Blast from the Past Thread #30 **The Finale... Arnav Khushi Hamesha**

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#151

^^^

rhea,

thank you for reading.

so i couldn't convince you about the towel dancer. it was such a desperate bid for trp, but i have to say, barun and asr did their jadoo nasha stuff on me. i still rememeber that first night i saw it. i was giggling and silly.

oh i dislike the writing of most of what i am seeing now. of course that proposal in front of everyone is ridiculous... but i always am struck by how a professional acts... this is commercial tv, if you have to do something, you just have to do it... most tv actors comply with that... but barun always goes a step further and tries to be as convincing as he can be, as much his character as possible. his eyes glittered so beautifully right then... but the scene itself? nahiiin.

hahhahah, great observation about shyam ji always on some bizarre hunt for malevolent things when the fam gathers to dance. so many motifs in ipk get repeated again and again. some are lovely and some just tiresome. could abhaas not have tried a couple of different expressions at least.

thanks for liking the two edits. the man oh the man.

i am dreading at the thought of what weirdness awaits him in the next script. indian tv is not exactly well known for its thrillers and cop crime stories.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#152

a test it is
episode 351

melodrama.

really this take could be done with just that one word. the episode made me realise what melodrama actually does to the viewer... well at least to me.

as the strident flat sound and the doused with colour images got going and tears flowed, while dumbed down dialogues crashed against eardrums, i could feel my inner viewer, the one who watches undisturbed by everything, quietly shut down. there was nothing for it here.

melodrama essentially disconnects me. it slams hard against my ability to feel, to evince, to enjoy and leaves it bludgeoned.

jainesh, i finally understood, had been brought in to spike this very thing in the show. because the indian mass audience were not as excited about the show as us... so "research" must have said, ipk is too subtle. tehmass viewer doesn't get it.

the very things that made ipk, ipk... had to be fixed to get the numbers.

demolish subtlety, unleash the melodrama... must have been the brief. alas, it was not just subtlety really, it was pretty neat writing... from all writers. even if it was a soap and it had its share of soapness. that writing was going to be killed as well.

maa. i was always astonished at how this character and her pivotal role was established without melodrama. you could feel asr and anjali's anguish. you knew how key her death was to the character of asr we were seeing before us. how well it all fit in with the story. no one had to tell us that asr connected to his mother through his gardening... you sort of knew it. unsaid but not unknown.

but no. that's too subtle. let's give her a garden. and so we had the suddenly brought about maa's garden hideaway.

on 15 feb 2012, asr had driven wildly to a cul de sac and had a breakdown. none of us will forget it. that scream into the night... that maa, trapped in a memory somewhere. we didn't know where this bend in the road was, it was just some corner of this fractured world where one brutally wounded had come wildly seeking what he didn't know and then he had fallen on this unmarked earth and again a feeling of maa and earth had mingled, made a tv moment unforgettable.

but no. we must mark everything. underline it, make it bold... so let's have another breakdown (since asr breakdown seems to get trp) and let it happen in maa's garden... with red roses stuck here and there. that way no one will miss the significance of it... and make sure we get close ups of tears... always good for numbers.

i could see barun trying very hard to give this scene weight, beauty. but everything was so trying hard to be right. those flowers were particularly dizzying. the day he had insulted her and driven off then come to realise he was wrong, he had said what he never should have, her memories had come in flashbacks even then, after his many memories of di and sheesh mahal... it had felt natural... a story of love and its place in our hearts was being told. how it comes and starts making a place for itself, how it becomes so very essential to us, how it even wipes out certain unbearable things and soothes... i felt so much that time...

today, it was again a set of too right memories... she's saying i will disappear like sand in his thoughts.

he is saying, if i leave your hand once i won't hold it again, in hers.

he is thinking, she'd said don't make me wait.

she is thinking, he's saying, don't ever leave me.

all of it is saying, here dumb viewer, i am flattening out all the intricacies and interesting bends and curves and peaks and cravasses of the story and its telling... come on, show me the trp.

i felt sad. who decided it was okay to just throw it all away. doesn't good work matter at all? i am not surprised. i have seen the same trend in advertising for years. it's not really arnav singh raizada who has the wring idea about the importance of money. it's us... our world.

yeh shadi nahin hogi.
this wedding shan't take place.

dadi actually said it... that much joked about hindi film dialogue. she even took the kangans off khushi's hands. she had put it there to wrench it off of course... anything and everything that could shove up the volume and action on the screen was used.

the new actor of ipk had clearly no feelings for it, but the older ones did... and i felt they all tried to give this whole thing the best they could, so an old viewer like me would stay, not be turned off. payal touched me. khushi was supposed to get hysterical (what else, thsi is serial staple, but would the real khushi behave the way we saw her here?), to veer between certainty and doubt. i felt sanya tried but it was all a bit too much. there was a place though where i felt khushi's emotions... when she turned to payal and asked like a child, he will come, won't he? the vishwas girl allowing doubt to enter her for a moment... something real there.

i even had a goosebump moment. when nani walked up to garima slowly and spoke to her, her words felt as though they were written by the ipk dialogue writers... an empathy in them and nani ji's character.

"hum aapan beti kho diye... hum naahin janat hain ki hum aapko maaf karne ka dil rakhat hai ki nahin.. par yeh baat agar aap ne hume pehle bata diye hote toh..."

i lost my daughter... i don't know if i have the heart to forgive you... but if you'd disclosed this earlier...

nani ji had a magnificence in her that even her wig, stitched sarees and pancake make up couldn't hide. i will never forget how good an actor jayshree t can be if the script lets her be.

garima's breakdown too felt normal... not that in life such bizarre things don't happen, and people don't cry. there is hysteria, tears, bizarreness, all of it here in our lives and in many stories. it was really the way things were told that i just couldn't like. it was not ipk certainly.

barun once said, he found crying difficult. yet on 15 feb he broke down and me along with him.

here, i just wanted him to stop, get into his car and drive to the mandap. it was the sort of weeping asr just never would do.

the crying went on. and the what will happen angst. people said as many obvious things as possible. nk suddenly took charge, not akash. garima apologised to her husband who forgave her instantly. i was surprised, so he didn't know? all these years? bua ji also was in forgiving mood... clearly this part of the tale had to be tied up quickly. not important... or whatever.

nani said the words in everyone's mind... how will chhotey deal with it... bua ji echoed the thought. viewer was supposed to sit on edge of seat biting nails and wondering will he come won't he come. in advertising they would call all those frets about chhotey "call to action." it gets the other party responding at frantic pace (or so they think... i have always disliked those call to action obvious silly lines.)

aaj arnav ji aur hamare pyaar ka imtehaan hai... today, is the test of arnav ji and my love, said khushi.

i thought, uh huh... it's the test of my love for ipk.

