Patiala Babes: Episode One
The Drama Begins
Firstly, apologies for posting this so late. Some personal matters came up that couldn't be avoided.
Secondly, apologies again if this isn't up to par with my previous threads. I did the best that I could given my state of mind at the moment.
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If anyone had a doubt as to whose story this was, well, this opening shot should dispel them for we get a tour of Patiala with Minnie's voice over. As she introduces the city to us, we get shots of people praying inside the Gurdwara, kids blowing bubbles whilst going to school, a couple engaging in a romantic eye lock, amongst many more. All these various sights are shown being captured within a phone being carried on a selfie stick.
From the streets of Patiala, we switch on over to Minnie's home where she introduces us to all the pivotal characters, starting with her Beeji and Dadu. While Beeji is busy doing whatever some Guruji she visited told her to, Dadu is playing carom with his best friend. We're also introduced to Lovely and we're told how she has left her in-laws to live with her mother simply because she likes the neighborhood better. Her sky high anger is compared with Rano's and given a quick demo as the two ladies get into an argument.
From this argument, we reach Babita, Minnie's mother. In quite a literal context, she is introduced in a refreshing manner. First plucking each rose petal off of the flower, inhaling their fragrance, and then preparing the thandai, we are presented with the simplicity and innocence that she possesses. There was nothing flashy about her in terms of her introduction, nor her appearance. Very minimal make up, no eye liner and the lipstick she wears is also of a nude color. Her clothes are full sleeved and still very simple in terms of its color and design. As opposed to the other married women Rano and Lovely whose clothes are loud in color, Babita is very muted. Almost as if she can hide and blend in with the background.
In Minnie's voice over, she likens Babes to a cool breeze and sugar which dissolves into water, but spreads its sweetness. Both these comparisons are ephemeral as they're there merely for a short period of time. You bask in it while you can because once it's gone, then it's gone. It won't come back.
While Rano and Lovely were fighting upstairs, Babita was busy making a cold drink for everyone. Through the consumption of the drink, their heated minds cooled and Babita presented an easy solution to their trivial problem.
We're also introduced to Babita being super sensitive. She cares about the people around her and wishes to avoid any sort of conflict. Dadu claimed this to be a positive trait while Minnie sees this as a negative. Babita is very innocent and naive. Her choosing to see the good in all people, often leads the way to her being taken advantage of. Considering how corrupted the world currently is, this isn't a positive trait to have. One needs to be a little more skeptical and wary of the people around them, no matter how long they may have known them for.
Indeed, this is seen next with the mechanic who deliberately ruins the cooler so that he can make more money off of the Khuranas later on.
We're finally introduced to Minnie and what she desires to see from Babes. She wants her to be "tip top" and that when people see Babes walk by, she wants them to say, "Look, Minnie ki Babes jaa ri hai."
This does two things:
1) We get an insight into Minnie's head when it comes to Babes. She doesn't necessarily want Babes to have her own separate identity. She still wants Babes to be tied down to her, and when she is identified, it is to be as Minnie's Babes, or Minnie's mother, not simply Babita. If she wanted her to be truly independent, then she would have mentioned her mother by name since first and foremost, that is her identity - Babita, not Babes.
2) Minnie has a mixed perception of Babes. She doesn't see Babes as being highly intelligent since in the opening scene of Babita, Minnie had called her stupid, and silly but also cute and sweet. Now, one can see these as terms of endearment or also how she recognizes the flaws within her mother. She loves her immensely, but doesn't idolize her. She doesn't put her on a high pedestal but rather knows the areas where she's weak at and needs to work on.
We next get a shot of Minnie taking a selfie with a flying overhead plane. She tells her best friend Preet of her dream of growing out wings and just flying away from Patiala one day. When Preet advises her to become an air hostess, Minnie tells her that she wants to be a travel photographer and go to places where no one has gone before. Then one day, only her photos will be splashed in all the newspapers and magazines. Preet questions her if she'll be able to go leaving Babes behind, and Minnie tells her that she's waiting for her dad to return. Then, her duty will be over and she'll be free to go.
