Posted:
Making Peace
First I would like to issue a disclaimer. This post is not to discount the positivity of those fighting for a Season 2. I believe that it is your prerogative to fight if that is what makes you feel like you are paying tribute to the show. But I would like to point out that their are two sides to every coin, and the flip side to fighting is making peace with the end of the show and looking back on what has been, overall, a marvellous 1 year, 8 months and 7 days. We have loved, we have drooled, we have praised and we have had naughty, naughty thoughts but we have also cried, complained and criticised. Our experience with GHSP has covered the gamut of emotions and for that I for one am so grateful. In my experience with the show, I have felt an intensity of emotion that has rarely happened even in real life and thankfully now know that if I am every to consider dating/marrying a guy he must make me feel at least as wonderful as GHSP does. In the midst of fighting for more, and/or grieving, I think its time we look back with love at what the PH and the channel DID give us.
The Protagonist - Geet Singh Khurana nee Handa
Geet as a Daughter
Geet was a girl who started the story as a child and came out a woman of means, who could negotiate her own way in the world and decide for herself what was right and wrong. She started out trusting her family more than herself and found her trust misplaced as they deserted her when she needed them most. It was at this time that Maan came into her life, almost as though filling the vacuum her family had left. But rather than being a dictator as her patriarchs had been, he was a guide, a mentor who steered her in the right direction and opened the world up to her. It was he, who unintentionally brought out the fight and the spunk hidden deep in Geet's being and she acted on this new perspective by understanding the absolute truth of what he said, and placing justice above family.
Geet as a Working Woman
Once she came to Delhi, there was no looking back. She rose from success to success. This is what I always say I loved about Geet's character and what made her different from other women on TV. She was a modern girl. That didn't have to mean she wore mini skirts or cut her hair really short. It simply meant that she was open minded to new ideas, learned what she needed to quickly, became indispensable at her place of work (I love the scene where Maan hallucinates her and shouts at Tasha-- "THIS is how you write notes!) and rose much beyond the status of a mere secretary, despite her lack of education and because of her enterprising and sincere work ethic and her belief in her own ideas. I loved the fact that they kept her professional success and her budding love with Maan separate so that we could really relate to her life as a working woman before the love story really came about.
Geet as a Mother
Geet was a beautiful mother to her unborn child. Not once expressing that she didn't want the child, she embraced it instinctively and became protective almost immediately. I love the dialogue when she sits on her bed in HP and promises the baby that it will come into the world and she sacrifices anything and everything to make that baby's life a possibility. The baby also gives her great strength and allows her to realise her own power as a woman and as an individual. It is because of this baby and because she has nothing to lose that she is able to stand up to Maan. He constantly chides her about being weak like all other women despite not knowing her full situation and she answers back, knowing that he will never feel the depth of love that she does for this child (or that's what she thinks). Her absolute and all-consuming love for the baby defines all of her other relations including that with Maan. It showed the idea of motherhood in a new light, as something heroic, brave and emotional and it gave us the most unique aspect about the Maan-Geet relationship, a hot romance between a pregnant woman and a man who was not the father of her baby! It showed that love really knows no boundaries and the more love you have the better. Maan, in accepting Geet with her child found the love of his life as well as a new love that possibly he had not ever dreamt of feeling for the baby. It was heartbreaking when Geet lost this baby that had meant so much to her and defined her life in so many ways.
Geet as a Girl in Love and a Fiance
This was possibly the most touching moment of Geet's life as we saw it, when she realised she was in love with Maan but could not act on those feelings because of the problems of her past. Her conflict was palpable and her earnest desire to see Maan happy, conflicting with her jealousy on seeing him with someone else was truly tragic. But even in all the secrets and all the confusion, they had these moments of utter clarity that were breathtaking in their beauty. One of my favourites was the scene in HP after Geet is almost killed again. I love the way each knows somehow that they love each other and despite all the odds they are going to make it in the end. Of course confusion comes soon enough to cloud their story but there is always that sense of ultimate belonging and inevitability with these two that came out loud and clear in those scenes. Even their MUs were beautifully shown. The IP track showed Geet once again insisting that she would put all emotional ties second to her justice and she left Maan, the love of her life and her only support to stand by this. She was so strong in her judgment of right or wrong that without thinking about whether Maan deserved it or not, she apologised for slapping him because she shouldn't have done it under any circumstances. She grapples with an angry, hurt and confused Maan who misunderstands her need for him as merely physical, in the sense of a perpetual rescuer, and she makes him understand that her need for him surpasses this boundary in the Mafinama. Through her understanding of Maan she is able to convince him that even if she can stand on her own two feet, she will never cease to need him and this forms the basis of their strong marriage.