Edited by indi52 - 9 years ago

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DurgaS

@DurgaS

Dazzler

+ 3

Posted: 9 years ago

#153

Originally posted by: indi52

lovely lilting happy sound to the poem... and those words i don't know but they seem so pretty. sarzor. gusail. 😆 very nice lines these:

Chaaron oar shor hai, kisine na suna
Zid sarzor hai, yahaan bhi, wahaan bhi

Ha ha thanks Indi. Glad to continue to give you Hindi gyan. 😆 Sarzor somewhat means ruling one's head and gusail means angry.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#154

Originally posted by: DurgaS

Disclaimer: Please do not copy my work anywhere. If you do, please give credit.

Episode 343

Peela rang

Peele rang ki holi, pehle bhi kheli thi
Na jaana tabhi, aise nikhregi
Rang haathon ka, ho aur gehra
Iss laali ka aks, bane tera chehra

Tere chehre pe lag jaaye mera rang
Apne chehre pe lagaloon tera rang
Tere chehre ko chupaloon apne rang mein
Reh jaaye na adhoori koi rasam

Ab nahin koi bandish apne darmiyaan
Tujhe lekar jaoonga apne jahaan
Peele rang ki hoor, mujhe kare majboor
Ab rehna nahin hai aur tujhse door

Translation:

Earlier too had played yellow holi
Didn't know then, it would shine so
May the colour of hands deepen further
May the redness reflect on your face

Let your face get my colour
Let me put your colour on my face
I would hid your face with my colour
No ritual be left out

Now there be no more restriction between us
I will take you to my world
This yellow beauty makes me helpless
Now no more do I want to be away from you

peele rang ki hoor... sounds lovely.

thanks for taking me through the moments of asr and khushi via an inner, intimate rote.

more, durga, more.

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aarwen

@aarwen

Dazzler

+ 4

Posted: 9 years ago

#155

Originally posted by: aarwen

ohh look at the expressions.. Now I want to see him lip sync in a movie..

Indi di di all the convincing is by you.. otherwise I would be in the serial loop of nahiin.. cut.. close up.. nahiin.. cut close up..

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#156

^^^

i am sitting here laughing away... imagining one numbers aarwen in her "nahiin.. cut.. close up.. nahiin.. cut close up.."

so i got you to want to have him lip sync to a song in a movie... ha. okay atif aslam or mohit chauhan playback. okay?

jaldi jaldi, hey devi maiyya, i shall chadhao the best freshest gulab jamun for prashad.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#157

tug of pyaar
episode 352

did anyone see his eyes when she said, "hum jaante the, hum jaante the ki aapke saath koi hadsa hua hai!" i knew it, i knew it that there'd been an accident!

there was that glint there which said love, hope, faith. she would know, he had come to realise that.

he is looking like a prince, i think as episode begins... she like a princess... in pink and green she reminds me of that first day we saw her. she had lied to curious strangers, there's a drama competition in school...

are you the rajkumari? the little boy had asked.

she'd said yes.

so where's your rajkumar, had come the prompt reply.

and a helicopter had appeared in the clear blue sky.

it's night now and the prince and princess have been stymied by the the story taking a turn for the common.

suddenly the least maudlin man you could imagine goes into a fit of endless tears and sentimentality and remembers a conversation with his maa. what could be more pat.

it had to be a lesson learnt from his mother that would make him take the right decision. i wonder was such childish writing necessary... and if there was a valid reason to show how his relationship with his mother helped him resolve things, surely it could have been written with more thought, not this obvious little interlude. it had to be rose, it had to be thorn, he had to show gussa, she had to tell him don't blame the rose for the action of the thorn. he had to call her "important." and she for exactly what reason who knows had to tell a kid about those you love how you must never hurt them. tiring. also i didn't like the actor who did maa, the little boy was not too bad though.

on the night of the terrace, his sister had spoken to him about how he must treat the people he loves, never hurt them. at that time too, it had felt slightly forced.

somewhere along this phool kanta conversation i felt, ah so, khushi is being compared to the rose. i wonder who he is then... maybe he is always the little prince, the dreamer, who so loved his capricious rose.

i was touched however by what he remembered as he drove. the execution was not pretty, but as his mind went through the sheesh mahal moments, the that heart rending maa filled the screen, and soon it was his other key memory.

the moment that changed his life.

khushi falling into his arms.

something still tugs at my heart when i watch him remember this at key points in their love story. that fall... it was such a cataclysmic event in his life. one he had never planned for or known what to do with... he had tried to walk away coolly from it... but no.. it had started something that brought him here to this instant in his life.

in a series of flashbacks, all those tumultuous unforgettable moments:

he whirls away plucking her out of harm's way as the rain falls incessantly.

he is bringing her home after saving her at the guest house... he stares at her hand holding onto his collar. such an unknown feeling must have assailed him then, one he didn't understand at all.

