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This title may seem strange for an episode in which there was so much of high drama: shouting, shoving, weeping and walking out. However, if one stands back and looks at the whole, it is clear that today there has not been much substantive forward movement – or at least as much as was expected - after the high voltage two thappads and one shove (hinted at) yesterday, and all the obvious predictions one could have made from all that. Let us take the developments point-wise.
1) Arjun had already brought out the single vital point- that he loves Purvi – yesterday. There was nothing much that happened in this thread today, except for Manav making a sad display of himself and his daughter by dragging the whole lot out into the corridor and hurling accusations at Arjun at the top of his voice, when it could all have been conducted decently, out of the public glare, inside the flat. But then both PR and the Deshmucks (sic!) revel in washing all their dirty linen in public.
All this was predictable, as was Arjun - never very articulate and now weighed down by guilt - being unable to explain anything, not to speak of trying to exculpate Purvi, and DK's exemplary handling of the rising level of hysteria. He drags Manav away from Archana, and reprimands him for being "uncivilised" (exactly the right word at the right time, as always).
When DK is leaving, his warm gesture of gripping Archana's shoulder, in silent support, as she cowers tearfully against the wall, is far more eloquent than any number of words could have been.
Manav severs his friendship (and presumably his business ties as well) with DK. I suppose one should be grateful he does not slap DK as well.
- Archana being shoved into the wall, her bangles breaking and her wrists being cut by the glass (Ankita's reaction shot was amazingly good) was very unpleasant, but this too was on the horizon yesterday itself, once she committed the major folly of announcing "Mujhe sab pata tha", without clarifying when.
It is strange how all these people read the Ramayana day in and day out, and still never take a lesson from Hanuman, who announces, on his return to Rama's camp after the Lanka dahan, "Dekha Sitaji ko" (I have seen Sitaji). He thus spares Lord Rama even one more second of anxiety by stating 'Dekha' first.
Whereas Archana just does not think of adding "abhi abhi", or "aaj hi" after "Mujhe", which would have made all the difference. Nor does she try to quickly add this vital adverb as Manav is approaching her menacingly. Instead, she makes matters worse by mumbling - while she looks at him the way a canary would look at an approaching cat - that she had wanted to tell him. No wonder that infuriates him even more.
Not that Archana resents being shoved into the wall. She 'understands' Manav's manhandling perfectly, and says later that she wants only to share his problems and feelings. Now we know what doormats are made of.
She is further abused by Manav as being the worst of mothers, and told to get lost. Being made of stouter stuff, she does not comply. Instead, she promptly repairs to her room, and later faces down Savita and Ovi (who is demanding that Archana should leave the house or she would), and makes it clear that she has a right to the house till the divorce, and has no intention of leaving. Savita is, for once, at a loss for words.
This apart, Archana seems in general to be a glutton for punishment; the more she ie reviled by Savita and Ovi, the less it seems to affect her. If this is saintliness, the less of it the better.
- Besides this exercise in self-assertion, Archana also takes it upon herself to advise the hysterical Ovi - who seems to be under the delusion that still Arjun loves her and will marry her once he gets out of Purvi's clutches - that he is not worthy of her (or of Purvi either). Teju, who continues to provide a refreshing element of sanity in all the hysteria, seconds Archana in this, but by episode end, it was not clear whether any headway had been made in bringing Ovi to her senses.
I suspect that this drama is likely to get worse – the delusions Ovi suffers from seem to be genuine – and this might make Archana's life (and perhaps Purvi's as well) even more difficult than it is already.
One hopes that Archana does not follow this up by issuing an edict forbidding Purvi from marrying this 'unworthy' suitor. If she were to do so, there is no saying what the girl, already desperate to gain her mother's forgiveness and regain her affection, would do to please her aai. On such thin threads does Arjun's happiness depend!
- Another anti-climax is that Purvi has neither attempted to commit suicide, nor left town for good. She did not even oblige us by going to the Shiv temple, but seems to have quietly done exactly what she told Arjun she would do: go back home. Alas for all the anxious moments in the forum and the endless speculations and apprehensions! She puts in an appearance only in the precap, but more of that later.
- The only utterly charming and refreshing interlude – which also breaks some new ground- is the scene between Arjun and his father. It is a master class by DK in how to be an affectionate, non-judgemental, reassuring and totally supportive parent – wonderful and heart warming to watch. It will also be very important for taking the Arjun-Purvi love story to its logical conclusion.
Arjun is by now lacerated by an acute sense of guilt for having messed things up so badly, hurt so many people, and wrecked DK's age old friendship with Manav. He finally realizes that he would have done much better to have told the truth at the engagement itself (your ladla can hardly be called quick on the uptake in such matters, Archana!), and confesses to his father that while his careful business plans and strategies had always worked, when it came to the most important decision of his life, he had got it all wrong. What should he do now?
DK's response is admirable. He asks Arjun for a drink, and then recounts the part that fate had played, by taking him to an art gallery for an exhibition, in bringing him together with the love of his life, Aashana. The same has happened to you, he tells Arjun: you came all the way from Canada to India, and fell in love with a simple, middle class girl. It was all fate, and he would never want to separate two people in love.
When Arjun voices his worry that Purvi might not want this now, DK brushes such fears aside, saying that what Purvi wanted or did not want was of no account, for whatever was fated would happen in any case.
He then tells Arjun that if he loved Purvi, he should go and get married to her, and he would accept her as his bahu. He ends up with a quirky lift of his brows, while his eyes twinkle in tandem - most uncharacteristic of the normally aloof DK, and thus all the more endearing. The look of sheer relief and gratitude on Arjun's face, as he hugs his father, is something to see.
Finally, the charming precap seems to be a harbinger of delight for all of us. Arjun is standing in the middle of an arched bridge across a pond in what seems to be a public park. Of course it is raining, and he is totally wet already. He does not move as Purvi appears at the foot of the bridge. She approaches him slowly, and as the camera pans to her face, it seems calm and peaceful. She is not going slap him, as one member feared. She will, I hope, just run across the bridge and straight into his arms.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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