Posted:
Link to yesterday's post: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/gulaal/1797910/bitter-turmoil-and-breakdowns
Note: Since I did the CAPs in installments, a part of them are actually posted on Pg 3 of yesterday's post, and were done only early today - in case anyone missed and wanted to check them out because even the video link didn't work for yesterday's scene.
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So after one day of inconvenience minus the video clip, thankfully we can all resume routine today. Here goes the scene of the day - one of the several excellent GK confrontations - and Gullu finally padding up to give Kesar barabar ki takad
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[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eODIO4U_2o0[/YOUTUBE]
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Posting the thread early, cause I'm going to go offline after this for about 3 hours, and don't want people waiting on for the video - written after I'm back, and Caps, around the same time says Nur.
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So the reverse mood of the scene is established right from start of the scene. Kesar appears at the door - rude, cold, rolling eyes and totally in character with the attitude he's been sporting around Gulaal since he came back. Yet interestingly Gulaal, whose gotten more accustomed to being wary and cautious with him, questions - and not in the of late hesitating tone that she's used with him. Nope - she begins the scene on a more firm ground - and its evident in the way she doesn't avert eyes asking him where he's been, even when his 'cold' hints at having touched a frigid new level..
Then comes the subtle symbolism where the CVs and writers always manage to steal the show - over and over. As he walks in, heavy and unsteady footed, his footfalls leave behind a trail of muck. Not that we haven't seen other shows where someone walks in with mess - but the underlying message here - which is later echoed in the Gulaal Dushyant conversation over Kesar's drunken episode too - is only a metaphoric sense of depicting the 'impure' he's bringing into this 'pure' house. And not just in the blatant sense of alcohol consumption - but in this temperament, where his problem solving renders his character and principles to go for a toss and give in to whatever the temptation at hand for temporary relief. Yes, he's been grieved and hurt and utterly betrayed - is he really going to become such a weak person and fall victim to lesser habits because he can't deal with the mess in his life? So that, he drags his entire house, their expectation, their reputation into the mess that he believes his life to be? The muck is representing that kind of filth that his grey side may bring about! Which is what Dushyant says to Gulaal - Kesarji ke kadam bhatak rahe hain... [in the scene that follows our scene for the night which I haven't uploaded but anyway]
Kesar - without answering, openly defying and disregarding, continues towards the stairs, and Gulaal follows him - continuing to show the different streak today, where she is not just going to be intimidated or shunned without having her answers. Rebukes him of how the family waited him up, and worried for him. And then, as he tends to lose his step, she makes to go for him to help him balance - of course - but Kesar, drunk or not, is not going to depend on Gulaal the infidel! He resists and shrugs away from her helping hand and clarifies in plain words - tere sahare ki zarurat nahin hai mujhe!
And yet - Gulaal is not pushed away tonight. Well she might have been more hurt, if she wasn't busy being so shocked and appalled and horrified by the fact that Kesar is drunk! So it amazes me how even the littlest of things make so much sense in this show. When he appears on the door first, a blind man can tell he's drunk. But Gulaal can't - why? Because she truly cannot fathom something that lowly of him - whatever his behavior has been, however crass, however condescending - she initially put it down to his being naraaz and tantrum-y, then begun to accept - dejectedly - that maybe somethings about him really had changed, because time changes people. But nothing he has done, or said, can make her believe he would do something so 'wrong'... and when you think about Kesar's reaction to his friends offering him drinks first time, you know and understand why Gulaal has that blind faith - yes, Kesar really isn't the kind to go into what is deemed 'immoral' in his grooming and upbringing. He's been away for 10 years, but he hasn't picked up 'vices' that boys tend to be prone to - because he can be wall strong like that, a hard liner in his principles. And then you contrast it with her reaction now, when she gets a whiff of the alcohol - her disbelief at such 'sacrilegious' act on his part - you know why she didn't recognize the sight of him at the door and guess he was drunk. FF to the pareshani scene - and her instant awareness of his being drunk - because then, it is not the first time. By then, Kesar already has shown some unbelievably dark shades of his character to her - and although he has also shown alot more revival of the old Kesar she can connect with by then, the disbelief is not half as much as now. Of course - partly, she has her new reason to be appalled in that scene - but that's for another time =)
So back to Gulaal struck by thunder at Kesar being drunk - Dushyant catching this quick scene, with Gulaal calling after him, and him retiring to his room. Dushyant is a grave man here - because he would know much more than Gulaal ever could, where such paths and intentions lead people. He's seen dark in a way no one else has!