"toh kya woh sach mein taarey ban jaatey hain?" so do they really become stars, he is asking her of his parents. a rational man who could never believe in fanciful ideas like people becoming stars after their death, yet something in him couldn't hold back that day as he ached and she spoke of this thought... he needed someone to touch his pain and soothe it... he let her do it through a conversation that would seem downright silly otherwise... she knew he is not one to believe in such things, she knew what he really was asking for... baat yakeen ki hai, she had said, it's a matter of belief. kya woh hume dekhkar khush hai, is she happy to see me... he had asked that without thinking. he needed so much to believe in something, believe his maa was there somewhere...

he remembered opening her teej fast.

then she was yelling at him... where were you and why are you standing there so quietly. he had asked, you were worried? mere liye? for me?
haan, aapke liye! yes, for you, she'd said angrily.

"khushiii" he had shouted after an ambulance speeding away, fearing she was in it, she was hurt.

for a moment a voice he wanted to blot out entered his thoughts and reminded him, that other woman was garima.

but the mind is a funny thing, it takes you where perhaps your heart really wants to be.

he remembered bandaging her finger at a temple... covering her ring finger with his care, his concern, even if he had no idea why.

he was pulling a shard of glass from her wrist... he could never bear to see her hurt.

he remembered putting the mangalsutra and sindoor on her. and then leaving her at the airport as she said, baat aapki hai... faraq padta ... because it's about you, it makes a difference. she'd also said she wouldn't be able to breathe if he should leave.

he had known she was in the next room when he was kidnapped. they had hugged that first time, she had protected him from being cut by a thorn, taking the scratch herself...

she was telling him, "hume bharosa hai, aap pe, aap ke pyaar par..." i have faith in you and your love as she let him make love to her.

again it's his dadi telling him who khushi's aunt is... yes, he is torn.. the past has a hold over him, as it has over anyone else...

but his present calls him with a powerful call. it tells him how much he is a part of this, and of his own free will.

he remembers seeing lallan flinging khushi off the cliff.

the day he had feared he had lost her forever.

she's falling, she calls out, "arnav jiii!"

she falls, "arnav ji!"

a distance is swiftly bridged.

"khushi!"

he calls out and swerves as he had once at a terrifying moment.

at the mandap, khushi hears his call... she murmurs, "arnav ji..."

do such things happen? perhaps they do, even if the colours are tacky and the story is too thick... but when two wonderful actors meet and create a reality, everything within it becomes possible.

he swerves, losing control of the car. this is a very serial moment... he will die i think for a second.

she runs in green and pink like the first time she had run back in sheesh mahal. were the two shots intentionally similar? to set up echoes and eddies in the mind, make us experience things more intensely. layers of visuals playing in the head?

rabba vey rises, searing.

he swerves again... nk catches khushi stopping her... he crashes

on a black screen, khushi calls out, "arnav ji."

the cascade of scenes from their lives was of course a device used before... for me somehow it does work when the flashbacks are chosen with understanding. then they take you into a deeper reach of the emotion, a parallel journey. you sense the shape and structure of their relationship, you feel its embedding in their lives, you know there is no longer a question of not being with each other... they are always with each other... they are in each other.

his only memory was of sheesh mahal, now khushi's thoughts fill his heart... he has said before how the moments spent with her slowly started to push aside the bad, and became more real, became meaningful... she added meaning... she was all that had meaning... he wanted nothing else, he needed nothing else.

yet today, he must struggle as if to choose.

but really, is there any choice really?

camera pulls back... trolley shot? the horn blares. he lies unconscious, head on steering wheel. i am tense again. but then his eyes open

"maa..." the first word from him

i didn't like anything about the way khushi's reaction was portrayed and the entire scene there, with hysteria and melodrama taking over everything.

but i was glad for two things.

the flame in the havan kund did die. in normal serials that is it. end of story, hero won't come. but here no such thing happened. khushi lost hope as she is so into such signs and symbols... but he did come. a nice touch there.

this was a love beyond signs and symbols. beyond even hate. beyond oneself.

and nani ji never lost faith in him. she was the only one who dealt with the storm in a plausible way. with dignity and emotion as her character would. she was hurt, but she didn't lose focus... she knew what mattered today and what was right. and perhaps she saw a bit of herself in khushi, whom she had practically chosen for her chhotey. she also knew her grandson... he will come, she said and hugged khushi.

"umeed naahin khoiye... chhotey aa jayenge, aayenge zaroor aayenge," don't lose hope... chhotey will come, he will certainly come, said beautiful nani ji.

i did cry like a fool.

but the girl with vishwas was broken. she began to walk away. her mother screamed out, calling her back.

"amma?" she turned and began to walk back, then she felt the tug.

a hand held her dupatta.

the director decided to leave us hanging from a cliff with slippery fingers. but i had seen the look in his eyes... and i really didn't care.

Edited by indi52 - 9 years ago

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aarwen

@aarwen

Dazzler

+ 4

Posted: 9 years ago

#158

Originally posted by: indi52
the namak of love
episode 348

agar aisa hua toh hum bhi arnav ji ko nahin chhorenge...
if that happens, i'm not going to spare (leave) arnav ji.

of course, should the man you have vowed not to "chhoro" say in a crisp voice pointing at a star in your private planetarium, "dekho... woh meri maa hai," look, that's my mother... you'll pause a bit. he never used to believe in stars you might think and the wonder of it fill your heart as yo look up at the gleaming object on the ceiling.

then should he say, "aur usske bilkul saath, tumhari..." and right close to that, yours... you'll feel a strange deep comfort in your being and turn and throw your arm around him, cuddling up, head on his heart, right there on the floor on that white spread and settle down to asking what only you could ask at this moment.

