Posted:
OMG have you guys seen the episode yet! What a bumper Monday to treat us to, after such a tedious weekend. Episode after episode (for this third week in the running now) since I got hooked to this show, I find more promise, and more potential in this show.
But no, this is not to be my phangirl rant raving about this new found obsession ☺️ .. here's my post for today.
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Momentous Monday! I'm going to tag today's episode hence, because of the many nuances of meaning on the word momentous! Yes we all knew Gulaal was coming back soon enough - but already, whoa! And this way or that - we figured she would not come back in style - but boy were we wrong?! Gulaal in today's episode bore every iota of her element as we have known and perceived her. She was the sacrificing, do-all-good, yet stand up for what is right/herself no matter who it is on the other side - yes, the entire package of Gulaal the strong willed protagonist who inspres this series was delivered in the space of a single episode - 10/10 for that!
Kesar - Interestingly, without coming out as the central awe factor of today's episode (because Gulaal was so bent on stealing his limelight, poor guy 😆 ) Kesar too displayed the many facets of his character. Trust this young adult to present paradox much of how faith and doubt coexist; or how love and obsession coexist; or even how guilt and relief coexist; and of how to get the last word, in the direst of lost battles!
But no, my post is also not to restrict itself to mere character analysis today. I actually want to do, exactly what my title says - reading between the lines - especially in the showdown preceding curtain-drop for the episode tonight.
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When she said alone in the dark hour of the lonely, misunderstood night, looking up to Vasant's picture - it was evident enough, that Gulaal had made up her mind. Just as most of us had expected, in the name of mass welfare (trust Gulaal, trust Gulaal - because she never fails this one feat 😆 and while we're at it, didn't I say mommy dearest would leave no chance to put her daughter under guilt guillotine?! Trust her too - no one can shut up that woman, and every time Gulaal goes on her gyaan baantana modes, I blame her genes 😆 - and now without digressing further...) So basically Gulaal goes back to the house which she tells Kesar was a part of her very being until now, because he has now managed to separate her soul from her physical being, and it no longer resides in this house like it did all the years - good and bad. If you're wondering, yes, Kesar was extremely hit by her harsh words. But what was he expecting, anyway?! On a side note, it was interesting to see how confident Kesar was in telling Sudha bhabhi that Gulaal would come back, and how it took only moments of counter arguments for his face to display wavering belief. Again, in the scene of Gulaal's return, Kesar displayed his self contradicting personality disorder (I swear he suffers from one!) when he was overjoyed by her return, and even named himself to credit (Atta boy! Don't you wish?! 😆 ) and even when Gulaal had just begun launching her tirade against him, he couldn't help relief from washing over him in a mild smile as he declared that everything would be alright now that she was back. Then came phase two, where Gulaal elaborated the precise circumstance of her return, in front of the family first - blaming him for snatching from her the last remnant of passion she had held from her old life of once upon a time - which had survived in the form of her dedication to this house - by making it a jail house for her, where she was only present on bidding, and would only obey and perform. He flinched at that, he was saddened, but I reckon, her presence was still too overwhelming to be dismissed so soon.
And finally came the bedroom confrontation. Beginning with Gulaal setting up Vasant's picture on the main mantle - almost as if she was setting him judge of her life and its circumstances as they would be there on - a difference from the times before, when he was her motivation, her guide, her secret and only confidante. This time, I truly found Vasant's presence in that room as that of an overlooking judge to decide who and what was wrong and why. Like she was justifying to him the 180 she had made in some kind of underlying cynicism, of where her life had brought her; and subtly at least, almost as if she accused him of leaving her to this world! [Nothing spoken or thought in this light by the character herself, but in my perception, Vasant's presence in her life has a brand new role hence. Sometime in the future, in the coming together of Gulaal and Kesar, I see the presence of this very picture, and this very judge in it, releasing her from her past in a way that it would always be a art of her, but not something she has voluntarily held herself captive within. That however, is prediction for another day...!
Back to the room, Kesuda enters. I call him Kesuda here for a reason. The big boy garb of Kesar which he's been braving and flaunting all these days was not his shield today. Yes he has lapsed back to his 12 year boy phase with Gulaal in the week past, every time he has thrown a tantrum for her to return - but today, the return of that young boy was a different sight. Yes he loves her, and he has told her over and over again - of how it is not infatuation, not obsession, but a pure mature feeling that he can't do anything about to change! So what is it, that Kesuda really makes of his love? Or expects from it, to be precise? He told Gulaal that he had always seen her as a wife, even when he didn't understand it, from the point of deeyarvattu. So what does one expect from their wife? Gulaal gives him the rudest shock of his very existence by throwing in his face the same arguments, by presenting her person as his wife, in his bedroom, for his benefit. In clear words she tells him she will submit to him as a wife to her husband in every sense of the bond - and naturally, it repels Kesar intolerably. She asks him (rhetorically) if it wasn't the entire reason of his obstinacy - if this wasn't what he wanted! And of course Kesar denies vehemently. He loves her, and he wants her to be with him, around him - how could she think of her Kesar in that obscene manner? His love is pure... and she is misunderstanding - kya main ita giraa hua hu? cheee!
And he walks out on a broken Gulaal - his guardian, friend, confidante, and wife.
