Art should be for Art's Sake. Not overt deliberations for business purposes.
The announcement of IPK-EJ arriving was proof enough of what IPK meant to its admirers. Like Akshay Dogra wisely recollected in his interview, it's the "fans" who made the show famous and even the minor, insignificant details of the show seem so crucial and worthy.
Whoever is behind the creation and promotion of the show must know this, and if they had kept this in mind, they would have served better, perfected manifestations of the show.
EJ resulted in a mixture of reactions. Just like how IPK was treated in its last few weeks.
While fanatics become blind defenders, realists take the heat on what EJ failed to deliver. One thing that must be remembered, do not get carried away by promotions that seem promising; they may not give you what you expect.
What is the best way to enjoy EJ: Keep your expectations low and, if possible, don't watch each episode immediately after it is uploaded. After all the eight episodes are out, watch them at a stretch. Because, frankly, that is what it is. It is one day, one episode, unwisely broken into fragments.
On perfection in acting terms, both Barun and Sanaya didn't really play Arnav and Kushi up to the mark, except in the rare moments when they were doing the ArShi thing. Arguing. *chuckle*
On the other hand, what we saw was closer to being a Barun-ified Arnav (so many fidgety movements) and a Chanchan-ized Kushi. Forget appearances; we've always accepted them in their worst and best of times. But acting matters.
However, the reason EJ didn't tone right is comprehensible.
It's like when an author writes a book, with specific characters, he/she sees and feels herself in them. When she writes another book, with totally different characters, it removes her entirely from the psychologies of the first characters. Such that, if she were, years later (after many other books) to pick the first book up again and write a sequel, it would not be as true to the details and she will mentally feel the difficulty of feeling the characters like she did in the first place.
This is the reason why many movie sequels fail. Sometimes, the actors, having donned many other shades, characters and psychologies, if asked to re-enact an old character, will find the ghosts of the other characters he played merging with his attempt. This is true in the case of both Barun and Sanaya. Both their acting was not pinpoint perfect to the characters of Kushi and Arnav. Logical.
The second and most important reason why movie sequels fail and why EJ was not satisfactorily delivered was because the ones who were behind the original creation were not there. And if they were, they too lost touch with the original show after having to use their mental faculties and skills for many other shows of different taste.
If there was a director or a scriptwriter who had been faithful to the particularities of IPK and was not adulterated in his perception of IPK by the other shows he worked for or other scripts she wrote, then he/she could have adequately steered the actors and guided them to be garbed in the psychological makeup of their yester played characters.
I still remember this picture with LM where he sits with Barun, telling him EXACTLY what he had to feel and display for the shot.
Every detail mattered to him. If you'll remember, after LM resigned from IPK for a brief time during the forced marriage track, the episodes were all slapdash, no one paid attention to the accessories and no one forced to maintain the appearance of the characters. And then, we see, perfection given to detail again, when LM was called back to direct the episodes of the remarriage.
I am not saying that LM is better than the other directors. (These are all suppositions and need not be true but then that is what we fans do, right? Take the facts and read into it?) But his signature was evident, and for him to attain that level of perfection, he must have had to shoot so many takes, consequentially tiring the actors and resulting in Barun's exhausted, sleepless looks during in some of the shots when LM was director. I have said this often during the days the show was running. Poor Barun's physique was not made to stand the strain though Sanaya genetically carries a healthy disposition like how Daljeet confirmed in her interview: how even when everyone in the Cast was drained out and weary by the end of the day, Sanaya would look fresh and unruffled despite having done the most number of lines and takes for that day. It's no one's fault, it's just the way they are.
Terminated abruptly with a cake sharing on Kushi winning the Mrs India title, IPK definitely didn't get the closure it deserved. It still doesn't on many accounts but that is why we have so many wonderful FF writers, feeding us the glories of what we were deprived.
Coming back to EJ, despite the discrepancies, the overdone flashbacks and the careless editing, if we were to watch all the episodes at a stretch and overlook the flaws in the details, a thematic reading into the wholeness would suffice an adequate enough closure.
Arnav doing an overstretched monologue is an attempt to bring a closure through metafiction. A technique that allows readers/viewers to say a more easier goodbye to something they had personally felt involved in. Metafiction allows you to remove yourself from experiencing the story in real time and review it like a gratified outsider and contemplate on the creation. And yes, it also gives his perspective of things.
A man who won't give in too easily and a wife who was, even upto the last Mrs India track, a little petrified of annoying her husband. The equation has to be a little different after three years of marital bliss: A man who has been smothered by love and become completely smitten with his wife. A doting wife who has been allowed to have her way and make him beg for more.
The occasion has been aptly chosen. The One Day of EJ. The Third Wedding Anniversary of Arnav and Kushi. A happy day that has the potential of becoming worse only because the couple in question are Arnav and Kushi.
Enter the love-struck Arnav bathed in his morning glory. Why couldn't the writers just keep him in that appearance for the whole of the Day? The damn hair gel, poured bucket loads, is truly revolting!
His wife is pouting. He forgot. Again.
He runs about trying to make colourful amends. And he even confesses that he never thought a day would come when he'd be seen in that awkward enough state. But what is he to do? He is madly, desperately in love with the lady who needs immediate appeasing. Or he won't be getting any loving for a week! *wink* All the while, amidst the preparations, because it's THAT day, he thinks back to everything that led to it. How they met, how they fought, how they loved...
