Warning - SUPER long post.
What two monumental episodes for RiKara.
There is a lot to be talked about the episodes. First..i LOVED how it took time for it to play out. If Omkara said his side of the things yesterday, Gauri got today's episode to put up her side of the case. This was an misunderstanding which had been between them for the past 8 months and frankly I can't find another way to clear it once and for all.
Getting to Gauri later on, first I want to talk about Omkara.
There's no way I will defend or justify his accusations. He was wrong, period. He had constructed an entire story based on two words. And then he chose to end it all as per his fancies without bothering to find out whether he is right about his interpretation or not. SUCH an Omkara thing to do. But not justifying it doesn't mean I don't understand where he came from. It's messy and ridiculous but that's how humans are.
Methinks Omkara is the only character in the show whose atrocious actions are actually backed up years of abuse that he suffered. It does NOT make him a precious cinnamon role character who needs to be protected by all means i.e. brushing off the abuse HE does as okay. But it does provide a good character study. Let me just talk about his elaborate confrontation that he had planned for Gauri.
I read a lot of opinions that said that Omkara was being "jealous at the thought of Gauri being with Arjun and hence his anger. I'd like to differ from that. Omkara wasn't acting out as a jealous, possessive lover who was planning an elaborate revenge on his lover for deceiving him. Karzzz nahin chal rahi yahan pe. Omkara was acting from a place of total hurt.
"Bohat gehri chot di hai tum ne mujhe..
His hurt wasn't her deception. His hurt was his realization that he lost something that could very well be his own version of happy ending'. Yeah...the whole "mujhe dhoka mila pyaar mein uwaan uwaan was a factor but I'd like to believe that his utter rage wasn't at just that. Before Gauri disappeared for 15 days, Omkara was well on the way to confessing that Gauri was his life's most special person. In Omkara style he was slow and hesitant but he was moving there. He was being patient, he wasn't missing chances of talking to her, he was opening himself to her even when all her doors were shut. He was trying to accept a relationship for himself that has never really been a source of happiness for him. That takes time.
Then the past comes up and all his past insecurities come crashing over him. Omkara has been used and abused by the people closest to him. His mother has emotionally abused him. His father keeps emotionally abusing him. His girlfriend used him for her own benefit. Omkara doesn't have a LOT of relationships to boast about to begin with and even within them half of the people haven't really done him well. Gauri was the one person who he saw as someone who was the one who WOULDN'T do that. When he realized that his initial assessment about her was wrong, Omkara had subconsciously put Gauri on a higher pedestal than him.
And the pedestal broke.
That's the thing about the hurt caused by bad incidents the feeling never really goes away. When someone hurts you, even if you end up forgiving them and being happy with them, you don't really forget. Whenever the memory of that past hurt resurfaces, it still stings. Which is the case with Omkara. Except it doesn't just sting him, it burns him. He had to deal with the fact that the woman he thought wasn't like the ones who selfishly used him turned out to be just that. Plus he had to deal with the fact that he was once again on the of being made a joke out of because Gauri so obviously was going to leave him for some other man. Or even if she didn't, she was playing him for a fool by carrying on with her two-timing right under her nose.
Omkara is often said to the Tej in his relationship with Gauri. And he was. The way he abused Gauri..that was a Tej thing to do. But Omkara is also a Jhanvi. The woman who put ALL her faith and loyalty in one person and ended up being hurt cuz of it all her life. Omkara is both his parents. If he has Tej's ruthlessness, he also has Jhanvi's loyalty. And both these things clash. Jhanvi wasted her life away by remaining foolishly loyal to Tej because she didn't have the backbone to break free. Omkara's loyalty to Gauri was turning out just like Jhanvi's. Whatever nameless feeling he had for Gauri it was so strong and overwhelming that he couldn't possibly feel it for someone else. She saved him both literally and symbolically. How do you move on from that?
Except..he is also Tej. Had Tej been treated by someone the way he treated Jhanvi, his reaction would've been different. The Tej Singh Oberoi with all his almost god-like power..THAT Tej wouldn't have just sat back and let the other person have his way. No, he would've lashed and attacked BEFORE the other person had the chance to deal their final blow. That's what Omkara did. Instead of sitting around waiting for Gauri to reach at the point where she could leave him and ONCE AGAIN prove Omkara's thoughts right that he can only be abused in the name of relationships..he chose to break her. End her game before she has a chance to play. And be free and revel in the glory of his victory. VERY Tej thing to do.
Well that all spectacularly failed.
