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Episode Analysis
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Episode Analysis
There are precisely three things that I want to talk about in today's episode, because for the most part I felt it was rather a draggy one. But there were some redeeming details, which salvaged the aim and idea of the episode, so here I go.
Surrendering to God/Destiny/Divine Intervention
I thought the idea was beautiful today when Aarti went inside the dargah and tied that dhaga, with the same song from the flashback playing in the BG. What I loved about the relation was the way it sort of commented on the relationships between humans and the divine (which is clearly very much a presence in the show). Aarti tied the dhaga for Yash's safety and probably for her new-born love as well, little knowing that what she was asking for had been granted long before she knew to ask for it on that fateful day when their families proposed the idea of their union. That day itself there was a divine ordinance that Aarti and Yash would be one and only the tiniest clues given to the two involved when their fingers brushed. Today Aarti understands the significance of that day and the divine power shows her the value of that contact when the soul on the other side is no longer present. When she wasn't longing for it and utterly unaware, she was given that momentary contact with her own future and her soul mate so that now when that contact was broken, she could feel its loss.
Elemental Symbolism
So my title did not go to nothing today because all the elements were at play and I think showing a meaning of their own. There was fire in the coals that Aarti crossed, there was water in the rain, earth in that tree that had fallen over Yash's car and air and ether in the scene with Yash locked in the car. All of them had their parts to play in the way the story unfolded today.
Rain has always been a messenger for Yash, indicating to him when it is time to let go of Arpita and accept Aarti. It was what tore him away from Arpita and yet the same element that continues to draw him towards Aarti from the engagement day, when he saw her play in the rain with Ansh and knew she was "the one" to most recently when he was doing Arpita's shraadh. Today the rain spoke to Yash more powerfully than ever before. It used the other elements to show the state that Yash had driven himself into. The tree, or earth, buried Yash while he struggled for air to breathe. It may sound morbid but I think it represented Yash's death the night of Arpita's death and how he had buried himself in that moment since then.
But the fact remained that he was alive and by metaphorically burying himself, he was suffocating his spirit that naturally tended towards healing and growing. I said recently that Arpita's absence is ether, because she is not there but she sucks up matter into herself. Today we saw Yash in the presence of that ether, the absence of Arpita with which Yash has surrounded himself, in which he has trapped himself and suffocates. We also discussed that Aarti was air and how fitting is it that she was the one that "breathed" life back into Yash's lifeless form today. Her love revived him from what he thought would be an eternal sleep when in a car, he saw his wife die before his eyes.
As for the coals, Yash represents fire, the anger and frustration he has burning inside of him at the injustice of Arpita's death. Aarti will have to walk through this fire to truly reach Yash. In accepting her love for him, she has to accept him for all the pain he is going to give her, accept him for the tortured individual that he is because that is the only way she will get through to him and stir his soul the way she stirred him from his unconscious state with her confession today. This is also why Yash cannot yet love Aarti. She has not shown him her pain and allowed him to feel it with her the way she has symbolically done for him today.
The Confession
This was undoubtedly the best part of the episode for Kratika's expressions, her dialogue delivery and the way she gently cradled Yash's face in her hands as though she was holding the most precious thing in the world. But there was one line that stuck out for me, that she learned the meaning of true love by losing and then gaining back. Though she loved Prashant, she lost him and never gained him back. Here lies the difference in her feelings for the two men. While she was never able to bring Prashant back to her, she was able to bring Yash back, which in some capacity erases her own self doubt about her capability to love and be good for the man she is with. In the back of her mind there was always the nagging doubt that Prashant left and never came back because of her. Now today she sees that Yash also left, prepared never to come back, but she was the one that brought him back and so she understood the meaning of true love.
***Disclaimer: My initial reaction to the episode was not positive. These three points are things that stuck out as redeeming in the face of a lot of dragging. And though it makes for some great symbolism, I am not sure how I feel about Aarti walking over those coals to prove her love. It was not so much the idea of her doing it that bothered me, because it was a very Aarti thing to do, but normally people don't walk slowly over it but run. I understand dramatic effect was needed but taking 3 minutes was a bit much. I hope I didn't go overboard but I thought I would attack the episode from a poetic angle since all logic seems to have gone to the wind!
