Today's PR episode belonged to these two: Purvi and DK, and the honours were pretty much evenly divided between them. One is awed by the thought of what they could do if they joined forces, as they will, of course, eventually!
To Purvi, for having stepped up to the plate and, in a reversal of the traditional gender roles in tales of love and chivalry, rescued Arjun from prison by using her brains and her contacts (Malathi, take a bow, even if Purvi was not hand in glove with DK, she did tap the Judge Sukriti contact).
The nicest part of this segment, for me, was not the usual rain sequence (the day, or night, that I see an Arjun-Purvi love scene without any rain, I shall faint), even though the way she pulled Arjun close to her and into the umbrella was most encouraging, hinting at a new, bindaas Purvi. In fact, even the way she looked at Arjun when the inspector tells him it was she who had bailed him out, set a new (Purvi) benchmark for candid tenderness.
The nicest part was that she disproved my facile, but not unfair assumption, when Arjun turned back after talking to the inspector and she was gone without a trace, that she had done her duty and had now reverted to being the ultra-dutiful daughter. Not this new Purvi, trying out her wings ever so gently, preparing for taking flight soon. She is standing outside, waiting for him, and when they meet, she talks to him with a loving possessiveness that is as enchanting as it is unprecedented for her. How could I have left you in the lock up for the night? You were suffering but I was hurting. I cannot live with you far away from me.
She brushes aside his mild reservations about her gone having against her aai's injunction while taking this step to help him (at this point I was ready to tear my hair at this prospect of Arjun becoming even more sanskaari than Purvi, a scary thought, but it passed, thank Heavens!) with a neat quip that turns the tables on him: She also told you stay away from our family, why then did you save my aaji's life? Finally, she nestles into his arms, out in full public view, with a total disregard of anything but her need to be there, like Eve with Adam, 'near his heart to be loved'. It was a moment as lovely as it was remarkable, and I was busy cheering Purvi the emerging butterfly. She had truly come into her own.
Today, there was something remarkable about Arjun too that raised him even further in my esteem. He has none of the typical male ego that is hurt when a woman gets him out of a tight spot. On the contrary, Arjun is proud and elated that it was his Purvi who had accomplished this feat for him: he tells her so at once, and he repeats it with great relish and even greater pride to DK the next morning.
When she returns to the hospital, Purvi seems to be taking one step backwards, almost stammering in nervousness, and apologizing repeatedly to Archana for having gone to meet Arjun. But she shows courage in telling the truth as it is, and not indulging in the standard prevarications. Sulochana is delighted that she has bailed Arjun out, while Archana tries to play down the significance of Purvi's bold initiative by equating it with what Arjun had done for Sulochana, i.e. interpreting it as an expression of gratitude rather than what it was, a love that cannot bear the suffering of the loved one.
Archana is clearly nowhere near accepting Arjun as yet, though when Purvi, in the precap, desperately questions her aaji about when Archana will perceive Arjun's goodness of heart, Sulochana seems optimistic. Maybe she has an inside line to the CVs!
To DK: Not so much for doing anything, which is not his fault really, for though he makes a gentle complaint to Arjun that he had not called him when he had got into this mess, he respects his son's resolve too much to force his assistance on him.
Rather for being there for Arjun, totally and unquestioningly, any time and every time. What would one not do to have a dad like this one? The quiet pride in his voice as he tells Aashana that their son was now grown up. The way in which he turns up at Arjun's doorstep very early the next morning (having undoubtedly been briefed by the inspector), and surveys his son's dismal new surroundings with unshakeable calm. A calm which is disturbed only when he opens what appears to be a biscuit jar (with a mismatched lid) and finds that it contains Arjun's meager funds; DK's face winces. His warm appreciation of how Purvi had got Arjun out of police custody. We can hope for a DK-Purvi scene some time soon, perhaps; that would be a treat!
When Arjun apologises for having nothing for his father to sit on (actually, I never understood where the durree came from either; it appeared from nowhere after the Shirt da Button song), DK replies that he had come to see his son, and having seen him, was content. It is clear, and neither is hesitant to admit it, that they miss each other acutely. Finally, as he is leaving, father and son cap each other's lines in a display of easy camaraderie, that is as unexpected from the reticent DK as it is delightful:
Dar gaye jo fasslonse manzilein kya payenge?
Hai lagan jo man me to kamyaab ho jayenge.
How can those who fear distances (to be covered) ever reach their goals?
If there is determination in our hearts, we will triumph.
A curious little footnote to the above: when DK opens the biscuit jar, Arjun explains that it is his mehnat ki kamayee (the fruit of his labour). Apparently only the fruits of manual labour count for the CVs; money earned by brain power is not mehnat ki kamayee!!
Another and even more curious footnote: Archana gets back home and straightaway proceeds to recount to Manav the whole story of Arjun's misfortunes of the previous night (to his credit, Manav immediately says he will talk to the DCP and help get Arjun out of jail), including, with fulsome apologies, the fact that it was Purvi who had got Arjun bail. However, she does NOT mention the one most important point, that it was Arjun who had brought Sulochana to the hospital and thus saved her life.
It was the same the previous evening at the hospital, when she fails to inform the aggressive Manav about what Arjun had done for Sulochana. Then at least it could have been excused given the tension and worry she was suffering from, but this time, when she is providing the complete narrative to Manav with the preamble that she wants to hide nothing from him, the omission is so glaring that it seems deliberate.
All in all, a reassuring and heart-warming episode that should normally leave us optimistic. However, long experience with the fitrath of the CVs gives one pause. They are like nothing so much as the Greek gods enthroned on Mount Olympus, who were always jealous of the happiness of mortals, and were swift to punish those who rejoiced too much. We should thus be cautious in both our hopes and our happiness, so as not to provoke the jealous gods of Balaji Productions, for who knows what they might then do to put us in our place?
Shyamala B.Cowsik
PS: Since we of the APP do not believe in false modesty, please permit us to blow a small fanfare on our trumpets to rejoice in our predictions of yesterday - that the 'cautious caterpillar' would soon become a chrysalis and then, eventually, a butterfly - turning out to be more than correct. Our protge seems to have skipped over the chrysalis stage and gone straight to the butterfly one. Her wings are wet as yet, but in the warmth of Arjun's love, they should soon dry out, and then she will truly take wing!
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