Posted:
I have mixed feelings about tonight's episode.
The revelation of Dev was disappointing. The performances were flawless, but they couldn't carry the screenplay in the sense that the issue of Komal's husband was downplayed which made the performances seem exaggerated/overdramatic. I could tell that the gambler concept was developed last minute because it made no sense.
- Why would Krish call his father bad? He was about three years old when his father was killed. I'm quite certain that a three-year old kid wouldn't understand what gambling is.
- Why would Krish draw his father as a black force?
- Why would the experience make Komal emotionally detached from people?
- Why would Raghav take it personally when women are assaulted?
- Why would he be such a vigilante? We all recall that his first scene was him beating up some goons because they eve-teased a girl.
- Why would he be this involved in fighting corruption and law?
- Why would this make him end up on the streets, threatening the police?
- Why would he have ended up at his mother's ashram? [He mentioned at one point that he was helpness and the ashram became his sanctuary.]
Point is that the gambler concept doesn't explain anything. In fact, it seems like a toss-in to end Raghav, Komal, and Krish's tracks before the big leap. What I fail to understand is that if they cared enough to show flashbacks, to hire a well-known actor [who, I think, was promised a lot more than a gambler past when he was chosen for the part months ago], and if they were going through with the gambler concept anyway -- then why not make it convincing?
For instance, they could've shown that -- because of the pressure of being the perfect son and gambling and losing money -- Dev became stressed and aggressive. Started drinking as gamblers tend to do. Started taking drugs, maybe. Got involved with drug dealers, and the stress of that and owing money made him aggressive enough to shove Komal or slap her in front of Krish who then experienced his father as bad.
I mean, really. With such an overused concept [gambling], they could've still saved it and linked it to everything else -- Raghav's dislike for men disrespecting women, Komal's odd detachment from people due to Dev's abuse [verbal/emotional abuse of her when he was drunk/stoned], Krish seeing his father as a dark force who destroyed their happy family.
Honestly, I would've preferred that this revelation had never taken place rather than what they showed, because in my head I imagined it a lot better and at least I would have been able to pretend that whatever happened was something much bigger than what was shown, something that was fair to the characters, did justice to all the layers that the actors have given their characters over the past several months.
Kher. What's done is done. Something that I've learned by now is not to expect anything from the show.
>> Pros:
1) The performances
They were flawless. If one ignores the weak script and pretend that the issue was a lot bigger. Neha was brilliant. Harshad was outstanding. Sumukhi was mindblowing. Yash was awesome. Sriti did her part flawlessly.
If anything salvaged the episode for me -- whatever could be salvaged -- it was the performances.
2) Raghav's inner turmoil
Fantastic performance.
What I loved about the scene was how he held his tears in his eyes throughout. I mean, it was awesome. They were brimming with tears, but what made it so painful to watch was how the tears didn't spill and it gave you this feeling of being suffocated.
Beautiful.
I especially loved his dialogues on "Why me? Why am I always the one to hurt her?" And how his self-blame/hatred and pain at never being good enough shone through.
3) Gayatri's soliloquy and the end scene
The end scene salvaged most of the episode. When they were all there for Gayatri. I liked how Sia wasn't a part of the hug, because that would've been too weird. This was a thing, a moment between Gayatri and her children.
Gayatri's entire soliloquy was fantastic. Sumukhi delivered it with such pain, self-doubt. I liked how she questioned whether she'd failed her children, whether she was as just and flawless as she'd believed herself to be, whether she'd ever known her children at all, or given them the comfort of knowing that they could tell her everything.
I would've liked a private moment b/w Gayatri-Komal and Gayatri-Raghav though.
>> Cons:
1) Wasn't too happy with the directing in the flashbacks
Self-explanatory. It was anti-climax all the way.
2) On the whole
I'm just going to address this one thing as a whole. I'd like to add that we don't know what kind of pressure the team of SB? is actually in -- especially with the leap.
But I need to vent. Ye be warned.
I am frustrated. I'm not going to pretend that I'm not. We're all frustrated. We waited nine months to see V in prison, punished, out of the frame for a while [not removed, but at least at rest for some time]. We waited almost five-six months to see Raghav/Sia in focus, their relationship development, their journey independent of V [because regardless of how V will always loom in their lives, there are aspects of their relationship/characters that have absolutely nothing to do with him].
We waited months in the hope that Sia's healing process would be shown, given fair screen-space, a full-fledged track [because what was shown from the time of her escape was not, in any way, a track dedicated to Sia's psychological journey, and I can list numerous examples in which V was given much more importance and many more tracks centering around him rather than Sia's psychological journey post escape -- TRPs might have dipped, but it wasn't because of Sia; it was because of how pathetically her character was handled as well as how much they kept focusing on V, in my opinion]. We waited for months, hoping to see a track for Raghav, independent of V, in which his past would be revealed gradually, not rushed and squeezed into two episodes.
I, personally, waited months to see Komal's character growth and how she revealed the truth about Dev, how her relationship with Krish would be explored, what dark secrets both held on to, and how the revelation would crush Gayatri's perfect idea of her son. I wanted to see Gayatri deal with it, over a period of time, to come to terms with the truth, to overcome the crack in the relationship between Komal and her that would naturally appear when she found out that Komal kept this from her, and also her own conflicted emotions toward Komal in the wake of it.
All of this has been lost to me. Why?
Because of a leap. Because of the "rebirth" of V and how he's about to turn all the colors of a rainbow. Because of this, all other characters have become sacrificial lambs in the TRP game. Funny thing is the belief that V is so high drama that nothing else can garner TRPs but his high maintenance character. Larger than life? Did anyone ever care to make the other characters larger than life? Because they hold the potential to be.
For such a small and skinny girl, SJ wields the talent and Sia holds the potential to become a warrior. HC wields the talent and Raghav holds the potential to become an unconventional hero with the kind of emotional struggles and inner conflicts that'd make him a flawed hero, relatable, and one of those you'd want to love even through his mistakes because he can show vulnerability, self-blame/hatred, and utter remorse. Because he's a tortured soul. Gayatri holds the potential to become an unconventional mother/saas who is as much a survivor as a power woman. Komal holds the potential to show a woman who has become so emotionally detached from people that no one can breach her wall, not even her son. She feels pain and she loves, but to display affection doesn't come naturally to her, and she has her own demons to fight with.
How can they overlook the potential other characters hold to carry the show as well? Is it because story progression must be solely connected to V's character. Dependent on V's character -- while V on the other hand is given independent tracks, i.e. his past with his father will most likely be explored to its fullest, given max screentime and whatnot. Even the leap will prove in favor of V's "rebirth" as a character, whatever redemption might be in store for him.
Anyhow, I needed to vent and I did. Not like it's going to move any mountains. Sometimes I do feel that my opinion as a viewer of the show is just that -- an opinion. It doesn't hold much value nor will it change anything. And sometimes I wonder if maybe the channel and CVs are more biased than the viewers.
To sum it all up; watch the episode for the performances. Nite, peeps.
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