Today's analysis comprises of both yesterday and day before yesterday's episode, so it shall be slightly longer. I request you all to bear with me. This is the review, my take on 4th May's episode.
This was a very long post.. so I had to break it up into chapters. Please bear with me.
I shall deal specifically with two questions, one which bothered many of us:
First, Sumo's love, her feelings are now out in the open but, Shravan's on the other hand, is more that of a friend. So, is Shravan in love with Sumo or not? (this question also plays out in 5th may episode as well... so the discussion will continue)
So, let's begin. In day before yesterday's episode, we saw Shravan discussing with Sumo about his family problem and on account of that his decision to leave for London. This is what we do even amongst our own friends, rite? We discuss hoping that they could see those details which we had missed out. So, by analogy Shravan and Sumo are no more than friends.😉 Yet, look closely two weeks back Shravan had refused to let her be a part of the family scene (court case) and had just replied "ei mere family ke bare main hain" and now go back to what was happening yesterday.
Even if we forget about this, the problem itself vanished or rather, receded into the background. What remained is only them, no Pushkar, no Chachi.. only one question voiced ever so softly, agonizingly by Sumo.. why you? Why would anyone have a problem with you? Why should you leave? Shravan and Sumo.. that was all there in this scene.
Also, two noticeable images evoke certain other meanings
They are shown sitting together on the stairs. Dante's famous description of stairs as symbolically moving upwards or downwards the plane of life was ever so beautifully expressed in this scene. Their friendship, their togetherness will lead them on a plane where surface, superficial understanding will not suffice. Cut to Preeti's and Sumo's interaction... she will not stop him yet this is what she wants fervently because it is not for her, it is for him. He should move up in life. She would not be the obstacle, she will let him free. (Yes, she does hide the passport in yesterday's episode . . . shall discuss about it in the next chapter) Think also, why Shravan returned from the airport. Was it for him or for her? ❤️
Stairs are also, invariably images of journey... their journey ever so complicated and needs constant revision. To label it as love or mere friendship is to miss the point.. see them as reaching somewhere... the goal yet distant but felt or dreamed of. He had once dreamed and she is dreaming now... will those dreams and hopes meet? (Also, the stairs image did bring to mind two other stair climbing scene. Once, when they were kids climbing towards their secrets (secret... which they only know) and second, Shravan climbing on the stairs to meet Nanu after ten years (and the rekindling of their friendship).
The second scene, one of my favourite yesterday... they are standing outside the door (in the beginning they were just at its periphery). Cut to day before yesterday's scene...Shravan was again standing outside the door, outside the frame of that cozy family circle. And see, or rather feel the difference. See, the way he turned when Sumo called... why did he? What was he waiting for? His decision was made, wasn't it? If Sumo's love was there explicitly, Shravan's love was to be felt in silences, in those pauses, in those unsaid whispers.
In the beginning when they are at the periphery of the house, again the image recurs that of stairs.. you can both enter or you can leave... the fact that he turned for her.. will give you the answer. I will not discuss Sumo's line of Mujhe farak padhta hain... much better analysis have been done on it than I can ever manage... I will concentrate on the phone call made by Shravan early in the morning. It was ever so casual and yet.. our sexy lawyer wanted to hear her voice, wanted to see that nothing is wrong with her. See the smile on his face when she say replies as only she could have done.. without any pretence, no Chachi like or anyone for that matter. She was real and his smile broadened yet he was afraid of how to lay it before her that he was leaving for London the next day. He didnt want to hurt her, he wanted to enact the friend's role he has been practicing with perfection, of late. He failed completely. That small pause and that lie (he got it cheap) should reveal to us the extent of his love for her. He was trying to best to maintain the faade... yet Sumo's rejoinder... meri dosti to sasti nahin hain... must have hurt him. But recall, few weeks back when even a 6 crore cheque failed to win her dosti. And then also, recall the follow through of that incident. Answers all there...😛
Next question, was Shravan right in leaving? Was he acting mahaan? No easy answers out there. Did he as Sumo said take the easy way out? Was he sacrificing for his family? My only answer is to question why he did what he did. And the answer was imminent in that scene when he hugged Pushkar. Pushkar, his brother who can only see truth, can also, tell him about his own mistakes but was in this case, probably not able to act upon that same truth. He was pacing, frantic and when he hugged Shravan, the answer was all there. He did it for a greater truth... love for his brother, for his father whose defining theme has been family. His brother who had no clue to pursue what he perceived and acknowledged as truth left it to his brother to decide it for him. And the brother who had missed his mother's love for years allowed that love to overpower him. Is love wrong? Is it a lesser truth?
Have you ever told a child a lie to bring a smile on his face? Think about his father if he would have been told that his family, his love for his family is all make believe? If by maintaining a faade, Shravan managed for the time being ever so slightly to bring peace, was it so wrong? Cut again to that sad scene which we had discussed earlier, when Shravan was outside the frame of that family.. and also remember his smile. A child who for the last ten years had never known what it meant to have a family saw and felt that motherly love even when it was not for him, would he allow that to break up, to be ruined for ever? Because someone was clearly in the wrong... ethically and legally as well, should he call it a spade as a spade? Chachi also, whom he did not like or admire as much as other members of his family... he felt for her. Why? As a mother whose presence was constantly missed in the life of this young man, the answers are all evident. You might ask but he did go against his family for Sumo (court case). True, but again why did he go? Apart from Sumo being the centre of attention in this case, Sumo was also that Truth which as Pushkar rightly said cannot be disguised. Sumo's struggle was not only for a material possession but for a memory.. memory of child for her mother's truth.☺️
I leave you with these thoughts.
Think about them and do post your responses. They are much awaited.😛
And finally, move to the next chapter which contains yesterday's episode's review (5th May)
