The precap: No, I am not given to standing on my head, or standing things on theirs. I have had to start at the end because the sting in PR today was in the tail. In the precap, to be precise.
A lavish looking party is under way, and it is obviously the one Arjun refers to earlier, the one given by DK in honour of his son's impending wedding. Archana is embracing Vandu when Ovi approaches her, calling her aai. Archana, unable to believe her eyes and ears as she sees a smiling Ovi seek her forgiveness, folds her into a close embrace, watched approvingly by a smiling Manav. Teju approaches next and as Archana puts her arm around her, Teju wordlessly lays her head on Archana's shoulder. And wonder of wonders, Savita too is looking benevolent and is actually smiling as well. Purvi watches this grand parivaar milaap from a little distance, and her face melts in joy and affection and her eyes brim over.
Backgrounder-Ovi plays her cards: No prizes for guessing what leads up to the touching scene described above. We have been apprehensive about it for weeks now, and yesterday's precap seemed hint ominously at impending disaster as Ovi, her face composed into an unreal pleasantness, approaches Purvi at her doorstep. Still, there were some desperate optimists who hoped, just hoped, that Ovi would be positive in some way. Well, she is not.
I am not one of those who excoriate Ovi for her obsession with Arjun; that is a given and has to be taken as such. We then also have to understand - even if we cannot accept it, and indeed condemn it - all that follows from this obsession, as Ovi thinks of one way after another, of one target after another, in her desperate quest to get Arjun away from Purvi and, so she hopes, back to herself. Her mind seems to be closed to the possibility - indeed a certainty - that even if Purvi leaves Arjun, he will not come back to her, Ovi. In a girl who stills refers to him as 'Ovi's Arjun' and 'mera Arjun', this is perhaps not surprising.
Her obsession has evidently sharpened Ovi's faculties and made her amazingly resourceful. Who would have thought her capable of thinking up the last minute dodge of filing an affidavit to postpone the divorce by 10 days? Of course, in PR land, one should not commit the solecism of asking how she actually did it, when she obviously could not co-opt Sachin dada. Or could she? I think not, he looked shellshocked in court yesterday when the postponement was announced by the judge.
Today, Ovi plays Purvi like a fiddle. Practice makes perfect, and having tried this spiel out on Archana last week, this time, Ovi has ironed out any loose ends and polished her sentences to a smooth, supple sheen of insidious persuasiveness. She knows Purvi's Achilles heel - her frantic desire to see her aai regain her parivaar and be happy with them after 18 years of longing - and she hits it unerringly. The buildup - as she mentions how she had got the divorce postponed, and then details all that she will do for her aai within her family - is flawless. No wonder that an ecstatic Purvi is melting with gratitude towards 'Ovi Ma'am'. It never occurs to her - she is after all Archana's daughter - that there is something so fishy here that it smells all the way to Khandala.
It is only when the boom is lowered, and Ovi mentions the chhoti si khushi (small happiness or joy) that she wants in return for giving Purvi such a badi khushi - that Ovi's Arjun should be returned to Ovi, and Purvi should get out of Arjun's life for good - that Purvi finally realizes what the score is. But by then it is too late, and the glorious prospect of her aai regaining all she had lost 18 years ago has taken possession of Purvi's heart and soul.
It is then that Ovi plays her ace of spades: she presses the guilt button neatly. I am sure meri aai (please note the possessive adjective!) has done everything possible for you during these 18 years, she says. How can you now hesitate about such a "chhoti si" sacrifice for aai, when she has, by refusing my offer, sacrificed her heart's deepest desire for your sake ?
She repeats the old formula of her target being given time to make up her mind - in this case 48 hours, as the Arjun-Purvi wedding is just 2 days away. Then comes the parting shot - and it is truly a Parthian shot that goes home instantly. When you make your decision, Ovi tells Purvi before she turns away, do think of our aai.
As Purvi stands there, as if turned to stone, Ovi's words ricochet thru her brain, and the one idea that drowns out all the others is that it was she, Purvi, who had been the reason for her aai sacrificing the happiness that was, finally, within her reach.