"aap koh kya lagta hai, kya baatein kar rahe honge?"
what do you think, what are they talking about.

talking, baatein.

i laughed as i heard that question asked in a soft happy curious voice. that was khushi, and so spontaneously so. ya now that you mention it.. there is such a contentment and cheerfulness in her tone..

of course, stars must not only be your loved ones departed, they must also talk... communicate. after all without "baatein" how can anyone live, even if they're heavenly bodies, right? and naturally, the most uncommunicative person on earth must be asked to think about what those stars are saying to each other. haha what a keen observation..

thing is, he didn't freak out, he held her closer and she answered her own question (not unusual). they must be happy because their kids have found sachcha pyaar, she said. true love.

at this point, you think there might be a heartbreaking slanting smile... instead, a serious question came from the man in smart casuals who looks almost preppy, and yet chilli pepper hot:

"tumhe kaise pata chala ki yeh sachcha pyaar hai?"
how do you know this is true love?

maybe because he was never happy with cliched ideas... he needed always to know things in a way he could make sense of... or because he just knew this was the truest feeling he had ever felt but wondered how she could tell... what made it true for her... just as she'd asked a question only she could, he asked one only he would. and may I ask how are you managing to be so rational about this episode?

rational examiner and extra rational believer, they had to meet, there had to be...

lying beside him our madam in her scintillating black chiffon and glinting silver and diamond jewellery with hot pink nails and glistening lips, dressed to dance and vamp him as per the punishment for breaking up his bachelor party, said, of course she knew, because every tear of hers hurt him a thousand times...

he replied, looking into her trusting hazel eyes... every time. har baar. I really like how they kept his dialogues to a minimal of words.. just the happiness and desire reflected on his face..

true love.

an episode so immersed in it, every moment touched and connected and stayed.

she had come to give him hell of course. having found out a little too late that nanhe ji's kauon ka jalsa and arnav ji's bachelor's party were not exactly an antakshari playing zone with plenty golgappe.

when payal finally got through to her and the vision of chudail came skittering in one dizzy moment, khushi rushed over to claim her man, no question of chhoroing him if he's dared to have "those" sort of girls at the party. none of the soft gentle khushi ji here. while i giggled madly at the ridiculously drunk nk and akash, and the hissing and hauling by payal and thought, really these guys should do a "friends" like show together, khushi got busy snarling and yelling for her man.

poor nk. did you see his horror at the new avatar of his lovely innocent friend...

at last she saw her arnav ji and his chudail... a telltale silhouette on the window.

she went ballistic and whirled into the room. arnav ji however was chilling on the bed, huh? he was surprised apparently... and how does he manage to look devastating in olive green on a gaudy purple bed sheet? hmm?

"khushi? tum yahan kya kar rahi ho?"
khushi? what are you doing here?

did she even look at him once? no. she was checking under the bed, here there, every corner...

"kahan hai wo? kahan hai wo chudail?"
where is she, hollered kkgsr, where is that banshee (okay nothing sounds as good as chudail...)

"excuse me? kaun?"
excuse me? he was taken aback, who?

"hatiye! aap chup rahiye..."
move! snapped the sweet girl, you shut up!

see this is true love and it must say what it must, samjhi tum. i guffawed at her state. i bet her lover boy wished he could too. she was funny.

he brought out chudail from behind the counter, her hair as false as khushi's but alas also her heart, and pair haath kandhe... everything. it was a mannequin.

i can imagine khushi's tension and her relief. while the note of this part of episode was comedy, within it you could feel the truth of emotions. it's a horrid feeling isn't it when you think the man you love is anywhere even remotely near another woman... of the chudail kind i mean. and he looked serious for a second too.. he doesn't want to be thought as a cheat in any sense..

he had to ask her something though,

"khushi, tumhe sach mein lagta hai ki main aisa kar sakta hoon?"
khushi, do you really think i can do something like that?

he needed, it seemed, to know how she really viewed him. it mattered clearly.

"n..nahin..."
no, she stuttered.

it was her fear, the fear of a lover. that was all. i thought of the fear that must have caught him in its death grip when he saw her with shyam that night.

did he really think she could do that? of course not... but he was a lover, and the fear of losing, of not being loved perhaps stalks a true one.

he teased her. he'd been salman for her, said the towel dancer, and now that she has spoiled his party, "sazaa toh milegi!" you'll get punishment. he whispered the penalty in her ear.

she burst out, "n..nahin... hum nahin kar sakte!" no! i can't do that.

oh but she did.

in chiffon and black too.

with skimpy blouse and lots of bare ivory skin, a thin shimmering chain around her svelte waist, highlighting her navel. she had dressed up for the kaua all right. she looked and danced like a dream.. I love her choice of song.. rustic and sultry.. and she has this bright half smile.. she enjoys the dance.. she is probably a bit shy of what she is doing, but their is a satisfaction in seeing him gape..

when the black figure appeared at the doorway and asr sat up, a bemused look in his eyes, and a definite feeling of creatures of the night in the frame, i was intrigued. what was going on?

then the figure moved, it was khushi. she sat on the floor, took her position, and lifted her veil... a sultry song began to drench the scene. the girl in the colour of night stood up and began to shimmy forward... and tripped.

the dumbstruck bachelor party boy leapt up and held her to steady her.

then came one of the most funny, sexy, gorgeous dance sequences i have ever seen. she was the innocent trying to be sensual, she was filmi enough to want to get it right and yet not adept at exactly this level of raunchiness (oh it was that). and he was amused and slightly shocked, totally tender though... enjoying it and yet kind of falling apart laughing... pretending he wanted to get away, oh but did he. I loved his expressions.. there is so much that Barun managed to put into each muscle movement.. that sparkle in the eyes.. I sense even a shyness.. He is used to girls, but Khushi doing this for him.. oh it adds to a lot of excitement in him.. and then all the Khushiness of tripping and what not.. plus the fact that she is doing this for him.. and this song (if he even managed to focus on a word of it)?! uff how to resist her..

together they had a zing that only they have. how can anything this bizarre be so so arousing... and at the same time utterly sweet too. you could feel the heat in both of them rise, though the laughter tried hard to maintain sanity.

namak issq ka. the salt of love... no, true love... this was that and said with an earthy accent too. i thought sanaya was spectacular in this dance. the shading of emotions, corny touched with happy and innocent and just plain sensual. a girl so in love, a girl who wants to do things she never thought she'd want to, a girl who wants to show her man how much he means to her even if she is embarrassed as hell and is trying to not feel the obvious sensuality of the song she dances to. and yes, sanka devi, who every once in a way gets totally carried away with her moves. exactly what I was saying above, only you wrote it in your super pretty style..

i had wanted la to leap out of a cake at this party, khushi stole out of the dark and took the night on a breathless trip instead.

no wonder arnav ji was in such a state. did he ever think such a torrent of craziness would waylay him one day and turn his world upside down.

i can't imagine any other jodi giving this dance all that sanaya and barun did. maybe shashi kapoor and rakhee could have taken it to a point, but there's a fun in these two, as also an elegance, and an unbridled innocence, a swiftness and a stay... don't think i've seen it anywhere else.

how did they turn what should have been just corny to chaotically lovely.

finally they tumbled onto the bed, and she held his face in her hands, looking up at him...

