An idiosyncratic analysis of 28/8

Hi all. Since i was out of town, missed a lot of last week. In fact, courtesy Rakshabandhan, missed most of today's episode... saw only the last segment after the second break. Will edit this later and add comments about the initial bit if i catch it again, just wanted to comment on the last part.

The last segment began with Abhimanyu asking for a fair trial for the cadets and insisting that they were right this time round. The 'kaash hum unki jagah pe hote' was a good touch, i thought. In terms of performance, there was only respectful disagreement to do... Is Abhimanyu back to being pleasant again or am i the only one imagining this?... i thought yesterday's single scene was similar... even though it was set within the 'i challenge you' framework, i felt the intensity was lessened... and today too i felt that in the scene with BC... there is an almost smile lingering on Gaurav's face and that makes it different from the usual intense way of such scenes... usually in scenes where there is the rhetoric of fighting for what is right,things get very intense. Does it work for me?... yes it does. Does it work for the show?... it may, if given a chance over more episodes. Will it work for wider audiences? I dont know.

To come back to why i am writing this post, the last segment of the show... where the show talks about people doing something for their country, about people making difficult choices over more conventional and comfortable choices such as an MBA (considering my closest friends are management students, i feel for them since they get snide comments about their choice of profession all the time 😊).... at one level, this is something i like and endorse, this idea of having an ideal that one believes in and works towards... but i am not very comfortable with the kind of SMS activism and occasional outbursts of feeling that emerge and disappear in young people from time to time, and are usually about 'safe' causes or about continuing to keep their life comfortable... and thats why i think what is currently happening in lrl is interesting... the system and its ruthlessness has broken certain individuals, and this is where the fight begins... in this show, the fight is centred around the ideas of nationhood and army... i want to see where this goes... its a thin line the show has to walk, between intensity and melodrama, and hopefully it will manage to stay on the right side of things. Today it was good, since the lecturing, courtesy the voice over, was not over the top... but i hope it stays that way.

In the last scene, the pleasant look was back on Abhimanyu's face... again i didnt see a full-on determination and intensity. So is Abhimanyu going to get them back or are they going to be back on their own?... tempted to imitate PR machinery and say 'Watch this space' 😊

See ya all... hopefully tomo.

Thanks...

Yes LRL's now story really talks about the state of our country and its youth..... We all want to lead a comfy life... The matter is even if we try to do something we are stopped by people at various level and finally we are forced to agree that why did we ever choose this??????? Worries us and left with no choice we revert back to our comfy life... Sigh

welcome back shvetal 😃

excellent analysis as usual 😳

somwhow i feel tht abhi will be instrumental in bringing all the cadets back 😊

i don't see much of abhi in lrl nowadays- just a scene here and there. but yes bringing the cadets back to kma will be a tough job for him. the cadets belong to the new generation - and for them - facts r facts - so learn to accept it and move on in life. pooja, ali and huda r confused as to what they can do but naina, yudi and alekh r slowly realising that the system is corrupt and nothing can be done - so why waste time - comeon there r better ways to make your life better. the sooner you accept the harsh realities - the better.
however it was the voiceover that left me wondering. it was a good dialogue - the next generation will see people opting for mba,mca etc - only professions that r attractive and glamourous and those which come with a fat pay packet. at this rate, at this stage will anyone of them think of joining the army. it was a good question posed by naveen - and the truth is we have no answer.
abhi's role will become more important now as he has to practically change the mindset of the 6 cadets especially naina. the forthcoming epis will be interesting i guess. rite now lrl is just dragging by showing personal life of the cadets.
good analysis whynotty - i missed u a lot.

Hi Shwetal,
Im sooo glad to see u back here 🤗 🤗 🤗

The smile on Abhimanyu's face seem to signify his detremination... he's more charged up than ever now.... he has a huge responsibility to fulfill....
in the earlier days he always seemed to be uncomfortable and always made himself feel that he is new to the place in the staff room.... but now... without the students he seems to gear up to get them back 😛


but baat abhi bhi hazam nahi hui... why does he smile so much???? 😕 ....

Originally posted by: maha_prakrti

Thanks...

Yes LRL's now story really talks about the state of our country and its youth..... We all want to lead a comfy life... The matter is even if we try to do something we are stopped by people at various level and finally we are forced to agree that why did we ever choose this??????? Worries us and left with no choice we revert back to our comfy life... Sigh

You're welcome.

I agree that we all want to lead a comfortable life... but a comfortable life and a life of principles are not necessarily antithetical... if one's definition of comfort is living within one's means, then one can be happy with the choices that one makes in life... i know this is easier said than done, but who ever said life was easy... it is in the discovering the challenge and the possibility of it anew everyday that joy lies... at least for someone as hopelessly idealistic as me 😊

Originally posted by: friskysam

welcome back shvetal 😃

excellent analysis as usual 😳

somwhow i feel tht abhi will be instrumental in bringing all the cadets back 😊

Thank you, thank you.

Honestly i think this was just an ordinary analysis... and that too based on only one segment of the show. But i wrote it because i think very few shows talk about idealism, about making choices... and these are things that need to be discussed.

