Rishbala - Through the prism of ep 26th Feb 2013

It's as if the CVs had good material to create one riveting episode, but needed to make two eps, so they split up the good stuff into two eps and spread it out, leaving us with two eps (25th and 26th Feb) that were quite good but not even remotely riveting.😕

And it is Tuesday, 26th Feb. 2013 (ep.#205) that seems to fall a bit more on the short end.

The dance especially was a disappointment, though the song ('muskaaney jhooti') was apt for the lead couple who are busy pretending to emotions that they don't actually feel.

Rather than the dance, it was actually the after-dance individual scene of first RK and then Madhu with Dipali that held worth.

Usually find Seema Mishra's performance as 'Dipali' terrific, but this time the dance simply didn't feel up to par.

With RK having to telegraph discomfort at the situation he had deliberately chosen to land himself in with a woman he despises, something was needed to make the dance memorable. Instead, the dance ended up as just a backdrop.

Never considered Dipali truly RK's bhabhi, any more than Kukku is truly a father-figure to RK. Either would be like thinking of Balraj as Madhu's father and deserving of being treated as such.

Neither Dipali nor Balraj have ever qualified for the status.

The regret has been that while Madhu was never constrained into a relationship with Balraj, RK - thanks to his wish to avoid facing off with his mother Radha about her wondrous second family - has endured Dipali and Kukku for years.

Sikki - though never so far truly any sort of brother, step- or otherwise - has been a problem only at his father's or wife's behest. (Exhibit A:- his involvement in Kukku's plan to have RK shot as part of the extortion drama.)

Probably the one true good effect of RK's estrangement from Madhu has been that he has now started treating Dipali not like the bhabhi she has never truly been, but as simply the shameless ex-girlfriend who deludes herself that she'll be able to get past her second relationship to her first, and thereby get all that she thinks she deserves.

As for that dance, it seems likely to translate extremely confusingly on screen (if RK doesn't have it edited out way before).

RK's attention was focussed onto Madhu, and Dipali's attention was split between RK and Madhu.

And Madhu - offcamera - was too busy looking and not looking, as if she were seeing a combination of a trainwreck and her own former personal property being pawed at.

Madhu appeared to be on edge, not with jealousy, but with her latent possessiveness about RK flaring and banking, holding her teetering on the edge of yet another emotional tempest, so soon after the previous night's.

And RK seemed as comfortable, pleased and relaxed (Not!😳) as he has ever been while holding a woman who is the antithesis of all that makes Madhu so exceptional - dignity, virtue and a loyalty that holds firm even long past the point where it should not.😳

In that dance, Dipali was the only one of the three who seemed to be enjoying herself.😕😊

And RK's eventual unwillingness to do more than get a rise out of Madhu meant that the moment the director said 'Cut' and Madhu also left, RK could stop both the reel and offscreen act.

Basically, he allowed his own revulsion for Dipali to prevent him from truly sketching a performance that would outrage Madhu.

There was no way that Madhu wouldn't understand that he was stooping to using Dipali just to bother Madhu.

But it would have been an excessively unexpected effect if it had sufficed to drive Madhu to quit.

RK's every move to make Madhu quit is stopping short at the final hurdle.

But this time, after he left, Dipali managed to score a hit, *almost* undoing Radha's manipulative reasoning that had made Madhu stick it out in RK's proximity.

Madhu has strength and dignity, but Dipali's absolute brazenness make her a notable opponent - however briefly - on some points.

Madhu left, wondering at Dipali's very valid points about Madhu's sticking around RK.

And when she would have simply decided to back off rather than forge on for a pyrrhic victory, Trishna emerged as the CVs' tool to make sure Madhu went right back into the fray.

While Radha and Trishna are both very selfish to their very core, Radha's selfishness wants her son's happiness and success so long as it includes her.

She is content to bask in the reflected glow of being the mother of a successful and wealthy star.

Trishna cannot tolerate being in anyone's reflected glow.

She must be the strongest, most appreciated, most successful.

Madhu being RK's wife - however unhappily - was intolerable to her because Madhu marrying a star meant that she had stepped closer to limelight and wealth than Trishna ever had.

When Madhu herself becomes a star, Trishna's antagonism is likely to make her previous hostility pale in comparison.

And RK's having her blacklisted in the industry at the height of his feud with Madhu is something that Trishna holds onto, as if it's the reason she never managed to become a success all those years before she met RK as well.

Like Dipali, Trishna will use any and all reasoning to hold on to her conviction that she is the perfect material for stardom, and her lack of success is always someone else's fault.

And the 'heroine' nickname ensured she grew up with a feeling of entitlement, as demonstrated to Shamsher's, Bittuji's and Madhu's disgust when Trishna tried to claim that RK must have surely brought Balraj into their lives with deliberate malice, and tried to completely gloss over the fact that she had not told her family that a psychopath bent on killing them was back and she knew it.

Why? Her career dreams and aspirations.

And it did not seem an inadequate reason to her even with her mother about to be tried for killing.