From this tidbit, we don't have all the information, but whatever her relationship is with her Babes, she finds it to be a duty. A job that she has taken on from who knows what age, and now she's awaiting the day when she'll be free from it. Up until this point, we haven't really been given a context as to what her duty entails apart from Babita being overly sensitive and naive.
Preet questions Minnie as to what kind of love her parents have since Ashok has been living in London for the past seventeen years while Babita has been alone in Patiala. Minnie quickly defends her parents and cites all the memories, and materialistic belongings that Ashok had left behind for her. However, Preet is right. All those things become superficial in the face of the emotional disconnect.
This is further proven by Babita looking longingly at the pair of earrings Ashok brought her and their wedding photograph.
Lovely comes in, not really paying attention to Babes. When she finds out that the cooler in their room isn't working, Babita starts panicking and asks for Sukhi, her brother-in-law, to call for another mechanic. Lovely taunts Babita about her not valuing her husband or caring enough about him and making sure that he doesn't suffer in this heat. We get the basic gist of what Lovely's character amounts to at this point.
Babita scrambles to Minnie and tells her of the problem while Minnie is cool as a cucumber. They visit the mechanic and try to resolve the problem. The mechanic is interested in extorting money out of them but Minnie isn't having any of it. Using the power of social media, she incites fear into the store owner and gets them to agree to fix the cooler in a timely manner and reasonable rate. With this scene we find out how clever Minnie is while Babita is quite naive. She's easy to stress and is highly gullible.
At home, Lovely changes the family photograph to a newer one, however Babita is missing from it. Beeji, Dadu and Lovely talk about Ashok and his impending arrival. We find out that Beeji purposely kept Babita and Minnie behind so that Ashok would have an excuse to visit home more often. However, the opposite happened as he didn't come back for years. Dadu comments how he must've been busy with his work and it's not so easy to come back. Moreover, he must consider the cost too. Lovely wishes to say something but Dadu stops her saying if she opens her mouth then surely something venomous will come out. Lovely, however, goes to sit beside her mother and carries on to comment on how there must be a fault within Babita since Ashok never returned. Dadu defends Babita saying that if Babita wanted, then she could have insisted to go with Ashok to London and never returned. Instead, she stayed back and served them all without uttering a single complaint. Beeji tells him to stop siding with his daughter-in-law all the time and think a little about his son too as he has made a lot of sacrifices as well. She goes on to talk about the superficial things like how he's all alone there and who knows how he's eating or what he's eating. Dadu annoyed with her, gets up and leaves, saying that she won't ever understand.
Lovely goes on to comment on Babita's looks as to how she's incredibly plain looking and doesn't like dressing herself up or do a lot of make up. There must be a reason as to why Ashok didn't want to take her with him. She also compares their relationship to hers and Sukhi's, as he's always chanting her name. Minnie overhears this and blasts at Lovely, defending Babes. Rather than finding faults in Babes, she blames them all for Ashok not taking Babes and Minnie with him. If it weren't for them to look after, Babita would have left. If it weren't to send them all money, Ashok would have returned.
Babes comes in and Lovely puts on a drama and essentially blames Babita for Minnie being so rude to her. She questions her upbringing and accuses her of being proud for the money that Ashok is sending back. Babita scolds Minnie and tells her to apologize to which she resists at first but then eventually does quite rudely.
While Lovely complains to her mother as to how ungrateful Minnie has become, Babita explains to Minnie why they couldn't go with Ashok. She cites Dadu and Beeji's health complications but Minnie isn't buying it since Babita has had to be away for seventeen whole years. First, Ashok's struggle to settle was used as an excuse and now her grandparents. Because of them all, even Minnie hasn't been able to live with her dad for once. Babes asks her to be a little patient, saying that whenever Ashok feels right, he'll call them over. Minnie asks how much longer she'll have to be patient for and questions if she'll have to wait until her grandparents die. Babita shushes her and brings up her favorite log kya kahenge. Minnie fed up of this, tells her to start thinking about herself for once. When she's about to tell her what Preet thinks, Babita quiets her saying she doesn't care about what Preet thinks. They should think about their family instead and they can't be so selfish and prioritize their own happiness to the point that they forget their duties. She's about to say log kya kahenge again but Minnie finishes it off for her. She again asks her when will she live for herself. She resolves herself in asking Ashok to take them with him this time around but Babita forbids her from doing so saying how stressful he must already be with all his responsibilities. She makes Minnie promise that she won't do so and if she breaks it, then she'll have to eat 1 kg of salt. Babita leaves and Minnie tells herself that she's going to break that promise no matter what. She's going to make sure that he takes them with him this time. After all, she wants to see London too.
