What I would want for Arjun-Purvi

I have noted that many in this forum are very worried about what is going to happen to the Arjun-Purvi love story, whether Ovi will disrupt it, whether Purvi will develop lemming-like tendencies and rush to sacrifice poor Arjun on the altar of 'sisterly' love, and so on. It seems to me that such fears will soon affect your enjoyment of the future ArVi segments, and that because of worrying about what is to come, you will not be able to enjoy the present.

For those in despair about a possible Arjun-Ovi track, please don't get worked up over something that is simply not going to happen. I am sure the PR team is fully aware of what a good thing they are on to; the TRPs should have made that clear to them. They will not want to return to the aimless drift of the late 2011 days, with fake tragedies/ crises manufactured by Varsha, the chawl people and so on led to a sharp fall in the TRPs as the viewers were bored to death.

Ovi is obviously Shravani II, but Arjun-Purvi are NOT Manav-Archana II, at least Arjun is not. Unless they are going to suddenly rewrite his character, I cannot see him settling for not even second but nth best when he has seen what he wants. Remember that the first time Ovi floated the rumour that they were engaged, even though he was not in love with anyone at that point, he refused to play ball, and told both DK and Manav that it was simply not on. It was only in a moment of weakness for a childhood friend that he later agree to marry her provided she did not interfere with his business. If Purvi pushes him too far out of misconceived loyalty to her mother/"sister", he will simply walk out and go back to Canada, he will not saddle himself with Ovi. Just as Romeo would not have gone back to Rosalind even if Juliet had gone out of his reach for whatever reason. So relax, and let us enjoy the ArVi segments in PR as they develop.

But you also have to understand something else as well. There can be no edge to a book or a film or TV serial or play without tensions between the players. A fulfilled and happy love story cannot hold viewer interest for long. That is probably the greatest love stories – think Romeo-Juliet, Devdas-Paro, Shirin-Farhad, Laila-Majnu, Camille – have all been tragedies.

Not that I want Arjun-Purvi to end up as a doomed Shakespearan couple, but you cannot deny that in the ArVi segments so far, the best scenes have been in the last few episodes, especially in the last 2, and they have all been very tense. Without these conflicts, there would have been no scope for some of the best acting I have seen so far on Indian TV, Yash Raj's Powder and Kismat, and to a lesser extent, Rishta.com excepted (the first two were both marvellous, and the last was very good, but the TRPs were apparently abysmal, alas!). Now suppose Arjun and Purvi have a nice, smooth romance over the next 4 months or more (in TV land, time is elastic, so there is no knowing how long 4 months can last in real time!), WHAT could the writers do with them? After showing them walking hand in hand on the beach, and perhaps eating out or looking at sunsets, then what? It is VERY difficult to write very many happy, yet substantial love scenes, and that too for a daily serial. It is much easier for the movies, as the duration is only of 2 hours plus these days.

So, we have to accept that if the course of ArVi's true love is to run smooth, it will become a flat stream, not the turbulent, rushing torrent it is now. Arjun looks best when he is either in despair or dominating. He will not be anything like as impressive playing a standard issue lover boy. Someone had written that Rithwik should abandon his three piece suits (in the humidity of Mumbai!) for shirts or T-shirts. That would not suit Arjun Kirloskar at all. I have seen Rithwik in the Sprite TV commercials, which are quite clever and tongue in cheek, but he does not at all look like the kind of chap who would be riding a scooter! He is best off playing a tycoon, and Arjun Kirloskar is a perfect fit for him, and vice versa. And if ArVi go from one problem to another, he will have plenty of opportunities to brood effortlessly, with a few happy scenes thrown in for a change. It is a little like Sir Laurence Olivier. Did you ever see him as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights? It was a dream performance, and he was one of the greatest actors ever. But he was nowhere near as effective in light roles.

Moreover, Purvi too seems, as yet, to have no streak of mischievous gaiety in her. She is basically a serious girl, loyal and committed and extremely hard working, but not either turbulently passionate in love or what one would call bindaas. So her character too would thrive only in tension and adversity. Otherwise she will be reduced to doing pretty, pretty scenes as a good daughter, granddaughter and so on, all standard TV soap stuff. That may be pleasant as what is called 'time pass', but it is not serious acting and one would soon tire of it.