Geet as a Wife
Ok you all know what is coming! That's right! To highlight Geet's role as a wife, how can I not mention my favourite BR/Rohtak track? She surprised even me there with the maturity with which she handled the angry or disheartened Maan and the way she supported him. Of course there was no question that she would support him but the methods she used, mixing humour, sympathy, faith and simple understanding was a sight to see! I will always remember the one episode in particular after Maan does mazdoori and comes home to find the lights out. Geet jokes with him that she asked the government to cut them so they could have a romantic candle light dinner. She doesn't just pretend to be cheerful for Maan. She IS genuinely blissful as long as Maan is by her side. In fact, I think Geet enjoyed being a normal wife and for once really being needed by Maan and being able to give him something he needed and didn't have, ie emotional security even when his wealth, home, family and identity had been stripped from him. In this situation she had the upper hand as she had been through such a traumatic experience herself and she was able to be HIS guide and mentor. The maturity she showed in figuring out why he had done mazdoori and convincing him that he didn't need to worry about the kitchen, while at the same time assuring him that she had full faith that he would one day make enough money for her to live like a maharani was so poignant and strong. I admired Geet in that moment and realised that in real life, it's not always about feminism or whether the girl works or doesn't. Sometimes its simply about giving someone you love the faith and the courage they need to face another grim day.
Geet as a wife was further tested in the ML where she did not disappoint. Despite the fact that Maan couldn't remember her, she stood by him and ironically was ultimately the only person he could confide in about the truth of his feelings. Even though it must have crushed her to here that he didn't feel anything for her, she gladly agreed to give up her position as his wife until he welcomed her back himself. This was the epitome of "If you love something...let it go" and Geet proved to everyone that Maan was hers as he came back to her in the end. That Teej confrontation will forever remain one of the strongest scenes of the show for me, because of Geet's reserve, her poise and her quiet strength in the face of the tragic possibility that she would never feel love from the love of her life again.
Maan Singh Khurana - Her Knight in Shining Armour
Swati Pande herself admitted that she wrote MSK as the ideal man, and that she could only hope men like this actually existed. Strong, quiet, sarcastic and principled to a fault was our MSK and he provided a perfect companion for Geet throughout her journey. At first it seemed like he was "aadat se majboor" to save her every time she was in trouble but in time, as we all know the aadat became a zaroorat and MSK became a kind, loving and happy man. What I loved most about Maan's character was the transformations that would happen from harsh to gentle, from sarcastic to vulnerable, he was a paradox in terms and yet such a full character. To add to the contradictions, he was perfectly imperfect! And his character only received more depth through details like is camping, his nomadic lifestyle before he met Geet and his broken family as well as, and how can we forget, his talent for martial arts and its use as anger management. As a man, he never liked to be out of control and he used physical excercise to keep his emotions in check. It was interesting that he seemed to stay in the office for the most part after Geet entered his life. Before their love story had even begun, she had started to exert a calming, settling influence on him which did not go unnoticed by his family. As a lover and husband to Geet he was just wonderful, possessive and secure, cocky and vulnerable by turns. He would show his whimsical, goofy, slightly eccentric side only to Geet who understood and didn't judge him for being that way or betray his soft interior in public. Geet always had the utmost respect for Maan's profession and his success, which was seen once again in snatches when she insisted he go back to the office last week. It was much more strongly portrayed when he brushes off the deal with Rasika but Geet risks her life to make sure he is safe and his company doesn't suffer losses, financially or in their reputation. This is exactly what a man like Maan needs in his life, unconditional love and respect for what he holds dear, work and Dadima.