Surrendering to God/Destiny/Divine Intervention
I thought the idea was beautiful today when Aarti went inside the dargah and tied that dhaga, with the same song from the flashback playing in the BG. What I loved about the relation was the way it sort of commented on the relationships between humans and the divine (which is clearly very much a presence in the show). Aarti tied the dhaga for Yash's safety and probably for her new-born love as well, little knowing that what she was asking for had been granted long before she knew to ask for it on that fateful day when their families proposed the idea of their union. That day itself there was a divine ordinance that Aarti and Yash would be one and only the tiniest clues given to the two involved when their fingers brushed. Today Aarti understands the significance of that day and the divine power shows her the value of that contact when the soul on the other side is no longer present. When she wasn't longing for it and utterly unaware, she was given that momentary contact with her own future and her soul mate so that now when that contact was broken, she could feel its loss.
Elemental Symbolism
So my title did not go to nothing today because all the elements were at play and I think showing a meaning of their own. There was fire in the coals that Aarti crossed, there was water in the rain, earth in that tree that had fallen over Yash's car and air and ether in the scene with Yash locked in the car. All of them had their parts to play in the way the story unfolded today.
Rain has always been a messenger for Yash, indicating to him when it is time to let go of Arpita and accept Aarti. It was what tore him away from Arpita and yet the same element that continues to draw him towards Aarti from the engagement day, when he saw her play in the rain with Ansh and knew she was "the one" to most recently when he was doing Arpita's shraadh. Today the rain spoke to Yash more powerfully than ever before. It used the other elements to show the state that Yash had driven himself into. The tree, or earth, buried Yash while he struggled for air to breathe. It may sound morbid but I think it represented Yash's death the night of Arpita's death and how he had buried himself in that moment since then.
But the fact remained that he was alive and by metaphorically burying himself, he was suffocating his spirit that naturally tended towards healing and growing. I said recently that Arpita's absence is ether, because she is not there but she sucks up matter into herself. Today we saw Yash in the presence of that ether, the absence of Arpita with which Yash has surrounded himself, in which he has trapped himself and suffocates. We also discussed that Aarti was air and how fitting is it that she was the one that "breathed" life back into Yash's lifeless form today. Her love revived him from what he thought would be an eternal sleep when in a car, he saw his wife die before his eyes.
As for the coals, Yash represents fire, the anger and frustration he has burning inside of him at the injustice of Arpita's death. Aarti will have to walk through this fire to truly reach Yash. In accepting her love for him, she has to accept him for all the pain he is going to give her, accept him for the tortured individual that he is because that is the only way she will get through to him and stir his soul the way she stirred him from his unconscious state with her confession today. This is also why Yash cannot yet love Aarti. She has not shown him her pain and allowed him to feel it with her the way she has symbolically done for him today.
The Confession
This was undoubtedly the best part of the episode for Kratika's expressions, her dialogue delivery and the way she gently cradled Yash's face in her hands as though she was holding the most precious thing in the world. But there was one line that stuck out for me, that she learned the meaning of true love by losing and then gaining back. Though she loved Prashant, she lost him and never gained him back. Here lies the difference in her feelings for the two men. While she was never able to bring Prashant back to her, she was able to bring Yash back, which in some capacity erases her own self doubt about her capability to love and be good for the man she is with. In the back of her mind there was always the nagging doubt that Prashant left and never came back because of her. Now today she sees that Yash also left, prepared never to come back, but she was the one that brought him back and so she understood the meaning of true love.
***Disclaimer: My initial reaction to the episode was not positive. These three points are things that stuck out as redeeming in the face of a lot of dragging. And though it makes for some great symbolism, I am not sure how I feel about Aarti walking over those coals to prove her love. It was not so much the idea of her doing it that bothered me, because it was a very Aarti thing to do, but normally people don't walk slowly over it but run. I understand dramatic effect was needed but taking 3 minutes was a bit much. I hope I didn't go overboard but I thought I would attack the episode from a poetic angle since all logic seems to have gone to the wind!
