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

there was something in 380 that i really really liked. even though barun looked not too slick, a little tired, maybe even scruffy. but when asr drew aside his wife and gave her his karwa chauth gift, i was puddle. and i was so damn proud of this character called asr.

not a priceless diamond, not a fabulous saree, not mounds of gold, the usual gifts for women, the tycoon gave his jalebi bai something that will make her independent... he gave her her own company. registered and set up, i bet he added a handsome capital too.

kkgsr catering service, it was hers now, to do as she pleased.

"tumhari... dabba company ab ek legitimate business hai!" when she gawked at the papers, he said, your dabba company is now a legitimate business.

and even if this bend in the story came because they planned to kill him off, it was rich and beautiful... and only one hero on tv could have thought of it. asr always had this cool acceptance of women as equals... i don't think the gender bias ever dared to go anywhere near him, knowing he was too sharp and sahi to get taken in by it. and his ego was too settled and in place to need a weaker gender to satisfy his sense of superiority. mera naam hai arnav singh raizada, oh yes, he had a major sense of self... sometimes perhaps even bordering on arrogance, but it came off his own sense of achievement... not by putting an entire gender in a somewhat lower bracket.

this man is and will always be special to me.

he wanted khushi to be all of herself, be independent financially, even though she was married to a man who could afford to keep her and more. what he valued for himself, he perhaps wanted even for her. how many men in our world are this confident, this caring, this abs adorable.

yeah, sallow skin, not too well trimmed stubble, baggy shalwar kurta and all, i wanted to give him a hug. asr, the time for a hero like you is so so come.

how tenderly he looked at her, and tried to explain why he had done what he had. before this he'd been equally loving when he tried to get her to come to a restaurant with him and eat whatever she liked. he really was not happy with her fasting, he wanted to do something nice for her... of course, he wouldn't fast. ha, i like this crisp, neat man. and his mind.

but back to those killer lines.

"actually, khushi, usse tum financially independent bhi ho jaogi... paison ke liye kissi pe dependent rehne ki zaroorat nahin hai... i mean... you never know... kal ko agar main na rahoon-" slap.

actually, khushi, that way you'll become financially independent... you won't need to anybody for money... i mean... you never know...

she looked apprehensive.

if i am not there tomorrow.

she gave him a sharp little slap and made him shut up. pity it was a double who got to administer the rap.

she had gone teary eyed with love and all his loving, almost forgotten the menace of the fasting sheetal ji, but now she had to tick him off. really, how could she not.

she didn't want to hear his "bakwas"... his nonsense.

but he was only being "practical"... why must she slap him for that.

i guffawed.

marriage coming along nicely mr and mrs.

the episode otherwise concentrated on building khushi's angst. and that sheetal flinging dupatta to create a screen and see asr's face through it was creepy really. i don't blame khushi for sensing terrible things.

by the end of the twenty minutes, we came to that inevitable moment. a report she had sworn never to see, she did see. and it confirmed her worst fears.

khushi read two important documents today. both ultimately spoke of her losing her arnav ji. sad. would have been interesting had story been told well.

have to say before i go...
sorry, asr doesn't lose chess games to five year olds. aarav is five... really? and must people keep repeating he looks juuust like asr?

if nephew had me feeling inordinately happy, his mami made me chuckle and think, only mano. kc fast was opened with a look at her husband's face on the phonewa, through the sieve mind you.



"hello hi bye bye arre moonwa aaya ki naahin??"
hello hi bye bye, has the moon appeared or not?

it was hard to watch these episodes. nothing seemed to fall into place, nothing belonged. it was as if a story without anyone really owning it, giving it name and place, had been born and was being thrust upon us.

i felt ipk was going further and further away. there was a distinct lack of uss ahsaas, that feeling that says it's ipk... far or near, it's ipk. to go straight to the end of 382 from where this notion of far or near and a feeling that stays come, how soaked in soppiness was that last scene between asr and khushi... would asr ever write such letters? say such things? and why must he change and become someone else? is love supposed to do that? i like his version more, where he can love whom he loves the way they are, without expecting or asking them to change. the scene was pretty though... wish it had something cataclysmically ipk in it.

right through the two episodes, there was flurry of activity. khushi stormed into sheetal's room and demanded she admit she kept the kc fast for her arnav ji... yeah, humare arnav ji, is how she referred to him. the story got about setting up a situation where she will just give up her arnav ji and get ready to walk away.

absurd.