Scene moves to Kesar's room. 10/10 to Neil in this scene. So many nuances of emotions and he gets them ALL bang on 👏 He's walked off cold and heartless and unaffected and a degenerate prodigal - but the Kesar who enters his own room, is a boy again. Helpless, angry, exhausted, directionless, unguided - severely in need of a guiding light. And where does the camera zoom? To Vasant's picture - the first menton of his life. And then, to the tuntuna - and those two almost link in a nostalgic way, wherein it seems this utterly defeated and restless at once Kesar would want nothing more than going back to being that kid, who had a mentor to follow blindly, and happy carefree days of life. The way he begins to string the tuntuna, is melancholic, and wistful, and just like he falls to his bed, like he's playing his own lullaby to put himself to some sleep.
But the night is long from over - enter Gulaal. One second of awareness of her presence and he pushes the vulnerable nostalgia far far back into the recess, and gets the cold blunt unfeeling act back on. Darwaza kyun band kiya hai? Except today, he's messing with the wrong side of Gulaal. His extent of exceeding today has driven her out from the circumspecting way she was trying to deal with this new Kesar - and today, it doesn't matter how much he has changed, or how he will take her words or rebuking, what he will think of her or not - nothing. She only feels singularly motivated to shake him out of this stupor. And she launches her volley of questions and impositions on him. Brings in the family. Brings in VASANT. Brings in honor, expectations, aspirations... and finally brings in dhoka! And that gets his attention in a startled way! Its a far more grave version of how she told him he had changed in the bedroom the other morning. The way it revolts him to be accused of something that he holds so solely against her!
Going back a few moments, I want to especially mention Gulaal throwing that gfass ful of cold water at his face - of course a not miss moment. The Gulaal of these last few days who's been so burdened with how and what she can do to win her Kesar back, and get back his affections, please him - doesn't take a second to reconsider where such a bold action can take those efforts! No! It only matters right now, that she has to knock sense into him - and if the cost is making a yet worse impression on him, the possibility of driving him away further by behaving so brashly, then be it! Desperate times call for desperate measures - and that's what is driving Gulaal today. Her priceless question here - ab apne aap se puch, kaun hoti hu main! A question that crops up a few times in different situations too, including the epic time in the mandap where Kesar puts the question to everyone else! But just here, Gulaal is talking on a tangent that is exclusive to Kesar and her. She has cold water washed him out of his stupor to throw it at him, tell him to dig out her Kesar from within himself and ask him who she is... his Gulaal. No love, no romance, no marriage, no friendship - not one thing or all, she is just asking her Kesar, if he really needs an answer to that thoughtlessly thrown in her face hoti kaun hai tu!
And back to where we were - Gulaal having used all reasons, all premises, all ground work walks out with a final statement, giving Kesar Vasant ka vaasta to never ever repeat something like this again!
Kesar all this time - stunned, shocked, remorseful - and the moment she has walked out, all the vulnerable mix of emotions from minutes before, plus this added reality check from Gulaal piles on him, beats down the last bit of whatever was keeping him from breaking down. So he cries. Sits before his Vasant Bha, accepts what he is wrong about - the going so out of line - but complains plainly of how clueless he has become. How lonely. How hurt in feeling betrayed. How he no longer has anyone who can understand him - no one he can pour his heart out to, no one who understands his pain... and he asks his Vasant bha why he had to leave him alone.
Interestingly here, everything he says about himself, is true about Gulaal - the being lonely, the having no one who would understand, the grief which is all hers, even the lack of direction in way because Gulaal may not be the potential 20 year old capable of bhtakna as Kesar is, but she is lost as can be. An oblivious presence in her own life, living day after day telling herself she is chasing a dream, but being very dis-illusioned about things really! And of course, the fact that she pours out all her heart to Vasant - like Kesar does in this scene - and the way Kesar asks his brother, anguished, why he left him alone, is what Gulaal asks Vasant too, time and again!
So this final solo bit of Kesar - is a cut to cut reflection of Gulaal - they are interchangeable characters in this scene, at this point, literally! Both 'chasing a duty/dream' which is for their Vasant - Kesar struggling to get his brother justice and Gulaal struggling to make her husbands dream come true. Both tied by this link called Vasant hence, and yet, incapable of understanding - so far from it for now in fact - that this has to be their journey together!
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And that's for today. Phew - long long post! Sona allowed nahin hai. Now click the post reply tab, and gush/rant/debate away! 😃
xx
JZee
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Link to next thread: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/gulaal/1819566/the-contrite-vs-confronting
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