generals and he will have to fight off Porus and Dasyuraj. I still expect him to be severely injured and carried away to safety by Bucephalus, because neither Porus nor Dasyuraj would probably kill him just yet (warna 58 episodes kaise banenge?).

I wonder what the significance was of Alexander looking at Porus, who looked back at him while putting his sword through Macedonian soldiers. I could almost see the wheels in his head turning. He was still outnumbered, so what would he do next? Or was it just nothing but poor editing again?

Anusuya still looked like the best fighter of all. Rati was fabulous in the action scenes and looked like she was actually swinging and thrusting her sword as one would in a real fight (unlike most of the soldiers who looked like they were play dandiya).

Bamni found one of the tribal men nearly dead. It looks like Alexander's failure to check if the enemy is dead is contagious - Ambhiraj left that man alive (actually the CVs did, just so he could tell Bamni how Ambhiraj trapped and killed them using the vyuh.) Bamni asked the same question that I have been asking: how come these tribes were able to defend themselves all these years but now all of a sudden they were defeated by Ambhiraj?

Look at the extent to which Ambhiraj planned everything. He was just waiting for such an opportunity all this time and the moment he was confident that Alexander would distract Porus, he knew he could successfully defeat all those soldiers/tribals along the "dangerous" land route that he complained to Alexander about during the strategy board meeting. I'm pretty sure he repeatedly complained about that on purpose, because in front of Alexander he didn't want to seem overly eager to go to PR that way. The more he complained, the more Alexander would insist on him taking that route, which is exactly what happened. I have been saying all along I don't trust this Ambhiraj and he has his own secret mission within the rescue mission. 😡

They say Revenge is a dish best served cold, but Ambhiraj took it to another level altogether. He meticulously planned this vyuh so that Anusuya couldn't find a way to escape. As many of you have said, SidT still has the Mahabharat hangover so he will re-use whatever ideas he can from there. I don't think Sony Alexander knows anything about Mahabharat so this strategy is all Ambhiraj's brainchild.

Ambhiraj knows his sister's strengths and weaknesses very well and he took full advantage of his understanding of her nature. Rather than attacking her, he targeted Laachi and made sure that Anusuya saw that, because he wanted to appeal to her maternal instincts. Unfortunately, it worked. 😕

That scene where Anusuya was on horseback, surrounded by all the Taxila soliders was well-shot. She really looked like a shatraani there. I don't understand why she got off the horse? Wasn't she at a position of advantage sitting up there instead of jumping to the ground? Then again, what do I know about sword fighting? There was a scene where she used her sword to fight and push off the swords of all those soldiers, and it reminded me of Porus doing the same thing (though Anusuya looked far more elegant and realistic doing that).

Surbhi, my dear, I don't know if she will die or not but I'm glad the CVs are giving her a chance to show her fighting skills and prove what she's made of.

Hephaestion came out of nowhere! I wasn't sure if he was the one who shot Laachi because there was no bow in his hand (and no sword either). First Dasyurani and now her daughter Laachi is going to give him one heck of a thrashing, especially when she finds out he was the one who killed her mother. I don't know how he ended up at the PR palace because we didn't see Alexander telling him to go there. So it looks like he didn't bother running after the Farsi fairies. There goes another 40+ episodes of Barsine fighting against Seleucus in Faras (probably offscreen) and bringing the Farsi soldiers back to PR to fight.

The overhead shot of the fighting in PR looked like they were in a jungle and not near the palace. I'm sure they were in the same location that Porus and Alexander were fighting. Maybe I was imagining things but it looked like there were more soldiers there than back in the forest with Alexander and Porus. Very strange distribution of military strength. 😕

Anusuya ran after her brother, but she didn't stop to think that her brother would not have run from her like that. He played on her feelings of protectiveness towards Laachi, so that she would be single-minded and focus solely on chasing him, instead of hearing the shields clanging or observing the men closing ranks behind her. Only when Ambhiraj told her how she'd been trapped did she turn to look around. The VFX of the overhead shots of the vyuh (not sure what it's called in English) was very poor. Since the men seemed to be actually moving in that formation, could they not have shot it with a drone camera as they have done with other such overhead shots?? Very sloppy.

What did Ambhiraj mean by decades of feelings of vengeance in the heart being harmful? What is he? 70 years old? And what revenge has he been talking about? Anusuya didn't do anything to him. She was always trying to find a way to make peace. Ugh! Disgusting! Aside from the same hairstyle the brother and sister have nothing in common! 😡😡😡 I don't know how the voiceover in the promo can call Ambhiraj apna or can say Alexander made him kill his own sister, when Ambhiraj himself said he'd been wanting to take revenge for decades. Alexander wasn't even born then!

Ambhiraj was shown as an all-rounder today - he was great with an arrow, sword, and most of all strategy. He seems to be the only one who has a plan in the first place. I can't say the same for the others. Slowly more and more his schemes are being revealed. Who knows what we'll see next? Ambhiraj doesn't tell anyone what he's thinking. He attacked Anusuya because she is the heart and soul of PR. If she dies the rest are weakened.

The CVs' new favorite verb is pisna, pissa jayega, etc. Uss Chanakya ko kyon nahin pees dete haathiyon ke beech? 😡

Why don't they stop showing the same pre-cap? Bamni isn't there so I think he might be the one to die instead of his wife, and Chanakya isn't even around to treat him. The way Anusuya had threatened Ambhiraj that her husband would show the strength of his sword, it seemed ominous. Also, Bamni found out about the vyuh so maybe he will save her in time by breaking through the defense. Ambhiraj won't be expecting him to arrive there but it will be the face-off that makes sense.

Rati's Instagram post indicates there is some kind of twist coming up, so who knows what will actually happen? Probably something different from the pre-cap and unexpected. Bamni asking his son to protect the honor of his mother's blood - did that refer to Porus taking revenge for her death or was it to keep fighting like she did even after losing his father? This can go either way from the looks of it. As we like to say on this forum, CVs ka koi bharosa nahin! Poora suspense show bana diya hai. 😆