Blast from the Past Thread #30 **The Finale... Arnav Khushi Hamesha** - Page 26

Originally posted by: indi52

birthday bitwa
episode 364/365

he was her gabroo jawan, she was his ajeeb ho tum, everything was too pretty in the garden of ipk now that the snake had been defanged, and that was the whole problem. now that you mention it, they really did have no idea what next.. what a mess.. and what a missed potential..



something was needed to take the story forward, what could it be but a fight.

i have looked at 364 and 365 several times, always completely skipping the asr making jalebi and the akash giving asr advice scenes, mainly to see what it is that the writers were trying to convey. aww bholi bhali indi di.. jaago mohan pyare.. writers have become bye bye and story has no hello hi..

and in the bargain all i have achieved is feeling bad for both the gabroo and the ajeeb.

this time i finally thought i understood why they created the asr birthday gone sour story... so we could see them in a rather lovely moment of making up. where a key thing about lovers is said out simply.



i don't feel good at all when we fight, muttered khushi, holding him tight and pouting. he said he didn't like it either, beginning to look happy and at home at last. actually, that is so so true. when you love someone, no matter what they might or might not have done, any tiff or miff with them makes you feel out of sorts, uncentred, not at peace at all. till the whole thing is resolved, you're just not yourself.

this simple needing of equanimity with each other is a lovely thing to portray. when we first fall in love, it's a feeling we can identify perhaps as a thing separate from what we feel in the other relationships we have, we can perhaps see its breadth and length and depth... it is a thing apart, even if extremely cherished and important. but as the emotion takes root, gets deeper and we live with it, somewhere along the way the one we love and that love seem to seep into us in a way that we can't clearly see it as a separate thing anymore. it becomes part of us, it gets coded in the dna of our emotions.

there's a funny sort of merging between two people... that is way more than sex or ceremony. there's a taking in of another person into your sense of identity... hard to explain, but if you've been in a long relationship, you'll know what i mean.

even the slightest little skirmish with the person becomes difficult to handle, it robs us of that feeling of well being, it makes us uncomfortable.

we don't feel good.

i watched the two of them getting snug and enjoyed that moment with them.

but was a strange birthday story the only way to get there? i remembered being mystified by khushi's refusal to accept his birthday wishes, his gift, his party, even the flower. they were at a very difficult juncture in their relationship and up to a point i got her anger. but it was taken to an ungracious obdurateness... which is so not khushi. thats what hurts me har baar. would she be insensitive to all his trying?

this time too, they made khushi act almost heartlessly because he said he doesn't want fuss. i ask myself, could khushi have instructed everyone not to wish arnav ji... makes me want to run and make jalebis.

khushi would be crestfallen at his refusal to have any birthday celebrations. but she'd itch to make it happen somehow. i kept on thinking she would spring a party or something on him, especially when she fed him karela, sent off his client's gift of a cake, didn't wish him, generally acted weird. you know till this point I sort of understood. I thought what she was trying to do to please him did not come naturally to her, so of course she took it too far and ended up making him uncomfortable. But then all the sermonizing and umbrage from her side? That was too much to handle.

just like asr, i thought, wonder what she's planning.

turns out: nothing. she even went and told the others to refrain from wishing him... and she said to him that he was to blame for everything, because she had so wanted to celebrate but he was set in his ways... she had changed herself so much. such a terrible thing to say. And even if it has to be flung at him in anger, couldn't she apologize sweetly? And the family seems to have no say now. How come Khushi knows best? Didn't Anjali at one time explain to Khushi how even ASR wants to be cared for.

i gawked. who has written this, is all i could think.

all he'd said was he would like to treat the day like any other day... no party and stuff.

and the writer confused me a lot with how the family behaved as well... first each and everyone pondered how arnav bitwa hates celebrating his birthday, how he is surly when wished, etc., and implored khushi not to do anything... annnyyything for his bday.

then they said it was because khushi had forbidden them they hadn't wished him.

then they all wished him... and nani ji said to him, he'd upset khushi.

