22nd june misti ishtyl - Page 5

Originally posted by: misti73

Dev Prasad also has now become equally worldly wise regarding people's behavior.........and his mannerisms and nature is similar to that of Pataka in the beginning of last year........indebted to the shastris but will stand up when she thinks something is wrong........this Dev Prasad is like that.......also Radhika in the beginning of last year was only open in front of Nandu and with others although friendly but yet maintained a distance......same here.......open in front of the kid and stand offish otherwise (I don't know how he will behave in front of chipkoo ).......Radhika used to listen to shastriji and overlook his faults because she did not think that he had any fault.....same here this Dev Prasad listens to K lady but is not ware that she is not what she appears to be....so chunnu munnu what is new here?

Originally posted by: avi28

Originally posted by: misti73

Now coming to the Oriya writer and Draupadis depiction in it, there is a play in bengali called Nathboti Onathbot ....it is actually a monologue and was done brilliantly by Shaoli Mitra....this work is well known among bengalis and is a feminist view of Draupadi.....Mitra asked loads of controversial questions regarding Mahabharat through this play.........

1) why did Kunti ask Draupadi to be shared ......it is commonly believed that Kunti did not know that her sons have brought a human being with them.......but on realising her mistake she could have told her sons to forgt about that order.....Mitras explanation was that Kunti realised that Draupadi is so beautiful that all the sons will be attracted towards her, so she told them to share her thus equating Draupadi to some commodity.......but this again raises a question that does this mean that Kunti did not trust her own sons as human beings and just treated them as men.

2) Also she asked why no one asked Draupadi regarding what she wants......keeping in mind that it was her who was being shared.....Shaoli tried to bring up that in those days when swyamwar used to be held to show the freedom given to girls regarding marriage, this takinga away of the same chice from Draupadi showd that female right to choice in those times is also a myth...

3) Also the way Draupadi was lost by yudishtir in the game of dice and humiliated ...only Bhima stood up and Vidur and one of the kaurav brothers........the others did keep quiet...

4) the most controversial quesion she asked was......is Mahabharat really a dharma yudh........both the sides used tricks on the other to win this war........does being on the good side justify these actions and tricks and being on the bad side not justify..

all these questions were good but the major drawback for me was that although she brilliantly highlighted Draupadis helplessnes, Draupadi is really not without blame.....she did have pride and she did insult Karna.....she insulted him because she thought that he was of low birth....bringing these points in could have made Draupadi more humane in that play ......she was a victim of circumstances but she was also a human being and a very complex one.

Anyway your mention of the Oriya book reminded me of this bengali play I watched long time back.

Originally posted by: why3

Actually, that was my problem with Oriya author "Pratibha..." (can't remember her name). She wrote it from Draupadi's perspective and most of it was right, but she made excuses for Draupadi's behavior too. She showed that Draupadi knew that Karn would win the contest (true) and she couldn't think of an excuse at the last minute. Also, she knew that Arjun was in the audience which wasn't true as Draupadi didn't know Arjun. She was immediately attracted to Arjun and hence didn't stop him.

But similar to Shaoli Mitra, there is a very famous play in Hindi by Dharamveer Bharti "Andha Yug" or "Blind Era". It starts somewhere when the famous war is going between Kauravs and Pandavs, but he showed that both sides were unethical which is sort of true. In his play, Krishna was still the conscience and had the duty of preserving the dharam, but he depicted Draupadi and Bheem as almost total villians. The premise of his play was correct, but I couldn't see Bheem or Draupadi as full villians.

Bheem is an impulsive character who gets angry at slight things. But, he was extremely protective of Draupadi (actually more than Arjun who take her for granted). He is the one who protested at the time of gambling and cursed Yudhistar, but was quietened by Arjun so that the unity between brothers is not broken. Also, he protected her several times later on in their vanvaas period. He is the one who killed Keechak when he tried to rape Draupadi during their 13th year of exile when they were hiding incognito. Arjun only protected Draupadi from Jayadrath when he abducted her. For me, the love story between Arjun and Draupadi was more one sided as Draupadi was more in love with Arjun than Arjun was with her. I think once she became the wife of five brothers, Arjun sort of grew disenchanted with the relationship even though he had agreed to her marrying his brothers. So, he found love with Subhadra, Chitrangdha and others.

Originally posted by: misti73

Yes Bheem and Draupadi are not really villians.........infact although Draupadi loved Arjun the most, Bheem actually I think loved Draupadi the most.......thats why he used to rush to protect her.........as for Arjun his favourite was Shubhadra.....as far as I remember Chitrangada stayed behind in her kingdom, she was the warrior prince.

Originally posted by: why3

Chitrangadha was the only daughter (of Manipur? am not sure because there was also Ulupi) of her father and her father wanted a waaris from her for his kingdom. So, she had a son with Arjun and she stayed back while Arjun returned to his kingdom. I have read Tagore's Chitrangada and it is beautiful story. She is shown as more a tomboyish warrior princess to whom Arjun is not attracted. But, he likes her fighting skills. Then, she asks one of the Gods to make her beautiful and they make her extremely beautiful for one year during which Arjun falls in love with her and marries her. But, he kind of misses that warrior princess not knowing that Chitrangadha is the one. Eventually, he finds out and she turns back into that original form but by that time, he has learned to love her as she is rather than due to her beauty or lack of it.

Originally posted by: Tilashini

thx misti...