At the end of today's PR, I felt as if dark clouds were blanketing the sky, and the sunlight was fading. Now a dark stormy sky can mean one of two things: a violent storm that uproots trees and causes extensive damage, or just a display of thunder and lightning, with not much to show for all the sound and fury but a gentle shower that refreshes the spirit. Which of these is it to be in PR?
No one knows, least of all your truly, with my abysmal record of second guessing the CVs. Nonetheless, we have to do something, so let us start reading the tea leaves, by gathering what facts we have, and extrapolating from them as best we can. Of course we will have to keep in mind that the CVs are allergic to logic, and that all they want is enough hungama to stir things up and raise the TRPs, whence all the dismaying rumours they have been floating for the past week and more.
The facts: As of now, these are:
-Ovi is offering Archana a Faustian bargain: abandon Purvi and get me Arjun, and in return I will get you assured happiness with your whole family (minus Purvi, of course). She is all pathos and sweet reasonableness, offering Archana all the time she might need, but the hard bargain is there under the velvet glove.
-Archana is not buying this. She is going ahead with the wedding cards, and in the precap, is trying to assure Purvi that the divorce is in no way her fault. I cannot see her allowing Purvi to sacrifice her love for Arjun in order for the divorce to be dropped.
-Purvi has not, contrary to what I had expected, been able to listen to the Archana-Ovi exchange. If she had done that, it might have accelerated developments considerably. Now we have to see if she is made aware of Ovi's offer in some way. It cannot be Archana who will tell her. Ovi, primed and coached by Punni, just might call Purvi and taunt her, saying that if she really loves her aai, she should be prepared to make this sacrifice for her.
-Even without (as of now, at least) this boost to her penchant for tyaag, Purvi is already seguing into that mode. She clearly tells Arjun that she cannot be happy in her marriage to him if her aai is made unhappy by the divorce going thru and thus losing her family for good. That Archana has not just been separated from this family for 18 years, but that during these 18 years, she never had any real hope of being reunited with them, is of course of no import to Purvi, who is dead set on "doing something"for her aai, or more specifically, to stop the divorce. She is not going to give up on this, come hell or highwater.
And in the precap, Purvi is in tears, blaming herself, and her engagement with Arjun, for Manav being more seriously upset than ever, thus deepening his alienation from Archana.
-Arjun has no inkling as yet of what might be in store for him, as his beloved begins to shift her focus from making him happy to making her aai happy. He is trying hard, in the only practical and rational way he can think of, to help her out, thru a very late night meeting with Judge Sukriti. That move had, by episode end, failed totally.
Indeed, that whole segment seemed designed solely to bring home to Purvi that there is no legal way to stall the divorce. It then follows, as the night the day, that she will now move on to more drastic methods, for she is no quitter, and for her the stakes are probably the highest she has ever faced.
The Possibilities: Now for the tea leaves.
- It has been suggested, in Laurie's very clever plan, that there might be an Arjun-Purvi charade of giving each other up (after getting married secretly, in one variation on this theme), so as to bring Manav, Archana, and Ovi together, and then revealing the truth when all is sweetness and light.
Attractive as this might sound to desperate Arvi fans seeking evidence of some practical sense and determination in their favourite lovebirds, this charade idea is fraught with unacceptable risks. For one thing, Ovi will not be satisfied with Purvi merely giving up Arjun. She will want him sealed, signed and delivered to her tender care before she moves on what she has promised Archana. If Arjun goes as far as that as part of the charade, he will be getting in too deep, and he will end up in a worse mess than he is in now. He can hardly back out of marrying Ovi TWICE. If I were Arjun, there is NO way I would stick my head into that noose, not even for his enchanting Circe (for Purvi seems to have reduced AK to a tame puppy, if not the pig of the Odyssey).
And how will the charade stop the divorce, unless we assume that Archana would go along with such a sacrifice, and Manav too? It is very difficult to swallow that. On the other hand, what if Manav, yielding to intense pressure from a suicidal Ovi, jumped at the offer? Where would Arjun be then ?
- This leaves us with only two options:
(a) that Purvi dumps Arjun summarily. Arguing with him and trying to convince him to go along with her plan, thru the conventional tumhe meri kasam ploy, will not work with a Canadian-bred chap who had no idea of what the saptapadi is, and who would, conceivably, be reluctant to end up as a burnt offering on the altar of daughterly devotion.
I have no notion if she will feel obliged to cook up an alternative boyfriend, like the unfortunate Sameer Rane, to carry more conviction with Arjun. However, this seems to me to be most unlikely, if only because Arjun, as we know him, will never believe it of Purvi as she has been with him of late. A flat ditching would be the only practical way for Purvi to get rid of Mr. AK.
(b) that Purvi tries desperately to get Arjun to go along with a double-jointed tyaag, she giving him up and he biting the bullet and going back to Ovi Ma'am (I refrain from using limpet, fearing that it might no longer be PC). When this fails, and Archana strengthens Arjun's hand by reading Purvi the riot act about her stupidity in contemplating a collateral damage ratio of 3 to 1, plus her rank insensitivity towards Arjun and what she owes to her future husband, Purvi just might drop the tyaag idea, though with extreme reluctance.
If it turns out to be (b), we can all pop the bubbly; and I am sure Laurie, with her pronounced taste for the high life, would settle for nothing less than Moet Chandon of the best vintage available.
If, however, it turns out to be (a), and nothing Arjun can say or do to move her has any effect, he should then respect her choice. The only other thing he has to do is to vote with his feet, and fast, before Ms.Ovi latches on to him like the Tar Baby dolled up in buttercup yellow.
The poor boy has taken enough from the Karanjkar-Deshmukh women, and it is high time he calls a halt to this endless process of dancing to their whims and fancies. If not, even if he does finally get married to Purvi, his fate will be worse than that of the proverbial doormat.
My wistful afterthought: If only someone could set some hurdles for Purvi to jump, for the privilege of marrying Arjun. Why should it be so one sided? As of now, the general feeling seems to be that it is enough for her to merely exist , refrain from dressing him down as of old, and make him eat pani puri and pao bhaji.
So folks, fasten your seat belts for a bumpy ride, and retune your ears to endless repetitions of our old faithfuls - Aahatein, Hai Rabba, and of course Darmiyaan - while still hoping (against hope) for the best.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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