all this confusing circuitous, jalebiesque (and i mean the sort of jalebis the gabroo jawan made) route to that sweet succumbing to love scene. nah, not impressed.

never saw the asr making jalebi sequence. firstly, he is not a cutesy guy to do such obvious cutesy things. secondly, if for whatever reason he decided to do it even, he would not be hamhanded and confused. he'd be cool, focused, precise, as he is when out to achieve something... and then when the jalebis turned out wrong, he'd call for some possibly. and if khushi found him in the kitchen with his not too nice jalebis, she'd be so tickled, she'd forget to be angry, and try them giving him expert advice, getting him a little irritated then... till he'd just pull her into his arms and whisper shut up, then command, wish me happy birthday, and she would. I completely agree. And he is a modern man spent time abroad. Ofcourse he knows his way around the kitchen. I believe he can even suprise her by making aaloo methi!

and no, asr would never ever need advice from akash, who is actually turning out to be not at all a man who gets relationship, again thanks to writers and channel, and the general lack of interest shown toward ipk by its producers these days. haha here I am giving akash babua benefit of doubt.. whether ASR needs advice or not, he might just throw some in.. like Indu di mentioned, I think poor Akash really wants some love life talk.

anyway, mami is speaking in bootiphool englissiya, all must be right with the world. even if a pesky kid has walked in and a tale is about to start which is anything but sheetal as in cool.

was surprised that kkgsr felt nothing, no dhakdhak, as she measured the chhaati, bazoo, and kandhe of her handsome young man, i presume gabroo jawan means something akin to that. but oooh, i loved the air hug by the lover boy, his very dilli amriki "come 'ere now," or whatever it is he said as he reached out to pull her into his arms. that rom and com in it that is asr khushi, just them. you want to laugh, you want to sigh, you grin in a silly way and all the discomfort tiredness anger ire difficulties of the day disappear, as you are beamed right up to another planet.

Originally posted by: indi52

seat belt
episode 366

the situation was even worse than what was transpiring in the black car. there at least someone, in fact the heroine herself, was at the wheel, but the episode had no one steering, even by remote. the accelerator break and clutch of ipk had been forgotten and we careened off, swerving this way and that toward what no one exactly knew.

maybe this was a leap into the dark the creators took with a lusty call of "hey devi maiyya, raksha karna!" for certainly, no one had even the faintest clue that this was an episode of iss pyaar ko kya naam doon? which was watched by besotted fans across the world, perhaps even the universe. and no matter how bad your creative black out, you must not show the heroine, the sanka devi of all star systems, beat up kidnappers with bottle gourd and drumsticks.

it's just one of those things you must never do.

and one thing you might want to do, is ask yourself, which show exactly am i writing for, before you put pen to paper or finger to keyboard or hand to driving wheel or whatever.

as the episode grew excruciating, i looked toward asr for help, since sanka devi is now in an alien abduction situation (by the way, is ipk sworn to kidnap or something? now new track also must be introduced using the good old device).



he was looking good, but the poor man had such a bland and pointless screenplay today. smile in brown suit, brown shirt, brown tie... frown in brown suit... look indulgently at khushi in brown suit, give signature smirk in the same. go off to work in brown suit. reappear driving car but now for some unfathomable reason in blue shirt and black waistcoat, no tie...


drive, swear, curse, frown, look worried, speak through gritted teeth and keep worrying about khushi.

frown, smirk, suit, worry for khushi... ah that should keep the viewers happy. how predictable we have become, haven't we.

anyway, i kept staring at the man and hoping something good would come of it.

that's when it suddenly struck me. three little letters.

suv.



yeah, asr was driving an suv. i almost leapt with joy. then i thought, but that doesn't look like his suv. have they got anew one?

so i went to check. and what i found had me grinning away. the suv has a double, maybe a triple... or more.

the ph had mindfully fixed a delhi number plate to the gaddi of the delhi tycoon of the amriki dilli accent. but even that kept changing. taking the penchant for doubles to the next level, one of the number plates, dl 04 ef 1001, had several versions.

as i searched and found the suv in different episodes, the number changed, the car changed... guess i was watching the owner of the white vehicle so "itni kareeb se," i forgot to notice what was going on with his trusted steed.

this was funny. and just for this joy ride, i must thank the unbelievably strange episode 366.

aarav and sheetal are here. there's no escape i suppose. might as well stare into brown eyes and count suvs.















one can do a quiz on the cars and their number plates, i am thinking. 😆 and here's the familiar establishing shot at rm, i think it's the same car that's there in the scooter accident scene, episode 14...

