Posted:
The last few days for me have been turbulent. POW has successfully made my dimaag ka dahi (Sorry it is a phrase I heard in other show and found this too apt, so had to use it 😆).
POW started with a bang in November before ofcourse the Chitthi and Indira track ate up all December. In January they pulled up their socks big time. The bomb track and then Siddhant Thakur, I honestly haven't been on such a thrilling ride before and I am a diehard Mentalist fan (Remember Red John). The story was edgy, the acting classy and the screenplay captivating. I felt pampered.. Finally something good to watch. I think the stretch from 9th January to 28th February was mindblowing.. and then it just got jumbled up and messy. All the layers in the story were abandoned like hot potatoes and only Operation Badshah was concentrated upon. Even there, real action was missing. The finale was filled with flashbacks without any real/ forward direction. The characters suddenly did not make that much sense. They got lucky that they had set their characters well and had some good dialogues/ scenes previously shot which could be recycled or they would have been in bigger soup. People are up in arms against the CVs and rightly so regarding the loose ends and butchering of characters.
But I have a lot of sympathy for the team.
It seems that Nikhil Advani planned this 126 episode series like a film. There was a first part where Sartaaj and Imaan were established. We thought that they were the main players, except they weren't the only ones. After intermission in the second part, Siddhant, Lala, Shobha and Vikram are properly introduced to us. Lala takes off his glares, Shobha's hallucinations give form to the real person Siddhant was and Vikram comes back to the main stream from his exile. Slowly the story picked up steam. Although the story was fast paced, it was also opening a lot of new avenues or had closed many loops but superficially. Hussian's death, Siddhant or Sadiq, Operation Badshah, Lala's death, Afreen. I guess that as all of this was interlinked they would have utilized episodes 100-126 for this.
But then I got to know that they cut down episodes from 126 to 110 and also that last day of shoot was on 5th February. This must have really hampered the CVs in wrapping such a detailed story. One can argue that the episodes could have been wisely utilized but I am sure the axing would have come with budget constraints. This was a large scale production and they would have suffered for it. And this would frankly explain the flashbacks in each 20 min episode last week. True Hussain's reentry was well done. But I had been expecting a Lala- Sid scene with it. Lala's story was as much incomplete as much as Siddhant's. Everyone has been unsatisfied with the reason for Siddhant's transformation to Sadiq. I have been more worried about why did Lala choose Sid. You can read my previous post
The second burning question was the future of Sid Afreen love story. I was once again listening to Yeh Ishq hawa hai. The way it has been conceptualized, it seems more from Sid's POV. I always felt in their interactions that Sid loved her a bit more than she did. She was more stubborn in her acceptance of him, while he genuinely cherished her after his years of loneliness. I know they will have a filmi ending with Shobha accepting Afreen and vice versa. But it had been my hope that Afreen would choose Siddhant over Sadiq on her own and not because she knows how Lala used her and Hussain for his selfishness.
As much as I loved Siddhant's potrayal of a brilliant mind albeit an emotional/ misunderstood soldier, I can accept writer's version of him being identified as a jihadi/ terrorist now. BUT I ABHORRED THE SHAMELESS MANIPULATION USING SARTAAJ'S DEATH. The sequence was shabby. Sartaaj had other security people. He had guns. There were pillars for cover. The entryway was one and could be tracked. By the time the terrorist comes, all are out. The force outside could have entered and engaged. Sartaaj was a civilian now. Absolute injustice to audience and our emotions. And just to brand Siddhant as a terrorist. Why couldn't they simply state that this path once chosen does not allow for any backtracing. He was in too deep and could not have come out. That would have been real.
Frankly speaking, the writers have not disappointed me otherwise. There was a thought process which was consistent and introspection provoking. I think the writers only faltered in introduction of Siddhant at a late stage. He should have been introduced by episode 30 atleast. By the time we the audience came to know Siddhant, Shobha and Vikram, I believe that the show had already got the axe. The airing of DBO news had started in mid January and the time slot was also pushed back. The TRPs really killed the show. They made CVS destroy their own creations, loads of sympathy to them.
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
