The serial will be telecast every weekday at 9.00pm from July 4th
Adapted from Jnanpith Award winner Gurdial Singh’s Punjabi novel Adh Chandini Raat, this is a tale of rugged characters and raw emotions, unfolding gradually over two generations of feudal lords and peasant farmers .Locked in decades old class struggle, the bitter personal feuds between them leads to unbridled jealousy and smoldering vengeance and pits brother against brother as the characters indulge in bloody reprisals that mows down kith and kin. The serial will be telecast every weekday at
9.00am from July 4th .
The story is set against the rustic splendor of an agrarian society still steeped in feudalism, a village of sturdy farmers as mentally tough as they are physically hardy. The most popular man in the entire village is Balan, the man with the Midas touch who can reap gold from the earth. But there are envious eyes too focused on Balan’s success, watching him expand his acreage with jealous resentment, notably that of the feudal lord, Chandrasekharan.
In keeping with the feudal tradition of overcoming adversaries with deceit and duplicity, Sekharan too uses treachery to trap his unsuspecting foe. He ensnares Balan with false charges and succeeds in convincing the authorities, with fat bribes adding weight to his arguments about Balan’s guilt. He is hauled off to the station and brutally assaulted by the police.
Balan is mauled, punched and cudgeled within an inch of his life. He succumbs to his injuries, dying in agony and humiliation. Seething with rage at the landlord’s knavishness, Madhavan, Balan’s eldest son repays the debt, shooting him to death one night under the cover of darkness. He pays for the crime with 8 years of his youth in prison.
Madhavan returns home after serving his jail term, a stranger in the village where he had grown up. He feels like an intruder, out of place in familiar surroundings, estranged and alienated from his old friends and relatives. He slowly realizes that during his years in prison, Sajan his younger brother had gravitated towards Chandrasekharan’s family and that he is now hand in glove with them. It is more than Madhavan can bear as he finds it difficult to comprehend how Sajan can cozy up to his father’s murderers.
Meanwhile, Madhavan makes the acquaintance of an attractive young widow and finds himself drawn towards her. He decides to welcome her into his life and for a while finds peace and contentment in his domestic responsibilities. But just when Madhavan had almost chased away the phantoms of loneliness that always haunted him, Sajan who by now had aligned himself with the feudal forces literally steps into Sekharan’s shoes, treading the same dark paths of treachery against his own brother…
Gurdial’s classic work of art drawn in stark colours on the bosom of nature can be interpreted on two levels. On the surface, it is ostensibly a novel of social realism that depicts the clash of classes in Indian feudal society, where overloads maintain their fiefdoms by duping the simple peasants; of village feuds passed down from generation to generation in an endless cycle of vengeance and retribution. On a more subtle level, it is an universal tale of the anguish, of alienation and the despair of loneliness of the individual. Whatever the plane from which one views it, Arth Chandrante Rathri is a compelling serial that is at once touching and stirring.
By
Smitha Sivaji
Adapted from Jnanpith Award winner Gurdial Singh’s Punjabi novel Adh Chandini Raat, this is a tale of rugged characters and raw emotions, unfolding gradually over two generations of feudal lords and peasant farmers .Locked in decades old class struggle, the bitter personal feuds between them leads to unbridled jealousy and smoldering vengeance and pits brother against brother as the characters indulge in bloody reprisals that mows down kith and kin. The serial will be telecast every weekday at
9.00am from July 4th .
The story is set against the rustic splendor of an agrarian society still steeped in feudalism, a village of sturdy farmers as mentally tough as they are physically hardy. The most popular man in the entire village is Balan, the man with the Midas touch who can reap gold from the earth. But there are envious eyes too focused on Balan’s success, watching him expand his acreage with jealous resentment, notably that of the feudal lord, Chandrasekharan.
In keeping with the feudal tradition of overcoming adversaries with deceit and duplicity, Sekharan too uses treachery to trap his unsuspecting foe. He ensnares Balan with false charges and succeeds in convincing the authorities, with fat bribes adding weight to his arguments about Balan’s guilt. He is hauled off to the station and brutally assaulted by the police.
Balan is mauled, punched and cudgeled within an inch of his life. He succumbs to his injuries, dying in agony and humiliation. Seething with rage at the landlord’s knavishness, Madhavan, Balan’s eldest son repays the debt, shooting him to death one night under the cover of darkness. He pays for the crime with 8 years of his youth in prison.
Madhavan returns home after serving his jail term, a stranger in the village where he had grown up. He feels like an intruder, out of place in familiar surroundings, estranged and alienated from his old friends and relatives. He slowly realizes that during his years in prison, Sajan his younger brother had gravitated towards Chandrasekharan’s family and that he is now hand in glove with them. It is more than Madhavan can bear as he finds it difficult to comprehend how Sajan can cozy up to his father’s murderers.
Meanwhile, Madhavan makes the acquaintance of an attractive young widow and finds himself drawn towards her. He decides to welcome her into his life and for a while finds peace and contentment in his domestic responsibilities. But just when Madhavan had almost chased away the phantoms of loneliness that always haunted him, Sajan who by now had aligned himself with the feudal forces literally steps into Sekharan’s shoes, treading the same dark paths of treachery against his own brother…
Gurdial’s classic work of art drawn in stark colours on the bosom of nature can be interpreted on two levels. On the surface, it is ostensibly a novel of social realism that depicts the clash of classes in Indian feudal society, where overloads maintain their fiefdoms by duping the simple peasants; of village feuds passed down from generation to generation in an endless cycle of vengeance and retribution. On a more subtle level, it is an universal tale of the anguish, of alienation and the despair of loneliness of the individual. Whatever the plane from which one views it, Arth Chandrante Rathri is a compelling serial that is at once touching and stirring.
Smitha Sivaji
