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

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indi52

@indi52

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+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#261

what if, arnav ji...
episodes 374/375

"what the hell do you mean by aise hi...!!" arnav singh erupted, the pitch of emotion just right in his voice.

"aise hi..." just like that, mumbled his wife khushi kumari looking lost and woebegone, and part guilty, part anguished.

"are you out of your mind, khushi? tumhe lagta hai aarav mera beta hai..." are you out of your mind, khushi, he rasped, you think aarav is my son.

she didn't know what to say.

"khushi, tumhe bharosa nahi hai mujhpar..." khushi, you don't have faith in me? you think i am lying?

i have never liked watching these episodes, yet i just couldn't suddenly stop watching ipk. i always hoped things would get better. we'd go back to what made the show dear and precious and obsessively loved.

this time as i watched, especially when khushi was going crazy in the store room, her mind in a mess, her suspicions plaguing her, not being able to stand by that "bhabook" decision of hers to rip the dna test without seeing the results, filling up with angst, her mind careening to unthinkable possibilities like a bevy of not so beauties with their sons all called asr...

i thought, this might have been a great moment to look at if they had executed it well.

when you love someone deeply and with every bit of you, when you know you won't live if they are not a part of you, your life, things are not as simple as it seems... or as we want it to be.

love expresses itself in strange mysterious, sometimes terrifying ways. it's not always moonlight and magic, though there is that too. especially by certain poolsides.

that night when arnav singh saw khushi kumari in the arms of shyam manohar jha, he was incredulous at first, then so terribly struck, he could not distinguish right from wrong, the man who pondered sahi and galat so often had no clue what he was about to do was galat.

and while part of it was because of his protective instinct toward his sister, part also because of how he had seen his mother suffer and perhaps he felt her pain suddenly standing there looking at what he thought was betrayal,

but really that error of judgement was to do with the emotion... the faraq he had started to feel and that was so so precious, that had hold over him in a way he had still not fathomed... for that he had to be away and face the moment that he may never see khushi again.

writers must have pondered that terrace situation deeply. directors must have cogitated long. they knew this would take the pitch to another level, the story would spin chaotically suddenly and then have to find a way to settle down. so they prepared carefully i get the feeling. some of the most intense and magnificent episodes in a serial came along, including the scream in the dark 15 february episode. maa.

it took us to the vortex of the romance, the eye of the storm, tying past and present and instant together and hurling us into the future.

no matter how terrible his action and suffocatingly real her bewilderment, her horror, her heartbreak, it set off a quake in me, made me want to stay on and watch it all... till what... till what.. who knew.

just that, yes. you could sense this was love. nothing else but that unfathomable thing.

had the creatives really gotten into khushi's mind and its seemingly nonsensical reaction to the fact that a little boy has mannerisms like her husband's and his mother was an ex girlfriend of his, we might have had a great trip into obsession.

an obsessive fear. not because khushi is mad or stupid or naturally a possessive jealous wife, but because she has such a feeling for her arnav ji... her entire sense of vishwas is somewhere given to him. she is a human being, not a devi, she can jump to a bizarre conclusion and then not be able to let it go. not be able to control it as it begins to take over and propel her into dizzying activity, interminable action, ridiculous moves... if you've been chased by a baseless but obsessive worry, you'd know what i mean.

i watched her doing one silly thing after another. talk to her devil and angel, decide she can blow on the pages of a diary and read, somehow that would make her act of intrusion and sheer wrong mindedness less ugly. she ran into the store room and started yelping about his purana chakkar... the look on her face made me pause.

there was real tension and frenzy there.

khushi has not had an entirely smooth life. yes, she laughs, jokes, makes jalebis, loves deeply, is willing to do anything for her family, even get engaged to shyam, even marry a man who openly threatens her, gives her no choice... but there is perhaps a vulnerable side to her, an inner bit that always worries about things going wrong, especially with those she loves. she can't bear to hear babu ji may have to mortgage his shop, she can't let her jiji cry without running out to fix things, she loves with all of herself, holding nothing back... not even something to fall back on, in case things go wrong.

