Posted:
Dear Pari,
As for the part in bold, you are not taking into account how any such set up like Balaji works. It would be the same in the US TV studios as well. The boss there is Ekta Kapoor, and any actor who walks out of one of her serials without her approval would be blacklisted by her, and she will never cast him again. Worse, as studio bosses do not like dissenters, he will be effectively blacklisted by all the production houses as well, and will find himself in Siberia. This is what happened to Rajiv Khandelwal, who was apparently a good actor, after he walked out of a Balaji serial citing the deterioration of his role. He never worked in TV again, and not everyone is as lucky as Sushant Singh Rajput, to get a good break in films. Moreover, Sushant did not walk out on Ekta, he went amicably. Rajiv did not, and his one (and good) film, Aamir, got nowhere at the box office, and neither did he. Rithvik is much less established than Rajiv Khandelwal was, and he simply cannot risk an open revolt.
This said, Pari, as for your "He is clearly not enjoying playing a young father as much as he enjoyed the young dashing businessman from Canada", the TV industry is not meant to cater to individual actors. A good actor has to fit into all kind of roles, he cannot all the time be playing dominating NRI businessmen! What I hold against Rithvik is that of late he is not trying at all, and he is looking so bad in his limited scenes that soon the audience in India, which is not composed exclusively of Rithvik groupies😉, will switch off him. Also, this is unprofessional, for he is shortchanging the audience. I liked him a lot for quite a while, but nowadays he is painful to watch. I do not think it is his take on Arjun's continued yen for Purvi. I think it is Rithvik switching off, and that will be disastrous for him if he does not look out very soon.
In fact, I do not see how his role is to be turned around. I have written off any Arjun-Purvi reunion, and this not just because of the inevitable collateral damage, but because it will be a washed out affair. As you wrote recently,both of them have changed, and she much more than he has. Every day, the bond between her and Onir grows stronger, and soon Arjun will be nowhere in her scheme of things, and not just because of a growing and crushing burden of gratitude. As Janhvi wrote, a girl with any good sense would any opt for a man (Onir) over a boy (Arjun).
As for the court case, it is a non-starter. The BALH case was quite different and cannot furnish a Balaji precedent. Do you think Arjun is going to have his kid branded publicly as illegitimate? No way. And in any case, he has the kid already. These ideas might be a good way of letting off steam, nothing more.
To revert to Rithvik's slapdash showing, and in contrast, Asha, despite the very hyper scenes she is stuck with, is taking a good crack at them and is doing far better than I had expected her to do. Purvi is irritating and very stupid, but Asha's take on Purvi is surprisingly good, and the two are quite distinct. Yesterday, her last scene with Shakti was acutely irritating but quite convincing. The same with Shakti, he is not glamorous as Rithvik used to be (but no longer is), and he probably came in expecting to be, as he reportedly put it, a kabab main haddi for a few months. But he has grown into the role of Onir, and it is not just because the CVs give him a solid role. He works on the nuances of the helpless emotional dependence of a mature and responsible man on an unstable and demanding girl whom he has had the misfortune to fall in love with, and I am sure the Indian audience is growing to like him a lot.
As for Saraswatichandra, as you yourself say, it should not compared with the run of the mill serials like PR and its cousins, but more to Yashraj's mindblowing Powder in 2010 and then their Kismat the following year, which was officially based on Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer. Both were among the best things I have ever seen, and as for Powder, not just on Indian TV but anywhere at all, including the US. Both failed at the TRPs, and Yashraj pulled out of TV. Now this one is by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and while he is quirky, you cannot question his aesthetics. As for conflicts, with Saraswatichandra's stepmother plotting against him, why that is there in the Ramayana as well! Without conflict where would the story be? This production will have nothing to do with the likes of PR, that is for sure, neither will it have endless dragging and mindless 'twists'. It is based on a classic novel, and I have high hopes of it. In any case, it can never be as bad as PR.
Shayamala Aunty,I absolutely agree. He was marginally better as you said, but not convincing at all. I wrote this in KC's thread the other day about how the ecstatic feeling that is felt by a father, ( with no relation to who the mother is) was sorely missing in him. I don't know if it is Rithvik who is not convinced about his current track and it shows through or it is Arjun who is still pining after Purvi. Either way, he is failing as a father. A first time father and the emotion he feels at seeing his own baby, is one of the most touching feelings ever, but Arjun seems too spaced out to feel it. Today's scene, I saw a glimmer of a smile at seeing Ovi put the baby to sleep, but it was so controlled that I was wondering if he was remembering Purvi singing the lori or it was genuinely seeing his wife and daughter.Whatever the case is, I want him to opt out of this show. He is a good actor and would love to see him in a show that explores his potential as an actor but also is convincing enough for us to watch. He is clearly not enjoying playing a young father as much as he enjoyed the young dashing businessman from Canada. And yes, Jodhaa-Akbar after Hrithik and Aishwarya would be a lame attempt for anyone to re-create, let alone Ekta. So I don't want RD in that show for sure. I don't know in what way is EKTA going to re-write a rich historical story, and I can only imagine the severe butchering of facts.The overall track in PR is going downhill, awaiting it's crash. Soham-Balan is the lamest track to adjust to an actress's schedule. She had put her papers down long before and the CV's had enough time to give her an appropriate exit, instead this last minute story has taken the turn for worse. I am not even watching the episodes these days. Watch some scenes that I think are positive and FF the rest or simply read the WU.I am sticking around only for KC and the daily dose of chatting with the friends I have here. I will try out Saraswatichandra, as you suggested on KC, but I don't keep high hopes from Indian soaps as Varsha Di said. I try new shows, but eventually end up quitting not more than 3 weeks into it. They all come back to the same old ploy. But, I do think, like you mentioned, that this might have a different treatment to it and might have limited episodes too. I do like the actor playing the lead,, he is an able and fine actor who I remember seeing in an old show earlier.But, all in all, it is dismaying for all of us who like RD the actor and Arjun the character and he should either opt out of the show or make it more tolerable for us to watch. He is putting half-hearted efforts right now or the director is not playing him to his potential.
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Anupamaa