Originally posted by: aarwen

Someone seems very taken in by gabroo jawan indi di.. and I don't mean the wife measuring his chaati and baazoo..

Why they went and spoilt both birthdays? I was remembering Payal's birthday, way back when the first rabba ve descended on our fangirl planet. ASR had thought he is spoiling a certain girls day, but who knew for so many of us, many years of our life would get made and revolve around this love story.. Anyway, enough blabbering..

Liked your insightful thoughts on pyaar and the takraar and how uncomfortable they leave you..

And absolutely completely entirely utterly agree with you.. ASR does not burn jalebis and throw around flour and make a mess.. bas.

Originally posted by: indi52

disjointed not disarmed
episodes 367/368

totally disarmed. hum ho do..

sorry, thodlly disarrrmed.

nice stubble in the suv with blindfolded wife.

a beautiful lover and a rather lovely object of love. a lot of kkg there today. madam in abhimaan.

two cribs. bd's twice the size of actors, even their wigs. voice, in a couple of places could have sworn that wasn't barun's.

no, his mushy gush didn't feel like capitualtion, just sweet sweet love. and he got her to promise, cops next time please.

okay, i guess it's time to eat my words. and please don't bother to serve it to me in chef cap and apron. wrote that soon after seeing episode 367 the very first time. though even then i'd thought during the garden scene which i don't like at all any more, what's wrong with his voice? is it barun at all?

thankfully, i did complain about the body doubles even if with an apostrophe that wasn't needed.

the most shattering thing about 367 and 368 was, no dhakdhaks. not even once. so much happened, there were all these scenes with khushi and asr... but i felt nothing. even when barun said that todally dizzaarmed thing... even when they acted cute over breakfast, even when he smiled in bemused wonder at her antics... nothing nowhere never.

this i think hasn't ever happened before.

when sheetal came, even if i didn't like the way the story was set up, nor the way the new actress looked, talked, felt, i had still hoped something wonderful might happen.

this could be chudail. this could be the catalyst that was needed to bring khushi's possessiveness, her need for laad governor careening out. as she explored her feelings, as she showed her baal noch loongi huq, we might reach another level in asr khushi's love story.

i had really hoped for that and so missed the glaring faults in the episodes then. this time, i didn't. screenplay was utterly disjointed. why things were happening no one knew, you hopped from one scene to another, no link between them. acting was forced all around.

barun looked tired and uninvolved and smiled too much and too sweetly... and since when does asr smile at children?

huh?

how?

come?

and what's that language? big guy? did i just hear asr say that to a kid with a gentle voice and slanted grin? nahiiin. asr, tum theek ho?

and where does it say that once you fall in love with someone and marry them, you become another human being almost vis a vis that person? every story has its own cadence, its feel... two people in fact possibly maintain their connection, that charge between them, by keeping what ignited it alive.



i don't recognise asr khushi in these little vignettes of them any more. it's a matter of devising something, anything... to bring in a rabba vey. that gets trp someone has said. that is signature. that is brand.

but it's all becoming heartless and mechanical. sometimes downright silly. who gags and binds his wife then throws her into a car and drives over to a garden to bow his head before her and tell she's a better person than he is? the shatir man? he did that? thank devi maiyya I have forgotten.

maybe that's why he assigned the whole thing to a body double.


watching asr smiling for no reason at the not so funny khushi doing another so called cute scene on how she beat up the kidnappers was problematic enough. then came the shot from behind him... and it was not him at all. it was disturbing.

