Posted:
Dwelling on the Details: Slippery Slope and Unsure Footing
{Episode 41}
April 16th, 2012: "I will stumble and fall...but I will get up again. I will move on slowly, but if I should fall once more...will you be there to support me?"
I've wanted to make a post for each episode so far...Since that obviously isn't happening, I'll probably end up revisiting episodes much, much later and writing about them in the future. What to do? When most (if not all) of these episodes are so engrossing, it's hard not to write about them!
*The Dragon Club has, as always, been incredibly active with discussions about the episode, so I'm going to be focusing on more of the smaller moments (as usual, I suppose) that occurred today.
After last Friday's precap, I'm sure we were all eager to see whether and how Yash would be able to extricate himself from his precarious position on the bed...the wrong side of the bed, sorry!
We see that Aarti has made herself comfortable and like a true sleeping beauty, is blissfully unaware that her husband has spent a sleepless night beside her - but they do make a lovely picture, don't they? I love the shot of their faces, where Yash is looking off into space and next to him, Aarti is sleeping peacefully. To me, that reflected the comfort that was reached the previous night between the two newlyweds; Aarti's expression is one of contentment, while Yash's is calm...Until Aarti stirs...
As soon as her fingers touch his hair, his eyes widen and he freezes. As Aarti moves toward him, blinded in sleep yet somehow surely guiding herself closer to him, he seems to be thinking frantically about just how to escape the awkwardness of this situation - just when I thought Gurmeet's eyes could get no wider, he proves me wrong...
*cough cough cough cough*
And as Yash jerks up into a seated position, Aarti's eyes open and she is frozen over Yash's pillow as she realizes what was about to happen. Just looking at how close she had gotten to his body makes me wonder how they're going to get through the rest of the week sharing the bed...What a wake-up call for Aarti, haha. She immediately pulls herself up to sit on the bed with an open-mouthed look at Yash, who is pointedly avoiding her eyes.
Gurmeet and Kratika excel again, this time in a scene with more understated comic tones. I don't know if Kratika shifting position to sit properly on the bed was deliberate or not, but with the music enhancing that movement, it seems as though Aarti's realization of just how close she had gotten to Yash while she was asleep sunk in at that point. Aarti instinctively reaches out to Yash and calls out to him, to explain herself, perhaps - the slightest touch brushes his shoulder, and he listens...But by this time, Aarti doesn't know how to continue, and all she can do is look at him with wide eyes, apologetically, and hope that her heart rate will return to normal after this. As Yash leaves and walks to the bathroom door, she moves back to "her side" of the bed a little more (cute touch there) and looks absolutely mortified. Kratika's "OH my god, what must he think of me? I managed to make a fool of myself AGAIN!" expressions and the way she clasps her hands together and brings them close to her chest gives every appearance of Aarti trying to compose herself. It looks so incredibly adorable, too.
Oh, the timing, the timing. Just when Aarti chances a glance in the direction of the bathroom door, Yash looks back at her, and she hurriedly turns away while he, on the other hand, quickly slips into the bathroom, leaving Aarti to panic some more.
I have to mention that I absolutely love how Gurmeet and Kratika seem to be mirroring each other's expressions at times. During this scene, the way their eyes move back and forth as they appear to be thinking and waiting awkwardly really struck me as interesting, since they went through very similar movements so rapidly...Just an observation that I thought was worth a few words, since it's been shown already that Yash and Aarti respond to each other with similar if not identical gestures sometimes.
And as Yash seeks a few moments of peace after Aarti's "rude awakening", Aarti sets off with good intentions to see whether Ansh has slept well or not. Thus begins Aarti's meandering around a house that is alien to both her and Ansh, both in its architechtural structure and in its traditions, rules, and discipline. Aarti's unfamiliarity with the Scindia Mansion extends to include her son - at this point, both have only been "members of the family" for a few hours, Aarti has been unable to ensure that Ansh has settled in or has adjusted to the new environment, and I think it's only natural that a mother of such a young child would be concerned about his whereabouts or at least want to know where he is so that she can find him later.
Aarti uncertainly steps through the hallways, and once she runs into Gayatri, she has unwittingly found herself stepping onto a slippery slope. In Gayatri's eyes, Aarti commits many blunders within such a short time - it didn't seem to me at any point during the multiple confrontations between Gayatri and Aarti that Aarti was being openly defiant or rebellious or consciously disrespectful of her elders or tradition. Aarti probably thought that she could find the children's room herself, check on Ansh and see if he'd settled in well with Payal and Palak, and then get ready for the tulsi puja. I don't think she realized how difficult it would be navigating around the rest of the house; since she already knew her way from Prateek-Paridhi's room back to the room she now shares with Yash, maybe she thought she could find her way around relatively quickly.
When she finally reaches the room, only to find it empty, she wonders where Ansh is, but she also makes a note to herself that Palak and Payal are not there as well. Already, despite being Ansh's biological mother, she has started to group Payal and Palak with Ansh as her children, and this doesn't look like something she has to make a conscious effort to do. Just like when she smiled at the two girls during the Ganesh puja or asked them whether they had gotten hurt after the wedding finished, now she has indicated in the smallest of ways, subconsciously this time, that she has started to adjust to the idea of being a mother to more than one child.
