Kankhajura, the Sony Liv original series, is entertaining, but that said, the series had the potential to have a much bigger impact than it actually did. After watching it, I wanted to know more about the past of the two protagonists, Ashu and Max, and understand what their childhoods were like. Yes, Ashu's life was deeply affected by that tragic incident, but even before that, he displayed certain traits that made it clear he wasn't feeling well emotionally and psychologically. It wasn't difficult to decipher that Ashu suffered from serious mental health issues. But after a while, it seemed that even Max had certain characteristics that could be associated with psychological distress or hidden trauma. So, let's find out what happened between the two brothers and why they dared to kill each other.
To understand why Ashu was so obsessed with his brother Max's approval, why he wanted Max to treat him like a member of the family, why he was so protective of him, and most of all, why he spent 14 years of his life behind bars, it's important to know what happened in the past. Max, Shardul, and Pedro were best friends, and together they bullied and mocked Ashu. Pedro and Shardul would never have dared to do anything to Ashu if Max had sided with his brother. But you can't expect decency from others when your own flesh and blood treats you so terribly. Poor Ashu just wanted to prove himself to his brother. Ashu was fiercely devoted to Max, and even after being treated so terribly, he always seemed to support his actions. He looked up to him, and no matter what Max did, Ashu always felt like he was acting in his own best interest.
Stars: Vyom Vyas, Roshan Mathew, Mohit Raina
Max, on the other hand, was fed up with his brother constantly hovering around him like a parasite. He was irritated by Ashu's attitude, not understanding why the poor guy behaved the way he did or what he was trying to achieve by doing so. He wanted nothing from Max except his affection. Shardul, Pedro, and Max often played all kinds of pranks on him. Together, they made him look ridiculous, and Ashu played along just to please his brother. But enduring all the torture didn't give Ashu any extra points and, in fact, completely ruined his life. Max got into an argument with a tourist. I felt he provoked Ashu just to force him to do something to her.
The series didn't give us much clarity on that particular incident, where Ashu turned violent and stabbed the tourist, but I think the reality stood in stark contrast to what the police were told. Ashu may have stabbed the woman, but he didn't act on his own initiative. Max knew the power he wielded over Ashu and how he could use it to his own advantage. Ashu followed his brother's orders, unaware of the consequences. When the police caught the four of them, Max made sure he took responsibility for whatever happened. Ashu was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but even then his devotion to his brother didn't wane. He became even more immune to reality. Ashu did things in prison that he probably didn't even know he had. He had always been very good at manipulating people, and in prison, he used that skill to his advantage.
What I didn't understand, because the series didn't delve too deeply into that aspect, was why Max hated Ashu so much. I understand that Max would have been irritated by his brother's actions and behavior, but treating him so terribly and not even caring whether he lived or died was extremely extreme. The things Ashu had done in his time made one thing very clear: the man suffered from mental disorders. He pretended to be a shy and innocent man, but he wasn't. Whenever he wanted revenge on someone, he would instigate them to such an extent that he ended up taking his own life. He had a way with words and could penetrate people's minds.
Once Ashu was released from prison, he thought his brother would integrate him into his family and business. But none of that happened. Max treated Ashu like a distant relative. He didn't want Ashu to stay in his house and had no plans to make him a partner. While Ashu rotted in jail, struggling daily to survive, Max had a great time. He met a girl named Nisha, married her, and they had a daughter. Max, with the help of his uncle, Santosh Gaonkar, a politician, amassed a fortune. Max, along with Shardul and Pedro, founded his own real estate and development group.
He was assigned the responsibility of developing an area called Shastri Colony, and he knew that if all went according to his plans, he would make a lot of money for himself and his partners. The problem was that a local leader, Deshmukh Bai, opposed the redevelopment. He had certain demands, and Max simply wasn't ready to meet them. Max wanted signatures from the locals living in the area, but Deshmukh Bai made sure that no one signed the MOUs. Ashu saw it all and decided to help his brother and remove all obstacles standing in his way. First, Ashu learned that a woman named Cathy was blackmailing Max, so he made her his first victim.
Ashu manipulated her to the point that the woman took her own life. Max was somewhat relieved, although at the time, he didn't know that Ashu had masterminded the whole thing. Ashu started living in Shastri Colony and tried to understand the power dynamics in the area. He realized that Janardan, Deshmukh Bai's right-hand man, had some issues with her. He wanted a pay raise, but Deshmukh Bai wasn't willing to give it to him. Furthermore, Ashu discovered that Deshmukh Bai's younger son, Babya, was gay, and he could use this information to tarnish his image. Ashu confided in his brother and then conspired with Janardan to murder Deshmukh Bai and his eldest son, Surya. Afterward, he betrayed Janardan and informed the police that he had murdered his superiors to become the new leader of Shastri Colony. Max was very pleased with what Ashu had accomplished, although he didn't know the whole story at the time.