how can professional creatives, directors, editors, cinematographers be so careless with how they use doubles?

khushi's double walked around with a massive wig and her completely unsanaya like limbs and movements, it was bizarre... you knew it wasn't sanaya yet you were supposed to believe that's khushi.

right through the two episodes doubles messed with watching, concentrating, even getting into the story if there was one.



to get aarav into rm along with sheetal the most improbable story was fetched and thrown at us. little kids wouldn't buy such tales...

when i watch the last fifty odd episodes of ipk, it's always difficult. something feels badly shaken and taken off its very foundation. it angers and frustrates me at times. sometimes i fast forward. but what it all really makes me feel is mystified.

why?

why did the entire story and the telling of it have to go this way?

what made it necessary to lose ipk?

don't tell me it's because the story had ended... because i know that's nonsense. the whole of sheesh mahal and its secrets was always there... just that no one went to its door.

instead sheetal aarav entered the scene...

... why? i suppose i should just be grateful it was not the other serial device, "the leap." imagine asr khushi with nineteen year old daughter in love with a most unsuitable boy...

okay, bring on the sheetals, i am ready.silver lining


and, sorry, asr would have not just chided khushi but been completely gussa and raving about her driving around like a lunatic. the man went ballistic when there was a shard of glass embedded in her wrist. does anyone remember. kyu dard hai itna inko pyar karne meiinnn... rabba ve..

also, how can you reduce khushi, your main female lead, to this unreal cardboard character? she is funky and sharp and conscientious and loving and grounded, not silly and prone to doing foolish things with no clue of what's really up. asr is not madly in love with her because she prances about acting cute (aaargh)... i wish the writers had binge watched the early episodes like us, they'd have not been able to write all this stuff then. its strange that they want us to believe that it all about the cuteness or the mahaan nari ness of the lead. Intelligence, sharpness, fun, physical attraction all got lost somewhere somehow..

anyway, so let's go into track sheetal. haha i was delighted to see sheetal managed only to get the double to chat with her. not this hot brown fellow.

Originally posted by: indi52

dear saheli
episode 369

"aur phir wo ghayab ho gayi?"
and then she vanished?

khushi said that and i found myself beginning to smile. such a real anxiety on sanaya's face. though i knew the entire sheetal story was crafted ridiculously, nothing about it even faintly believable, yet, khushi's that funny moment when she is full of questions, mixed up, wondering what it was exactly that was between this woman with a child who reminded her of her husband and that cool handsome husband of hers... something about it was convincing.

khushi was in unfamiliar territory. she had never known she could feel this sort of uneasiness over a girl vis a vis khushi was in unfamiliar territory. she had never known she could feel this sort of uneasiness over a girl vis a vis arnav ji. in her many fantasies about weddings, sasural, ideal partner, etc., had she ever factored in a girl from his past... had she ever asked herself what she'd do should he have had a girl friend indeed. lavanya she knew, it happened before her eyes, she could handle it... even with that she was completely out of control the day she decided he wanted la and was planning to bump her off.

then too, the writing had been pretty bad, and sanaya standing on a ledge had touched me with her helpless utter love.

such a lost, worried, forlorn look on her face today. she has been feeling strange things. why is that boy so much like her husband? and that sheetal ji, who is she? she has even seen asr being nice to the kid. unthinkable. a million thoughts are going through her head, confusing her. sanaya communicated all this to me, with just the air with which she came and stood looking at him, wondering how to broach the topic.

her arnav ji...

she asked him haltingly about sheetal... and he said casually they were friends, sheetal like himwas somewhat reclusive, in fact they were seeing each other for a while. and withthat khushi like innocence she said, so you saw each other and she disappeared?

a lovely poolside interlude started, simple, man woman, a little silly, not at all cerebral, just about the gut and its uncut response.

he's her man. she has to know what the thing with sheetal was.