"kya karne aayi thi yahan?
why did you come here, he asked softly.

"aapko yeh batane aayi thi ki aappar sirf hamara huq hai!"
i came to tell you, that only i have a right over you! she was not shy.

"aur agar koi chudail aapke paas aayi to hum usse..."
and if that banshee comes near you, then, i'll...

"usse kya? kya karogi tum?"
you'll what? what will you do? asked the man laughing, wanting to feel her possessiveness, wanting to belong to her.

"usse jaake maar dalenge... lekin usse pehle usske baal noch lenge..."
i'll go and kill her, said khushi without any hesitation... then bared her cat fight fangs, before that she would go pull out her hair.

a curiously telling conversation. she had come to tell him at last... he was hers. she had huq on him. at last, what he had wanted her to feel she did feel completely... enough to say it out loud. oh how sincerely he wanted that.. he was ready to tease, flirt, fight, plead to make her understand this haq..

chudails have their uses. he was clearly thrilled at being owned by this pagal.

they smiled at each other... a private moment, of pure owning perhaps.

"tumhe kuch dikhana hai..." want to show you something, he said, and led her to the room where he had set up some stars moon and planets for her.

she was perplexed, apprehensive even. what was he up to.

and then she began to understand.

when he said, "mujhe laga ki tumhe jabbhi apni amma babu ji ki yaad aayegi toh..." i though when you miss your parents you can...

i thought of commitment, love, and his plan to make her part of his life as he had promised long back when he had hurt her terribly... "zindagi ka hissa" i think he had said.

they lay in each other's arms, a little aroused, but more really feeling a mad absolute tenderness, a peace. a little time away from everything, all the noise and observances of the days gone by, just by themselves, chatting, saying things, loving. marriages do tend to get hectic..

"aapko pata hai ekbaar hume aise laga tha jaise aapne hume awaz deethi!" she mentioned his kidnap, anguish in her voice, she had thought one day, he had called out to her. and the music was lilting too..

"deethi."
he had, he said.

the stars connected them to that intense absolute emotion they had that made them so "ajeeb" they spoke across distances. i liked the use of stars as an integral part of story telling, again that elegant design of ipk, where nothing was there for no reason. star talk could have easily become a devise to establish khushi's cuteness, her optimism in a syrupy sort of way... but here, the stars wrap around the love story, a part of it. as he pointed up to a star, i was reminded of the day she had soothed his aching heart and shown him those stars in the sky, her amma and babu ji and he ahd asked surprising even perhaps himself, can my mother see me? does she like what she sees? this scene was a mirror in a way of that scene. their story of love going forward through familiar routes. you are so right.. nothing felt forced.. flowed seamlessly..

"hum dono..."
the two of us... said one

"kitne ajeeb hain..."
are so strange finished the other.

then the stars played a trick. they went off. and she reached out to find the remote... when he stopped her hand.

in an instant, everything changed. into the evening came a longing, a desire, that no one had planned for... perhaps that's why it was so sweet... it had to be fulfilled.

i must give a salaam to the writer, director, and actors for crafting that moment. it was so natural... man woman. in it an innate attraction, a thing between two people that only they feel and they understand. sex is such a general and amorphous term. but really, when two people want each other, sense each other, want to make love to each other, there is something specific to it. every love story and its love making is unique i think.

that moment when she reached and he stopped her and something ignited could have only come to their lives in that way at that moment. there's thankfully, no heavy handed setting up of story to reach here... it flows naturally from all that has been happening for a while... even that forced separation, he longs to hold her hand and sleep by her, he yearns for her. then there's all that excitement of chudail releasing many things in her... of course the namak dance that leaves the dampness of issk on the skin...

and there's true love.

when he stops himself and says in that killingly decent way, sorry, i know you don't like all this before shadi... she perhaps by then has felt the call of sachcha pyaar in her heart... understood what he was doing even that suhag raat night when she had reacted without understanding some things.

marriage is not just about pheres. and it is certainly not a licence to have sex. that reduces the beauty of both. as she looked at the man who loved her without inhibition, without reservation, and who felt her pain, her dard, every time, she knew what she must do. she leaned forward and held his face and looked him in the eye and said, i understand, i trust you.

trust... the night he told her of his mother's suicide i felt he did it because he not only loved her, he completely trusted her. for some reason, tonight she felt she had that trust that confidence in him, in his love, in their relationship, to let him go ahead and make love to her.

the first time i had seen this episodes, i'd jumped up in glee and said, she did it, by g she did it... yeah, i was totally upset with khushi's rejection of asr in 318... my problem was not that she said "no" but the manner in which she said it and the reasons she gave.

tonight she grew to another level as she let that need for ritual go and submitted to perhaps one of the highest things human beings encounter... sachcha pyaar.

what followed was intoxicating, exhilarating and have i ever seen such a sensuous and elegant execution of love making anywhere. forum always called this consummation, the word reminds me of georgette heyer and the regency and victorian eras. this was saansey ruk jaygi love making of the most beautiful kind.

consumed the viewer it did though.

