18th July - The Hundredth

Hello hello,

Happy 100 episodes to you all! 🥳 Fair warning: I'll try to be precise but since I have a lot to write, this might get longer than usual.

Today was beautiful and troubling in equal parts. Mostly thanks to our dear Mr. Obodhuro. *facepalm* Sometimes I really want to smack Dev. When will he stop equating everything with material needs? That's his constant solution to everything. *sigh* How I wish this man had had a more normal childhood.

He witnesses Neha having a moment of her own and automatically assumes that she is missing the material comforts of her home. No, Dev. She really really wasn't. If Neha is anything, she is honest. If she would have wanted something she would have told you. Ironically, Sonakshi interprets Neha's behavior more accurately than Dev. Maybe because it's something all girls can relate to.

Then ofcourse, his conversation with Ranveer - *Countless facepalms* I'm honestly worried for Neha and Ranveer now. Does Dev not realize that he might actually cause trouble between them? Absolutely loved the stand that Ranveer took in this scene. Especially that analogy of rasta and manzil. Dev really doesn't care what methods he has to employ as long as it gets him what he wants. Ranveer does. He gives equal importance to the journey and his ultimate destination. The way Ranveer went from Dev bhai' to Dev Sir' and finally Mr. Dixit'... He was so disappointed in Dev today.

The coffee date - That was amusing how Sonakshi caught on Dev doing some gadhbadh' and hence all the poetry. 😆 I loved how Shaheer portrayed Dev's inner dilemma in this scene. The nervous body language, his attempts at talking about anything save for what was really on his mind... Spot on! 👍🏼 But first lets talk about Sonakshi finally asking Dev about when they are going to come out about their relationship to their families. This hide and seek is fun for a while but I'm glad it's starting to bother Sonakshi now. She's bound to feel guilty about keeping her parents in the dark for so long and I'm glad it was finally addressed. Dev is so obviously afraid of how his family, more specifically, his Mother will react. As much as he tries to paint a rosy picture of the same, you can't quite believe it. Neither can Sona. She's too familiar with the Dixit household at this point to be at ease about this whole thing. The question here is what exactly is Dev afraid of? Is he just afraid of Ishwari's reaction or is he also a little afraid of himself? If Ishwari rejects their relationship then what happens? I have been noticing how Dev looks paralyzed with fear everytime Ishwari has caught them together. Even in Thursday's episode, Ishwari tried so hard to make Dev understand why it's wrong on his part to continue offering his support to Neha yet the only thing Dev was concerned about was whether his Mother was angry with him or not. You could see Ishwari let out an inner sigh in that moment as her son appeared to pay no heed to what she was actually trying to say. Dev needs Ishwari to always be happy with him, he needs to be the ideal son... to be anything lesser than that is just not acceptable. Which is why I'm worried about how he will deal with the conflict to come. There is such a clear communication gap between them. Half of the time Ishwari has no idea what really goes on in Dev's head and the same is the case with him. They are always too busy in being the perfect mother-son duo to really confront what's actually wrong here.

Anyway, coming to my original point... When a man who has only ever provided for other's people needs, has built his whole life around the same, is suddenly faced with the possibility of having to let go of that one thing, that one person who is everything he ever wanted from life.. Then what will he do? Will he do what his Mother asks of him, just as he always done or will he actually fight for his love? This is his biggest weakness, Dev has no idea how to go against his Mother and if I were Dev I'd be just a little bit afraid of what this could do to his relationship with Sona. Would he just break her heart? Its kinda sad, his dilemma. He can't live without either of these two women. Each has a unique, irreplaceable place in his life and no matter what he chooses; he is still the loser in the end.

Moving on to the more current issue at hand - When Dev asks Sona if it's okay to be selfish in love sometimes, he was clearly looking for some sort of positivity to ease his mind regarding his spat with Ranveer. Sona finally brings up the same and he has to tell her the truth. I loved how Sona bluntly addressed Dev's real intentions with respect to the issue - His guilt. He was only thinking about himself in this situation and Sona tells him so. Ofcourse he doesn't take it well. His statement about it being his turn to sacrifice for his family really set the alarm bells ringing for me. Our honeymoon phase is officially over isn't it? Superbly enacted by Shaheer and Erica anyway. The friction between Dev and Sona here felt very real, the air palpable with tension. 👏 But hey we got a forehead kiss. 😃 It was funny to me how it was shown as if he kisses her everyday. These two constantly surprise me. 😆

A brief reference to the moment where Sona asks him if Ishwari told him that she was upset he didn't eat the halwa and Dev's answer being "Maa kahan kuch kehti hai, main samaj jaata hu". Nice bit of foreshadowing and also something we have heard in the initial promos. The promos hinted at a clear lack of communication between Ishwari and Dev, and more importantly Ishwari and Sona. I have said it before too and I'm very sure now that Dev choosing to hide his relationship from Ishwari will play some role in the central conflict. Ishwari will most likely assume that Sona convinced Dev to hide everything from her, she's starting to see how much Dev seems to listen to Sona so it's a perfectly natural conclusion too. Ofcourse Ishwari is oblivious to the fact that her son has probably always kept things from her so she will seriously resent Sona over this. Talking about the scene between our two leading ladies... While she wasn't pleasant about it, Ishwari was atleast honest with Sona. As honest as you can expect her to be anyway. Again some strong bit of foreshadowing as to how Ishwari and Sona will have to confront each other to really resolve the conflicts ahead. It won't be easy but it's only the way they can get past their differences. Ishwari was harsh with Sona today but she wasn't entirely indifferent to how her words had affected Sona. Her instructing Sona to get the shawls was the nearest thing to a truce you could expect from her. Again this tells you how things won't immediately be hunky dory if Ishwari and Sona just talk to each other. It's going to be an everyday effort until Ishwari finally accepts all these changes and learns to see the good in them. Poor Sona just about froze on experiencing this side of Ishwari but I expect her to slowly understand and deal with it just like she has with everything else. Fantastic job by Supriya ma'am and Erica. 👏

And finally, the last and my favorite scene of the day. Previously we have only ever seen Dev and Sona come to terms with each other's difference of opinion and ultimately be able to understand and empathize with the same. Dev nearly always sees where he went wrong and follows Sona's advice but this time they are unable to come to some kind of agreement. And that's okay. I love how the writers have made such effort in really exploring the ups and downs of a relationship as they have with these two. Sometimes you can't agree, can't see things the way the other person does but that doesn't have to affect your love for each other. And this is the reason our Dev and Sona will survive. Because even though the road that lies ahead is a difficult one where they, especially Dev, will have to face several realities, their love is going to be put to test and they will most likely part ways for a brief while but they are still so hopelessly in love with each other that at the end of the day everything else will cease to matter.

Thank you to makers for putting forward such a fine episode today. I loved how the whole episode kind of toed the line between the current phase of the story and what lies ahead, mixing it all up with a beautiful amount of detailing and some wonderful performances as always. 👏

Thank you for KRPKAB! 🤗And I'm very close to falling asleep on my laptop so just imagine all the other praise for the show I would have written if I weren't so tired. 😆