In all the discussion about everything that went wrong, I forgot to mention one tiny moment that connected real well with me.
When RNJ gently teases G about being disappointed over not seeing his best fried at the dining table...he is so good at turning tables on people and not just in moments fraught with sensuality 😳
He drops his royal reserve only with G...even with RM, it is most often the King with the son peeking out rarely...like when she threatened to shoot herself or when they were talking about selling Mor Pankh..
He is himself with G...and that is a beautiful thing...I think G uses her teasing as a technique to get him to drop that reserve...she does not want the King coming between her and her husband...she does need to realize that the King needs to stay in public...that apart, it is really nice to see their interplay...but it would be nice to see G reflecting on this sometime...she is reacting to the obvious but somewhere missing the nuances to her husband's character...would be nice if the script brought these out...
G is being painted in very broad strokes...I want to see more shades to her, more insight and more depth...to register that her playfulness with RNJ is a means to an end almost...not in a manipulative but in a nice way..!
Sid's dialogue delivery gets staccato in the monologues at times. Hope he works on that. Personally I am happy if they can even do away with monologues because an actor's face is as much a tool as his voice...not everything needs to be spoken...
I also feel that it is more misplaced guilt than love for Sulakshana that is driving RNJ. When he spotted the bangle, he recalled the promises made to her about preserving all her possessions and himself too exclusively for her. The flashback moment showed him handing it over to G. It was like a broken promise. Even if being faithful to a dead person is kind of illogical, the fact remains that it was this promise that was the driving force in his relationship with G initially. He held her responsible for making him break his promise and was determined not to confer Sulakshana's rights on her. Now when he was finding himself being taken over heart and soul by G, Sulakshana kind of manifested herself through the bangle and sent him on a guilt trip for breaking all his vows to her! We all have self images that we cherish and often, it is not such a nice feeling to have it broken. RNJ prided himself on being a man of his word and now a promise made to his dead wife was coming back to taunt him over having broken his word!
He is not confused about G. He feels very strongly for her and quite obviously, he wants her real bad. There is no conflict there. The problem is only in his ability to deal with past reminders or rather the guilt associated with broken promises. It might seem stupid even but then, who said the human mind is rational at all times!
At the temple, he speaks sadly of the shadows of the past on his relationship with G, about how his past memories are manifesting themselves and blocking his path to the future...! He is helpless in the face of this guilt that seems to surface every time his past memories manifest themselves before him! The king stood as a helpless husband before the Goddess, asking her to show him a way out...! A way out of this maze of guilt that trapped him right when he chose to act on his conscious decision to take the relationship with G to a physical realm. It was not a response like during the dori scene or the jewellery scene but rather a conscious effort to initiate intimacy on his part. It was not just the flesh but the mind as well that was involved in the decision and the effort.
When he looked inward hoping to find a way out of the maze that he seemed to be stuck in, it seemed that there was a light at the end of the tunnel. He rushed towards it, subconsciously hoping to see G's face. What he got instead was the face of his guilt! And he was not happy to see it! For it was not the way forward he sought!
He categorically told the Goddess that he wanted answers to the questions plaguing him...the most important of which was how to deal with this guilt and purge it from his system...
I do not see any confusion with his intent...only that he has hapless in the face of his guilt and needs a way to resolve it in his head...
Now, it could even be intuition...considering the conspiracy being hatched, maybe some inner sense is warning him of the troubles ahead...
Either way, I am increasingly convinced that the creatives are somehow headed towards the breaking of Sula's image...since that is the most obvious and the most comprehensive way for him to be completely guilt free!
@arshisfan
Agree with most of your observations...some many things could have been done better but unfortunately, we can only process and react to what we see...I am happy to read between the lines, happy to read expressions and not listen to monologues but I cannot be asked to recast scenes in mind...that is asking for too much...in their race against deadlines and fight for TRPs, writers cannot forget the basic passion that drives the story...that which has gotten us engrossed and discussing it in detail..!
Edited by BertieWooster - 9 years ago
Book Talk
Current Affairs