Now, that same Trishna asked Madhu question after question, probing to be certain her sister would never go back to RK and the life of wealth, leaving Trishna in the dust as a struggler.

While she may perhaps know that she herself would be wrecked in a fight with RK, she is perfectly willing to send her sister forward to do battle, when actual sisterly concern should have had her tell Madhu to leave all reminders of her bitter past and move on in another hopefully less hurtful direction.

Which is why - in a battle - Trishna will always lose to Radha.

Because Radha knows what to say to get the results she wants when push comes to shove, and Trishna lacks the shrewdness to manipulate others to the goal she wants them to reach for her.

First Radha and now Trishna have encouraged Madhu to go back into RK's proximity.

But Radha only convinced Madhu that such a course of action would maintain her estrangement. Trishna has convinced herself as well.

If only Radha's son were as easily manipulated as her daughter-in-law, she would already have the couple happily back together under one roof.

But instead, she has to deal with the knowledge that she can only manipulate one of them.

And to add to her stress, RK's thwarting her in her authoritative interaction with Dipali and changing the subject to food was yet another annoyance.

Her son was suddenly yet again behaving inexplicably, shielding the Bhatia daughter-in-law he has always contemptuously endured.

And Radha could do nothing further proactive. She needs must hope that Madhu would stay the course.

So Radha showed her displeasure by ignoring the son who was being inconsiderate of her wishes.

He had already removed her doting daughter-in-law, and now was displeasing her in more minor matters as well.

And through it all is her desperation to have Madhu back, as she herself stands helpless yet again, feeling herself unable to effectively wield any authority over her son.

The last scene of the ep had Bittuji and Radha conferring over the phone about Madhu's absence on the set.

And then a girl came in, and Bittuji, RK and finally Dipali saw that someone else had come in response to the call that Madhu should have answered to.

But thanks to news sources, we already know Madhu will be sticking with her current employment, that too on a determined warring note.😕😃

Kudos to the CVs for having so completely knocked us for an emotion loop.

RK revelled that Madhu wouldn't be coming to the set.

It should *not* have mattered how he said it.

If someone is thrilled that with glue on one each of his and her hands, she won't insist on a handshake, it's actually a good thing for him *and* for her.

Logic should have made evident that her leaving this particular job was a very good thing for her *and* for RK, as she would truly be trying to move on.

We should all have been howling "No, Madhu. Don't go back to that set. It's not even a battle worth fighting."

Instead - quite apart from the pleasure of seeing the couple in the same frame -, we are rooting for her to be back there and facing RK.

And just to ensure that reaction, the series very helpfully provided the precap for the next ep.

The precap in which RK makes a mockery of that poem (which was already turned into a sufficient irritation with that dreadful musical version played thrice so far) to gloat to his mother that Madhu won't be coming back to the set.

And lo and behold, the audience is cheering for Madhu to get back to the set just to prove him wrong. Hats off, CVs.

RK and Madhu together at the current point are a constantly abrasive angst and hurt to each other.

Both originally had the very sensible understanding of this obvious fact.

Until Radha stepped in, and took advantage of Madhu's naive trust to convince her that folly was sense.

She told Madhu what Madhu now believes - that facing RK will break him and prove Madhu's strength.

Of course, we the viewers have had the stress of seeing Radha tell Bittuji exactly what *is* the assured result of getting into constant proximity two people who react for each other on a spontaneous subconscious level - they will fight, tear at each other, and find themselves welded back together by the fury of their emotions.

Madhu's answers to Trishna were excellent - logical and well-reasoned.

But no aspect of her and RK's relationship or emotions for each other have ever been governed by those feelings.

She spoke of her heart being like shattered glass, perhaps unconsciously echoing her husband's words from the very start of their marriage that his life was like shattered glass.

But she has forgotten that it was she who made the impossible possible and turned the shattered glass of his life into a mosaic that became her greatest joy.

And mosaics - even shattered - hold their value more steadfastly than whole glass ever can.

Madhu's heart *will* mend, for she is no weakling.

And this time it will not be fragile glass but a mosaic that makes something formidable and exceptionally beautiful of broken pieces.

One could not have foreseen in the scene with shattered glass bottles any of the events that followed.

Nor can one foresee anything now, other than to expect developments to proceed - with the mandap fiasco not even a week back in MEIEJ-verse days - and make something worthwhile with a truly good reason, with 14 emotionally miserable episodes down so far.😊

It may be inveterate optimism to expect that the CVs will *not* turn months of episodes into something that would not be wholly delightful to watch, but going to hope for it anyway.😳

If an emotional investment was made into the story so far, it was not so that we might be told months later that we had been led to a mirage.😕

Because if so, how can any track in future ever be trusted to *not* be a mirage?😭

Because if this couple's story were to have been worked even a bit by their *logical* reasoning, they would never even have met, let alone all else in their own gutwrenching follies, and their blazing passion and obdurate care for each other, that runs so very contrary to the verbal claims they both make.😳