Wow, what an emotion-filled episode. Like most of us, I had seen the BTS segments but the episode turned out to be a huge surprise. Today's episode was the portrayal of four major relationships which is the base of this show:
Kunal and Nandini
Their journey started as strangers. She was broken and over the course of her journey to stand again, on her own two feet, he became her pillar of strength. They formed a bond.
Today, was an important day in her life. She was finally letting go of her support system and in true sense was going to become independent. She wanted him to be there but he had flatly refused because that bond which has started innocently had given rise to feelings that were unsaid, unwanted and unethical. He knew that this step was important in her life, in her recovery, the right step for everyone involved but he was not ready to let her go. She still went and he could not let her take those last steps alone. He decides to give her a gift which symbolizes the girl that she has become. One that can fly and one that is now capable of achieving her dreams.
Nandini, who is more stronger than the two in this matter and has always had a tight control on her emotions, is inhibited. Her control is weak, her emotions for Kunal are at the forefront and she pours out her heart desires. I think this was the most emotional moment of the episode. Leaving her relationship with Kunal aside, if we just look at her, she reminded me of a phoenix. A beautiful bird who rises from the ashes. Similarly, Nandini has risen from the ashes that her life was with Rajdeep and she wants to fly. She tell him, that she will fly but she is all alone, there is no one who is with her. She wishes for love in a life, a companion, a person that she can share her burden with and wonders why the path to that person is so filled with complications. She tells him she does not want the whole sky but just that part that is visible from her home which she can share with her other half, the one person that she loves.
I think Kunal was so hellbent on wanting to know her innermost feelings that when it really happened he was flabbergasted. He did not know how to react. He knew she was referring to him but if the path that comes from her to him is filed with complications, then the path from him to her would be on the ashes of Mauli's happiness and he cannot do that.
Thus he walks away, bewildered, shocked, confused and hurt to his wife.
Kunal and Mauli:
Mauli, the sweetheart, naive , innocent person who senses there is something wrong with her husband, knows he is not with her, he is going far way from her and decides to gift her husband with a new beginning that he always wanted. She is unaware of the storm that is brewing in him, the catostrophe that he just walked out of, the dilemma that he facing.
I just want to point out here what a fab actor Shakti is, he ieally portrayed all the feelings that went through Kunal at that moment so very well.. Confusion, understanding, slight happiness but at the very next moment, uncomfortableness and guilt were all very well portrayed in that moment.
He reluctantly participates but his mind is still with Nandini. He doesn't want her, he doesn't want to think about her, he want his norm back and he pushes her away, not releasing that he has actually pushed his wife, his Mauli away. He is all apologetic, trying to explain to her but alas he is unable to find the right words. He is so overloaded with emotions the guilt, sorrow, confusion, pain, helplessness, the wish to be with his wife, the desire for the other woman. Imagine all those emotions in one person and he does what he has always done when backed into a corner. He lashes out, realizing immediately the wrongness of it. Thus for the second time in the same evening he walks out.
Again, fab acting by Shakti. The ping pong between each emotion in the room was done amazingly.
Outside, his first thought is Mauli. He knows he is wrong, he should control his emotions, he knows he should not be putting Mauli's happiness at stake,. He berates himself for hurting her and at that moment he subconsciously tries to reach out to that one person who will understand. but stops himself at the last moment. How ironic, he coudnt share his feelings with Mauli as she will not understand and he shouldn't share his feelings with Nandini who will understand.
Nandini and Rajdeep
A person who is abused is never free of her abuser. However far you go , whenever you are faced with him, you become that same weak person. This is what happened to Nandini when she faced Rajdeep. His intentions, his creepiness transformed her back to that same old person but her journey was not in vain. Using her presence of mind, she closes the door on Rajdeep but his presence affects and she break downs. At the same time, Kunal gift falls down to the floor symbolizing that the demons of her past have not been erased completely and because of that burden even if she flies, she will fall down.
She wants to share this with Kunal but then decides that her fight with Rajdeep is her alone and she should not drag anyone into it. This is a very important part of the journey. Only Nandini can break the web of mind games that Rajdeep has built in her over the years and this fight is her alone. No one can help her, not Mauli, not Kunal and till she does not do that, she will never be fully free of him. Its very difficult for an abused person to come out of that, to let the fear of an abuser go but not impossible.
Mauli and Nandini
Best friends and when nothing works we go to them. That's what Mauli does. She knows something is wrong in her marriage and the only person that she can share all her inner thoughts is Nandini. Hence, she goes to her to unburden herself. She talks about the problem, the reason and the solution not realising that Nandini has not contributed a single word to the conversation,. She is so lost in her world and her problems that she does sense anything amiss in Nandini. Finally coming to the conclusion that she needs to talk to Kunal, she calls him thus unknowingly making him face the very same person he is running away from.
She completes the conversation with the three words that are so important and waits for him to respond, I think this moment was the make or break for her and she wanted to hear them or needed to hear them to ensure that everything is right in her world. She promts him and he repeats them thus making Mauli's world right once again and shaking Nandini's world at its core because she thinks they were for her.
In my opinion, they were just three meaningless words, which were an afterthought, a habit. They were not for Mauli or Nandini.
PS: Amazing acting by everybody, be it Aditi with her sweetness and hurt, DD on her breakdown scene or Abhinav as creepy Rajdeep. Also brilliant job by the crew. I think this talent is the biggest anchor of this show.
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