Took me forever to be able to watch the episode in one sitting - watched it earlier in bits and pieces. Now that I finally saw everything properly, here are my thoughts.
Important Moment #1: The race at the Sports Day event was nicely executed. I like that the event itself wasn't sped up. This way we can see Aarti's confidence crumble and Ansh's desire for a father to spend time with him and support him come out even more than we've seen in the previous episodes. I also liked the realism of Aarti's dupatta coming untied, her tripping and not being able to get up easily, and the subsequent loss of the race. Along with Ansh's gradual transition from happiness to disappointment, I thought that the significance of Aarti-Ansh's initial lead and later loss mirrors their life story pretty well, too. So far, Aarti has been able to compensate for the absence of a father in Ansh's life, and Ansh, too, hasn't been seen protesting until now...From that pillow scene in Episode 7, I'm guessing that Ansh knows something about the potential remarriage, and maybe that had an impact on him somewhere deep down in intensifying his need to bond with a father who as of now isn't in his life. Regardless, it's evident that what Shobha said to Aarti earlier about a mother's care ultimately not being enough for a child is being shown here, and Aarti eventually realizes this when her attempts to cheer up Ansh are ineffectual.
Once again, LOVE the detailing of the scene, especially the way Kratika conveyed Aarti's emotions. The little boy who plays Ansh (is his name Divyam?) did very well, too. Not a single hint of putting up an act in front of a camera! My heart went out to him. As always, special mention to the interaction between Shobha and Aarti - the understanding that Shobha has is truly the understanding a mother has of her daughter's feelings...If I have time this weekend, I'll write more about these aspects in another one of my "Dwelling on the Details" posts.
Fast-forwarding through the Scindia dining room scene: Who IS that "ghar ki beti" - that's how she described herself in her intro scene, right? And why does Mr. Scindia listen to her and then walk past her? Why does everyone essentially disregard her presence?
Prateek, Prateek. Love the little bow he gives when Vidhi is talking about how he played an important role in Yash's acquiescence for this punar vivaah. He's already planning an out-and-out special event for this shaadi, and I'm excited to see what they come up with!
Important Moment #2: I may be the only one who wasn't super-impressed with Arpita...I like the idea of what her personality was supposed to be like, and I suppose the actress did a decent job bringing that out...Something about her just didn't instantly appeal to me as much as I had expected. All that aside, the goal of the scene was reached, I think, and that's what matters. After watching the scene a few times, I've drawn up a small list of traits that differentiate Arpita and Aarti. I didn't intend to do that, but it happened automatically in my mind anyway! To me, while Arpita came across as a girl with a more calm/balanced temperament, Aarti is much more dynamic: she is volatile, and therefore she's just as vulnerable as she is strong and fiery. Arpita seems to drop hints and speak in circles instead of being straightforward and blunt like Aarti is...But a point of similarity between them seems to be that both talk quite a bit, and maybe this similarity reminded Yash of Arpita's tendency to overtake him in conversations and prompted him to tell Aarti that he doesn't like people who talk too much. Of course, these observations are based on just one scene, so my impressions and evaluations may change later.
Whew! All of that said, I loved Yash. A lot. This scene did a wonderful job bringing out the transition between the pre-marriage/marriage Yash and the current Yash who is so attached to his late wife's memories that he cannot think of being emotionally unfaithful to her even after 3 years. The young Yash was just as softspoken and probably a tad awkward as well, but I really liked seeing how he was a bit of a romantic, poetic, and intelligent person at the same time. Gurmeet also brought out Yash's subtly playful personality through his expressions - the inquisitive blinks and thoughtful looks, followed by moments of quick, quiet realization and fitting replies to Arpita - I really want to see light shades of this playful Yash once his bond with Aarti deepens! Somehow I feel that she'd be able to keep up in verbal banter very, very well...As for moments of physical proximity, I imagine that there would be initial discomfort (unlike Arpita, who interestingly was relatively relaxed and simply kept moving away from Yash, haha) but the heightened awareness would be natural; watching that discomfort gradually fade away is going to be another enjoyable thing to watch. If that 3rd promo was an indication of the chemistry Gurmeet and Kratika had with minimal interaction prior to the promo shooting, the rest of the show is going to be full of explosive moments...silent, subtle, powerful moments.
And this brings me to the final scene...Beautifully, beautifully depicted! I LOVE how Yash and Aarti are sitting opposite each other, both on different sides of the river/lake, lost in contemplation about their punar vivaah. The continuity of the shot is worth mentioning...We see Yash thinking of Arpita first...Then the camera sweeps across the water to show Aarti, thinking of the day's events and her mother's earlier advice...Perhaps it was intentional for Aarti to echo the "bina kisi swaarth ke" dialogue that Yash had said to Arpita regarding his need for a mother for his daughters...Both are marrying for the same reason, and their desire to place the well-being of their children before their own needs is explicitly conveyed through their common thought process/rationalization. Very, very nice touch!
"Yashji" and "Aartiji": Awww! Aarti's opinion of Yashji is on the verge of inching higher up the acceptance scale for Ansh's sake...While on the other side, Yash's concern (if not concern, then at least "consideration") for Aartiji's state of mind made me smile. SO ironic. He's hoping that she will not expect more than what he expects from her - filial love and responsibilities...while she's under the impression that he will provide the same filial love to her child...He continues to repeat the same mantra over and over...No one can take Arpita's place, so Aartiji had better not be expecting anything more than the status of "mother of his children"...I wonder how and when this will change. I'm really, really looking forward to seeing the way they transition from "Yashji and Aartiji" to "Yash and Aarti." The last few seconds of the episode: from Yash's side, we see Aarti...from Aarti's side, we see Yash... "Sab is dil ki hi toh mushkil hai..."
(And the way that they shot the final few seconds, I wondered more than once if Yash noticed Aarti sitting there, lonely and despondent, lost in thought)
Edited by PaNa4ever - 13 years ago
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