My dear Shyamala,
A wonderful segment and a beautiful write up by our eminent analyst!
I somehow found time to express myself in the form of Haikus!
Akka.
Folks,
Like railway engines do sometimes when switching tracks, let us begin at the end and go backwards. You will not regret it!
Pataalgram: Night
Nandini, stretched out on the mat next to Chandra, her head pillowed on his outstretched hand, ruminates about his soft side that he keeps assiduously hidden most of the time. She moves his angavastram and once more regards the deep burn mark on his side, the mark she now knows was inflicted by his foster father when he was a child. She stretches out her hand and almost touches it, as her eyes soften in tenderness.
Jaanti hoon, shaareerik peedha tum sah sakte ho. Parantu jo ghaav tumhein samay ne diye hain, kaash main unhein mitha paati!
I had noted , in my last post, while describing that madcap chase across their room, that when Chandra wonders to himself at the way in which Nandini's happiness gives him santosh, all unbeknownst to himself, he has summed up the very essence of love. Now, in wanting to wipe away all the pain he had ever suffered at the hands of fate, and if need be to take it all upon herself, Nandini too is defining, in a different but equally telling fashion, the very essence of love.
I found myself wishing that Chandra had woken up at the precise moment when she was looking at the scar of his old wound, and that she could then have summoned up the courage to repeat to him what she had just said to herself. But then their love story would have been speeded up by God knows how many episodes, and that would never have done for the CVs, would it? 😉
Instead, in a sudden realization of what he now means to her, she moves closer and cuddles up to him as she falls asleep in her turn.She has used him as a teddy bear earlier, but that was accidental, and it shocked her when she woke up. This is a deliberate, desired closeness, which is sought and cherished. Which is what makes all the difference.
Love blossoms 'tween them
Shyamala picturises
The Sylvan Idyll!
Instinctive empathy: Nor is this empathy that she feels for him something born of the moment. It is by now instinctive.
As soon as the two of them enter the old family hut at Pataalgram, Nandini watches Chandra's face cloud over and his eyes look veiled, as if he was hiding an old hurt (Rajat brings this out beautifully). Kanika's exhortation to him not to brood on the past - Puraane ghaav khurede jaayenge to phir se peedha denge...- puzzles her still more, and she scents something amiss. Her eyes reflect his mood and his sadness, though she does not understand either of them.
When she sees the scar of that old wound in Chandra's side while they are cooking, these half formed impressions probably resurface. The sudden surge of feeling in her eyes is striking, as she presses him hard about how and where he got that wound. She gives up when he dodges the question - Smaran nahin hai mujhe- but the subterranean sense of unease probably lingers in her mind.
She shows in her eyes
The sudden surge of feeling
A tender moment
This sequence is also remarkable for the way in which Chandra looks across at Nandini before sidestepping her query. The shadow of that old, ugly incident clouds his eyes, and darkens his soul all over again, even if only for an instant. It was a truly marvellous shot.
It is when Nandini finally learns - thanks to Kanika's unusually candid confession about how she had failed him as a mother in his childhood - about all that Chandra had suffered at the hands of his foster father, that the mystery of the old wound is finally cleared up for her.
With that comes another seminal understanding, of what it is that makes Chandra wary of love, distrustful of indulging his heart, and letting it drag him into a crippling emotional dependency on another. It is this vital new level of understanding that will shape their future relationship from her side. And it is the shared pain at the thought of all that he has suffered that leads to her Parantu jo ghaav tumhein samay ne diye hain, kaash mein unhein mitha paati!
The scar on his side
A reminder of his past
Her closeness to him..
Chulha kaand: It is tough to say what it was that I liked the best about this marvellous segment.
It could be the self exculpatory try by Nandini: Maine roti nahin jalayi! Wo jal gayi!😉
It could be the smart and aggressive comeback she makes when Chandra ribs her about having boasted of her cooking prowess: Karya hum donon ka hai na? To tum khade khade tamasha kya dekh rahe ho? Sahayata karo!
Or the childlike urgency and stubbornness with which she clamours, as soon as he has got the chulha going: Main bait thi hoon! Main karoongi! Main karoongi!! The way is which she dismisses his remonstration: Pehle seekh to lo!, with an even more insistent Nahin, aa gaya! Tum idhar aao!, as she ousts him from the seat in front of the chulha and takes charge.