"aap unhen dekh nahin paaye?"
you couldn't see her?

that literal translation has him smiling sort of tenderly. he shrugged it off as he would... she was just someone he dated for awhile, he explains.

she is not happy. he should have told her. i love khushi wanting her right, saying, you should have told me. yes... ask for something for yourself. he is precious to you, he ought to have told you.

he might have said, how to tell you, they just sprang this story on me, instead he is typically male... he hadn't even remembered. happens. hahaha

her retort was pretty angry. and funny.

"yeh kya baat hui... aap kissiko see kar rahe the, aur aapko yaad hi nahin..." what sort of behaviour is this. you were seeing someone and you can't even remember.

"khushi... that's because it meant nothing," says he still not getting how anxious and uncomfortable she is feeling. a whole new thing has suddenly erupted on the scene. he was "see kar rahe the" someone. Here I wondered, if they made him a bit obtuse... yes didn't mean anything to him, but she was clearly unsettled. And he usually has "mehsoos" of her everything.. where has mehsoos gone by the way?

i completely got her trepidation and her anger, a confounding mix of feelings. there was a delicateness to sanaya's expressions right through that was gossamer like, ephemeral, i feared my edits would mar it, change its nature, make it thick, overdone. her whole body was tense, a helplessness in her eyes.

tell me, she demanded, before lavanya how many girls were there and who they were.

she wasn't acting cute, she was nervous and unsettled.what if arnav ji had many women? how could he? he was hers...

the penny finally dropped and the shatir one decided he couldn't lose this chance. that male thing to get after her and laugh his head off but also that kick he gets out of seeing her jealous, huqqy, not just sweet and compliant and self sacrificing.



"are you sure..." comes smoky voice in dilli amriki accent. and from shreya "to start with," comes the list... natalie neeta samantha cindy piya aradhna akanksha lata...

he's ruthless, he wants reaction. he gets it. she cuts in at lata, unable to bear it any more. Barun can get this smooth flirt caring lover act so perfectly right.. I miss him.. bahutehi too much..

"aap ke zindagi mein itni saheliyan thi?" she asks almost close to tears.
there were so many saheliyans in your life? aah the mystery saheli is revealed..

i look at that girl from lucknow. saheli, a friend who is a girl... a supremely girl word. preeto could be called khushi's saheli. but la is certainly not asr's saheli. asr doesn't have sahelis.

"sahe-" he's just that little bit taken aback by her khushi vocab as he often is..."girlfriends..." he clarifies, with an urbane little shake of head. he really means to get after her. this is too much fun...

"arnav ji, aap ke..." she would have bawled.






his lips tremble. the most drastically amused and wicked and yet tender smile. i stare transfixed.feels like a long journey all by itself.

in 75, he'd stood right here and broken into a lopsided smile the very first time, looking at this girl who was getting under his skin despite her dehati aukat free lucknow ladki vibes, a girl he wanted to not think about, and yet couldn't get out of his mind. that ajeeb girl.

oh look how different he looks.. did I say I miss him? I do miss him.

indescribable delicate feelings within him, within her then... no one very sure what was going on.. just that he had to smile. she was so ajeeb.

and today this smile, trying to burst out... a man who knows the girl he looks at has gotten completely under his skin and wouldn't have it any other way, a girl who means the world to him, whose ajeeb is so very precious. a girl whose being possessive he likes... excites him. makes him want to play.

just for a few seconds, in an episode that felt forced and tiresome, pure asr khushi at the poolside.

she saw him struggling not to laugh. she got it and went at him. again, real, not cutsie.

but then the bad dialogue day took hold of writers again he said things you don't really need to say at the point, a nice big hug is enough.its wierd that the creators didn't get it. what was asr and what was khushi is clear to us. how come not to the ones who gave them birth?

***

my mano was made to work very hard today. it was her duty to drop so many boulderish hints. all that "chhotey paycketwa, bade paycketwa" talk, then spelling it out clearly, if arnav bitwa had a son, he'd be just like aarav..."shame to shame duplicate copy." her task was strenuous, she needed a necklace that could tackle the enormity of the moment, hello hi bye bye.

***

fangurl edit.

