I was going to post, but then saw your review and wanted it moved up and hadn't written anything yet myself, so marked my first post for deletion.😆 🤗
Absolutely superb review, Meenu.👏 ⭐️
And apparently if the TRP doesn't rise for the helpless Raju, then they'll show that he was faking being mentally challenged to get revenge on AK for some reason.
They are actually doing a damn good job of establishing the relationship of this pairing and their characters.
And unlike in the past, even if they pull a 'faking' out of the hat, it will fit with everything else this time, though Raj would be an extremely prudently paranoid character to keep up the act in public places in Lonavla on the offchance that anyone might speak of him later.
And also unlike previous tracks, the humiliation and helplessness of either one or both of the leads is not being arranged to showcase how clever or wronged or something someone else is.
This time, during JM's and now Raj's humiliation, the scene has been arranged with no doubts about who the only two people getting audience-sympathy should be.
Mass-audience makes its own decisions about who to support regardless of sympathy-gambits and engineered dialogues in the episodes, so both ploys are always a waste.
This time, they have not employed such ploys, opting for going along with rather than contravening that flow.
They have not shown either incident - the JM-wiping-shoes incident or the Raju-unknowingly-clowning incident - as even slightly acceptable or humorous.
They have shown these as shameful on the part of the people treating them in such a way.
It's not for inspiring laughs. Rather, it makes us cringe and furious at the people showing glee at the expense of the person being targetted.
That being said, it is nevertheless essential for now that Raj and Jr. Madhu remain within the coercive ambit of AK and other unhelpful adversaries, at least until JM completely commits herself unilaterally and totally to the marital relationship regardless of Raj's comprehending it.
Without that pressure, she would seek to place Raj in a comfortable situation, since there would be no reason to stick together and cause him to be further targetted by AK to hurt her.
So her inability to remove him from that situation is crucial for now, as it necessitates her protecting him fiercely and focussedly enough that Radha and Bittu are less of a worry since they are comparatively better able to take care of themselves.
And to effectively stand for Raj, she needed to repeatedly acknowledge their relationship in increasingly public situations.
The most crucial part of today's episode was Madhu finally publicly acknowledging her marital relationship in front of an assorted gathering.
She had earlier acknowledged it to Ms. Meenakshi, and then to the two police while looking for Raju.
Once she fully accepts the relationship and wears the mangalsutra and sindoor that she had put into Lord Krishna's keeping, then AK etc will no longer be necessary as cohabiting characters, and she and Raj could move out of that adversaries-overflowing residence for a while until they can fight back from a stronger position.
On the other hand, if Raj is faking, then her wholly standing by and for their marital relationship while believing him to be lacking would lay a foundation of loyalty, trust and support to their relationship.
Either way, whether his mental condition turns out to be genuine or not (depending on TRPs), only two factors are essential to avoid any clobbering mass-repulsion effect quite apart from the IPL effect.
Firstly, the couple's absolute devotion and loyalty to each other, regardless of any other facets to their relationship.
No halfhearted uncharacteristic prioritizing of any other person, practicality etc more than each other.
And secondly and just as importantly, if there is faking on the cards, it had better be Raj's own intent and in adversarial frame against AK.
Otherwise the series would go from the frying pan into the fire.
Vitally, unlike in the past tracks, here the villains get comeuppance on a regular basis, even though not yet by the leads or on a major scale.
One does not have the spectacle of the indomitable antagonists making the leads lives miserable and having no mass-satisfactorily discomfiting problems in their own lives.
The worry is not whether a scene or an episode may make majority-audience switch channels to avoid, but rather whether they will watch the next episode in hope of there being no such mass-discomfiting scene.
And the current track is effectively managing that.
Even if mass-audience tunes out, they may still be expected to give a chance to the next episode because every episode with even one extremely unpleasant scene compensates promptly either within that episode itself or the very next episode or both.
So now, if the series doesn't recklessly exacerbate mass-viewership's skittishness from over a year while competing with IPL now, and avoids any 'different' or 'unique' ideas (the unpleasant presentation of which in this series has a probably unsurpassed track-record of necessitating almost total clean-slating in successive tracks for any hope of the mass-audience being willing to give a chance to at least the next track), the tried-and-tested formulae have a decade or two of their potential for success or lack thereof in a few or many variations safely known.
The time and place for learning a new swimming style should not be in choppy waters in terrible weather. We have TRP down and IPL ongoing.
Hopefully, experimentation on any new and untested ideas will be avoided, and track (regardless of Raju genuinely or faking mentally challenged) will be prudently tailored to be appealing to the mass-audience, so that TRP can manage to at least stay afloat alongside IPL.
If viewership has enough interest in the track to ensure that result, we'll have improving viewership with their getting the reassurance that they may tune in for MEIEJ everyday without disinterest or distaste against their preferences causing them to change the channel.
This couple will get a starting chance for any track, at least beyond the track-starter fortnight in which mass-audience could for a year now take for granted the track meandering over to developments disinteresting and/or distasteful to mostly conservative mass-sensibilities.
The current track has been the first in a year that features DVD and does not have any mass-repelling track started even by the end of the second week.
Whether the track is embraced or drop-kicked by mass-audience with their decade or two of consistent viewership-reactions will depend on the track not contravening those sensibilities.
Fingers crossed that this time they manage to repeat the feat of 2012 and combine the charismatic lead pairing with mass-appealing track to tide the series safely to good viewership shore.
Edited by leelaa9 - 11 years ago
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