Because ostensible justice is on Kushi's side, her husband having foolishly forgotten their anniversary, the rest of the family are on her side.
A healthy-looking, spine-grown Akash drops in with a gift and news of what's new in his life, mentions the beard that irks many in the fandom, slips out a secret and vanishes. A cheerful, independent Anjali calls up to wish him and sisterly taunts his clandestine memories of romancing Kushi. She is on both their sides and hence offers to do what he requests but at the same time, must have hinted to Kushi that she not work up a worry. Because really, it's not April Fool's. Anjali would not have managed to keep a straight voice when telling Kushi that her husband is unwell.
Concerned but too proud to admit defeat, Kushi dispatches the evergreen Mamiji. What a delight she was to the screen but if you have noticed in the episode, Utkarsha was also struggling to be true to her character's details and she is, by far, the one who nailed it the best!
So far, none of the other characters were missed out from mentioning, except for Lavanya, Aarav. (Not including Pam, Sim, the bodyguard Lal, Rocky, Rana, Shuklaji, Preeto and Happyji and I do NOT see Bubbly, Masala Mama and Sheethal as characters of the show for the haphazard intentions with which they were introduced into the clean plotted show).
I am certain whoever wrote the script, did sneak into IF and study how much we lauded the minor characters of this amazing show. A new faced HariPrakash is ever present. Payal is cited and so is NK. Mamaji and Laxmiji are also mentioned, both who vanished halfway through the original show. (Remember Lavanya calling her "mutton"?) Aman phones him, so does Nani and Buaji. Arnav phones Shashi and Garima and, the change in him is further cemented in the script, by making him refer to them as his own parents.
Kushi's attempts to get a sorry out of him lands in her final plan that exclaims her defiant departure to Lucknow. Without him. The Besotted Husband loses all hope of getting his lady love's forgiveness. He is not looking forward to tasting the bitter agony of her silent-treatment. But just as he has learnt to call Garima "Amma," he has mastered the art of apologizing. Recollect the episode in which he was practicing before the mirror to say "sorry", wondered how Di and La could say it as easily as breathing, and then made a wretched attempt of it by barking at Kushi until her grief made him express the most sincerest apology ever displayed on screen!!!
Back in EJ, his apology wins her heart. Knowing he must be in his puppy-dog avatar, she emerges from her hideout to fondle him when, all at once, his annoyance at her trickery breaks forth.
The kitten retaliates and the lioness slams the door in his face.
He realizes his folly, having let his rationale take over the exultant emotions expected of the reunion. His apologetic words seep through the door and begins to melt her bruised pride. And it can be safe to assume, she definitely wants to fling the door open and drown herself in his ocean of love.
Point also to be noted that the Eighth episode is yet to air. Barun and Sanaya had mentioned in their interview that they had been uncomfortable doing the romance scenes. Considering how no romance scenes of the uncomfortable sort have yet been presented, we can be certain that at least one little scorching Rabba Ve is incoming!
In the end, all the matters is it happened. IPKKD. ArShi. EkJashn. Everything that was wounded by the sudden snap of the show's end, finds healing. If the script, the acting and the editing are all thrown over our shoulders, what we are left with is the beauty of a perfect memory. No matter what the makers show us, we have a picture of a perfect ArShi and a perfect IPK in our hearts.
Look at it this way: EJ was just an attempt to make us understand that we are in power. The fandom halted the show and it was them who brought it to life again. A fandom that keeps increasing every day in every country across the world, as newer, hesitant hearts wander into the vistas of IPK and get trapped in the net of its magnificence.
Before EJ, we were still left in the dark, IPK being incomplete. But after EJ, the closure is attained and, the bitterness in our hearts (either because of the lack of perfection in EJ or because it is finally over), will never make us LONG for Barun and Sanaya to don the characters of Arnav and Kushi again. We know what a futile picture it would be.
IPK is sacred. It shall remain as it is and never be tarnished after this.
But we can dream and work to get the WHOLE cast together for another show, with a plot and an array of characters completely different from IPK. The heavenly chemistry all of them share is simply unbeatable.
IPK has run and reached its finishing point. Pedestalled in our hearts, it must be revered. Remembered. And sometimes revisited.
It will always be there. In random conversations and in occasional dreams. In our infrequent memories that may get tickled when something in real life reminds us of an episode or expression and makes us smile to ourselves.
ArShi will live on. Dancing through VMs, smiling at us in FFs, romancing in the gif images. Many will move on and find other obsessions. But IPK will remain a beautiful experience that they were happy to have shared in.
So, before this final goodbye goes out and I return to my FF set in magical Arhasia, I give my love to all the post-makers during the days IPK was on air, the excited hearts, the spoiler bringers, the analysts, the appreciators, the bashers, the MoDs, SBS, SBB, the cast, the crew and, most of all, my dear friends who have read my posts in the past and those who will be reading this.
The impossible has been made possible. After three long years, a few shots were added to the original IPK and it is now, roughly, a 400 - episode goldmine.
And to top it all, the circle is complete. Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon has been given a name at last.
Their love is, indeed, a Jashn. A Magical Celebration.
Of Family.
Of Friendship.
Of Goodness.
Of Humour.
Of Music.
Of Love.
So remember. And relive. Arnav and Kushi are waiting on your desktops to entertain you always.
Sampoorna
Bindi
Hindi TV Shows