Originally posted by: indi52

baankelal ji vs arnav ji
episode 370

"aap bhi na, baankelal ji! bade woh ho..."
oh you, baankelal ji, you're very... that. (some things just can't be translated, 😆 )

paanwale all set to le jao jalebiya. is arnav ji prepared for battle?
meet khushi ji and her purana chakkar.

but why did khushi ji prefer arnav ji over baankelal ji?

could it be because apart from suddenly discovering that his lean mean hotness and dark penetrating brown eyed stares/glares revved her from haule haule to dhak dhak in no time, khushi ji also felt arnav ji regarded her as something almost no one ever did?

he leveled with her and looked upon her as a person.



not bitiya, bahuriya, behena, biwi... but as that what he always called her.

khushi.

usska ek naam hai. she has a name, he'd snapped once. and he also refused to let her hide behind any "role" as such, especially that of the "good girl." always challenging her, pushing her, almost goading her to find out more about who she was, be everything she could be.

oh it wasn't always rosy and pretty...
aap bhi na, arnav ji! bade what the ho.



he was nasty as hell, a miracle she withstood that in your face, male, mocking, most obnoxious behaviour. but she did. and he had to notice the rhythm of his heart, his longing, his faraq. even while he plied her with, alas, not juicy meetha paan...

but fresh sweet red and bleeding heartache that, sitting in his nukkad in shantivan, only he could make so perfectly... especially that "shadi kar raha hai" and "shadi karni hogi" with the added flavour of "koi matlab nahin" and "faraq padta ha kyunki."

oh he found in chhai maheene, six months, more than barah tareeke ke, twelve kinds of, heartache. after this marathon wooing, khushi ji had to say no to her purana chakkar "moochhon se bhara chehra" and accept the perfect stubble as her pati on whom she had huq.

in the meantime the story became "meant nothing" to the story tellers.

yet arnav ji and khushi ji never forgot their rangeen kal, colourful yesterday. when i see certain scenes from what's coming up, i still sigh and reach for a paan. this one here was so perfect amid the sheetal slush. that fight between them at diwali: takes akal, himmat, and confidence which you don't have... i know it's designed to take us to mrs india ugh, but arnav ji and khushi ji couldn't care less, they were being absolute lovers. delightful.

she found him a new name beginning with k too. kurram khan.

on karwa chauth the tycoon gave her, no not diamonds, but a company, just in case he isn't around she must never have to depend on anyone. he called her the coolest person he knew and meant it. she fretted about being fat, he said she was... and then said put on some more weight... there were many times i wanted to cry or laugh or giggle the way i always had at ipk and moments where i could see the relationship clearly grow, both these cool people finding their way into a chakkar that is forever.

jalebi making became a metaphor for something no paan could ever hope to be.

i am so glad khushi ji chose arnav ji, maybe baankelal ji will have some time for me now.

***

there was something about the way he felt for her, saw her, wanted her. a specific arnav singh raizadaness to it. when she was worried sick about sheetal, and said very clearly even the kid bothers her, i had hoped they'd delve into how khushi needs and wants her arnav ji. not just in that prescribed way of the good wife, but in the way only khushi can want him... the girl who called him laad governor, the man who made her feel things she never thought she would. i enjoyed her getting a bit sick with jealousy.

i enjoyed the baankelal interlude with khushi in top filmi form even though yeah, again the writer denigrated her with a story involving a paanwala which is patently not possible, khushi is capable of concocting a fairly believable tale... sanaya made the scene work.

what i thought felt like khushi is the way she handled her unease. she had to talk gibberish possibly just to deal with that rage of jealousy. i honestly find sheetal unbearable, so the scenes with her close to asr bothers me as much as it upsets khushi, har baar, really. her snarly "meant nothing" comeback was nice, her seething, i too am very "cool" made me grin... honestly, he was acting too tra la about that girlfriend boyfriend thing (okay, i know asr never had a gf, but still)...

so yes, this scene had something about it.

and yet, there was a meh feeling as i watched the episode. i could sense there was no real story here, just time pass. i wonder even now why sheesh mahal was never returned to.