she has never fallen in love before and never has anyone given her the sense that she has complete right over him... her huq. arnav ji is not a substitute family, not her dil ka rishtey. he is her dil.

he is everything to her at one level. this kind of relationship is brand new to her. perhaps given the loss she has faced early in life, makes her fear just a bit, even if unconsciously. and when something involves arnav ji, she is not really rational about it.

this can happen. in fact, this does happen with lovers. they can't think straight in certain situations, any hint of threat to their world and the mind starts drawing all sorts of bizarre pictures.

what if ... what if... what if... shrieks through the mind the heart the gut.

you can't just shake it off.

khushi is in that state.

sanaya is a consummate actress and when she acts with barun she is even better than that. i understand that khushi would express her obsessive fear in her own unique way... there will be signs of sanka in it.

sanka... not slapstick.

and there would be a crazily beautiful tenderness too, a nuttiness... not silliness.

in episode two when she returns to gomti sadan, the look on her face... so so real. she is sorry, she is tired, she is beaten by the whole thing, she is scared, she is aghast that she couldn't solve jiji's problem, and she is so damn innocent and brave. i bet if you asked her then would she do it again, she'd say yes, she wouldn't change a thing. that was a mad charge too.

here an obsession sparked mad charge.

if only they had written it with care. i am sure there would be no peon scene, no every member of the family yelling aarav is mini asr, no madhura naik as sheetal, no basketball (he raised the level of mercury to levels pretty dangerous, but even then, it was just not him), no hey big guy cutie pie conversations from asr,

and if there were indeed a dna test, an extreme action in itself, it would have come about differently.

"wahi toh, wahi toh, humare muhalle mein fancy dress pratiyogita hai..."

that's it, that's it, there's a fancy dress competition in our neighbourhood, said khushi to aarav in her full peon gear, mustache in place... and i thought of the first episode, that thing about fancy dress, khushi always willing to play with the truth a bit, her life constantly pushing some fancy dress on her... only one man who loves her as she is... what if this little fellow is really his son... what if he takes arnav ji away from her... what if... what if...

yes, these episodes are impossible and they could have been unforgettable.

Edited by indi52 - 9 years ago

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#262

Originally posted by: aarwen

I can't even see what's common between the boy and ASR. It was forced and idiotic.

The jealous Khushi was beautiful. For a few minutes, I did think ASR was being forced to not notice Khushi's state. Once he gets it, Barun and Sanaya were really good. Your observation of how a possessive Khushi makes ASR happy makes me happy.

thanks for reading.

yeah, nothing about aarav reminded my of asr. the entire setting up of this story weak weak weak. but they had an idea there that might have been great to get into, esp with barun and sanaya. pity, no one was up to it.

the jealous khushi me like too. the achhiest of us has all these other feelings too.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#263

Originally posted by: aarwen

Indi di this was beautiful and delightful to read. Lots of pink. To think I was unhappy with the fact that they showed Khushi select a paanwala to payback jealous Arnavji..it was silly, she could be more believable. you mentioned that, but added so many nice things.

And lovely edits of Khushi.

Can I beg, borrow, steal the phrase "lean mean hotness"?

please take the lean mean hotness... and if you can, bring him back. back... back to us. he is my one true paanwala, my absolutely naya chakkar, and i can't wait for him to make my heart beat go to a haule haule that is faster than any fast.

thanks, rhea, so glad you had fun. sanaya is a natural at gibberishing. now i am missing her too. sigh.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#264

the son and the father
episodes 376/377

as the basketball progressed, two things became apparent. one was khushi's fuzzy, troubled state of mind. the other was an underscoring of a relationship between asr and aarav... aarav as the son, aarav for whom asr runs across and makes sure he scores a basket, aarav whom he lofts up so he may push a ball into the hoop and score. the little boy gets the most tender attention from the brusque man who is not known to be fond of children. and right after all is done, asr actually puts him on his shoulder and looks at him indulgently.