I wish sincerely that we could have known about the elusive Sameera and a little more about the history of his broken family but the character had such depth, even without these explanations and made the love story complete.
Maan and Geet's Love
This love story was unlike anything else I have ever seen. It was full of honesty and sacrifice and selfless love, which is so rare. Never did these two characters stray from one another even for a moment. Even Pari was hired by Maan and that too with the intention of making Geet confess her feelings. They were so absorbed in one another that there was no question of a third party coming between them. The other point is that they solved all their MUs on their own, by talking to each other, Neither did Geet need someone else to reveal her past to Maan, or that Dev was the perpetrator, nor did Maan need someone else to placate Geet in Amritsar. All their MUs were between them and because of each other. Even Dev, though he was a catalyst, curse him, could never bring emotional distance between these two, that was the exclusive work of their own egoes or reluctance to communicate and it was solved by them laying aside their pride to ask forgiveness. Geet was invested in Maan's success and his well being and Maan was ungrudgingly appreciative of Geet's achievements, be it when he didn't even agree with her choices, when he fired her and found out the client loved the Indian theme. or when she was more successful than he was in Rohtak. Their's was a love that spoke of connection, of complementing, of selflessness and of complete involvement in one another to the extent that Maan accepted and loved Geet's baby as his own and reoriented his entire lifestyle to do so. Finally to conclude, here is the translation I did of the narrations of Maan and Geet's love story by each of them a few days ago (thanks to Faria) which I am presenting to you (Thanks to Jyoti):
Maan says:
I am going to tell you a story. This is the story of a boy who, angry with life, turning his face away from every happiness, locking himself up in darkness, was spending his life as though it was a punishment. So that boy, who had forgotten life's every happiness wandered restlessly from one place to another, like a nomad, sometimes far away from the world, into the forests, on mountains and riverbanks, looking for peace of mind. But it was an issue of the heart; how could he accept that? He had decided that life is nothing more than this. Devoid of every colour, ever thirsting for joy, life would pass by. And then one day, in a village, he heard the voice of a beautiful girl, who was running from some goons but in that moment, neither did the boy nor the girl know this strange meeting of a few mere moments would become a lifelong companionship. And then in strange circumstances, they kept meeting again and again. It seemed like the girl had an affinity for misfortune. And destiny would, every time, send the boy to help the girl. Circumstances made it inevitable for them to work together and one day that inevitability became a need. The boy, who was angry at life, who thought of happiness as a punishment, he gradually changed, Geet. Geet's love, her innocence made Maan Singh Khurana a human being again, a laughing, joyous man...only because of his Geet.
Thanks Geet, for making me part of your life, for making me a part of you, for giving me a new life. I don't know if people live more than one lifetime and if we do then in every life, I want you by my side. I want your love, Geet.
Geet: So what happens next in the story?
Maan: The story is still being written Geet, here, at this moment, in my arms.
Geet says:
There was a girl, completely innocent...like me!
It was like she had only one thing to do... dream...of her prince. And one day she actually found her prince! That was it. They met and fate declared, we will unite these two.
You know what? What didn't fate do to bring these two together? You don't know do you? I will tell you! At every second turn the girl would get stuck in some misfortune and her prince would come, scold her but then rescue her from the misfortune. This chain of events went on for so long that the prince named her a walking, talking disaster! And then fate finally united them. They made a home, dreams started to come true. Happiness started raining down on them like pearls. And just then, a storm came and everything...and everything...and...
Let us remember and feel the love and the happiness that we have gotten from these beautiful characters and their story. It is ok to feel sad and to mourn because we are losing something that is really dear to us and has been a huge part of our lives. We can always have hope for the future, but first, let us make peace with the present and feel the LOVE!
Cricket
Pati Patni Aur Panga
Jaane Anjaane Hum Mile
Tum Se Tum Tak
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
710