i am aware that a lot was edited, i can also see that the editors were not too particular about continuity. one minute khushi's arm is bare but for mehendi and his kiss is landing on it, next minute its full of bangles. i was particularly nahiiin about the doubles used in the close up where he takes off a bangle. at one point i even wondered if that fair back in the long shots was it indeed sanaya's... okay all of this wondering made for many repeated viewings and consuming of viewer.

but really, the story barun and sanaya told with every move, act and expression was hypnotic, flawless, and really love should be like that. and your first time together that blessed and innocent and full of pure fire.

her body had an ease and an eagerness, his a wonder and a restraint, she kissed him tenderly leaving lipstick stains on his cheeks, his lids, he watched her mesmerised, losing himself in her giving. when he took it to the next caress, taking off her jewellery, kissing the inner side of her arm, where the skin was soft and sensitive and her pulse beat nearby, she watched him her eyes lost in feelings she had never felt before.

and when he burying his face in her neck, perhaps kissing her there (i know i know they edited out everything) she was taken aback by her own surge of desire, she had to turn away, losing control slowly, only to return and fling herself against him... he let his hand move up her back to the dori... the one he had snapped mercilessly once, that first time. today, he wanted to untie it again and take her, make her his own.

echoes from all that has been them kept coming and going, making the frame richer, the experience deeper.

he knew he had come to a brink, he had to stop... if she.. "khushi, main..." he said trying to tell her that, but she was ready this time... "hum jaante hain," she said clearly... i know.

and t lat he moved forward to kiss her on her lips and covered her with his body... his lover, his wife.

a lyrical quality to the entire interlude. like poetry flowing.

indian tv has never seen such an execution of intimacy... even the movies haven't. but more striking for me was the mindset being explored, the thought expressed here. about feelings about the actions led off these, about what's right what's not... about going beyond ritual... har baar. you know I really thought all this was leading up to an estrangement.. but maybe it was the mindset being explored.. either way there was devi maiyya sprinkling her magic dust..

a true love story is this... sachcha is its namak.

"hum samajhte hain.. hume bharossa hai."
i understand... i have confidence.

"khushi, mujhse vaada karo, ... ki mujhe kabhi chhorkar nahin jaogi... main tumhare bina nahin jee paoonga..."
khushi, promise me that you'll never leave me and go away... i won't be able to live without you.

aside

~ by the way, who did the decor of the farmhouse? perhaps mami... her colours everywhere, purple satin on the bed? this has got to be the deadly manorama raizada. really why that satin and that color? even on that chduail mannequin

~ everyone talked about the fish the next day... i hadn't even noticed them. 😆 😆 haha I just did

~ "okay relax... there's no pressure." how does barun sobti manage to give palpitations with such everyday words. loved the there's no pressure hahaha, asr was being demanding again clearly... now you have me giggling helplessly..

sigh the frown makes an entry in this crucial scene.

I saw the episode and read the take and didn't want it to end Indi di.. poignant and beautiful observations about the night, the dance, those stars and that sachcha pyar.. its days like these and pretty much every day that am so extremely glad I made my way here and get to share this dizzying high of love with you all..

Have to voice 2 complains about the episode.. I don't like or understand the sad rabba ve and the lyrics that played.. and hyper Khushi from next day was so different from a Khushi I would have imagined..

Edited by aarwen - 9 years ago

Quote

aarwen

@aarwen

Dazzler

+ 4

Posted: 9 years ago

#159

Originally posted by: indi52
wedding day
episode 349

after the intoxication of the previous episode, it was hard to come back to reality. when scene opened on pink walls, i winced.

i know we had come to these walls in 348, but i had hoped we'd start the episode on a sweeter note.

instead, we were given frenzy. khushi's frenzy at the thought of today being her wedding day. i am not saying this can't be a possible scenario at this stage of the story. but nothing seemed to gel.

sanka was not pure somehow. too loud and screechy.. remember her wistful longing after teri meri? or pure panic after dhak dhak attacks and gamla hamla talks?

when we reached shantivan, it was even more perplexing. nk for some reason slept in the hall. and when woken up by the whole family, he spoke of how he'd stayed up the whole night brushing up on wedding customs... several minutes of fairly meaningless prattle followed.

then there were those serial type signs of impending doom sort of dialogues. earlier khushi had shouted at someone for suggesting chameli and insited she wanted gulab, roses at her shadi. gulab instantly suggests something is up and most likely maa is involved in it in some way.

now nk said, "lekin issbaar nannav mere bhai ke shadi mein main saare kasme achhe se nibhana chahta hoon."

but this time at nannav my bro's wedding i shall abide by all the vows.

he meant customs, of course, and had confused kasme (vows/promises) with rasmein (rituals). anjali corrected him with a pained expression. there were other indications that he instead of asr might end up being the bridegroom today. his sherwani even matched asr's and she wore a turban while the dulha refused to. ooh I missed all this..

all through there was a sense of major setting up of ominous event about to transpire. we know ultimately all the hint dropping about there being a possible switch of bridegrooms was pointless. asr came and married kkg. so why was this done? to make us all tense during the asr not showing up stage or because at some point nk as khushi's husband was also considered and then hastily abandoned along the way.

you never can tell with a hindi soap.

anyway, the big day is here. everyone is all dressed up.

the bride is in pink ad green, colours of episode one. khushi is looking pretty but her fake sanka is still in full pelt.

the red bangles arnav ji has given her, break. directors want us to know something bad is on its way.

we all know that anyway, dadi is in vengeful mood for a while. and so in thsi episode she appears and stuns her grandson with the picture of khushi's amma and his pita ji. and why in the world was this picture kept who knows? maybe the evil lord shyam knows since he pretty much knows everything now..

again, what might have been an engaging even if a bit obvious sequence, failed to make contact. there's just no chemistry between the actors and everything is unidimensional. flat. loud.

there are a couple of moments where barun takes the viewer to the turmoil of this hour. but nothings peaks.

i found his problem solving, brisk question to dadi very cute. she is insisting they must talk now. he doesn't want to get late, he's promised khushi he'll be there on time. wso he says, "okay... car mein baithke baat kar sakte hain?"

okay, can we talk in the car? problem solver kahi ke..

later, when dadi makes it clear that she will not be welcoming khushi as daughter in law and in fact, he may not wish to marry her, he lashes out with that asr gussa and intensity, stop it, dadi... mujhe ye sab baatein nahin sunni hai!" stop it, dadi, i don't wish to listen to all this.

he knows she is playing a game, but he won't fall for it. when his grandmother speaks of a truth that will make him part with khushi, a beautiful line...

