Rudra More Convincing than Othello - Read Vistaa's Response Too - Page 2

Really fine posts on this topic.I only interject to add the similarities between Rudra and Othello.Both characters suffer from insecurities imbedded in childhood.In Othellos case he has been subjected to discrimination all his life and though he has overcome much to achieve a high honour he still wonders if he is worthy of his post and Desdemonas love.Years of conditioning have made him wary of good things happening to him and so it only takes a small incident to make him question whether desdemona can truly be faithful to him.

@Vistaa. Word. I love you, lady! 🤗

Originally posted by: Oyster

Gosshhh Vistaa Sa.. your reply deserves to be the main post. You're one of the few users I'd love to discuss anything with since IPKKND days. Only if we had more Vistaa clones... sigh..!

Oh yes I must acknowledge your extremely valid point about Shakespeare's genius reflected in his choice of words. Like you rightly pointed out... it's not like Rome-Juliet was an original masterpiece. In fact we've had better versions of the romantic saga in other cultures. Take Laila/Majnoo, Farhad/Shirin, Heer/Raanjha, for instance.

Yep I completely agree that it was his inherent insecurities that ultimately overpowered his love for and faith in Desdemona. I suppose this is the best way to understand the unfolding of the events in the play else we'd be left with such a stark conundrum in its plot.

I'll have to accept your point about the limitation of a play with a bit of a caveat. A well-written and well-executed play can appear flawless. In fact, Shakespeare has achieved it himself. I thought Macbeth was so well-done that you cannot think of any shortfalls in the play. King Lear would be another one. But then obviously this is a matter of opinion. To someone else Othello could much more superior than these two plays. Besides, it's not like you're saying that achieving perfection in a play is impossible given its limitations. And I am not denying the limitations you are hinting at.. so I guess we are in agreement.

On the other hand, a show, especially an Indian daily soap, has a lot more serious limitations. Imagine working today to deliver an episode for tomorrow. Anything could go wrong... Just one instance of a writer's block and you can blow up the plot. Frankly speaking, I am yet to see an Indian daily soap as convincing in terms of the plot and characterization as RangRasiya.

My point is that the writers of RR have done a wonderful job with their characters thus far. I hope it remains this way regardless of what direction they take in terms of the plot. Things have to be convincing and sensible.

Once again, lots of hugs for this wonderful response Vistaa Sa - It just made it so much easier for me to spend this RangRasiyaless night!

I think in both cases it is about their insecurity...Thats what is the driving factor...not the behavior of Desdemona or Paro...Both can be flawless but still not enough for the mistrust...

It's been some time that I have read Shakespeare... What I feel Shakespeare is not about the plot of the story,.. The plots were not strong..

Wow...great post thanks for showing the connections in fine writing and all the other additions we have seen on this post...honestly I did not make the effort to read othello...like it when the platter is ready made...😉

Originally posted by: Vistaa

Res😊

Edited:

Oh, what a delicious post, Sonya Sa!😃 And hugs for reading Othello for RR...daily soap jo na karaye woh kam hai😆

Shakespeare fan I am...a huge one, but offended, not. 😊

Now to the substance of your post...could not agree more with what you have to say about Rudr. His mother's betrayal, and the subsequent bitterness of his father and its effect on a young, immature boy's psyche is established beyond any discussion. With Paro. he was swayed for a bit under the force of his attraction...but we would take any resultant mellowing in his manner to be a permanent change in his belief system, at our own peril. Any sufficiently important event/deed would be able to knock him back to square one vis--vis beautiful women...and that is exactly what has happened. This narrative of Paro, a beguiling, beautiful woman, playing dirty...pretending to be nice and loving to his father, and then turning around to harm him...plays so neatly into Rudr's world view. This is what I would have expected to have happened. No surprises there.

