Hi all. A broken modem, a crisis in a friend's personal life... a variety of reasons meant that i could not write my reactions for three consecutive episodes... but then can i ever rest in peace?... will probably go on babbling even after i'm dead... so here i am to do what needs to be done. 😊
Well on tuesday Abhimanyu packs his bags and is ready to leave... there was a montage of all Abhimanyu scenes and i really liked that... i have said elsewhere that in the representation of Abhimanyu there has been a shift from the non intense to the intense.... and those who have thought that this shift is a figment of my imagination, please watch the montage where it is very visible... I miss the old Abhimanyu... i think non intense is more difficult to do well, though frequently intensity is considered good acting... while i always fall for intense (samay being proof of this), i also feel that non intense endures, its more likeable. After all, Darcy and Heathcliff must have had days when they came down and asked 'So whats for breakfast today?' 😃
Then he overhears what the cadets have done... well, by itself, the 'gift of the magi' idea, i.e. selling something closest to your heart, is not a bad one... but when it becomes 'maine apni bhains ko bech diya' and 'i broke my piggy bank', it becomes stupid instead of touching... within the melodramatic framework, it had the potential to be much better... it did not work for me emotionally because a) storywise, none of the cadets felt this remorse on his or her own, b) no cadet acted so well that this lack of the storyline could be forgotten and finally c) the dialogues ruined whatever remaining chance one had of emotionally connecting with the cadets... i mean piggy bank?... seriously?... couldnt they have shown instead that she sold something that Naveen gave her.... at least would have made it poignant.
During this scene, Gaurav stood outside... inscrutable, evaluating, considering various things...but finally Abhimanyu walks into that room... why does he do so?... i have discovered in the course of writing this analysis that my personal opinion is that he does this because there is nothing else that Abhimanyu can do... regular readers, this statement is open for debate 😊... i have maintained that the breaking of his instruments was a 'things can never be the same again' kind of offence and i still stand by that... after that Abhimanyu had two courses of action available to him: one, he could keep his sense of self intact and walk out of this academy... he does not need this bunch of people in his life and he could go back to his intelligence unit and to the way his life used to be... and this is what, in real life, someone with Abhimanyu's heritage and in Abhimanyu's circumstances would have done.... but then there is also the ideal... idealist that i am 😊, i would also like to believe that Abhimanyu cannot go on saying 'no' when pleaded to (though here the pleading, via the remorse, was done so badly as to be almost non existent)... i would argue that the conventions of Abhimanyu's very ceremonious heritage would also mean that it would not be unnatural for him to do something personally distasteful or unappealing just because he had to. There is a sense of 'i do not want to do this but i have to, so i shall go through the motions with as much grace and dignity as i can' that one got in the scene when he congratulated Alekh.
If he left, the sense of having left something incomplete and unfinished might have come back to haunt him. And Abhimanyu is not someone who can live things unfinished, half done. Finally, i am glad he walked into that room because sometimes being grown up is about still going on when your deepest feelings have been hurt and people have been ruthlessly blind. Not going away, staying back and living among these very people and finishing his assignment requires courage... and i am cheering Abhimanyu on. Yes, i do remember that he is fictional! 😊
So Abhimanyu is staying and i still have to watch lrl... suddenly doubtful if this is a good thing 😉 😆
I do not think that Abhimanyu will be overtly affectionate to these cadets now... though you never know... not just because this is subject to the vagaries and whims of writers, but also because i feel that it would be difficult for Abhimanyu to stay entirely detached... (I seem to be recasting Abhimanyu as myself, not intentional 😊)... its just that his capability for deep emotional feeling has always been hinted at... his senstivity may ensure that he is unable to stay angry or hurt for long... but Abhimanyu, do not get too attached... better people await you elsewhere!! 😆
Cannot talk at length about Gaurav's acting... i saw it four days ago and now cant download the video... but i remember the inscrutability of the expression clearly and i remember liking it then... i also remember the absence of a smile very clearly... finally, i still find the movement of the body while playing the guitar jarring... have thought so both times when Gaurav has done it.
On Wednesday, his only scene was the one where he informs the cadets about the drill... and i was on the phone then... but looking at the way scenes of ordering people about were handled in the 'rebellion', i'm sure that ordering must have come naturally to him. 😊
On Thursday, the only Gaurav scene i saw was the one where he crosses Capt Rajveer on his way to the drill... the two stop, stare at each other and then at the empty space on the wall (which was less satiny than last time, hooray!)... and then go their separate ways. One small question to the writer: Abhimanyu understands why Capt Rajveer may not have been wrong in pulling that trigger on his best friend... he has the maturity to see things from Capt Rajveer's point of view in a sitaution where 99% of humanity would not have understood another's situation or point of view... then that maturity, that sensitivity disappears overnight?... he loses the ability to see things from another's perspective two days after he has demonstrated it to Naina, and without any reason at all?
I can understand that the script needed conflict... but before the conflict, something could have happened that shattered Abhimanyu's sense of self, made him vulnerable to insecurity and therefore unable to see another's point of view?... remember the sequence of events: Capt Rajveer goes off after the red box, Abhimanyu is at the academy, he has that long monolgue about a soldier's duty that makes Naina rethink her position vis-a-vis Capt Rajveer... and then when Capt Rajveer is back, Abhimanyu is suddenly insecure and goes off on a 'i've always been second best' trip... the first time it was introduced was in Naveen's voice over, then it was in the scene where the cadets ignored him... and then it took off in the scene where there is a flashback of a conversation with Naveen... once established, it was ok... but was established not on a flimsy reason but on no reason at all.
The reason i am saying all of this today is that it feels very weird to have a scene where the two friends are caught up in their own defences and insecurities and will not talk to one another... and think that this could have been about the mercy killing... it would have been so much more powerful then...Lesson no one of television writing: if you have such a juciy issue as killing of one friend by the second, and a third who has come to find the killer, you do not sort it all out in two episodes...you use it for every kind of emotion, to explore every possibility... to let it be wasted like this is criminal.
Of course, now they cannot have Abhimanyu suddenly seeing Capt Rajveer's point of view... it would be unfair, especially since they were both wrong... and they cannot now give your potential hero a non heroic moment... so his ability to see another's point of view has to stay missing. How is this show going to get out of the corner that it has painted itself into?
Anyway, Gaurav did this scene competently... no overacting, no attempt to chart every emotion that Abhimanyu must be feeling. Way to go... he makes the absolutely nonsensical look believable.... which i realised when i saw the cadet remorse scene... he would have made that remorse believable if he'd been playing a cadet.
Thats about it for today. The weather outside is brilliant... the 'just about to rain but never does' kind... and my cup of tea beckons. Hopefully the reactions will be more regular next week.
Adios, amigos!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