Something I find noteworthy in the confrontation scene with Aarti, Gayatri, the children, and the others is that although we can see a jhalak of Aarti's instinctive maternal concern for Ansh (through her almost reflexive "Chot toh nahi aayi?", which I'm equating to people saying "Are you okay?" just out of default instinct) once Gayatri starts asking Payal and Palak questions and the girls start describing what happened from their point of view, Aarti looks even more apologetic than she was initially upon seeing the state of the room (with the toppled vase and all) and the children causing chaos. Aarti listens to what they're saying and, at many, many points, she looks at Ansh and tries to silence him. First she shakes her head silently to signal to him, then she tries shushing him, firmly explaining that doing such things isn't right...She becomes more stern and tells him to say sorry...Ansh had largely been keeping quiet until the girls said that the house was not his...And that's when he spoke up most strongly...Even during the final scene with Gayatri, Aarti, and Ansh, Aarti tries to silence Ansh, this time by clapping a hand over his mouth since verbal warnings hadn't worked earlier. Aarti is still apologetic about the incidents, but Gayatri has been provoked into a stern mode by the comments of the lady in the blue sari and is not in a very forgiving mood. Though Aarti respectfully tries to apologize and assures her mother-in-law that she will continue working on getting Ansh's habit of sleeping without pajamas to go, Gayatri has found a channel through which to voice her frustrations about Ansh's inclusion in their house as well as the more recent catastrophes of Aarti accidentally missing the puja because she wanted to make sure her child wasn't uncomfortable.
Gayatri's pointed, barbed warnings to Aarti at the end of the episode made me cringe...It has hopefully served as an alarm for Aarti to be more alert about the importance of rituals, traditions, discipline, and punctuality in the future...
As much as I cringed at Gayatri's words, while watching that scene again I couldn't help but sit up with rapt attention on the language of expressions...It's an incredible scene, very well-executed by both actresses, and I love the background music because it steadily builds and enhances the tense feel of the confrontation wonderfully. While Zahida looked every inch the imposing matriarch of the household in terms of gestures and body language, Kratika transitioned rapidly and clearly through a lot of Aarti's emotions: deferential/respectful, humiliated, discontent with Ansh's behavior, apologetic...
When Gayatri/Zahida turns back to deliver the line about "mere parivaar ki khushi," the way Aarti/Kratika stands silently, eyes averted in respect and humiliation, but her eyes snap up to Gayatri's as soon as Gayatri mentions "apni bete ke khushi ke khatir" and her brows furrow in confusion as Gayatri goes on to speak about "tumhaare iss bete" and "mere parivaar ki khushi"...As the background score builds around Aarti's worried face and crescendoes as Aarti processes both what has been said and what has been implicitly conveyed, we are left with the impact of Gayatri's words.
This was also reflected in way the shot of the earlier confrontation between Gayatri-Palak-Payal and Aarti-Ansh essentially on two sides of the room. It's Aarti and Ansh against the rest of the world...first after Prashant left them, now within the walls of what is supposed to be "their new home."
As I was writing up some comments about the episode in the DC with regard to the writing team's attention to details like the one about Ansh's sleeping habit, I remembered Episode 8, the one where Aarti and Ansh start out winning the Sports Day Race but end up losing because of Aarti's dupatta coming undone and her tripping over it.
When the episode first aired, I drew connections about the race being an analogy to Aarti's life...Now after today's episode, I have a slightly new interpretation about the race. Aarti felt that she was prepared for the race - she had secured her dupatta, worn sneakers, held Ansh's hand to prevent him from tripping - they started out smoothly, ahead of the others...But Aarti hadn't tied the dupatta as securely as was needed...It loosened and came undone...She tripped, stumbled, fell...Ansh was her support, and she his...They struggled to get to the end of the race, and although they lost, they made it to the end and didn't give up.
What happened in today's episode may be somewhat similar...With the newfound comfort of Yash's understanding nature to ease Aarti's initial fears, she probably felt that adjusting to this new family wouldn't be so difficult after all. But just like the seemingly-secure dupatta, establishing a comfort level with Yash and fitting into the role of a mother was not the only thing she had to do. She was expected to be a dutiful bahu right from the start: "Arpita bahu," not Aarti, to the rest of the world outside the doors of Yash's room, and she wasn't fully prepared to balance both (she wasn't given the chance to find her footing) so she stumbled, despite being determined and strong enough to follow through with this marriage because her decision was tied to Ansh's happiness. Aarti and Ansh will make it through slowly and steadily...I only hope they aren't completely alone for the rest of their journey.
Edit: Just HAD to add in my reactions that I posted earlier in the DC to the precap as an afterthought 😆
The precap: Oh, Yash. You and your towels...and a newspaper? LMAO at the way he crumples the paper and throws it to the side in frustration! And the LOL at the way he looks down at Ansh first...then looks up suddenly to meet Aarti's eyes...And Aarti, whose eyes had been widening ever since Yash opened the bathroom door, turns abruptly - and once again, I'm sitting here thinking: God, how beautiful is Kratika?! Her eyes look even more pretty than usual in the precap! I think it's the soft, simple sari and the flowing hairstyle that make her look even more stunning. Stay like this forever, please?
Avatar and Signatures Shop
Tu Juliet Jatt Di
Anupamaa
Naagin 7
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
