DKDM Scales New Heights Again!

How does one convert a casual TV viewer like me into a die-hard Mohit Raina and DKDM fan? Make everything superlative!!! Just when DKDM was degenerating into another mythological soap opera – the Jalandhar track was aired.

This is where full credit must go to the team of Mahadev and Mohit Raina for their superlative narration and portrayal of a fairly small chapter in the massive Shiva Puran. They’ve managed to create and weave a fantastic tale of love, deceit, power struggle of a character who can be construed as one of the complex and contradicting characters in a Mythology.

Jalandhar- who’s born out of Mahadev’s anger; who’s an Asur; But also a great administrator and King to his subjects. It’s fantastic to see how the team converted this chapter to such a well woven story line.

To say the least, my interest and fascination and love towards the series was renewed 100 fold. And to top it off the role of Jalandhar was enacted by none other than Mohit Raina himself!

The decision to cast Mohit Raina as Jalandhar was a fantastic move by the creative team. To most Mohit Raina fans this was such a treat! Talk about a kid in a candy store! He was and is such a versatile and incredibly talented actor! Acting is about insight into a character and I think this is what sets Mohit apart from his peers. He’s been able to take a character and analyze it and portray it with such perfect conviction that for a moment one forgets that it’s the same actor playing a dual role!

This is such a difficult task considering that the series has been going on for well over a year and is into almost 400+ episodes. I want to commend and applaud Mohit for his 100% involvement into a character and series and giving the same kind of consistent performance day in day out for well over 400+ episodes! His fans get the best of this deal as they get to enjoy his portrayal of two characters that are a complete 180 degrees apart. Its remarkable to see him swagger onto the battlefield with a smirk and sneer on his face as Jalandhar faces the Devtas and in the same scene he switches effortlessly into the character of Mahadev coming out of His Samadhi and just oozes such peace and unquantifiable love towards the whole universe that one feels as if it’s the “Real Mahadev” on screen and not “Reel Mahadev” and all this mind you Wordlessly! To say that this was and is a “Dharmsankat” on who to support is an understatement. One minute the viewer is “Team Jalandhar” and the other “Team Mahadev”. I’ve found myself swaying back and forth between the two. Arguing and defending Jalandhar’s actions one minute and the next minute going back to my “Araadhya Mahadev”. It has been a rollercoaster of emotions with this track and it’s all thanks to the dual role that Mohit Raina plays. Would the story line garner so much popularity and attention if someone else played the part of Jalandhar? Probably not—but I’m biased towards Mohit! J

One also must and should recognize the character of Vrinda played by Neha Marda. Here I want to particularly thank writer Utkarsh Naithani for writing Vrinda and depicting her as a strong, independent, learned woman who has a career as a “Vaidya (doctor)” in a Myth series where a woman is shown to be submissive and subservient and her role particularly and specifically defined to rearing children and household chores. I’m thankful to him for beating back this stereotyping of women. It was much needed!

Coming back to Vrinda- played by Neha Marda. One must applaud her for seamlessly integrating herself into DKDM. It felt as if she was part of DKDM from almost day1. Such is the chemistry between the two actors cast as Jalandhar and Vrinda. Neha effortlessly plays the role of Vrinda so differently that her acting skills and her craft need to be praised. In her recent and final scenes as Vrinda where she confronts Narayan at his betrayal Neha does such an outstanding job. Such a scene in my experience of TV viewing has always been acted with lot of histrionics, but she delivers her grief in silence and with dignity. And manages to get even the most jaded and unemotional TV viewer to shed tears on Vrinda’s behalf.

As the track draws to its conclusion I’m filled with heartbreak at Jalandhar’s upcoming eventual end. Jalandhar- a character not completely white or black.. He had shades of grey pretty much like most of us do. LifeOk’s DKDM continues to build around parables with the Jalandhar track focusing on how arrogance becomes the downfall of even the mightiest warrior to be ever born. And I’m hoping that the next parable Mahadev gives us will be as interesting and captivating as the Jalandhar storyline.

~Sirisha