Random Musings - Nov 15 - 20, 2010 (Week 5) - Uptd - Page 12

At the Pradhan house, Priya is recalling her interactions with Aditya just before beginning writing a letter to him describing the incident that changed her from the happy person she used to be to the angry persona of the present. She details how on the night of her engagement to Amar, they were out for a ride but were caught by police who falsely arrested them for public indecency. Based on the advice of an Inspector Chaudhary, Priya goes to meet a senior officer on a train to convince him to get Amar released. She meets the officer, not knowing he is Brahmanand, and begs him to help her. Brahmanand pretends to do so but when Priya falls on him, he tries to rape her. A smart Priya pulls the chain, stops the train and rushes back home to tell her father what happened. Determined to fight back, they try to file a case but face a police force in cover-up mode. Still... as Priya and her family are in the middle of the wedding activities, the police arrest her for prostitution and as she is being released Brahmanand calls to intimidate her. Back home, Priya finds her life has now changed ...between the media attention and a fiance who does not show up for the wedding, nothing is the same again...including her.

Back at the temple, the Jhaakar family show up and as they are going in to meet Aditya, a lagging Vidya answers Gaurav's phone that was left behind but the caller does not answer. A stern Gaurav asks a shocked Vidya never to answer his phone again. As the Pradhans meet the Jhaakars, Chinu tells Aditya where Priya is waiting for him. Aditya grabs a garland, rushes to Priya and stuns her by garlanding her with it.

My quick thoughts on Saturday's episode...

So this was the mega-episode that revealed the truth of what happened to Priya. For me it was pretty good but not as satisfying as the journey of watching the series up to this point.

I will focus on the two main sequences for Saturday's episode...the preparations in the Jhaakar home and Priya's flashbacks of what happened to her.

I'll start with the former. This whole sequence was well done and tightly executed. Vidya is settling in to her role as the daughter-in-law of the family. The growing comfort between Gaurav and her was on display in their short conversation about his suit and coordinating outfit colors.

This scene also focussed briefly on the tension between Babuji & Brahmanand...I am fascinated by it. I cannot recall any clues being given about what caused this state of affairs between them either. Babuji's anger cannot solely be about the mistreatment being meted out to Devyani as the anger seems to exist both ways.

The last part of this sequence showcased Brahmanand being "honest" and refusing the bribe offered by Yashpal. For me...this characterization does not fit well with what we know of Brahmanand so far. Showing Brahmanand being a good father to Aditya despite his treatment of Devyani & Gaurav...I get that...but showing him being honest when he is capable of rape...not so. I feel like there is a twist coming about this...well...I sure as hell hopes there is.

Coming to the sequence of Saturday's "maha-episode" namely Priya's flashback of the incident that changed her life.

Now...I am not going to talk about the molestation versus rape debate except to say, that in reality, what is common about both traumas is the deep sense of violation that both types of victims feel. The intrusive memories of the event are spontaneously triggered in both victims evoking emotions that range from panic, fearfulness and grief to anger.

That said, I had very mixed feelings about having Priya reveal the truth in a letter. I wanted her to look Aditya in the eye while sharing her past. To me that would have been a way to also show Priya's slowly but surely growing feelings for Aditya. I did say I "had" mixed feelings because the only reason this finally ended up working for me is it allowed the screenplay to focus on the event itself without having to get distracted by Aditya's reactions, camera angles, echoing dialogs etc that are such a staple of the dramatic scene in the telly world today.

The actual event itself seemed cinematic rather than realistic & hard-hitting. I have several issues related to this.

My fundamental problem is having Brahmanand involved directly in this incident...part of me did not feel it was needed at all. I would have preferred to have Priya's character be raped by cops in the police station with Brahmanand driving the cover-up rather than this approach. After a lot of thought, the only reason I am making peace with it is I think Devyani's character needs a very powerful trigger to push her over the edge and get her fighting for her rights...finding out her husband molested her daughter-in-law would be that. After I re-watched the episode, I felt this view was also borne out in Babuji's dialogs about how nobody could touch the daughter-in-laws of the family while Devyani was present.

Coming back to the sequence, having the cops arrest Amar on trumped up charges was good...very normal in India...I confess to being busted by cops myself in my teenage years. But...having Brahmanand in a train by himself seemed manufactured...over the top. Priya going to meet him without asking her father or brother to accompany her, even more so. I guess the train had to be the setting to give Priya's character an easy way to get out of the situation. Still...I wish this had been better scripted in the screenplay. Once I set that aside, the rest of the sequence worked. It was quite crisp and opened the past up without wallowing in it.

I will close this by talking a bit about the acting. Ridhi was the center of today's episode but I could only connect with her in a few scenes.

• As the worried fiancee in the police station, she was ok
• As the panicked girl when she enters the train to talk to Brahmanand...terrible
• As the victim being molested...good
• As the victim fighting back...ok
• In between the flashbacks...ok/good

Overall...good episode...not great. Something was missing for me...not able to put my finger on it yet. I will say that even on what was a not so great episode day, I still loved it way more than the epic episodes of other shows.