i thought 376 was really focused on the son aspect of the quandary khushi is in. the entire thing is really from khushi's perspective. she notices every little interaction between the two and reacts to them.

of course, along with that comes the mother of the "son" and all the worries she unleashes in khushi. when asr and sheetal play one on one, khushi almost flakes out. her entire concentration is on the two of them.

when sheetal suddenly shouts "khushi!" and throws the ball to her without waiting to see if she has khushi's attention or not, asr yells, "wwwatch out!" to his wife.

but does she notice?

she doesn't even notice that arnav ji is teasing her, wanting to include her in, bantering, trying to have a private little moment with her... nothing sinks in.

she doesn't see him smiling at her antics...

the poor girl just keeps feeling more and more left out of the scene... and by the end of play it's almost as if asr, aarav, and sheetal are a unit, and khushi the outsider.

of course, all of this is to do with that fear of losing asr and an obsession regarding aarav's father, a conviction that asr must be the father... a conviction triggered by exactly what it's hard to pinpoint.

as i said earlier while writing 374/375, if this idea had been explored with depth and written well, would have been worth watching. even in this not well conceived imbroglio, sanaya takes me to the heart of her fear.

the fear of a lover. an unreasonable, suffocating fear. all it took was a handkerchief and a clever villain to get othello to a point of madness. here there's a whole child and a cagey mother who refuses to say who the father of the child is.

asr, however, seems to be a bit out of touch with khushi at this point, he doesn't notice her lost air, he doesn't miss her at the end of the game.
and anyway, asr an ace basketball player spending time on the court instead of the library is hard to imagine. i'll let it pass.

in the shot where khushi sat under an umbrella, trouble in caps written across her face, vulnerable and fey... looking in at a scene where she seems not to fit in, i was so reminded of 65 and the lovely girl with her umbrella. that time too, she was looking in, seeing asr's relationship with his sister, getting to see a side of him she never would have guessed existed. feeling the emotions of that bond. she the outsider.

here too. now it's asr looking at a boy who could be his son. bonding with him, a circle of love that seems to include her life, her love and two strangers.

the writers forgot they had shown asr and sheetal as rivals on the court in the previous episode, suddenly, they were the two of them against the whole college, asr reminisces, and we come to further underscoring of this relationship between son, mother and asr... the awesome threesome.

at last asr, who now is into hi fiving (someone save me) asks, "khushi kahan hai?" where's khushi. and it's touching to see how happy it makes the tremulous girl with the jalebis. though i really did not get that ott nightmare of hers replete with khushi at asr's feet begging him not leave her. why oh why must this so called funny stuff be written.

if 376 was about the son, 377 was all about the father.

right from sheetal looking longingly at asr's pictures to asr muttering about teaching aarav basketball, taking the day off in fact (no, asr would't do that but i'll let this pass too) and finally to the demand by aarav that he be introduced to his father just as his mother had promised she would once they were in delhi.

dad. father. pita ji. the whole episode reverberated with the word. aarav screamed for his father, threw a tantrum in the living room. it clearly impacted asr... this is a pain he understands... that of never having a father who did his duty, played the role he was meant to. in one single shot, frown deeply etched and yet a vulnerability on the face, barun sobti accentuated the theme of father, the one he never calls out to, because he wasn't there... the one he wants to be nothing like. yet father. always important to a child. hamesha.

khushi got caught in the turbulence of her emotions.

a sweet little scene in the bedroom with asr where she couldn't even bring herself to look calm and happy as she always tries to. she was rattled, irritated... not only was that sheetal ji looking at her husband's photographs and being secretive about it, asr and aarav both seemed to like each other. the girl was hassled beyond belief.

and a lovely boy girl moment. at least you're not in the cupboard he quipped. asked her if she was upset. she of course said, no. then promptly gave him her clothes to wear. that distracted, scatter brained girl. because someone else seems to be in the life of the boy.