sheetal accepted that aarav was asr's son. she had come looking for asr but after seeing him married and realising she was a very small part of his past, she had decided to leave... she seeded the idea of asr wanting aarav, then said she couldn't live without her son... it all led to her suggesting a separation between asr and khsuhi. she planted the thought. khushi stood quietly and was so bereft on aarav's behalf, it didn't occur to her to ask sheetal to shut up.

there was an attempt to bring in shyam like wheedling and insinuating to sheetal, show her turning things around in vicious ways to her advantage. but neither the story nor the actress could pull it off.

i remembered how fantastically sanaya had portrayed her emotions the day she found out shyam was anjali's duniya ke sabse achhe pati.

here she has just read a dna report that says aarav is her husband's son. a husband without whom she can't live... somehow sanaya failed to connect with the emotion. i feel sorry for sanaya really... it is a suddenly pulled out of nowhere, ridiculous sub plot... actors will find it extremely hard to relate to and portray it with depth.

shyam's revelation was always part of the programme. aarav and sheetal have suddenly landed up here. how to deal with it.

the dialogues and family situations were repetitive.

to present khushi as a flawless girl who only thinks of others, there were too many scenes where she kept on speaking of aarav's father, or the absense of the gentleman and then insisted that asr had to be like aarav's father... she even said to him that he of all people should understand.

i am sorry, however wonderful and selfless a person one may be, one doesn't really behave like that when faced with a situation like this. suddenly all khushi can think of is aarav... no one else.

huh?

okay let me run away and gaze at the drummer for a while, just to make myself feel better.

but we all know asr does not play the drums. he is not a reinvention by sheetal. he is dour, angry, aching and irresistible exactly as he is.

i have a feeling these are the first episodes that veer away from the original plan, whatever they may be. there was a rush to establish in just two episodes that khushi was in a state and her only way of dealing with things would be to leave asr...

i wonder why that was so essential.

sheetal kept on building the pressure and khushi succumbed without even thinking things over or resisting.

when i saw the candles as she walked into the room, i almost groaned. soap after soap we see such sights, lazy creatives somehow deciding this is the height of romance, a million candles flickering and intense lover talk with it, sometimes even consummation... how cliched.

would asr ever do such a thing? and that too for no apparent reason? what brought on the candle lighting spree?

and what happened to his terrible handwriting?

it's the 6th of november... in just 24 days ipk will go really far away... leaving us with a tight ache in the heart, that comes back every now and then. arnav ji... is that thing called pyaar?





random fangirl edits


why should a man opening his wardrobe, that too with his back turned to the audience, look so good, so full of story... i have no idea but the edits i had to make.

Have been in strange state of mind, probably because of the migraine attack. low in energy, final week, have to write a paper, feeling far from it 😆

^^^

hi kizh...

sorry to hear of that state of mind and the migraine. yeah, those papers are so disorienting, suddenly having to put it all down there... and just too much work.

you saw the vm? i never liked kc, but these two had a way of making things work whenever they could.

this aarav story is just plain hard on everyone. they brought it in without thinking things through, just a silly stunt like "twist" that most soaps seem to thrive on... the soaps i don't see. the soaps i'll never see.

ipk was not one of those soaps.

a sadness does come over me at times... such a simple joy to have asked for, and then to have this madness unleashed. i do hope some day we see these two together again... in a well thought out, intense show.

Originally posted by: kizh72

Have been in strange state of mind, probably because of the migraine attack. low in energy, final week, have to write a paper, feeling far from it 😆

I watched that karwa chauth vm of yours this morning, and this inexplicable sadness sort of hit me. It does happen at times seeing these two and those two characters the way they were.

These episodes are plain ridiculous aren't they? It must have been tough on the actors too. I remebered that episode where khushi finds out about shyam, she's trying to get away when anjali stops her. And she has to stand there and hear about how good shyam is from everyone. Sanaya was just superb, as the girl who has had a major shock and trying to hold everything together. And here everything just seems silly. No, asr wouldn't play the drums, write romantic stuff...he doesn't have to really.

that in pink was the whole point... that's where the charm was, the magic, the sorcery. he really doesn't have to.

i hope the paper has receded, gone farther still. 😆

Indi,

Although his quite laggard and her very overdone make up looks did bother me much..
agree with you mostly on that 380. Lovely thoughts through out. In the middle of some banal stuff .. When these two come together and talk/ do things that made so much sense .. it brings that life back. Right there with you in line to hug him ., one for his gesture second for that quite eerie thought of losing him!
That gift to her is a feather in cap for all his progressive ideology esp regarding his gender bias or lack of it..remember that gob smacked adoring look of him when she chirped saying " ek businessman ki Beti aur business man ki Patni"? I am sure not all that adoration is just for the child woman in front of him but some is surely for her enterpreneural skills
An young man ...26/ 27 year old...,with all his resources and energies still very much intact should n't be talking about that kal ho na ho to his much loved wife .. just not yet ..the chilling thought ..