"toh aisa sach mujhe janna hi nahin hai... jo mujhe khushi se alag kar de."
then such a truth i don't wish to know.. one which will separate me from khushi.

a couple of things i enjoyed in 349.

ipk is often really good with showing interaction among family. everyone is ready to go to the wedding and the guys are hanging out in sherwanis, when suddenly anjali walks in with a busy air and starts dousing chhotey with perfume. he obviously doesn't like her doing this, but she is all elder sis and he, irritated but letting her do her thing since he knows there's no stopping her anyway.

us and our thing for perfume. i giggled at this little scene.

and yes, that "hi." hayee

now barun sobti should really start conducting a programme on the many ways of saying hi and all their significance. aaye hayee

khushi called him and of course everyone in that happy shadi mood, refused to let him have his phone, taking turns to have inane conversations with khushi. the phone call from kidnap came to mind and all their several calls to each other. this one gadget of our times is such an essential part of their romance.

finally, he'd had enough. he snatched the phone and declared, "okay... aap log chaliye main khushi se baat karke aa raha hoon..."
okay... you all go ahead, i'll talk to khushi and join you. he sounded a little angry... nice.

and then came the

"hi..."

sweet soft tender. on a slightest ever smile. one had to stare.

even if sp and its achchi ladki needs had completely done away with any normal reaction from khushi about the night that had just gone by, when she had made love to her husband for the very first time, asr was not having anyone stop him from saying what he had to.

yes, the evening before had happened. he knew it was khushi's first time and he meant to find out how she was doing, if all was well. he was possibly worried she was hurting... yeah, we are never supposed to mention such things... but even as all our minds are skidding into the gutter, he will ask what he must and with such poise and sweetness, we'd be passing out too. haha I learnt about "gutter" here on if.. can't complain.. learnt to talk about such stuff here too..

"khushi, tum theek ho na..." awww. khushi, you're okay aren't you? his three little words, tum theek ho... now in this moment of their lives. i remember his brusque husky theek ho tum in a godown during kidnap.

she smiled gently.

"i mean, tum..." i mean, you... he started

"hum theek hain!" i am fine she said. still smiling.

"i mean, kal raat ke baad..." i man after last night.
yeah, he said it... that explicit. I thought he might also worry that she is regretting it

then she said a very soap type of line, completely changing the mood and tone... words sounding heavy and too squishy. boo hoo

thoughts

~ piyumori mehta is again an actress i like. she has a depth in her portrayal. the scene with khushi was moving, if only story were strong.

~ "no thanks, mujhe koi pagdi nahin pahanni hai..." no thanks, i am not wearing a pagdi. asr sounded cute.

~ what happened to that bracelet he was looking at and then put into its box? maybe in season 2? 😆

~ "aaj hamari shadi hai..." said khushi. didn't she sound just like heer? was this also a hint that all will not be well? uff, socheka padi.

Enjoyed and spoke above.. I wish Khushi wasn't her hyper self.. specially following 348 in the first watch I was aghast at the shift.. from delicate handling of everything to suddenly regular soapy stuff..

I also noticed nani leaves ASR to come with dadi.. that thing about boy's family having more haq.. I remember you talking about that earlier.. came to my mind here as well.. nani probably has the most claim on the man that her grandson has turned into.. still his father's family is to be given more right over him..

Quote

indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#160

because of you
episode 353

shaat shomuddur tero nodir paare...

i wrote this on crooner after first seeing the episode. almost all i wrote at the time works for me even now. this is an edited version of my first thoughts on 353. and even though i may have seen something meaningful here, i still totally disagree with the remarriage idea.

across seven sees and thirteen rivers... did the prince have to travel to find the princess's heart trapped in a box in some secret location, in the bangla fairy tales my grandma told me. it felt as though that distance and more was journeyed by asr from the moment his unloving, unscrupulous grandmother said the words and held up a picture. i saw his eyes then and i could feel him spiraling out of himself toward what heaven knows. while his bride waited, she'd told him not to be late, not on their wedding day. yet he had to go away.

i usually avoid journey as a metaphor for i feel it is overused. but last week what arnav singh raizada went on was an epic journey, no less. one he was pretty much pushed into, and where for a while i feared for him as i had the night he and khushi had a terrible row when he realised she'd left because she was waiting for the contract to end. "tum aise hone dogi, khushi?" you'll let our marriage end just like that? i can still hear the agony in his voice, the numbing pain.

yesterday, as he screamed into the night and broke furniture, i worried that his customary reflex: anger, would again destroy everything. yet one part of me held firmly on to hope: no, it said, this time he will find a way out, khushi is too much in him to just turn away from, no matter how shattering the revelations before him, and even if it is about his mother. he was in her garden and i prayed she would show him the way.

she did. he heard her. his mother's memory and words played gently through his mind, calming him, taking away all horror and pain, bringing him back from the first part of his journey which took him to the edge of disaster, he felt himself unlock and return. milestone.

when he thinks, he never goes wrong. he was on the brink, but love helped him come back and navigate right. his mother's love for him. his love for his mother. and a new love that had taken the place that an old wound had vitiated for too long.

once he took the path, the crossings became easier, yes, many rivers and seas, but all pointing in the same direction: love, life, khushi. and the ocean rushed toward its shore. in those fairytales the prince rescues the princess's heart, but here she was the keeper of his heart, and that's what the path showed him.

i was fascinated by this travel through space and time within. the power of an emotion that guides you from miles and miles away. he could sense her waiting. he could feel her love, her longing, her trust. it brought him back from the moment where trust was broken in his life. by the action of a parent, a father, the one in whom a child puts maximum faith. what a completely broken place he had inside him. one he'd never spent time looking at or mourning, because he a boy of fourteen, had to get on with it, "chhota tha, par himmat dikhai maine." i was young, but i showed courage.

then the princess touched that broken place with her heart.

