The story is that of love, family, power, morals and heart. The story is about choices, between ambition and peace, between Inheritance, birthright and Humanity, duty. From the first page, Kunwar Maan Sinh is shown as a prince who is making all the important choices of his life, in consideration of one thing: The throne of Devgarh.

Maan Sinh Devgarh is going progressively blind, and he marries Samriddhi because that is what he needs to do, to secure an heir for his throne, preferably, before he loses his vision. Samriddhi Gohil is pushed into the marriage blind and at first, vows to do wha is expected of her, be the puppet of the royal family, the meek Gandhari, without the blindfold.

But Maan doesn’t let her turn into a puppet, tells her she is not made for that life and he is right. The love of Maan and Samriddhi, the partnership that builds brick by tedious brick every single day, is what changes the story at the root. 

Love, foundation to everything good in Maan’s life, even if he didn’t think he would have it at first, makes him a better person. Love, something Samriddhi didn’t think she would have in this relationship, inspires her to drive into a storm with her husband by her side. 

Love, camaraderie, trust and mutual respect drives them both to be better, better people, better humans, better parents and eventually, better rulers

In the original epic, Gandhari had closed her eyes to the world and its injustices in light of the injustices that she had been put through, leaving vultures like her brother, the king of Gandhar, Shakuni, to take her whole bloodline to the path of total and complete annihilation.

Samriddhi’s brother, shrewd politician, ambitious man, Lalit Gohil is not “The Shakuni” but he is the Shakuni of this narrative and his ruthless ambition is clear as a sunny day to Samriddhi. She warns her husband to take Lalit Bhai’s advice with a grain of salt and her instinct, impeccable as ever, does work.

Besides, she has help from Hukum Giriraj Singh, the Steward of Mewad, who turns out to be the voice of reason both Maan and Samriddhi are willing to listen to. He becomes the conscience of the couple when everyone around them refuses to see and show reason.

And that changes the stakes. That lays down the choices, ruthless scorned crown prince, Dhritrashtra, not quite blind just yet, tries to do better, be better, for her, for himself. For their family. Maan chooses to leave his pursuit of birthright, chooses to let go of years of training, chooses a life of peace over a life of paranoia for his children.

Maan knows the man that blind ruthless ambition drives him to become, and he never, ever wants to become that person again. So, he chooses not to be the man his partner saw, the man on the verge of plunging into darkness and his choice, eventually, makes him the man worthy of being trusted.

Because at the end of the day, the story is about choices, good or bad, happy or sad, easy or not. Choices brought Mahabharata upon a bloodline centuries ago and choices prevented it for the family of Devgarh in this masterpiece written by Bhavini K Desai.