In all this, we can definitely see Minnie's imprints all over the episode. All the characters are introduced in her POV, we get to know her dreams and ambitions, as well as how she's juxtaposed to her mother. Minnie is feisty, outspoken and brash while Babita is timid, soft and innocent. Babita cares too much about the world while Minnie doesn't. Minnie puts herself and her own wants forward while Babita pushes them to aside not considering them to be of too much importance.
With the culmination of the episode, we reach the main problem in the two women's lives: log kya kahenge.
What will people say?
There is a fine line to tread on when it comes to this. Babita is right in the sense that you shouldn't become selfish in an extreme manner to the point that she start neglecting everything else. However, Minnie is also right in that you should also consider your personal desires and put your own happiness before others. It's all about doing things in moderation. The two women at the moment are on two extreme ends of the spectrum and they're going to struggle to achieve a healthy balance.
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Since it was the first episode, I gave an in depth update, sprinkled in with some of my own thoughts. I doubt I'll do this for all the other episodes until we reach Episode 18. There are some good moments, but I can't handle the family drama, especially Lovely's portions. Personally, I don't like this actress. She's doing a horrible job and she's just grating on my nerves. I like the newer actress better.
For future discussions, I'll probably pick out a few meaningful scenes so that we can move on along faster. Varna, saal khatam hone ko hoga aur HS ki entry phir bhi ni aayi. 😆
I have to say though, watching this episode again brought a lot of things into perspective.
Dadu defending Babita and Beeji commenting on how he does it all the time. Beeji is still btich and so is Lovely so I don't mind Babita being forever mean and bitter towards them. But Dadu... kyun? It's not like he forever kept quiet, he did speak up. Yes, he may not have tried as hard, but he at least said something. Or did that not matter?
Minnie considering Babita to be a duty. When we talked about Babita being a project for Minnie that was meant to be handed off, for some reason I resisted the idea. It just never clicked for me until today. The idea of Babita being a responsibility that she was waiting to hand over, never solidified for me until this re-watch. It makes me wonder if she would've handed Babita over to any man who showed a modicum of decency towards her or was HS truly a special case. Either way, it's a sad sight to see how a daughter was eagerly awaiting to simply "hand her mother off". Yes, things got really horrible after the affair came out, but once they had settled down with their shop, there was no need for Minnie to still consider Babes as a project. She should have started to slowly relinquish her "duties" so that Babita can stand on her two feet without any support, including hers.
Babita being incredibly plain in terms of her clothes, and looks brings into highlight how much she changed later on. She started to wear bold and bright colors, would apply make up even if it is the bare minimum like eye liner. Either way, she started to pay attention to herself and looked much younger than how she was initially introduced.
I also kept thinking of HS and how he greatly changed the dynamics and atmosphere of the show with his entry. There weren't any deep thoughts, but he was there, lingering in the back of my head. If there is one thing that I could say, then it's that he brought solidity to the show. Minnie is high as a kite while Babita is on the ground constantly crying and freaking out. What HS did to them is bring stability. He gave Babita the space to figure out her problems and seal the cracks in her shaky foundations, whilst give Minnie the altitude she needs to chase her dreams but keeping a tight leash on her so that she doesn't go too far away. If it weren't for him, the mother-daughter duo would have self-destructed a long time ago.
Chalo, I think I've done enough talking for the first episode. Still have plenty more to go through!
I'll try to put up another thread for the next few tomorrow.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
