Really love the way some serials leave a quiet space for Dhanyamalini, one of Ravana's younger wives and Atikay's mother. Was watching the Anand Sagar 2008 Ramayan that aired on NDTV imagine (Shrimad Ramayan giving me old Ramayan nostalgia), and just look. Look at that grief, that sorrow. She is no one in the grand scale of things, but she is ruined forever. Her husband was evil, her son supported him and she paid the price. The horror of war, repeated over and over in her empty motherhood, bone-chilling in its dreariness. Unless the author/writer/director finds it imperative, she will never be reconciled with Vibhishana, will never speak up for Sita again, will never speak well of Rama. She will live with this hollow, wretched rot inside her, and she will curse Lakshmana till her dying breath, even though he had very little fault. She will weep and she will rail against Ravana and Sita, and she will hear her husband bid her to shut up and be gone, and she will leave, and it will not matter anyway; yet she still begs for Mandodari's son, even though Mandodari is a rival queen, and dearer to Ravana than she will ever be, for there is hope even in the darkest of nights and the last lesson in this epic is always about love.