Originally posted by: Horizon

Indi,

Although his quite laggard and her very overdone make up looks did bother me much..
agree with you mostly on that 380. Lovely thoughts through out. In the middle of some banal stuff .. When these two come together and talk/ do things that made so much sense .. it brings that life back. Right there with you in line to hug him ., one for his gesture second for that quite eerie thought of losing him!
That gift to her is a feather in cap for all his progressive ideology esp regarding his gender bias or lack of it..remember that gob smacked adoring look of him when she chirped saying " ek businessman ki Beti aur business man ki Patni"? I am sure not all that adoration is just for the child woman in front of him but some is surely for her enterpreneural skills
An young man ...26/ 27 year old...,with all his resources and energies still very much intact should n't be talking about that kal ho na ho to his much loved wife .. just not yet ..the chilling thought ..

oh that businessman ki patni shot... i love this man's attitude to women, that gender bias free thing in him, and it fits somehow perfectly, a part of his nature, a part of his exposure and education. excites me.

the hair, look, make up were all off, and story unbelievably jittery, changing all the time. but these two snatched moments from the jaws of that too. i had to marvel at that.

you are so right, at his age, he'd hardly talk of if i'm not there kal to his beloved wife... in fact, he may never say such a thing, just give her the company and command her to be independent... brutal, this track they considered and tried to bring in with such dialogues. even the "arnav aur khushi" will always be together bit, so unlike him... and part of same plot no doubt, now fixed into another denouement.

i did love his snapping at her later though during diwali... about spoiling aarav, about yeah sure i'll give him everything he wants and that nasty dig at her jalebi making not being a real business where you have to face the world with courage and confidence and her not having any of that. sounded like a rollicking husband and wife fight... and yeah, can he talk like that? i think he can. and so can she, sounding all sanctimonious. especially sweet though, that paternalistic, i'll take care of everything thing about him... that tenderness toward a boy who has had nothing growing up, and also that now that he is my son, he shall have everything. alas this fight was devised to take us to perhaps really to the worst ten episodes of the serial.. what was the whole point of that mrs india thing? khushi reduced almost to a cartoon... anyway.

i can never tell which of these two moments makes my heart stop quicker. both seize something in me.. make me pause, make me feel the power of that thing we call love.

the first was of course, "jaa rahi ho." when khushi tiptoed out of their bedroom i was shocked. she had just told him a couple of scenes before that, she'd be with him, "hamesha." he'd asked her for that assurance, quite unlike him, but he had. hamesha was obviously being played up, because soon there would be a demise unthinkable.

but in story telling this strange jump to khushi walking out on asr for aarav's sake, after the hamesha promise that too, because she has decided aarav needs him... what sense does this make? would khushi behave in such a way... is it even a solution? i was thinking all this and more as the scene progressed. sanaya was intense and shaken, but something just didn't gel. it was absurd. you don't walk out like that... and yet, i did think of that first scene of kramer vs kramer when meryl streep sits talking to her son who sleeps before leaving him.


tears flowed freely down helpless cheeks, she walked back as if unable to leave, she stroked a beloved cheek and kissed the man she loved. he slept deeply through it all... his lips set in a straight line, his breathing easy. she turned to go, because she had decided she must.


a sudden something, a widening of her eyes. her hand went to her neck, her dupatta...


she turned around and there was his hand holding her dupatta, not letting her go. the dupatta i guess had to be there in this moment. he was wide awake and looking at her.


barun sobti's acting at this point was just beautiful. not a word was said, not a muscle moved. just the look, that sliding of the eyes all the way to the suitcase at the door, then the moment before he spoke. everything was in that. especially that fraction of time just before he decided to open his mouth...

and say three little words. a world in them.

jaa rahi ho? are you leaving?

it's not easy to choose words for asr, that economy of expression native to him, that preference for direct, unfussy words, his innate cool... in the midst of a wife abandoning one in the middle of the night, secretly, what would a man say? what would asr say?

the dialogue was deadly... it's delivery even more lethal.

no wonder khushi collapsed. i did too.

an almost hypnotic scene of connecting, of melding, of becoming one followed. quiet, elegant, deep.

and he said the other dialogue that makes me go a little crazy.