What I would like to see would be for Arjun and Purvi to develop not just a loving, but a trusting and mutually supportive relationship, that can help them cope sensibly with all the probems they will face (not with the kind of hysterical and totally misplaced loyalties that at the staple of such serials, leading to meaningless and self-destructive "sacrifices"). That would truly be a modern love story. Right now, with Purvi flying off at a tangent and shrilly declaiming against Arjun even as recently as in the last episode, we are nowhere near this ideal. Arjun, as he is now, is almost too good to be true, and I hope he stays that way, and looks out for himself as well as for Purvi, even if the latter has to be in spite of Purvi.

Shyamala B.Cowsik

i jst hope watever u hav written become true..
i als dont want Arjun and Pruvi to do sacrifies and all those things and i dont want arjun to become 3rd graded Romeo like the Arjun in "kitani mohabbath hai"..like he sacrified evrything and his happiness for Arohi..i want Arjun 2 b strong romeo and fight for his love watver obstracle cumes in b/w..afterall he is a Canadian and 21st centuary guy and ths is 2012 ...

They both should redefine Pavitra Rishta according to 21st century...

Shyamala, I too was thinking that without any tensions, there would be no room for the plot to develop but the story of Pavitra Rishta is not just about Arjun and Purvi so the writers can weave several strings or sub plots together, all at the same time. One of Archana and Manav obviously, one of Soham returning, one of Sachin's angst at his abandonment as a child, Punni's marriage to her fiance and her evolution into a "good" character so to speak. The CVs could drag on the love story of Arjun and Purvi for a couple of months but will give it a happy ending at the end of all the agony. They could then tangent off to problems they face as a young couple, one of them born and bred in Canada, one oh, so middle class that she cannot shut up talking about it :), child rearing, family inter-actions, etc. All side by side with ARMAN and Soham and Ovi meeting someone else, Tej's story being told, etc.

Lovely posts!! !

Originally posted by: MAYURFAN001

Lovely posts!! !

All of your bring out such sensible reasoning... Its feels good reading them!

I am addicted to ARVI.. even though I tried not to.. but Rithvik and Aska are so god darn good.. that they have become irresistible..

I agree.. that without twists and turns and drama.. the fun and excitement will be short lived and creatives will run out of ideas...

I am all up for Drama as long as they dont compromise ARVI scenes. and as Long as the drama makes sense.. I will never forget that scene where Arjun was trying to sell PURVI off to the VINAY!.. I was sooo upset. with that scene.. I mean.. they cld have shown so many different things instead they decided to show Arjun offering Vinay loads of money to marry PURVI.. which disgusted me!.. As long as I dont get to see such crappy scenes. and there are no major character assisination.. I am all game to watch PR with all his Drama.. for ARVI!!!!

So 3 cheers to hoping to see a wonderful story unfold for ARVI. the future leading couple in PR!!

Yes, agreed. Thy both need to be strong characters with periods of vulnerability mixed it (like the confession scene). I hope her confession has the same power packed punch as his does. It would be shame if it were all one sided but I think she can pull it off and make him melt just the same.

Thank you so much for expanding so beautifully on the themes I had covered in my last post. I could not agree more with all that you have said here, and between us, I hope we have put paid to fears about an Arjun-Ovi track materializing, with Purvi hovering in the background with a halo around her head and an occasional sniffle to mourn her lost love! That is NOT going to happen, for no matter how wayward the CVs might be, they are not so stupid as to ignore the TRPs.

As for the tensions I spoke of, I meant them more for adding depth and the special quality of raw emotion to the Arjun-Purvi track, than for plot development. You would agree that their roles are, by some happy quirk of the creative department at Balaji, so far removed from those of the usual soap characters that they hold out the promise of something very powerful and moving, a REAL love story in the classic mould. That should be exploited to the maximum, and for that you need exceptionally good writing, with strong conflicts and all consuming emotions. One would hardly bother about such ideas for the average serial couple, but Arjun-Purvi are a remarkable exception. So their tale, which has - thanks to these extremely good actors even more than to the clever writing - produced some of the most striking and moving scenes ever seen in standard issue serials, should not be flattened out into your common 'some nok-jhok and then lived happily ever after' format.

To illustrate my point, take the Arjun-Purvi confession scene. You must have noticed that almost the whole of this scene, which was so highly emotional, was shot in VERY tight close ups. This must have made it even more difficult for the actors, already wet and uncomfortable, with next to no make up left, to maintain their expressions without any let up. But they did not falter even for a second, and viewers forgot about Rithwik and Asha and remembered only the anguish of Arjun and Purvi. I feel that by now Rithwik and Asha are so comfortable with each other that they are able to manage this without any strain. By comparison, the women in standard soaps have it very easy- they only have to stand around with full make up even in the middle of the night, heavy jewellery and about 20 bangles on each arm, and the men are mostly props.