About Othello...can I say at the outset, that in my view, Shakespeare's genius lies not in the most ironclad of plots, or the most original of stories. In fact, many of his celebrated plays owe their genesis to other sources/oral traditions/folklore/history. You only have to look at the plot contrivances in Romeo & Juliet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, to see what I am talking about. Shakespeare's genius is the treatment and the language...the dialogues these characters utter that elevate them from a mere character to someone larger, and force the audience to think. Shylock's "if you tickle us do we not laugh" speech, Portia's "the quality of mercy is twice blessed", and Othello's "one that loved not wisely, but too well" are ⭐️⭐️

Othello was, as you said, a former slave. He was a Moor, and of the black race, who reached his current station in life through the dint of his bravery and caught the eye of a beautiful, white, rich maiden Desdemona. She fell in love with him deeply and irrevocably, and much against the wishes of her own father, married him. Therein lies Othello's tragedy. What he had encountered all his life was mostly harsh words and discrimination on account of his skin color and ethnicity...Desdemona's love was the anomaly. The exception, rather than the rule. Ultimately, his life-long insecurities overcame the trust he had in her, and he allowed himself to be manipulated into thinking that she was unfaithful to him.

On the face of it, the handkerchief appears to be a silly reason to believe the worst of your wife, but you have to remember that this is a play with just five acts and a handful of scenes. The scope to really expound on a story line and develop it is sort of limited😊.

As you know, all tragic heroes, Shakespearean or otherwise, have a fatal character flaw that becomes the reason of their downfall. Macbeth's ambition, Hamlet's procrastination, Othello's jealousy...it was the green-eyed monster that did Othello in. This is a Hindi soap, so hopefully, Rudr's misconceptions would not prove to be nearly as deadly.😃

It's funny. I had actually read Othello for my English class just a month before the show started. And all the characters are definitely more well written in RR. But you can kind of see some of the characters and their references. Rudra and Paro obviously being Othello and Desdemona. And then Iago can arguably be Mohini or Tejawat.

Originally posted by: Oyster

Gosshhh Vistaa Sa.. your reply deserves to be the main post. You're one of the few users I'd love to discuss anything with since IPKKND days. Only if we had more Vistaa clones... sigh..!

Oh yes I must acknowledge your extremely valid point about Shakespeare's genius reflected in his choice of words. Like you rightly pointed out... it's not like Rome-Juliet was an original masterpiece. In fact we've had better versions of the romantic saga in other cultures. Take Laila/Majnoo, Farhad/Shirin, Heer/Raanjha, for instance.

Yep I completely agree that it was his inherent insecurities that ultimately overpowered his love for and faith in Desdemona. I suppose this is the best way to understand the unfolding of the events in the play else we'd be left with such a stark conundrum in its plot.

I'll have to accept your point about the limitation of a play with a bit of a caveat. A well-written and well-executed play can appear flawless. In fact, Shakespeare has achieved it himself. I thought Macbeth was so well-done that you cannot think of any shortfalls in the play. King Lear would be another one. But then obviously this is a matter of opinion. To someone else Othello could much more superior than these two plays. Besides, it's not like you're saying that achieving perfection in a play is impossible given its limitations. And I am not denying the limitations you are hinting at.. so I guess we are in agreement.

On the other hand, a show, especially an Indian daily soap, has a lot more serious limitations. Imagine working today to deliver an episode for tomorrow. Anything could go wrong... Just one instance of a writer's block and you can blow up the plot. Frankly speaking, I am yet to see an Indian daily soap as convincing in terms of the plot and characterization as RangRasiya. I can give you plenty of examples from Sanaya's Starplus show, but let's not invite unwanted bashing here. So I'll go for her show on StarOne. Not sure if you watched it. Basically, Gunjan (the character played by Sanaya) loses her sister in a car accident and the driver happens to be her boyfriend Samrat. He was neither drunk nor driving carelessly. The accident happens while he attempts defensive driving after seeing a truck heading from the opposite direction. Gunjan not only dumps him post accident but also hates him with a vengeance as she sees him as her sister's murderer. That was really beyond me. She was in the car with him and knows exactly what transpired. I'd understand if she distanced herself from him but on what basis could she possibly see him as a murderer?! This is perhaps a better example of plot incongruities on Indian daily soaps.

My point is that the writers of RR have done a wonderful job with their characters thus far. I hope it remains this way regardless of what direction they take in terms of the plot. Things have to be convincing and sensible.

Once again, lots of hugs for this wonderful response Vistaa Sa - It just made it so much easier for me to spend this RangRasiyaless night!

Originally posted by: Exprimere

@Vistaa. Word. I love you, lady! 🤗