Meanwhile, Ashu also made sure to gain his brothers' trust by creating a wedge between him and his associates, Shardul and Pedro. Shardul and Pedro saw what Ashu was up to, but they knew Max had been brainwashed at the time and wouldn't believe them. Ashu went too far by asking Janardan and his men to attack him while he was returning home with Max's wife, Nisha. Ashu made it seem like Deshmukh Bai was behind the attack, as he wanted Max to take action against her. Shardul tried to fix things by confiding in Surya, Deshmukh Bai's son. Ashu didn't want that to happen, as he supported Janardan and wanted Max to side with him. He wanted Max to feel threatened and also to gain his trust by showing him that he had saved his wife's life. Ashu, at the time, didn't realize that all these tricks would backfire if Max learned the truth. His intentions may have been sincere; perhaps he really wanted Max to win the redevelopment contract, but to achieve this, he did things that put him in a difficult situation.
Pedro and Shardul were just waiting for the right moment and opportunity to expose Ashu. They wanted to show Max that he was a dangerous man who could not be trusted at any price. Shardul kidnapped Ashu and tortured him for hours. He demanded that he admit that he had been leaking information about his treatment to the police. The truth was that Ashu was in contact with DSP Leena Naik, but he hadn't leaked a single piece of information so far. In fact, he was trying to help Max, although his approach seemed questionable. Leena Naik often enlisted Ashu's help to extract confessions from criminals. Ashu was a brilliant manipulator, as mentioned earlier, and Leena didn't feel she had done anything wrong by accepting help from an ex-convict. It was Leena who helped Ashu when he was in prison, and the latter also accepted that had she not been by his side, he wouldn't have survived long. That said, Leena also knew what he was capable of.
So, after Shardul and Pedro kidnapped Ashu, they called Max and asked him to come to the right place. Ashu was smart enough to send his location to Leena Naik, as he knew his life was in danger. Max reached the spot and asked Shardul and Pedro to leave. Max realized that from orchestrating a fake attack on Nisha to creating a divide between him and his colleagues, Ashu was the mastermind behind it all. I think if Ashu hadn't escaped from there with Leena Naik's help, Max would have killed him without hesitation. Once Ashu understood Max's intentions, he decided to ruin his brother's life and take revenge for all the torture and harassment he had suffered.
Since Ashu knew so much about the redevelopment deal, he started giving all the information to Leena Naik. She told him about the fake soil report Max had obtained by bribing an expert named Chenoy (though Max had initially followed Ashu's advice) and how he laundered money through Nisha's company, even blaming him for Cathy's death. Ashu was a cunning schemer and decided to set a trap for his brother and his abusive friends. Ashu told Leena that Cathy and Max had made many illegal transactions together. Ashu warned Leena that if she or any other police officer questioned Pedro, Max Developers' legal advisor, he would likely crack and reveal information.
Ashu told Leena that to put pressure on Pedro, they should take him to the very house where Cathy lived. Meanwhile, he called Max and told him to meet him at Cathy's house. Now, Shardul believed he had his hands on the hook. He had no idea that Ashu had set him up. Shardul decided to go to Cathy's house and put an end to Ashu's story once and for all. He had no idea that, instead of Ashu, a police officer and his own partner were present at the scene. Shardul set fire to a gas cylinder, and the resulting explosion killed the police officer and left Pedro in a coma. Shardul was frustrated to the limit, and if he'd had any other choice, he would have killed Ashu with his own hands. But the man realized he'd fallen into a trap and had no choice but to accept defeat. So Shardul went into hiding, leaving Max alone to defend himself.
Once Ashu decided to destroy Max's life, there was no stopping him. Ashu realized that Nisha was a good person and unaware of half of what had happened in Max's past. Max had lied to her about being a civil engineer, about what had happened between him and Ashu, and she was completely unaware of the illicit activities he was involved in. Over time, Nisha began to understand that Max was not who he pretended to be. Once, she saw Shardul mocking Ashu, and was surprised to see that Max didn't intervene or think Shardul did anything wrong. Through Ashu's love interest Amy, Nisha learned that, back in the day, Max had harassed her brother in the worst possible way.
After the central audit board raided Nisha's company, Ashu called her to tell her what her husband was up to. She revealed that Max had only agreed to let her start her own company because he needed a front to launder his dirty money. The man laundering the money for Max and his partners, Vinayak, had raped a girl, which had drawn the attention of the police. Santosh Gaonkar told Max that he needed to find someone to help them launder money, and that's when Max came up with the idea of killing two birds with one stone. He made his wife happy by helping her start her own business, and on the other hand, he proved his worth to his uncle by taking care of all his dirty money. I think Max would have surpassed his brother, leaving Ashu with nothing to prove, if Nisha hadn't gone against her husband at the last minute.
In the Kankhajura finale, Nisha made an offer to Santosh Gaonkar and told him she could help him solve all his problems. She arranged a meeting between Gaonkar and Leena's boss, the police commissioner, and they all decided to make Max a scapegoat. Actually, scapegoat wouldn't be the right word in this case, as Max was ultimately responsible for what happened. The blame for the death of a police officer, the illegal appropriation of property, and the identity theft fell on Max. Ashu, on the other hand, was given the all-clear, while Max was put behind bars. Max was visibly hurt to see his own wife turn against him. In her testimony, Nisha spoke of how the entire redevelopment project had made her husband paranoid, and he had become suspicious of everyone around him. Nisha wanted to take care of herself and their daughter. After whatever she learned about Max, she had lost faith in him.
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