Saturday, December 11th @ 11:45 AM
Dear Diary,
Today, we watched the birth of Balram and then the Shri Krishna Janmashtami sequences, and both were done very beautifully done.π Baby Balram was just adorable and I loved the background song, "Jai Sankarshan, Jai Balram" that Naradji sang. Though it was short, the tune was so lilting and sounded like one of those Aarti songs we all are familiar with. And the part which cracked me up was when the midwife told Yashoda and Nandraiji that Rohini gave birth to a boy, and an excited Nand hurries into the chamber as if the baby is his own, but Yashoda quickly stops him by keeping protocol in mind.ππ The way Nandji blushes (or perhaps I imagined thatπ) with embarrassment was just soooo cute. Sorry, just had to get that out before hurrying on to the next scene.π
Anyhow, I really enjoyed the Shri Krishna Janmashtami sequence after that. When Lord Vishnu arrives in Vasudev and Devaki's chamber and explains to them their previous births, and then gives them the choice of moksha or becoming his parents, hearing Devaki Mata's reply to him that she only wants to enjoy the sweetness of motherhood without all the gyaani associated with unattachment was so beautiful.π Yogmaya casting a spell over Vasudev, the guards falling asleep, the shackles coming undone, and then Vasudev crossing Yamuna with baby Krishna was also very well done.π Only thing I was put off with in this episode was the actress who played Yamuna Devi.π³ I felt she kind of overdid it with the expressions, and the background song was also way too long and repetitive with Yamuna's attempt to touch Krishna's feet and then Krishna pulling them out of her reach. They showed that for at least 10 full minutes before Krishna let her touch her feet, and it made my family lose their attention span sometime inbetween and begin to wonder whether Vasudev would ever reach Gokul by the end of the episode. I think I remember Lola mentioning a short time back that the song they showed in the DVD was a new one and that the original, shorter version was replaced during the editing . If that is so, dunno why they did it. The song was not that great either.π
Anyhow, enough with that. Vasudev did eventually reach Gokul and switch Krishna for Yogmaya. That too was shown well, and the following sequence when he returns to the Bandi Grah, guards hear baby's cries, baby's gender as a girl is established, and Kans's fury were all well done.π Yogmaya's escape from Kans's clutches soon after, her mocking words that Kans's killer has already been born and is safely away from him, and Kans turning into Godzilla were all also shown well to the point.
Back at Gokul, Nand, Yashoda, and Rohini's reaction to Baby Krishna was adorable. I esp love how Yashoda wakes up and finds out she already gave birth. I remember my sis commenting that she wished it were that easy for all women, that they fall asleep before labor and wake up to find a baby next to them.π€£ Anyhow, the cute susequent scene where baby Balram cries to welcome Krishna, and the way in which baby Krishna places his feet on Baldau's head as the latter bows down in obeisance....that entire scene was just SO cute that I could see it over and over.π And how in the world did the Sagars manage to make the babies go along with the scene and act that way?π² It must not have been easy.
Anyhow, that's about where we ended more or less, so till next time...
Love,
Janu
Sunday, December 12th @ 8:36 PM
Dear Diary,
Today, we began with the episode where Kans orders his men to kill all the recently born babies in Mathura and the surrouding area, and the bloodshed of innocent children which soon follows was terrible to watch and made me hate the character of Kans more than ever.π€’ When the men of Gokul refuse the order of Kans's men to enter their village and kick them out, I really liked how RS chose fitting actors for those men.π They may have been 5 min characters, but whoever the actors were, their dialogue was powerful and well portrayed by them. In either serials or movies, it really puts me off whenever watching actors who seem bored of their roles or not really into them, even if they are small roles, but these actors did really well in showing the outrage of Gokul's men. Often times, we applaud the actors who play the main roles, and accidentally forget the others who work equally hard, so that is why I wanted to put in a word (or a paragraph in my caseπ) for these actors who played Gokul's loyal residents.
Anyhow, the following scene where Chanoor (or Banasur) advises Kans to be friendly with the Gokul people in case they rebel against him, and then the chiefs of Gokul advising Nandraiji to pay Kans a visit, were well done and quick to the point too. I liked the scene soon after where Nandraiji does pay Kans a visit, tells him about the time and birth of his son, and Kans immediately comes to the conclusion that the baby must be Vasudev and Devaki's eighth son. For the first time in the show, we see that Kans actually had brains.π Leaving that aside, the short but sweet scene with Nandraiji, Akrur, Vasudev, and Devaki in their chamber was also enjoyable. I esp love how Nandraiji tells Devaki Mata that Rohini told him to tell her that she is bringing up Balram as the latter's son and not her own. Devaki's emotional reply that Balram is rightfully Rohini's son, and her heartfelt request that her name never be uttered near him incase it causes him trouble from Kans, was very tear worthy.π
After that, we watched the scene where Kans orders Pootna to be brought to his presence, because he has a job for her which is supposed to be done before Nandraiji returns to Gokul. The whole Putna sequence was well filmed and incredibly accurate. When Ramanand Sagar's interesting commentary after Putna Vadh was shown, my dad looked up that chapter in our Bhagavatham copy and found that RSji followed the story extremely accurately, from the very moment where Nandraiji leaves Gokul to visit Kans, Pootna's plan to poison her breasts and kill baby Krishna that way, her entrance into Gokul and Yashoda's house, convincing Yashoda to let her suckle Kanha, and the way Krishna leads her far away from the village before killing her so that her large body does not fall on anyone and crush them to smithereens, was all shown scene for scene from the Bhagavatham. And later on when Krishna in Golok tells Radharani the story of Pootna's past life, where she was Rajkumari Ratnamala, the daughter of King Bali whom Vaman Avatar pressed into Paatal Lok, my dad said that story too was followed accurately from the Bhagavatham. All in all, this episode was an interesting watch.π
So that's where we left off today. Hopefully we'll get another episode in soon.π
Love,
Janu
Edited by JanakiRaghunath - 13 years ago