Today's episode was a very satisfying one by the end, though I gotta say the Bua overdose was a bit much. It was fine for viewers who got the message in the end, but one wonders, with such an overdose of her presence, would general viewers have even stuck around to the end of the episode, to witness the positive outcome?
There were a few really important behaviour patterns that I wanted to talk about today, of various characters.
Today was a day for Prateek's vindication to some extent. I really got the feel for his side of the story though I am not absolving him of guilt by any means. It all throws back to the subtle role reversal that is constantly at play between him and Paridhi. Today we discover that Prateek's passion, his drive in life is relationships. He loves his family, he loves every relationship, he loves negotiating the different dynamics and he loves creating relationships (like he did with Yash and Aarti) and nurturing them. Ironically, these are the qualities of the perfect bahu, which Aarti has displayed to win her ILs trust. So when Paridhi tells him of her deception, he goes to the people who would understand, who would not judge and who would accept his heartfelt regret over what happened. He strides into the room with purpose, but what starts out as an impulsive anger cools as Aarti and Yash express their happiness that he and Paridhi are going, showing no resentment despite the very real problem they are facing in the form of three upset kids.
He then knows exactly how to handle his parents, not revealing the truth about Pardhi's lie because he knows they would not be as understanding as Yash and Aarti, and manipulating his mother just right to make her understand why she shouldn't stand on superstition, by turning her own game on her. This to me showed two things. When he was given just a little bit of love, support and solidarity from Aarti and Yash, he was able to confront his parents and convince them intelligently, and secondly, when in form, he knows how to deal with every member of the family correctly, without stepping on any toes. One wishes he would teach that to Paridhi, who seems to be left to her own devices, and then one wonders if he would have if she had given him time...
I realised today that nowhere since marriage has Paridhi respected (in Yash's lecture terms) Prateek enough to trust him at his word. She has always given him an ultimatum from day one. She is resentful that Prateek doesn't give her any time when they are newly married, but didn't seem to mind the time apart when she wanted to go to work two days after they were married. If Paridhi's passion is her job, then Prateek's is his family, which in this case translates to being a cupid for AarYa and making sure his Yash bhaiyya was truly happy in this new marriage. Justifiably, Paridhi became resentful when Prateek didn't speak for her job or her and that drove her to set her ultimatums (talk in xx days), make him sleep on the couch and generally treat him like he wasn't capable of anything. I think this is what made him doubly afraid of confronting his parents and why he refused Yash's help. He didn't want to seem like he couldn't handle things, but in reality, he only made the situation worse.
Paridhi, not understanding Prateek's behaviour started to feel alone and this film offer and his accusal of her cheating were just the last straws in her complete isolation. And that is when Bua struck. She provided a listening ear when Pari felt she had nobody and gave her an idea that worked. Paridhi was not terribly happy about it, as evidenced about her lightning fast confession to Prateek, but she did it because she was desperate. That is the problem with the Prateek-Paridhi marriage. They are driving each other to desperation because they can't absorb what the other feels most strongly about. Yash gave a very great speech and all, but what he didn't mention was that for a couple to support each other at any given time, one has to take a step back. It is easy for him to say this because Aarti has always been the one to take that step and support him...though I suppose the true test of his preaching is coming with the divorce truth.
I am very happy about the confrontation though. I love that Paridhi is a girl with a mind of her own. She may have taken Bua's idea, but she was not under her influence, so to speak. She did that out of her own will and she was totally ready to take responsibility for it...and that responsibility and embracing her natural instinct for truth is what allowed her to learn today that there are ways to deal with the family that are not so direct, that she does have friends and supporters to turn to. It is only too bad that the possibility of missing this audition is going to be very upsetting for her.
Finally, Yash. To be honest, I thought Yash accepted this too easily. Though he had agreed to go, it still wasn't easy for him and so when the chance came to avoid it, he jumped and only on seeing Aarti's worried expression did he worry about the kids himself. But I was glad that Yash took the fall and the blame from the kids today. In many ways he is paying for his earlier reluctance and refusal to take them. I love how Palak said the specific dialogue, why did you lie? They have brought this thread through wonderfully in Palak's character where she is very exacting about truth and lies, from the very first meeting at the mall when she called Aarti a liar, to her birthday to now. It seems like papa, the one thing she hates most is lies. The promise she won against all odds has been cruelly snatched from her. What I liked seeing with the kids though, was their solidarity. Even though it was in disappointment and against their parents, they were together in their anger, one unit and that spoke volumes.
The last thing I want to talk about with regards to Yash is the way he defined marriage to Paridhi which said a lot about his marriage to Aarti. He said that marriage was not a compromise, but mutual respect and a promise to stand by each other and support each other through good times and bad...and that is what Aarti has done for him. I found it interesting that nowhere did he mention love, which is ironically all that Prateek and Paridhi have to their credit and which seemed to define his relationship with Arpita and now defines it exclusively. This shows that though loving Aarti may be far from his mind, he is married to her in his own definition because he has both confessed respect and promised to be with her in whatever way she needs him (after the Neelam fiasco). I thought that diivide between marriage and love was well played by the writers, considering Yash once said that Aarti did not need to be his wife, but only a mom and a bahu. At that point AKJ was defined as wife (where is Red?!?!) but now it has clearly narrowed down to love. Slowly AKJ is becoming what AartiKJ isn't and so Arpita's definition is becoming dependent on Aarti's shifting place in Yash's life.
Edited by Samanalyse - 13 years ago
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
