Folks,
Since I know that all of you would be greatly interested in it, I shall now describe and analyse the latest PR promo, about which Maria_mars had kindly alerted the forum, and which is being aired here in India now, frame by frame.
The Sequence of Events:
1)Purvi is getting ready for the actual wedding, and as Sulochana calls out to her to hurry up, she says smilingly that she is getting ready and will be there soon. She puts on a pair of gold bangles, with a pattern of raised prongs all round the circle.
2)In the mandap, Sulochana and Archana are smiling.
3) The cloth that is held up between the bride and groom in a Maharashtrian wedding, on the lowering of which they were (long, long ago) supposed to see each other for the first time, is being lowered slowly. Only the upper part of Arjum's face can be seen. The shot is taken from behind the bride, and from so close up that we can see nothing of her but a covered shoulder. Arjun's face is still, even somber, and there is no trace of any joy or anticipation in it. His eyes look as if he is looking inwards into himself, and is not really registering what is going on around him.
The point to note at this stage is that no one from the family '- who should be able to see the bride almost full face by now '- is shown as reacting with surprise or shock, as they should have if it was by then revealed that she was NOT Purvi.
This is Puzzle No. 1. Perhaps they are all behind her too, especially the Karanjkars.
4) The pair exchange the jayamalas. Again one can see only Arjun front face.
He is now looking straight into the bride's eyes. His expression is again somber, there is not even the slightest hint of a smile. But there is (1) NO surprise and (2) no anger in them. He simply raises his arms and puts the jayamala round her neck.
All this time, we cannot even see the profile of the bride; she is again shot from the back in a tight close up. But when she raises her arms to put the jayamala round his neck, there are 2 pairs of the same gold bangles that Purvi was putting on at the beginning - one pair at the bottom, then all the glass bangles, and finally the second gold pair on top. This need not, after the kissa sari before the kidnapping, mean that the girl is Purvi.
Again, there is no reaction shot showing anyone looking thunderstruck by a bride-switch. This is Puzzle No.2, which is even more bizarre.
5) There is NO kanyadaan shown, nor the tying of the mangalsutra.
6) Arjun grasps the girl's hands and starts on the phere. One cannot see his expression now; both of them are shot from the back, with only the clasped hands being shown up front and centre.
\7) Finally, he opens the box of sindoor, takes a pinch, and brings it up to her forehead. There is NO way of identifying the girl from the part of her forehead that one can see.
Some of us feel that he stops short at the last moment and does NOT apply the sindoor are extrapolating. But I have watched that part 3 times, moving it frame by frame. His fingers, with the sindoor, come right up to her forehead parting. He does NOT withdraw them at the last moment (which is hardly surprising seeing that he knows all along who it is) but they do not show him smearing the sindoor in the hair parting either.
8) At that moment, the camera cuts back to Archana. She is looking, not shocked or angry, but decidedly sad and introspective. They do not show Sulochana or anyone else like Vandu or Damodar or Punni. Nor DK, come to think of it. Perhaps they just decided not to show them because they could not decide how they should look!
9) The last shot is of Manav, who has not been shown before this. He is the only one who looks frankly shocked and upset.
The permissible conclusions: Well, I have done the best that I can for you folks. You can all draw your conclusions from the above, which are all FACTS as per the promo. If the CVs cheat again, as at the time of the kidnapping, that would a different matter, over which an analyst has no control.
As for what can, rationally, be deduced from the above, it would be as follows.
a) Arjun has married whoever it is with full pre-knowledge. He does not display shocked surprise at any point. He merely looks somber and withdrawn all through. Nor does he hesitate in complying with any of the rites.
There is thus NO bride switch as far as he is concerned. This means that he has been emotionally blackmailed by Purvi into marrying another girl.
I am unable to fully decipher Archana's expression, but it seems to indicate sadness but acceptance. Her not looking shocked would appear to imply that she already knew who was to be revealed to be the bride, but it is hardly credible that she would let this change of bride go thru.
This is Puzzle No. 3. The only explanation possible is that the editor has juggled the shot sequence for the promo, and this was an earlier shot of Archana, and she had not seen the bride's face by then.Odd!
The bride cannot be Purvi, for if that was so, there was no reason for Manav to look so shocked. It is only from Manav's point of view that there has been a bride switch.
There is no way of identifying the bride from the promo ' it has been carefully shot that way to keep up the 'suspense'. But logically, it can only be Ovi. Purvi would have no reason to drop out for anyone else.
The marriage seems to have been, in large part, completed according to the rites, insofar as the phere and the sindoor parts are concerned. I do not know why they did not show the mangalsutra being tied, or the kanyadaan. Even if Manav did not want to do the kanyadaan, Vinod and Manjusha could have done it.
Nor do I know if in the absence of the mangalsutra (assuming that it has been left out, and not simply not shown to us), the marriage would be invalid or valid. The kanyadaan is not such a crucial part of the rites ' runaway couples get married in a temple without anyone to do it for them - but the mangalsutra is essential for a valid Hindu marriage. However, it all seems to go thru so smoothly that this point seems almost irrelevant.
Thus, taking all in all, it would seem that Purvi has shanghaied Arjun into marrying Ovi. His expressions, as described above, and his going ahead with all the rites without hesitation would seem to bear this out as well.
Since he has done it knowingly, there is no question of a bride-switch or any fraud. Nor, presumably, any question of his disowning the marriage.
Final assessment: So there we are. This is apparently what is going to land on us come Wednesday or Thursday next.
This, folks, is what happens when a man loves a woman obsessively, and beyond reason. He becomes a puppet in her hands, and she uses him for her own (oh, noble ones, of course!) ends, no matter how much he will suffer because of her actions. That is perhaps why the saying is that one 'falls' in love.
I have no sympathy to spare for such an obsessed, foolish and weak Arjun. Of Purvi, the less said the better, and I have no desire to get my blood pressure up anyway.
My heart goes out only to one person: DK. Of all the betrayals that Purvi has committed, the worst is that of the unconditional acceptance and the abundant love DK gave her, and of the deep respect he extended to her family. To my mind, there is nothing that can excuse or explain away such a betrayal. Nothing.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