a father, a son, a boy, a girl, and a problem that seems impossible to resolve. why did i get the feeling the sheetal story was meant to go in another direction? if indeed aarav is just a kid she'd picked up from nowhere and schooled cunningly to be like asr, then how come they are having mother son discussions by the poolside, where no one can hear them and aarav is still asking for his dad. there's no sign of him thinking asr is his father... yet later when sheetal's plans are revealed, aarav says sheetal had told him all along, asr was his father.

that old malaise of ipk, story changing every day.

at the end of 377, a triumphant smile from khushi... if aarav is going to meet his father somewhere outside, then it can't be asr. such relief. her eyes rolled up to thank dm.

☯️

i enjoyed the basketball game though, thought it was shot well.

asr, of course, looked rather dishy. but i am still struggling with character. he studied like a maniac in college and planned his revenge and grimaced and frowned and maybe took out a couple of girls... but basketball? i don't want to get tired "sochte sochte," someone's playing a game with me, i am happy to just go along.

Edited by indi52 - 9 years ago

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#265

episode 376

a strange situation. i knew that graceful man on the screen, effortlessly moving across, playing a game he knows well, and managing to look almost impossibly elegant (yes, despite sweat and flying hair) can't be asr. asr frowns, he doesn't smile. asr works, he doesn't waste time on a basketball court. asr plays to win, not to be cute. you know asr? that man couldn't be him. it had to be barun. barun looking gorgeous. and yet, it was asr. just can't get this confused reaction of mine. so made edits.

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kizh72

@kizh72

Voyager

Posted: 9 years ago

#266

Nandkissore, bhy o bhy?😆

Coming to your take, and what they could've done with the whole sheetal situation with regard to khushi's insecurity. I don't know why we discuss all the missed opportunities, but its almost as if we're compelled to 😆

From the age of eight, she's been an outsider, using her constant prattle and goofiness to cover up all the unpleasantness she has had to face and the hurt inside. I get that insecurity of hers. This has not all been pleasant is it, this whole journey of love with a man so outside her realm of existence. Did she wonder whether its all too good to be true. But then khushi became an object to be played around and ceased being a human in many ways. Oh well, one just feels sad when they had two actors who just got their characters so well, and that certain thing between them.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#267

Originally posted by: kizh72
Nandkissore, bhy o bhy?😆

Coming to your take, and what they could've done with the whole sheetal situation with regard to khushi's insecurity. I don't know why we discuss all the missed opportunities, but its almost as if we're compelled to 😆
From the age of eight, she's been an outsider, using her constant prattle and goofiness to cover up all the unpleasantness she has had to face and the hurt inside. I get that insecurity of hers. This has not all been pleasant is it, this whole journey of love with a man so outside her realm of existence. Did she wonder whether its all too good to be true. But then khushi became an object to be played around and ceased being a human in many ways. Oh well, one just feels sad when they had two actors who just got their characters so well, and that certain thing between them.

bhat joo means, nand kissore, oph kors v=bhe ares komplings to wonly. 😆

in that one line in bold pink, you say it all. yes, what a colossal missed opportunity. and how brill sanaya would have been finding this insecurity of khushi's with that touch of fey, that touch of gamin. and sanka. how terribly new this man, this experience, this sense of ownership... how not to go to pieces fearing for it. okay,

she became such a plaything.

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indi52

@indi52

Stunner

+ 6

Posted: 9 years ago

#268

a boy lost
episode 378

"stoopid promise tumhe karna hi nahin chahiye tha!"
you shouldn't have made that stupid promise

"sheetal, tum usse bata kyun nahin deti ki usska dad kaun hai!"
sheetal, why don't you tell him who is his dad!