Or the pleasure with which she receives his instructions as to how to make the roti, her hands, held closely between his own, rolling out the dough. Or the open affectionate admiration in her gaze as she asks him confidentially how he learnt to cook so well, and listens to his explanation.
(Photos kind courtesy of Sarika or skamunugama)
Affection and warmth which match his own as he looks at her smilingly, clearly enjoying this new adventure of hers as much as she does. For it is all as new, and as delightful, for him as it is for her.
Or her innate honesty which almost torpedoes Chandra's determination to give her the sole credit for all the cooking, and produces a small, shame-faced grin as he looks across at her while Kanika is praising the food.
Or the way in which she, a princess used to being served and waited on hand and foot, serves the food with grace and warmth and obvious pleasure. What we in Tamil would call kuduttana paangu, or in the manner of an accomplished housewife.
What is marvellous?
Their roti banana scene?
Or her waitress' role?
Saanjhi peedha: I could not quite understand why the two of them had to go from door to door seeking bhiksha, but I suppose it was because they are not producers of food here, and so have to seek it from those who are. It is noteworthy that Chandra will not take more than a handful from each house, and insists on approaching all the houses in the village.
Nandini is dead set on making up for the chulha fiasco and not being found in the least wanting this time. But when her folly in hiding that bad cut in the sole of her foot is detected at last, Chandra first dresses her down like a sergeant major, for he feels any hurt to her as if it was his own. Then he cleans and bandages the wound - a very painful one judging from Nandini's reactions - with careful attention and even offers to carry her for the rest of their round when she will not let him go alone.
Luckily, the RK Films logo moment that follows, as Nandini attempts to demonstrate that she is fine, thank you, is blessedly brief!😉
It is another matter that the CVs forgot all about this serious injury in a trice, for at the milking scene itself Nandini was walking absolutely normally!😆
Ghatak prahaar!: Now for the unquestioned piece de resistance. Everything about this bovine encounter is priceless, and the P should be uppercase. 👏
It begins with Nandini's unconsciously hilarious query Kahaan se? when Kanika tells her to get the milk, as Chandra is silently chortling with ill-suppressed mirth in the background. 😉
It continues in high gear as she tentatively approaches the cowshed, wondering to herself Duhte kahaan se hain?, while Chandra, lounging against a post and taking large bites out of a fruit, watches her uncertain progress with mischievous glee, and kindly informs her that one usually sits down to milk a cow.😉
Bovine encounter
Priceless with upper case "P"
What a Love(r)ly scene !
The ghatak prahaar by the supposedly gentle animal lands poor Nandini with her hand in gobar, and by now she has abandoned all pretence of being a pro at milking a cow. She is thus grateful when Chandra takes the matter in hand, and approaches the cow only when assured that it will be all right, aur phir main hoon na!
What follows, as Nandini gets her first experience of doodh duhna, and even more so of drinking milk straight from the cow, is pure delight. For her, for Chandra, and for the viewers, who are drawn irresistibly into the magic world that the two of them inhabit for the moment.
Their faces, close enough to touch each other, are awash in bubbling delight, as Nandini licks her lips and rejoices in how good the milk tastes, and her joy in these simple pleasures is mirrored and amplified in Chandra's laughing eyes and his wide smile.
Doodh duhna trial
We are drawn to the magic world
A delightful scene!
(Photos kind courtesy of Sarika or skamunugama)
This is not romance. This is something rarer and more precious, a perfect camaraderie of the spirit that, for the moment, has blended the two of them into one symbiotic, supremely happy whole.
I could have clouted Kanika when she turns up, most inopportunely, and puts a (temporary) stop to their idyll, 😡and Chandra comes back to terra firma with an almost physical jerk. But the magic still lingers as he remarks: Sach kahoon to bada anand aaya uske chehre par gai ka doodh maarte samay. And it would have been clear even to a blind man that Chandra's anand at her delight was no less than Nandini's.
Not just a romance
A perfect camaraderie
Blends them into one!
The rest:
Will come back later!...
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
