Hi all. A trip out of town meant that i was MIA (missing in action, its an army term and no, i did not learn it from lrl 😊)... had planned to write an analysis about today's episode but then i got a request for an analysis of earlier episodes, so thought i'd start with Monday and work my way to Thursday over this weekend... all of this is very good for my ego, i must say 😉 😆... everytime i get a request for an analysis, i walk two inches above the ground!!! Aaj kal paaon zameen par nahi padte mere....
Before i start, a special thank you to Master Blaster, for posting the videos so regularly... you're the life line of all tv less, SAB less and wandering souls like me... thank you! But the video was broken, or the editing of the episode was bad... i think there are things that i have missed in the middle.
So the cadets are going to 'revolt'... well this is not a noble cause... revolutions have happened for freedom, for 'liberty, equality, fraternity', for the right to vote, for the right of a nation to not go to war (Vietnam), for the right to think for oneself, decide for oneself.... why are these cadets rebelling?... they are fighting for a teacher they love.... but it occurred to them after the teacher asked them to...until he told Naina specifically, it did not occur to them to rebel, though they were upset about the punishment .... i do not think fighting for another is wrong, i do not think fighting against an unjust punishment is wrong, i do not even believe that every rebellion emerges after internal cogitation, sometimes it is simply being carried away by rhetoric and is externally motivated... here, however, i think cause and effect is askew.... the effect 'revolution'/rebellion, is not proportionate to the cause.... the circumstances under which the punishment was given and the circumstances under which the challenge about the rebellion was given were too trivial for this reaction... I refuse to believe that someone as sensible and mature as Capt Rajveer would tell his students to rebel simply because he thinks Abhimanyu deliberately insulted him.
Anyway, to come back, so the cadets have a 'mission' to accomplish... and they begin by messing up the mess... Abhimanyu comes in, recognises the problem and provides a temporary but effective solution, close the mess and get food from outside for a week... it shuts the students up and saves the situation for the time being.... i think Gaurav does masterful scenes well... telling people what to do, handling things on the spot.... he conveys the right facial expression and body langauge for that... it requires a certain aura of command, a certain arrogance... and he shows that well.
Then they let loose the waters of the institution.... (on a completely irrelevant note, please save water and do not use plastic bags)... I still have to read the fan club and many topics, but I've been told (in PMs again!) that a lot has been written about the repeated shirtless scenes that our boy wonder is made to do... first, my reactions to the scene: i thought what Gaurav did well, or rather what emerged spontaneously, is that it is strenous to stop a gush of water... it was easy to see the force that he was exerting, through the straining of the body... the dialogues could not be heard above the water though, and while this may be real, it makes for tedious television.
As for repeatedly making an actor an object of a sexual gaze, i think it stops working after a point of time... ideas of sexuality and of what one finds attractive are personal, and my idea of sexuality has never been greater visibility... so i've found other scenes more sexual, more attractive than this one... whereas this was more drama and conflict... the heightened sense of conflict took away any undertones of suggestiveness that may have otherwise entered the scene... while watching it, my instinctive reaction was 'what is he going to do now?... how is he going to handle this?... can Abhimanyu dole out punishment, suave soul that he used to be?'... i use the word 'suave' deliberately... there is something crude about punishment and it comes with difficulty to people of Abhimanyu's nature and his inheritance ... given the environement he has grown up in, it may be easier for Abhimanyu to be cruel rather than crude, to punish through silence rather than dole out institutional punishment...
Abhimanyu again responds with a certain degree of efficiency... lockdown is again an effective though temporary solution...
Then comes the attack on Nair's office... and Abhimanyu declares that the cadets are rebelling, that this is deliberate... well said and well acted... the face firm but blank, no overt anger, the firmly set jaw, the posture with the hands on the hips, the straightening of the body and the thursting ahead of the chest... i dont know if it was done consciously or unconsciously... but the way he stood there, it is an aggressive, attacking posture... finally... i've seen a pleasant Abhimanyu, (initial episodes) i've seen a worried Abhimanyu, (about Naina, Naveen, himself and what not) i've seen a 'wallowing in self pity' Abhimanyu (the whole i'm not good enough wala binge) i've seen a fighting Abhimanyu (during the appraisal, when he was fighting for his self esteem), I've seen a hurt Abhimanyu (when the cadets refused to befriend him, scriptwriters, i'll never forgive you for doing this to him) i've seen an exasperated but helpless Abhimanyu (when he punished Capt Rajveer)...i'd seen a glimmering of anger when he had accepted Capt Rajveer's challenge that a student rebellion would be quashed... but even that had a playful, mocking, half bitter edge to it.... but finally i saw an angry Abhimanyu... out and out angry, ready to fight. And when it comes to doing an intense anger, who does it as well as Gaurav?... he was controlled because he was in front of Nair... but the way he stood there, i went 'who is gonna save you now?'... again, there was no direct dialogue about Abhimanyu being angry, nor was this deliberately conveyed through the face... it was just in the way he stood. And for me that is very good acting, that is where the excitment of watching him act comes from.