"yeh sab karne pe kyun majboor kar rahi ho usse?"
why're you forcing him to do all this?

a five year old boy went to school and no one went with him to the bus. yet everyone said all the right things to his mother about his need for his father. nani ji was even very understanding and supportive of a working mother. there were too many colours in the frame, lots of green and sheetal's bright pink. i felt disoriented really, a sense of nothing coming together in the visual, in the sound track.

aarav is only five? is it possible to even remotely believe this? the age obviously has been calculated backward, a retrofitted story here. if aarav is nine or ten as he most likely is, then if we have to believe the asr is dad story, asr would have to be in college at least ten years ago, which would make him 30 if not thirty-one years old, if aarav was born after he'd finished college.

tough, really, when you suddenly come up with a story without thinking of the consequences.

a boy ran away and went to a restaurant to wait for his father. the story is full of holes. including the fact that later aarav will say, he was told asr was his father. and this will happen just four or five episodes down... perhaps a sign of how quickly the storyline was being altered to suit what or whom who knows.

disorienting. really.

and yet, as asr got completely tense and focused on finding aarav, as he spoke brusquely to sheetal, and seemed to take over, did i sense an underlying story? which again, if developed, could have taken us places, like khushi's insecurity?

did i see a grown man begin to sense the heart and gut of a child? because he had been there before? because at one level he was always there? a boy lost?

what really happens when you can call out to your maa but never to your pita ji, your father? because he betrayed you. because he wasn't there really, even though he was there in flesh. how vulnerable and broken does that make you? is it ever possible to completely mend it? maybe whenever you hear of or see a child in trouble, you who's not even fond of children, feel an ancient tug, an innate call to go fix the problem. make things okay. be the father you wish you had.

and you feel their pain, the empathy is absolute. you know they search for themselves really when they look for their father. as you had perhaps. it becomes a question of your identity. even your rejection of any similarity with him, seems to speak of it. that desperate delve into the self to find out who am i? who am i really? main sahi hoon... you can't be galat. you can't be like the man who made you... nothing of him must you have in yourself. your gussa must not be compared with his. your identity perforce must be separate, a hundred and eighty degrees on the other side of nature from your pita ji's.

this theme of identity... was it always flowing in a not always visible layer in ipk? asr's rejection of his father's family name... "ab main sirf raizada hoon, arnav singh raizada..." in episode one, reverberates in my mind. especially as i see him go a little berserk looking for aarav.

perhaps, the intrinsic themes of ipk kept leading writers to their new ideas, but no one had the time or interest any longer to articulate them with depth, give definition, steer us through the crescendoes of feelings, the climaxes that reached an end point of a theme, embed a sense of culmination and release.

all the while the search went on, khushi's fear and trepidation grew. she became entrenched in her fear unleashed position of the outsider. asr seemed to be detached from everything, just connected to the call of a child.

i again wished, someone had bothered to tell the tale well. there was something there.

while on the issue of identity, the suv seems to be feeling lost too... every day a new numberplate, a new grille guard... or maybe it's a new suv again? gaur se dekhiye, please... the suv of 366 (below) and the one here (above)... so alike, yet not the same... twins separated at birth? or is it, looking at the number of white suvs that the tycoon seems to have, a mission by him to reconnect a family of suvs torn asunder by tragedy? even if so, how does he manage to get the same registration number for different cars... oh sorry, he is a delhi tycoon with paisa and power, he can do anything that he desires. if there can be two people with the unique name asr, why not two suvs with a unique registration number? maybe i need to hide in a refrigerator now and what's this with everyone hiding in cupboards all the time? another deep mysterious symbol of something that must be analysed? 😆

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Horizon

@Horizon

Dazzler

+ 2

Posted: 9 years ago

#269

Indi,

lots of applause for writing sheetals, basket ball matches and bankelals..

what ever little I watched these then, read you now... its very ironical these two faces so very familiar.. yet they are complete strangers..unrecognizable..tragic indeed...

Sheetal is such an aberration and antidote to the whole intoxication that is IPK...yet fortunately not a good enough negator to throw the whole perfection into an abyss and stop us from crying buckets at its loss...

i have to watch the epis to refresh memory to read your takes.. i promised myself to do so soon enough..

Edited by Horizon - 9 years ago