"khushi! let's say yeh sab sachj hota, toh chhorke chali jaati thi mujhe?"

i want to yell and weep for this man... khushi, let's say all this were true, would you leave me and go away? that "mujhe," always, the "aur main?" the tough guy who so needs to be loved, never abandoned... not again.

the love and need in his voice... the sheer surrender to his love. and even more than that, a very very very pertinent question of a life mate. if things get tough, if mess happens... will you just leave me?

what does loving really mean? being there when all is fine? or being there no matter what? especially when nothing is fine.

a magnificent question and dialogue i thought that was. worth a true ponder. let's say, aarav were his son; let's say, he did indeed have an intimate relationship with sheetal and a child was born that he wasn't aware of; then what... should khushi leave him?

and what if the roles were reversed... what if, khushi were in the same place as he is, would he leave her?

i loved that question... it asked one to examine what is really meant by love.

then he held her close and said, "mujhe pata hai... agar tum koshish bhi karogi, khushi, tab bhi hum alag nahin ho sakte... arnav aur khushi hamesha saath rahenge..."

that breathy voice. sigh.

i know... even if you tried, khushi, we can't be separated... arnav and khushi will always stay together.

again that hamesha... and despite the gorgeous delivery, the voice, i know asr doesn't talk like that. this scene was shot as part of the asr death track. i won't grumble... i won't leave. 😆



thoughts

~ i so liked the way he tackled the aarav is his son issue. direct and straight to the point, first he told his wife what he had to, then he charged into sheetal's room and asked for an explanation, demanded answers. very asr-ish. he will always face a thing straight on, no prevarication and unnecessary waffling. and please no coyness, if i went to bed with you, i'd remember.



"lekin mujhe safai chahiye, khushi!"
but i want an explanation, khushi!

dna report or not, he needs to know.

"agar kuchh hua hoita toh mujhe pata hota.."
if something had happened i would have remembered.

hahaha exactly... nicely said, so unhindi soap.

"yaad hota... aur agar nahin tha toh tumne mujhe kyun nahin bataya?"
i'd have remembered... and if i didn't, why didn't you tell me?

a simple question to sheetal.

"stay!"

~ sheetal's dialogue had a blanked out portion... was this another sign that story was changed suddenly? i get the feeling part of this episode belongs to the earlier track. the scenes had alack of continuity in them... why would asr have to go twice to sheetal seeking the same answers? and that obvious bad fit... one moment khushi is promising to stay forever, the next she is leaving.

"kaise batati tumhe, arnav? agle din tumne itni asani se phone karke kah diya... it's over.. mujhe realise hua... shayad tum" blanked out bit and jump to, "nahin tha!"

"how could i tell you, arnav? the next day you said so easily on the phone that it's over... i realised... perhaps you..." and a jump to, "wasn't there!"



~ i also liked the way asr empathised with a kid being tossed around in the storm of life. while the overly sweetened, posited on sacrifice (that much misunderstood and abused achhi bahu trait) feelings of khushi for aarav feel tv-ish, even bizarre. his assertion on the other hand, "wahi karenge jo sahi hai" we'll do what's right... nice.


"i promise, main sab theek kar doonga!"
as always, he promised everyone, he'll set things right... the need to be on top of things... to make his loved ones comfortable, as though always in some way compensating for all the damage brought upon life by the one who should have made everything all right.

but now, touchingly... there's "as long as tum mere saath ho"... as long as you're with me. her support, her saath he needs. a big change in the i can do it all mr raizada.

"tumhe kya laga.. tum chup chap chali jaaogi... sab theek ho jaayga?"
what did you think, you'll leave and all would be well? a most sensible question, yet said without anger... understanding the pagal ladki he loves perhaps?

Thanks Indi for the caps yaar

while story lost its way in the shenanigans of trp, channel and ph politics, and the tussle over will asr live or die, etc., something, or rather someone was found, even if not heard or seen.

mama ji.

now we know he is in the us of a. and there he has been all along leaving his english speaking teeptaap bootiphool wife, mother in law of khoon bhari taang right here in shantivan to fend for herself alone, armed only with her makeuppiya, banarsis sarees, jewelllery, and fine english. my poor only hello hij, no bye byej.

she will stay put here, while her akas bitwa will go off to amreeka with his wife to take care of this mysterious new project which has come through, inception to contract done in exactly or less than two episodes.

i am aware ar is a powerful conglomerate with the most gorgeous tycoon on the planet as its chief. but to get work done at this speed!!! impressed.

sigh... what nonsense we have to put up with just because supposedly responsible and thinking adults, sorry professionals, decide to play passing the parcel with their product.

passing the dud track, rather.

ever since dadi, this game has been played in earnest. when post shyam there was a gap, quickly an asr's illegitimate son track was introduced via sheetal.