Archana-Purvi: The conversation between Archana and Purvi immediately after this is on entirely predictable lines, especially because Purvi, wanting to keep Ovi out of the matter, pretends that it was she who had filed the affidavit. But even here, as in the similar conversation with Purvi at the temple, Archana unwittingly makes matters worse, and hardens Purvi's determination to get her mother 'all that she deserves'. She is, quite rightly, trying to get Purvi to understand why the divorce had to go thru. My daughters hate me, she says, so how can I force myself on them by living with them? But they are now ready to love you! - Purvi undoubtedly says to herself.
Archana then tries to make Purvi understand that working against the divorce is pointless, and that all she wants now is for Purvi to be happy. But the way she says this ' There is nothing left in my life now, you are all I have left. My happiness will now be only thru you ' seems tailor-made to produce an effect that will be the very opposite of the one she aims for. As on the earlier occasion, these words, meant to serve a very different purpose, probably end up making Purvi fiercly determined not to let go of this Godsend, this totally unexpected opening that Ovi has given her, to get her beloved aai everything that she has waited for and longed for every single day of those 18 long years.
The denouement: I have no illusions about my ability to read the minds of the CVs, and my record in this matter is dismal, to put it mildly. However, this seems to be one instance when even I cannot be wrong. I would be delighted if, by some miracle, I was wrong, but this is the Kaliyug, and all the miracles have probably been exhausted.
You see, the precap, which leaves no room for ambiguity, cannot possibly be explained unless Purvi has given Ovi her word that if Ovi delivers on her promise, she, Purvi, will keep her part of the bargain.
It might seem that Ovi, by accepting Archana so openly at the party, is also accepting a post-dated cheque that might bounce. But that is not really so, for she must have told Manav,Savita and Teju about at least part of her discussion with Purvi so as to prepare them for the Grand Transformation. If things go wrong, and Purvi backs out of the deal, Ovi can always go back to the bad old days, knowing that the Deshmukhs will fall in line behind her.
The precap a dream? :Several of our members - Namita, Ash, Jai - who are probably far better at interpreting the CVs' thought processes than I am, feel that the precap might well be a dream/fantasy of Purvi's. They could well be correct.It would, logically, have been difficult for Ovi to tie up the matter so neatly and get a smiling Deshmukh gang to the party the very next day. Though I am constrained to add that if they wanted to do it, no considerations of logic or feasibility would have bothered the CVs.
But that does not affect my basic premise, that the Punni-Ovi scheme has worked, inasmuch as Purvi is now racked with guilt and as obsessed with getting her aai back into her family as Ovi is with getting Arjun for herself.
It is this that will determine what she does next, and I do not think (dream or no dream) that this is going to include taking the saat phere with Arjun smoothly as planned. The scene when their mock pheras were interrupted was probably one of the heavy hints the CVs delight in throwing at us.
So, even if the precap is her dream/imagination, since she is now aware of Ovi's offer, she will no longer be able to go thru with the wedding and thus, as she sees it, finally bury the chances of Archana getting back with Manav and her daughters. It would be too much to expect of such an aai-fixated girl. She would never be able to live with herself if she did that.
Today, when Arjun tells Purvi, with a slight tinge of reproach, that he is very happy with their marriage, even if he does not know about her (forcing Purvi into instant denial), it almost seemed like a premonition. The premonition seems to have come true with unexpected celerity.
As I had written recently, I did not see Arjun's problems ending even if the marriage did take place as scheduled. Rather I saw a new set of problems surfacing for the poor chap, with a wife who had her own list of priorities, on which he would never be at the top since, in the ultimate analysis, Purvi thinks, first and last, only of her aai. So Arjun would always have come only a distant second, or rather third now, after her newly acquired Soham dada.
Poor Arjun, he seems to be buying a house with a triple mortgage on it - Archana, Manav, and now Soham dada!
I have also often stated my belief that Arjun loves Purvi more than the other way around, and that she is lucky in that it is better to be more loved than to be more loving. But then, being "more loved than loving" is all very well for the one lucky enough to get it, like Purvi (provided she can hold fast to it). Not for the other party. There is a Tamil proverb that goes as follows: The dhobi (washerman) loves the dhoban (his wife), but the dhoban loves the donkey. I leave it to your imagination who the dhobi will be in PR.
Come to think of it, he could even be us!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
