Hi all. I've been off gallivanting on the pretext of the conference but am back now after an amazing trip .... for further details, PM me 😉 😊. I have missed a lot of episodes in the interim but thanks to IF managed to catch up on them. Thought i'd do one post instead of several.
Just a few asides before i begin: A huge round of congrats to Shweta for becoming Abhi's princess.... what with one princess and several wives, Gaurav is definitely going to be jailed for polygamy 😃 And for once, he does not have my sympathy at all.... bhugto tum apne karmo ka phal 😆
2ndly, this show has to be the most tacky one that i've seen regularly or written about.... that entire red flag thing wasnt even unintentionally funny.... i cant even say 'good intentions, bad execution'.... any writer who writes 'bhagodon ki ghanti ke paas ek laal kapda chod aana' has no good intentions to begin with.... cant say 'what were you thinking' becuase obviously you were not thinking at all. Though to be fair things did improve a bit as they went on.... lots of small touches that i liked, not just by Abhimanyu/Gaurav but also by the show as a whole but cannot talk about them individually since this post would then become really long.... will mention one though: the cadets scene, where they talk of how they came to be here, was well done though the light on/off thing was irritating because it was too fast.... needed to be slower.... and perhaps Priyanka should have stopped doing it at all when she was speaking....effects of skillful use of light come on their own, dont need to be forced by constant repetition.... the best use i have seen of this effect in Hindi films was a scene in Dil Se.... but thats another story 😊
And finally, there is absolutely no logic for the cadets behaving the way they did....they love Captain Rajveer a lot and thats great.... but they have never been mean people.... to suddenly show them as being so mean, so thoughless is very unfair to their characters.... koi consistency jaisa kuch hai ya nahi... parson aalekh ka tilak ho raha tha, yudi was praising Abhimanyu in the hunt.... suddenly they are all ignoring him, puja was comparing him to Akshay Kumar.... kuch reason dikha dete iss cheez ka.... aise hi randomly they start.... uffffffffffff!
Ok, back to the analysis... I'm going to do this by breaking it into two:
Abhimanyu: Yes Abhimanyu, especially in the first three episodes that i saw, is insecure.... unsure of his place in the world.... unsure of his ability to occupy the place where he is.... and i love him for that!! Honestly, if you were to ask me right now whom i prefer from Gaurav and Abhimanyu, I would say Abhimanyu.... unlike Samay..... Samay's passion was thrilling, but in real life Abhimanyu is my ideal guy.... charming, tender, passionate about music... and finally a believer in non violence... something that i believe very very strongly in.... and jealousy, insecurity, possessiveness....these are very familiar demons.... i've struggled with them and still struggle with them from time to time.... and i do feel that all of us struggle with these demons regularly or once in a while.... and that the interesting stories are not of the people who never feel these demons inside them but of those who feel deeply, are deeply jealous or insecure, fight it, learn to live with their own selves and grow as human beings in the process.... good and bad are all relative and i'm happy that Abhimanyu is a little bit of both, though i love the character precisely for these follies, for these failings.... makes him a challenge for Gaurav the actor by adding newer layers to the role.
But here's a moot question: Can such a temperament survive in an army?... Realisitically speaking, no. How has someone like Abhimanyu made it so far?.... Army training is structured in such a way that it instills unthinking obedience.... everything else is secondary to that.... 'yours not to question why, yours but to do and die'.... and from an army's point of view, i can understand why unquestioning obedience is necessary.... because it is that which enables survival in critical situations.... when there is uniformity of codes, it is easier to put one's life in the hands of another.... it is easier to kill when one thinks of it as following an order rather than the taking of a life.... i have read narratives of soldiers which say that the nation becomes an abstract concept after a long time at the borders, in the trenches.... after a point, one is fighting simply for one's brother in arms and one's officers.... but as an individual, i am also deeply uncomfortable with the idea of unquestioning obedience.... the army is something that i have very ambivalent feelings about... deep respect for those who embrace it unflinchingly but also a fear of what it does to the human soul.
To come back, Abhimanyu is in that sense a very ambitious character.... i do believe that there may be many soldiers who do not believe in violence... but then that needs to be better etched.... how does his philosophy work in his day to day life for instance.... is that the reason for his being in special intelligence rather than combat?.... but what the team behind the show seems to have forgotten is that one cannot start by showing a character's philosophy in crisis.... one has to establish the character and his philosophy first, then show the crisis.... warna it becomes confusing for an audience... because they see the philosophy/character through the prism of the crisis only...
I also find the teacher student relationship very interesting.... teaching requires a certain kind of persona.... there are borders that are very uncertainly defined.... and for people who are friendly and approachable, who try not to enforce the heirarchies of the teacher-student relationship out of reasons personal or ethical, life can be very difficult at times and students can hurt with the things they say and do.... again, it is an interesting battle..... to remain true to who you are while still winning respect.... lets see how Abhimanyu negotiates this battle.
Gaurav: When i go off for ten days and enjoy myself thoroughly, i forget just how good an actor Gaurav is.... ok this sounds deluded.... what i mean is that i know that he acts well and i enjoy watching his work.... but i forget the little touches, the sudden rush of excitment when you're watching something that shows that thought was put into it.... like all great art, for instance.... you like a certain painting or a movie or a book but when you see it again or read it again you are reminded of all the little touches that you had forgotten.... of the multiple levels at which you had reacted.... sometimes you find something new, sometimes you dont.... sometimes you dont like it.... or like it for different reasons this time round.... similarly, when i saw the scene with Major Nair where Gaurav was silent.... saw pain and insecurity and a desire to believe in the easy answers that Major Nair was providing... as well as resistance, a residual disagreement, a kind of obstinate doggedness to not agree.... emotions very contrary to each other and portrayed without dialogues.... and then the final closing of the eyes to indicate the inevitability of whatever was being said to him.... the excitment of watching good work, good art hit me all over again.
Of course, i reminded myself that he is back to being intense.... and that is his domain.... i want to now see Gaurav do something like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill.... diffidence.... intensity but veiled under layers of being unsure about one's self and being in a situation that turns your comfortable world upside down.... intense without ever deliberately being so.... that would truly demand versatility from him. Ab mujhe yeh dekhna hai.... chalo Gaurav, lag jao kaam pe 😊
Ok, have just discovered that i have only two more episodes to catch up on...courtesy the indian cricket team.... i always knew supporting those guys would benefit me someday 😛.... am off to watch them.... hope they are equally interesting.
Anupamaa