"hum bhi aapse i love you dammit," the culmination of so many clashes, quarrels, attraction, rejection, hurt, pain, utter madness, tenderness, faraq padna, chot, doubting, hating, aching, oh endless feelings, but never ever indifference. for it was always love. even the nafrat was mohabbat, nothing else.

the tale of this journey was told with skill and passion by the writers of dialogue and screenplay, by the directors, and by the actors. i was happy to see ved raj is back. an awkwardly posed remarriage became vital to story and character growth.

i was never comfortable about a second marriage. it felt wrong. but i let it roll, thinking to myself, ipk has always found interesting solutions, let's see what it brings me to this time. so they made a mainstream shadi, into a most hatke one. now what do you say to guys like this. thank you, i suppose.

"khushi aaj main sirf yahan tumhare vajah se khadah hoon, jahan dard, dhokha, aur nafrat ke alawa aur kuch nahin."
khushi, today i stand here only because of you. where there's nothing except pain, treachery, and hate.

oh, that line could be looked at in so many ways. as he stepped away from her touch, the princess, for just a moment, feared; and began to falter. but out he reached as he always had: to hold her, save her, cherish her. as she looked, so did i into his eyes. his eyes lost their ice and grew warm, they said so much to her you got lost in a conversation of love, feeling almost that funny word from my childhood: de trop. she replied with all her heart.

"khushi, tumne mujhe aaj yahan khada kar ke mere saare sawaalon ke jawab de diye."

khushi, by making me stand here, you've answered all my unanswered questions.

"i'm sorry khushi, aane me thodi der ho gai, par aana toh tha..."

i am sorry, khushi, got a little coming... but come, i had to.

then a married man said to his wife:

"khushi, main tumse shadi karna chahta hoon, apne zindagi ka har pal tumhare saath bitana chahta hoon."

khushi, i want to marry you, i want to spend every moment of my life with you.

my insides didn't protest and say, how come he's saying that to her now, he's already her pati. because i'd felt the journey, and i knew it had brought him to a completely new place. he was standing at a spot where perhaps khushi stood the night of her submission. when she felt her vishwas in him and that became bigger than her belief in socially approved conduct.

he was now at a place where he knew his greatest truth. no, it wasn't the truth that broke him, but the new one that restored him, which urged him to leave his past behind and walk ahead into the future:

"sab se bada sach yeh hai ki main khushi se pyaar karta hoon."

the biggest truth is, i love khushi.

"kaha that na jee nahin paaoonga tumhare bina."

had told you, can't live without you.

and so arnav told khushi something he never had in so many words. and he said it as a young man who has not only fallen in love, but has begun to understand what love is. milestone.

brave and righteous that he is, he wouldn't have run away from this marriage, not after everything, but it is a testament to the power of khushi's and his clear pure feeling that he felt its draw, realised the undeniable nature of it, sensed this was the way out of pain and past and let himself be propelled toward tomorrow and its promise. he said all this in those few simple words from his dil. he asked his wife to marry him. this time for himself, not for di, not for social custom, not for maa, not even for khushi.

this time he asked for khushi for himself. perhaps for the first time ever asking for something just for himself.

when his venom spewing grandmother stopped him, he told her of his mother's lesson about roses and thorns, he had understood it only today. milestone. this will lead him into the future, looking to nurture rather than ruin. he consciously stepped onto this path, he will learn slowly, but as long as the direction is right, he will surely get there.

the mention of roses brought to mind a day that khushi, lovely in red, stood poring over rose buds musing that soon when they'd bloom and di's child will also arrive. actually, on the same day arrived dadi, ready to oust khushi and set her descendant's world "right." and today as she loses power and khushi is given the place she more than deserves, roses again show the way. (i was not too keen on the roses and the rose/thorn story as presented through his maa when i saw the episodes recently, the problem was perhaps more in execution, there was an idea there.)

into the brave new world, he walked in further and told his dadi, your son is to blame for everything, for he was married with two children. he cheated two women who didn't know the truth. i was delighted to hear the bald, simple, matter of fact words. it was said as it is, minus frills, and one of the most "male" characters on television, struck fearlessly at the root of pretense and semantics that keeps our male dominated society rabid and strong.

bravo, arnav singh raizada, i feel like dedicating the whole of kipling's "if" to you. my most precious poem since childhood.

khushi was beautiful in her steadfast faith. her love had come to her and submitted without condition. but her quiet taking in of various nuances said, she knew her arnav ji better than you thought. she knew this was a new path for him, and it would take all take time. but i take heart from steinbeck's words:

"i believe a strong woman may be stronger than a man, particularly if she happens to have love in her heart. i guess a loving woman is indestructible."

khushi kumari gupta singh raizada got her pheras. on the night of their wedding as the winds tore through the skies, the temple bells swung hazardously, the havan kund fire glowed fierce, and devi maiyya looked on, khushi stared terrified and shattered at asr as he tied her mangalsutra, put her sindoor. he never looked at her, not once. today, she sat absorbed in prayer, happy and contented and her man couldn't take his eyes off her.

asr had found his home, it was khushi. only khushi, he didn't need anything else.

and so it was that we went on to a happy griha pravesh; with a just a little nastiness from mami ji, a little kala tika, to give slip to buri nazar. i mean what's a raizada function without barbs and backbiting by mami ji. but this time payal spoke up. delightful, so the cat returned her tongue finally. nani ji, the just, the loving, the ultimate in nayi soch welcomed them in. and then he carried her over the threshold toward their new life.

"all journeys eventually end in the same place, home."
~~~~ chris geiger

Edited by indi52 - 9 years ago