If we take his lashing out in these context..his atrociously ugly words still remain atrocious and ugly but they start making sense. WHY did he say what he said. Once we know that we can have a better understanding of his character even if we hate it. As much as Kunal Jaisingh was BRILLIAANNTTT in the entire scene with his micro expressions that changed from disgust to soft gazes of a lover...Omkara was horrible. He demonstrated his obvious flawed theory about human beings being either black or white and he refused to consider any other alternative for the situation. Sure, Omkara had progressed a lot in terms of how he treated Gauri but his OWN personal view about life and people hadn't really changed, had it?
This was necessary. For Omkara to spew ALLL the poison that he had inside of him. For him to say every pathetic shitty thing he could say about the ONE person who was actually above and beyond all that. Had he not..all of it would've come back to once again rear its ugly head and make him again go on the path of self destruction. Cuz honeeyy really..there's no way Omkara destroyed anyone but himself in his side of things. ONCE he had tried to let go of his misunderstandings without getting full clarity and that didn't do him any good in the long run. Now he will have all the clarity for him to last his seven generations.
Because on the other side, there's Gauri.
Compared to Omkara, Gauri's side of the story was pretty straight forward. There wasn't much to decode about her words because unlike Omkara, Gauri has never been a big mystery to us. Unlike Omkara we have had more clear insight to her character.
A lot of eyebrows raised when Gauri came back with this new mission of confessing her "love for Omkara. I admit even I was a bit surprised because when did that happen? But then upon thinking..well, it had happened a long time ago. In one of my ramblings on the blog I had said that there's nothing stopping Gauri from loving Omkara. She doesn't have mountains of issues to deal with before she gets ready for love. In fact her patnidharam is also a way of her showing love to Omkara. Patnidharam could make her do many things but only to a certain extent. Gauri had passed that threshold long back.
What was more surprising was the timing. Before leaving she was all, "Hamare sehen karne ki shakti khatam hogayi hai.. to Omkara, giving no indication of being the first one to take the step this time around. So why the sudden change? Well..it looks like Gauri's line of "aapko humse break mil jaega came back to bite her in the ass cuz Omkara ka toh pata nahin but the break did wonders for her to realize what the relationship means to her. She had no idea what Omkara was thinking in her absence. In her head she was thinking that she was going back to the Omkara who was desperately trying to make things work with her. The one who was patient with her. The one who confessed in poetry for her. Had he been the one waiting for her on the other side of this "break, her surprise plan of confessing in English would've been quite a sweet thing for them.
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Queenie using her English to first surprise Omkara into stopping and then basically killing him right on the spot as she told her side of the things was a beauty in of itself. But I'd like to point out with neon signs to the fact that Gauri's entire confession was so...simple. She started by introducing herself. Then she brought him in the story. She even gave her Shankarji a mention because who IS Gauri if not for her bond with Shankarji? She stated that she loved him. She stated that she hoped he'd love her too. Simple girl, simple story, simple wishes. Which is IRONICAL really because there's nothing SIMPLE about her journey to this point. Girl has killed and died to be at this point and look at her saying, "I wanted you to love me the way I do.
Omkara was too stunned to see her speaking in such clear English like this that his only reaction was to ask her when did she learn English. But the realization and the complete weight of her words fell on him like a mountain that broke over his head when Gauri simply replied, "Seekh li. Aap ke liye.
That was the first slap.
Waise toh the entire scene was a brilliant experience but the thing that had me SHOOK was that vision of Gauri's Shankarji coming at her back as Gauri says, "Hum galat insaan se pyaar kar bethe. THIS is symbolism done right. Gauri's faith in her Shankarji has been her most prominent point. She was introduced as that. And after all this time, that has been the most consistent thing about her. I just read a friend say on twitter that Gauri's faith isn't a social obligation, it is actually a spiritual connection that she shares with Shankarji and its true. When Gauri turns to her Shankarji she doesn't do so because religion hai and we are drilled in our head that we have to turn to god in our times of need. No. Gauri turns to Shankarji because that's who she is as a person. She hasn't made Shankarji as her first one to turn to in all situations because someone told her to. She has chosen Shankarji as her everything by her own choice.
So HOW would he abandon her?