And if the anger was intense and controlled at this point, it became a cold, sarcastic, biting anger in the next scene with Capt Rajveer.... I loved the scene, loved the acting.
Education is all about setting the students free of teachers.... the day a student does not need a teacher to do the thinking for him, your job as a teacher is done... teaching is actually about eliminating the need for teachers... (again, personal view).... so i have a problem with blind hero worshipping of any teacher... at the same time, i have a problem with enforced authority too... i think that sometimes it is necessary to break benches, to visibly rebel... (though putting cockraoches in food strikes me as silly and pointless)... but not every fight is justified and here i think this is not. So i agree with Abhimanyu when he says that these students cannot reason for themselves, have no minds of their own and therefore their education has failed them and they have failed their education.
Anyway, the scene begins with Capt Rajveer happy about what his cadets have managed to do so far and asking Abhimanyu to surrender... one question to the scriptwriter: surrender what?... kis baat ki haar maan le?... should he say 'yes you are a better soldier'... he has already said that in the appraisal... he said that you are the best and i want to defeat the best... should he say 'i am sorry for punishing you'... but it is Nair who punished Capt Rajveer.... Abhimanyu was just threatening to take action, it was Nair who said solitary confinement and Abhimanyu actually did not like that.... scriptwriters, you have seriously lost it... i couldnt figure out what Capt Rajveer wanted to hear at all...
Also, there were some jerks in the editing... when Capt Rajveer walks to the tap to fill water for Abhimanyu, the expression on Gaurav's face was different... i thought i saw the beginning of a smile... which i thought went well with a sarcastic anger 'you may say all of this, my friend' kind of thing... but then there was a close up and his expression has changed entirely, now there was hurt, even a certain vulnerability perhaps (yes, I've officially lost it) and Capt Rajveer said 'No water, no power'... incidentally, when did the power go?... then as Capt Rajveer went on speaking, there was a lowering of the eyes, a chewing of the lips... and as he looked straight into Capt Rajveer's face at the end of his dialogues, the anger was back, but again not overtly so... it was still controlled... then came the hint of a smile, more a relaxation of the face actually... not an actual smile... and then in an even, calm voice, he began... that you have indeed trained them well, you control their minds... again, there was a slight pause in the middle of these two lines when his face had a pleasant expression which actually increased the effect of the anger... right before he said 'really'... and then when he said you control their minds, he used his fingers to gesticulate trapping, to suggest control... I'm happiest about that becuase thats exactly how i use my hands and fingers while speaking 😃... (kya kicks hai jeevan mein!)... as Gaurav went on speaking, he stayed calm, focussed, controlled, almost pleasant... (the lines were also very good)... i went bonkers over the scene and loved the way he said 'impeccable'... vocabulary sudhar rahi hai... shaayad mere posts regularly padhne se 😉 😆... the only thing that jarred here was when he said 'be prepared'... i think i may have something here... i did not like the use of the fist... body language works for Gaurav because he makes it look unconscious... you feel that this character could have stood in no other way, etc etc... but when it is made very visible and background music is added to it, it loses its subtlety... when he made that fist, i actually thought he was doing a better job with his face... didnt really need to divert attention from it.
Then came another mood of anger: the visible display of public anger for institutional purposes... using threat, punishment and bribery, while also trying to reason with Pooja by telling her that any damage to the academy cannot go unchecked... here the volume of the voice was louder... this was more a display of anger than anger itself... there was a banging of the drawer as well, for greater effect... also, when sensing a weakness, going after it... explaining that any break in discipline needs to be punished... again, in the body language (which was more at ease, less tense but also more irritated), in the facial expressions (inka kuch nahi ho sakta was my fav bit), in something as subtle as the volume of the voice, the difference from the previous scene was established... way to go!
Thats it... this has become a very long analysis... couldnt help it... when i watch a video, i end up doing longer posts and more minute by minute analyses... all thanks to the pause button. And my being talkative has nothing to do with it. 😛
See ya tomo... have fun!
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