"We have fed the heart on fantasies...The heart's gone brutal from the fare!!" - WB Yeats
The epi was a hoot for two specific scenes which I watched thrice...Now, I am going to comment purely from how the narrative is unfolding before us.
Truthfully, yesterday it was difficult to look beyond Namik, uske ke Alava koi ya kuch dikha hi nahin mujhe šš. He was present in two scenes...with Ram and with Pushkar...He aced them!šš
A special mention becos that scene was difficult to do..He brought in the right amount subtleness to his posture, his voice modulation and delivery was at a perfect pitch.
Wow...that scene with Ram...beyond brilliant...the essence of Shravan...nichod ke rakh diya in that scene..
Shravan walks in pensive, he is yet to really process what has happened to him and Sumo, perhaps all he knows that Sumo went on to "thank" him for his deed...He is still trying to process what that means.
In that moment when Ram walks in and expresses sympathy, watch him...he is normal..stoic almost...then comes the proposal from Ram and fear is gnawing at him; it's like it's churning his insides so it's a struggle to stay normal...absolutely nuanced acting from Namik. Ram his father, who perhaps knows him well if not too well, senses his changed demeanour. So, he is quick to make sure that his son doesn't stray from the beaten path...yet what follows is an absolutely strange counteroffensive from Shravan..
When Ram begins his tirade, he is starting to feel the tension coil within, he knows what is perhaps to follow yet he is also firmly with his mask on so he does not react. The next instant, Ram starts bad mouthing her and u can see that highly strung Shravan can't take it anymore. When people speak ill of her, he just can't take it...he will react in a particular strange manner with loved ones and react violently with the not so loved ones . Hearing someone else say she is shrewd is anathema to him though it is something he says day in day out yet hearing it from anyone else is so unbearable that he shouts a NO...yet His MASK is still firmly in place. This is not a case of "only I have the power to hurt her"...no its not that...its something else...thats banal..this is painful...
Watch Shravan...He stops his father mid-way with a firm NO, which actually takes Ram by surprise (and the fangirls too,tho their joy is shortlived šš). Ram is dreading what is to follow. However, Shravan speaks the very opposite of the NO. What was that? Shravan's mission has been accomplished. No one can say anything against Sumo, after assuring himself of this, he just mouths the nonsense he has been telling himself for a long time to quell his treacherous heart that threatens to run away as it has always done where Sumo is concerned. His heart, which plays with his emotions every day as it has over all these 11 long years...it's like he will keep saying this and perhaps his heart will believe it one day and stop the avalanche of yearning he feels helpless against. It's perhaps a hope he lives in, that someday the pain of unrequited love will go away.
Now onto the scene with Pushkar...now it's familiar territory, this is his younger brother who he can be easy around, he can lower his guard a bit and that's what happens when he lets it slip that Aditya will never dare to touch Sumo again...err any other woman again...
The slip has happened, he recovers to make it about just any person. Yet Pushkar is not someone who is new to his equation with Sumo and so he ignores the cover-up and pats him for standing upto Sumo. Shravan receives kudos for being a true friend with alarm as the mask had slipped before his brother. The raw wound is again scratched at the mention of that dreaded word friendship...the knowledge that the bond he lay such immense pride on, today lay asunder, comes to the fore like a bad memory. He begins his tirade again. Here Shravan's spitefulness comes to the fore and his anger that Suman chose Adi over him; it's a real wound to his heart, even a heart that once tried so hard to even stay away from her.
He has perhaps tried every trick in the book. He stayed away from her for 10 long years. He plotted an elaborate charade to avenge his wounded heart, at times telling himself he has moved on, at times obliterating all the memories shared with Sumo, friend-zoning her, feigning ignorance( remember Jeevan), fighting with her and staying angry at times yet powerless when she comes to placate him. After a particularly difficult experience he told himself to deliberately stay away from her as she has a vice like grip on his heart( remember Jairaj) He has even flirted with hope for a life with her by gathering courage to express his love for her. He was thwarted by the fate in the form of Nirmala once and Sumo's marked indifference the second time around. The last straw on the camel's back was Sumo choosing Adi over him and displacing from the pride of place, a friendship that he hoped to salvage even as his love lay in the ruins. It turned vicious when he realised that it was not mere friendship that Sumo shared with Adi but love. The spitefulness got even more vicious when he realised that Sumo chose Adi, who was Nirmala's son. Yes, yesterday, the days before , in his harshness and vindictiveness, some real terrible things have been spoken which will haunt him. His actions have mutilated the bond of friendship he shared with her at one time and one that he wanted to have at any cost. How he is going to regret that His Sumo who can handle anything as has been his chant for sometime now but how his actions endanger that spirit of the girl he named Sumo for her fighting spirit...the spirit he fell in love with.
There is a French expression that aptly sums his state which I don't know if the English language can do in a couple of words...La douleur exquise... The heart-wrenching pain of wanting the affection of someone unattainable.
This write up is by no means a defence of his behaviour...just an interpretation of how the narrative is revealing itself...the character we know as our beloved Shravan..Sumo's Shravan.
Anupamaa
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