Question is - Gulaal projects the entire man and wife deal to him in its blatant truthful image and it repels Kesar. Why? He is disgusted with himself, and with her perception of him in that way, why? Is it finally g)oing to occur to him that what Gulaal has been tagging as paap is this! And the entire feeling of violation she was subjected to with his confession, had nothing but this man and wife bonding written all over it - of replacing Vasant in her life, as her soul mate, and as the only man ever? As Mota Bhaa once said - Kesar has not thought this over. He's not the kind to think before action - and perhaps Motabhaa's question of who it was that he was punishing will finally make sense to him in its big real picture. He's been asking the world, and Gulaal, what is so wrong about him loving his wife - but perhaps just once he ought to have thrown that question at himself. I'm not saying Kesar is wrong to love Gulaal (far too much team GK phangirl for that, ever!☺️ ) I'm only saying Kesar makes a habit of thinking in parts only. For a decade he tormented himself wondering why Gulaal had betrayed the family over Vasant's murder mystery - but he was so focused on the betrayal, that he saw nothing else in the periphery, shutting it all out stubbornly. Then, again, when he agreed to married Talli, he was focussed singularly on hurting Gulaal, and proving his point - nothing else in the periphery mattered, including collateral damage Talli herself! And yet again, his realization of love for Gulaal was like a horse's view of the road it travels. It's most like Kesar, to analyze his problems, and come to solutions hence - but looking at each issue as if it were a monochrome. On the other hand, we have often discussed how Gulaal has been his anchor - the person who understands this restless over reacting side of him, and knows just how to deal with it - and with her becoming an integral part of his problem, there was no longer the guiding light of her person.
Finally, at this reality check from Gulaal - Kesar shall have to, sooner or later, ask himself how he loves his wife - whether his attachment is purely a need that he doesn't know how to live without, or can grow into the love a man has for his woman. Because sooner or later, that question will rise. Gulaal had said that their relation would remain pure as ever at the altar of deeyarvattu - and somewhere the word pure has come back to haunt her - it shall in time haunt Kesar too. [the idea of Vasant the picture judge sounds very good at this point 😆 ]
On that note, I'd like to add that a part of Kesar too lives very much in the past. One second he's the grown up boy who can now exercise feelings of true love; the other second, he is the little boy married to an older woman (the widow of his brother at that) who he adores so utterly, that the intensity of his attachment to her blinds him to reason. While I have nothing against his love for Gulaal - and would very much like it to evolve into what a husband has for his wife - I have to admit, he's a long way to go. Interestingly, even as all of us discussed Gulaal's long time in coming around, we missed this side of the argument totally even as it seems the most obvious thing now, and full marks to the CVs for bringing it out!
Finally on to Gulaal - eh, no, I'm still not done, sorry?!
So here's the question that will face her, eventually. She told Kesar that she was back, because he had left no other way for her, to save the honor of her two homes. But let's try to recall what Gulaal is like. Here is a lady, who refused Dushyant in deeyarvattu and went on to perform the ritual with a mere underage, because her dire situation needed her to. Drastic measures can never be put past Gulaal. And if she had to avoid coming back to Kesar as a wife as staunchly and determinedly as with Dushyant - she would have found a way, however improbable, however ridiculous, and however shocking! So what's the difference in her situation now? Both Dushyant and Kesar in their places have made the grave error of confessing their love for Gulaal - who believes herself eternally committed to one and only. In that light their offense is equal. Yes, Dushyant has murdered her husband, which is not a blemish in Kesar's trackbook - but hey, Dushyant was always the bad guy, and Kesar was always her Kesar. The hurt element should be exponentially higher in the latter case. Although these are vague terms to equate, I say that if Gulaal could eventually come around to forgiving Dushyant, accepting him as family, and even respecting him enough to recommend him as Sarpanch, she is sure someone telling Kesar she can never forgive him. Thing is, somewhere, without realizing, Gulaal has returned for the one task she left incomplete - making a man out of Kesar that the world, and Vasant would be proud of. She is too hurt, vulnerable, and prejudiced atm to see this - but if she ca enter his bedroom and throw it in his face to own her up like a wife, and fulfill his demand - she continues to trust him to be the boy he once was. For can you imagine Dushyant of a decade ago, and Gulaal pulling off this exact same stunt with him? And getting away with it? Eh... not really! Point is, that even as she repeats her lost respect and honor at Kesar's hand (just like he continues to go on about how he loves her) she still trusts him, and deep deep deep inside (deeper for her to delve into atm) he is the one in that house who holds an exclusive place in her heart - that only he does. Like Kesar cannot replace Vasant, no one can replace Kesar. She doesn't understand this, forget trying or striving to - but the day that it does occur to her hence (God and CVs know how that will happen) Gulaal will have embarked upon her one way to recover relations, recover life, and set herself free.
Phew. Yes, now I'm finally done so you guys can wake up! 😃 I loved today's episode, not just because we got a GK scene - which was as always much awaited - but because the scene itself held so much within its multiple layers - with potential to unfold into many dimensional forward tracks. Of course, Mansi and Neil were excellent as always - oh good actors are such a delight to watch! - and well, I couldn't let today go without a ramble post 😆
So there - be sure to review/discuss/like - or show your presence in whatever ways you know best!
xx
JZee
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