no one thought nothing through.

everyone decided, audience will take whatever is dished out to them. and no need to bother with pakoda, jalebi, karela, aloo ke parathe, achaar, chaat, lassi, black coffee, adrak wali chai... some half baked ideas will do.

and so it is that in 384, the boy who had no idea even in 378 who his father was and had run off to a restaurant to find him, that same boy says he knew all along asr is his father.

bizarre.

i can understand they had to change the story... but did they have to be this lazy? and disrespect the viewer this much?

while the scene between asr and aarav had something touching about it, it really failed to connect because it just didn't make any sense. plus it was clearly put their to build the foundation (a very weak one) for the impending adoption. also to tell asr that there's something very black in the daal... orphanage? aha!

and so it was with both the episodes. more and more strange stuff.

suddenly akash and payal must leave for the us. thirteen more episodes left for the show to end... i wonder, what was the rush. yes, both deepali and akshay were fed up and wanted to leave, but surely they could have found a better way to let them go. why these implausible plonking in of things?

thankfully, it was time to let sheetal go. gave me great joy to know i won't see this shifty character again. yet from set up to denouement scene nothing felt natural.

first the little boy brought up an orphanage, then asr planned this elaborate hercule poirot style revelation scene. is that even his way? and even if it is, why would he do it at the entrance to his home? and during a send off party that he has proposed for akash and payal?

and just in case four lions and its writers and the channel didn't know, you can't suddenly adopt a child in india... it takes a long time, sometimes years. if you're a single parent, it's even more complicated.

you can't teach a kid of 5 (who is now magically 6, an old ipk malaise this flexi-age) basketball in less than two months, nor can you manipulate their sugar levels to induce diabetes.

you can't just keep back a child from an orphanage at your place with a temporary permit or whatever the lady from the orphanage promised.

if you switched asr's hair with aarav's, the dna report will say they were identical and therefore belonged to the same person. beside how did sheetal know of khushi's plan. she didn't. this match was supposed to be for real when the track said asr is indeed aarav's father. then track changed.

and most of all, devi maiyya's wish or not, you can't decide to adopt a kid just like that, standing in the hallway, post melodrama and very bad acting by chief baddie.

also, anjali may look more teary eyed than ever before, she may switch to english, she may speak of being proud of you... but this entire let's just adopt aarav, post knowing him for all of maybe two weeks or less thanks to a ridiculous situation... is just not okay. not endearing either. even if asr sounds totally cool saying they'll adopt.

but then since the idea was half baked to begin with, it had to end up soggy and not at all palatable, i guess.

nothing in the sheetal and aarav track adds up. plus it reeks of the shallow nonsensical minor tracks that other soaps come up with. both dadi and sheetal must have got lost in kumbh ka mela and meandered into ipk by mistake. i wish they'd never been found.

thoughts

~ what's this instant tears at the mere mention of going to america. a totally improbable scenario and scene, just because in two episodes everything had to be wrapped up...



~ during the poolside conversation, aarav said several things that asr has said earlier. i hate you. important. etc. this was the scene that had to quickly make asr want to take aarav's responsibility. poor guy, had to say, "tumhe kahin jaane ki zaroorat nahin hai," you don't have to go anywhere to aarav. and we know once asr makes a promise he is even more adamant than salman khan in making sure it's kept. how much more obvious must ipk get. the serial which showed an entire romance take root and grow, without ever saying anything about love.

~ noticed a sad sad piece of music never heard over those "emotional" scenes.

~ overnight, sheetal became total baddie, rushing to corners taking calls, snarling, being uncaring... maybe she was channeling her inner shyam. the change of demeanour was funny. such a rush to get to the end in just two episodes.



~ "hey devi maiyya, laad governor muskura rahein hain... aaj kaunsa bhukamp aane wala hai." hey dm, laad gov is smiling, wonder what earthquake will be upon us today. khushi had to be comical suddenly... so called sanka this... but really it wasn't.

~ main hoon na... did asr have to say that srk dialogue.

~ ek purane amir ex-boyfriend... ooo that sounded good. may i have one too... an old rich ex bf?



ps: sometimes a strange thought floats by. was aarav supposed to be that elusive dhruv's son? the cousin never seen only heard of just once, back in episode 10 or 11. were they moving toward killing off asr and then letting dhruv stride in, the bad 'un, the black sheep or whatever? so the show could go on with this new plot taking over after asr's demise? that would, among other things, somehow make sense of that trepidation on sheetal's face when she sees khushi about to open the dna test results before she tears it up.