Originally posted by: sanfan
The text for Shivam (a godsend...another cupid u guys haven't thanked) sent to Shravan...reminded me of a quote "Actually no, my post wasn't about you. But hey, if the shoe fits, wear it"
While I thought about this...which one of the two players does it fit...Sumo or Shravan? After all, these are the protagonists...Sumo definitely but then I wondered that was making the screenplay very obvious...and these writers seldom do that. Then it must be Shravan...how so?
Yesterday, Indrani and I had a discussion on conditionality in love, well nearly (the subject is difficult to pontificate on so we left that for another day) but our discussion was largely about whether the younger Shravan was more mature than the older Shravan. To all intents and purposes, it seemed the younger Shravan seemed content with friendship and the bounds of that bond. (if there is one!)
This came about in our conversations as it has suddenly become apparent that post Jairaj...there is a different Shravan on display. So for a person who talked about that wonderful ehsaas, friendzoning and all...he was showing up as proper loverboy..He seemed to cloak that loverboy image in alternating avatars...a friend asking for sev bhaji, Sumo's special dal, and preeti bhoj reminders and at other times blowing hot and cold at Sumo. So the question was has the adult Shravan changed some paradigms in the letter he had written to Sumo ten years ago? After all after the three questions that he asked and the answers which he received from her made him call out as a special friend, not otherwise. What if she had not answered in the same way? Would he have still termed her as special? (this was Indrani's question)
My response was the jury is still out on this one...One way is certainly the way it is put above. True, he may have gone back to friendzoning her (in the terrace sort of way or the "moved on" sort of way) if her answers were anything else . If you see, her answers that day may have disappointed Shrav the lover but it gladdened the heart of Shrav the friend. So, in effect, Shrav still knows the rules of friendship. Atleast that is what we thought so.
The other way to look at it is he was finding answers to questions that has really troubled him. Has she ever cared for him enuf to look back? He did not stay on to the last time to know that. So these answers were important for him as a friend primarily. That the pitch was queered later by the Jairaj Pandora box is another matter...and an important matter and will come to that as we discuss conditionality
There was a sense that Shravan's love for her has not yet reached the same level of maturity or intensity which he had in the past. Probably, it also lacks innocence. And when this mother-son is united will he realize how his love was maintaining scores or the fact, that he has fallen short of his own very image?
Again my response to this aspect is we are usually a product of our circumstances, Shrav left with a lot of bitterness...and in many ways, the way he reacts to Sumo even now is as a 16 year old. Shravan's love for her has not yet reached the same level of maturity or intensity which he had in the past. Yes...in the past, young Shravan was content to be her friend if Sumo could not think of his overtures in any other way. True...amazing maturity from a 16 year old who knew that Sumo was careful about image and so he worded his love in a way that would be palatable to her without ruffling feathers but can we say he did not hope for more?
May be , maybe not...so the point I am making is that he carried with him a hope larger than the framework of his letter even if the trigger for flight was Sumo's abuse of the vows of friendship, which is why the boy was very hurt and could not forget that in the 10 years. However, was it loss of friendship he rued more or the loss of his dreams as a young lover or the lack of acceptance as a friend? I cant answer that for sure. Someone may say If it was only friendship that he rued, he would have been happy when he got it back on the terrace...we were all sure he had become happy. However, that happiness has been muddied somehow...why? Shrav's boyhood hopes have not changed...only they have verbalised. He is at the stage where he wishes to know his pecking order in her life...be it as a friend or a lover. So it is difficult for me to classify Shrav as immature because his questions have not changed largely. I would call him a man frozen as a 16 year old where Sumo is concerned. He is as mature or immature as he was as a 16 year old. Upto us how we box him as a 16 year old. He did not grow up and yet he lost his innocence, a paradoxical thing...
Loss of innocence is also part of the growing up process. What is the innocence Shrav has lost? He lost the ability to move ahead...He moved on only in the material aspects of life. He lost the ability to grow emotionally, among other things. He lost the ability to separate the behave of a 16 year old and 26 year old.
The point of conditionality in love...and its ramifications...It is a very difficult subject. Well...love is meant to be unconditional. NAJAYAZ FAYDA...and relationships are meant to be mutually exclusive terms. Yet, a simple text of account closure brought out the "beast" in Shravan. To appreciate that...it would be necessary to be in Shrav's shoes yesterday.. His need to lash out at her for his pain at her hands seemed the only thing apparent but Red rightly pointed the Other side of me. He felt being taken advantage of yet he had crossed some boundaries...some unwritten boundaries in the friendship stakes that he had clearly overstepped. The conundrum facing Shrav is not easy. He can lash at Sumo for making him wait and taking advantage of him as a friend but what can he do about his lonely heart that would forever wait for her, because he is helpless against his treacherous heart that has involuntarily crossed the bounds of the bond he seemed to be satisfied with if all else fails.
Thank U, Indrani for the shoving and prodding questions...without that the thoughts just don't occur to me...Thank U Red for that incisive push with the use of absolutely beautiful key words...The other side of me...we all have that don't we...Devil's voice or Devil's advocate...today conversations with the Devil seem to be the flavor of the day...Enjoy the conversations...Happy to have figured as an angel there...but let me just say I am just a romantic fool wanting these two idiots to walk hand-in-hand into the sunset...
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