To revert to your multiple tracks angle, PR has in any case always had umpteen tracks at any given time, and some of them appear and disappear in a most disconcerting fashion, like Dharmesh's attempt to make DK jealous of Manav, and the planning for DK's birthday, which seems to have been stillborn, for it was dropped suddenly and never resurfaced! As you have correctly noted, there are any number of options for developing parallel tracks, especially with Soham, who will be 3-4 years older than Ovi and Teju, materializing. And the romances-to-be for Ovi and Teju. I do not see Punni becoming a really reformed character, however, and as Arjun noted before the Mahashivratri temple scene, I would have a great deal of sympathy for the unfortunate chap she eventually marries!

The idea of developing a track on Arjun-Purvi's married life is an excellent one, and you may be sure Ekta Kapoor's team have not missed that. It will be good to have something about real life problems for a change, instead of 'kasams' and highfaluting speeches about 'sanskar' and 'parvarish' and 'parivaar ki izzat' and all the assorted claptrap. The core concept should be that they, like the Three Musketeers, should be unquestioningly "all for one and one for all", and one should always come first for the other, no matter what.

Finally, I loved the line "he loves Purvi beyond reason but he will never give up his reasoning in the process".

And yes, mea culpa for quoting Arjun as saying 'Ab tum meri zindagi ho". What he says, as I realized on reviewing the episode, is 'Ab tum meri duniya ho". This might not make much of a difference in terms of meaning, but it is nevertheless important to be accurate!

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: soapwatcher1

Shyamala, I too was thinking that without any tensions, there would be no room for the plot to develop but the story of Pavitra Rishta is not just about Arjun and Purvi so the writers can weave several strings or sub plots together, all at the same time. One of Archana and Manav obviously, one of Soham returning, one of Sachin's angst at his abandonment as a child, Punni's marriage to her fiance and her evolution into a "good" character so to speak.

The CVs could drag on the love story of Arjun and Purvi for a couple of months but will give it a happy ending at the end of all the agony. They could then tangent off to problems they face as a young couple, one of them born and bred in Canada, one oh, so middle class that she cannot shut up talking about it :), child rearing, family inter-actions, etc. All side by side with ARMAN and Soham and Ovi meeting someone else, Tej's story being told, etc.

Returning to Arjun and Purvi's present situation, Arjun is a man of this century, young, bold, confident in what he feels, with no hang-ups as to what he owes another emotionally nor is he prone to playing martyr or sacrificial lamb. His mother's words are echoing in his ears, be true to yourself, listen to your own heart for it never lies no matter what the world might say. Even DK's advice 'expect no magic if you are not prepared to take the risk'. Yes, Arjun was nice and sweet and gave in to Ovi's unreasonable obsession in a moment of weakness and said yes to marrying her. But he has found true love, the one person whom he adores and who has now become his world upon his own admission, he will not back off from loving her. He could never replace his Purvi with the childish Ovi.

I see Arjun as angry and upset but not playing the love sick fool that gives in to his lady love's every idiotic demand, be it offering himself to her sister to appease her sense of guilt if Purvi indeed demands that of him. He is practical, channelled, focused, he loves Purvi beyond reason but he will never give up his reasoning in the process.

So, here's to some rocky times between ARVI but ultimately it will be a happy one. It will be a roller coaster, with twists and turns, highs and lows, but we will be brought to the ground with that happy, deeply satisfied feeling of it having been well worth the ride.

Sasha,so beautifully written!Love every bit of it.You have perfectly pointed out - moreover, Purvi too seems, as yet, to have no streak of mischievous gaiety in her. She is basically a serious girl, loyal and committed and extremely hard working, but not either turbulently passionate in love or what one would call bindaas. So her character too would thrive only in tension and adversity. . Otherwise she will be reduced to doing pretty, pretty scenes as a good daughter, granddaughter and so on, all standard TV soap stuff. That may be pleasant as what is called 'time pass', but it is not serious acting and one would soon tire of it. Arjun looks best when he is either in despair or dominating. He will not be anything like as impressive playing a standard issue lover boy.And that Arjun is not like Manav.