As for Abhi, i hope so. 😊

Originally posted by: anujkpjk

i don't see much of abhi in lrl nowadays- just a scene here and there. but yes bringing the cadets back to kma will be a tough job for him. the cadets belong to the new generation - and for them - facts r facts - so learn to accept it and move on in life. pooja, ali and huda r confused as to what they can do but naina, yudi and alekh r slowly realising that the system is corrupt and nothing can be done - so why waste time - comeon there r better ways to make your life better. the sooner you accept the harsh realities - the better.
however it was the voiceover that left me wondering. it was a good dialogue - the next generation will see people opting for mba,mca etc - only professions that r attractive and glamourous and those which come with a fat pay packet. at this rate, at this stage will anyone of them think of joining the army. it was a good question posed by naveen - and the truth is we have no answer.
abhi's role will become more important now as he has to practically change the mindset of the 6 cadets especially naina. the forthcoming epis will be interesting i guess. rite now lrl is just dragging by showing personal life of the cadets.
good analysis whynotty - i missed u a lot.

Hey thanks for saying that you missed me... thats very sweet of you. 😃

Lets complicate this idea of MBA v/s army: not every MBA gets a fat pay packet.... there are just so many MBA institutes and so many people in this world... the system is indeed ruthless.... we churn out way too many graduates who have no idea where they are headed.... too many MBAs who settle for 16 - 18 hour jobs that leaves them no life at the end of it. But Naina is lucky, in that her parents can afford a Wharton MBA for her (incidentally, it will be at least three months before she can leave, considering that she'll have to take the GMAT, get her references and documents in place, apply for a visa etc etc 😃). But look at someone like Ali... what education will his parents be able to afford for him? And if a not so standard education is what they can afford, a not so standard job is what he is going to get.

Anu, i see the point you are making... one has to accept the harsh realities of life and move on... no one can change the world anymore... but i still believe that within one's very limited sphere of influence, one should try to do what one can... if nothing else, then see things from another point of view and exercise a little empathy, a little sympathy...

But i also find it disturbing that young people are way too practical now.... youth is when you want to change the world, when you believe it can change, youth is when you rebel, when you question, when you get angry.... and it is from this process that revolution happens in the world, change happens.... its not always for the better, its not always within anyone's control...

And of course it is out of such revolutions, such movements that art happens, both popular and elitist... I wish television had angry young men and women.... they are needed in fiction, not just in the news channels.

Thats why i want to see what happens in the show next.... though, of course, given the constraints of television, this may work out in very conventional ways. But even that is interesting and unusual today.

Originally posted by: tere_bin

Hi Shwetal,
Im sooo glad to see u back here 🤗 🤗 🤗

The smile on Abhimanyu's face seem to signify his detremination... he's more charged up than ever now.... he has a huge responsibility to fulfill....
in the earlier days he always seemed to be uncomfortable and always made himself feel that he is new to the place in the staff room.... but now... without the students he seems to gear up to get them back 😛


but baat abhi bhi hazam nahi hui... why does he smile so much???? 😕 ....

Hi Kanak.... I'm glad to be back too... hugs and more hugs!

Yes Abhimanyu seems to have a lot to do suddenly.... and he still gets barely a scene a day... aadmi ek, zimmedari itni.... aur scene sirf ek.... bahut na insaafi hai 😆 😆

Why does he smile so much?.... hmmmm.... shaayad achcha banda hai issliye 😆 😆

Achcha achcha i'll get serious.... in television, think of situations where a character takes some kind of resolution, for eg. 'Main apni patni ko uske teesre husband se cheen lunga' or 'Main inn cadets ko waapas KMA laaunga'... how do actors do such scenes?... there is a certain expression associated with being intense and everyone does that... ie they immediately stop smiling, they usually tighten their face, sometimes they lift the eyebrows, and they keep their eyes unblikingly open.... some actors convey some emotions through their eyes, some dont.... but usually determination is always done like this.... when you become determined to do something, you stop smiling, you become unapproachable.

Now my next question: why should every character in the world react in the same way to a situation of determination?... Not everyone who is determined is necessarily also suddenly serious... its just that we are very used to seeing determination and heroism as necessarily co-existing with a certain visibly serious exterior.

Now this is where Gaurav is acting differently.... the sitaution is the same, but he is not reacting to it in the way actors ordinarily do.... which then becomes surprising for the audience.... he is doing this at lessened intensity (i've missed bits in between, so am talking only from the scenes i've seen).... what i've called 'pleasant' in my analysis.

Is this a better or worse way of acting?.... the reaction would differ with every viewer.... some would like it, some wouldnt.... thats why i've said 'works for me, but dont know abt anyone else'.... but yes it is indeed different from what is done usually. So next time you watch the show, keep this in mind as you watch his acting and tell me what you think. 😊

Hi Shwetal,
Smiling during an intense situation doesnt sound like 'good acting" to me. But I am not saying that Gaurav is bad... he has proved to be worthy of playing Capt. Abhimanyu Rai Chauhan.

I think we (or just me) have not yet been able to analyse the situation properly. I have another perspective...

Remember, when Abhi was standing in front of BC and asking him for something which was annuled by Nair? That time we both had appreciated the palm clenching and a muted-sadness-exasperation expression of Abhi.
I think, here, it's to differentiate between the 2 times.
At that time, he wasnt sure whether what he asked for would be approved or not.
Today, he was so determined that he would do anything to get fair trial for the cadets. (Kaash wo us samay bhi itna he determined hota.)

He reminded me of the Rang De Basanti beginning... where McNelley's voiceover says... "I have met 2 kinds of men in my life... ones who meet their end in silence and sadness and the others who meet their ends fighting and violent....... and then I met the third kind"
... they show Siddharth's face which has determination and defiance in his eyes and his lips have a slight smile.

Even though there is no comparison between Siddharth's character and Abhi....... but the defiance and determination with the smile can be related to the scene we are talking about.

What do you say?