It was her Shankarji which set her on the path that ultimately led her to marry Omkara. When she was at the crossroads, Shankarji LITERALLY told her which road to take. Gauri was so quick to accept Omkara as her husband because he was the man Shankarji chose for her. Who was she to deny her Shankarji's decisions? Her patnidharam also stemmed from this. Now consider this. The SAME Shankarji who chose Omkara for Gauri was there when Gauri was breaking all her ties with Omkara. Goodness! Even Shankarji is #TeamGauri!! He was there at her BACK. Urging her, giving her strength to see through her decision. Look..it is super easy to term Gauri as regressive because she has all this faith in her god. Her "vishwas is often an easy thing to mock. But have you considered that her "vishwas that might make humans judge her can actually make her her god's favorite? Because she definitely is. Why else would a god, a religious figure who is ALL about sustaining the relationships like marriage, would stand behind Gauri as her support as she broke the very same ties her god chose for her? Cuz even her god knows that she is special and she deserves to be treated such. If the man isn't ready for all that so be it. She has the right to break free from him for the time being.
Another thing of beauty is how Gauri didn't break HERSELF free from Omkara. She chose to set HIM free. Omkara's words yesterday about "sab khatam hogaya didn't really mean much cuz really Omkie? Who are YOU to say khatam hogaya? You weren't even in the relationship for half the time. It had been Gauri from day1 who was dutifully faithful to the relationship even when you insisted of never giving it a name. So if anyone who has the right to decide the fate of this relationship, it's Gauri.
And she exercised her right fully.
Once, back in the glory days of RiKara I had said that these two are each other's mirrors. They reflect in each other and they tell the other what they are lacking. Yeah..things didn't exactly turn out like that but I got reminded of this today because of the way Gauri very clearly told Omkara ALL his flaws. Starting from the beginning to the end..she very aptly reminded Omkara that he had always been the one to misjudge her. She pointed out the grandest loophole of it all he can't ALWAYS be right. How can it be that everytime HIS judgements are right and she is wrong? Omkara in all his self-righteousness never really considers other options. Gauri is the other option. Her greyness makes it impossible for her to be categorized as black or white and that baffles Omkara. Now that gives him a choice; to either believe in the best in her or think the worst of her. And if Omkara always chooses to consider the worst in her then really...does that make Gauri the wrong one or Omkara the wrong one? The answer is quite obvious.
I had talked about the "tone. The tone that would decide Gauri's fate when she opens up her side of the story. And didn't that tone do wonders? Nowhere, not once, was she trying to clear her position to gain back his favor. Nope. HE had lost HER favor and she was only telling him why. She didn't mean to give him any chance to see the error of his ways and make amends. Nope. Her "tone didn't allow for any of that. There was finality in her tone.
This is my truth.
Nothing came after that. He said his side of things, she listened. Now she has to speak and he HAS to listen. GAWD! When she MADE HIM LOOK UP and face her when the utter shame of his patheticness made it hard for him to even look up, she was demonstrating the conviction of her finality. This is the only time she was going to speak after being quiet for MONTHS and he better listen to her every word.
If I go into her every word and give my reaction for it toh this already long thesis will become longer. And I doubt anyone has the patience to read all that. And personally I am a little tired to get into all the details as well. So Imma just finally point out the ONE performance choice that Kunal and Shrenu made in their take on Omkara and Gauri's snapping.
The complete and utter lack of malicious physical contact.
It was easy. SO EASY for them to go down the path of being physically hysterical. What was stopping Omkara from manhandling Gauri in his rage? He has done it before and for something much less hurting. What WAS stopping Gauri from slapping Omkara? She earned that slap! Maar deti..koi kuch kehta? But nope. That's not RiKara. That's just..not. Omkara, when it became too much for him, hit his own chest to show his hurt. He didn't extend his pain to Gauri like that. Gauri when her rage was at its most helpless peak clenched and unclenched her fists and stomped the ground because it was becoming too hard for her to breathe but she didn't even poke Omkara's chest in an accusatory manner. The most she did was touch his chin to make him look up. And then it was back to her own sphere. Even when they are fighting like this..they can't let go of the development that they have reached. If anything physical will happen..it will happen with consent. Khud se na marna hai ya pyaar karna hai. And it might not be a very big thing but I can't get over it.
The Shiv-Parvati parallels for them...MAY they never end. A religious baba coming in and telling Omkara what to do...wallaah yaas yaas yaas!! Bohat hogayi baatein ke Omkara and Gauri are like Shiv-Parvati. Bohat hogaya buss Gauri ki taraf se apne Omkara ke liye jatan karna jaise Parvati ne kiya tha. Ab Omkara ki baari hai. Badlo bhes aur jao manao apni Parvati ko. Wo maane ya maane..wo uski raza. Tu buss..kiye ja.
Jaise wo karti ayi hai.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
