{Episode 149 - 2} Kya Sukoon, Kya Junoon, Humnawaa

Song: Abhi Abhi

Singers: KK, Akriti Kakkar (and a few lines by Shreya Ghoshal)

Film: Jism 2 (2012)

This post and any subsequent song-related posts (which I'm designating as "Poetry in Motion" posts) will be structured differently from my previous ones since they involve the close observation and interpretation of a song's picturization. As an ardent lover of music, I may not be able to hold back from discussing how the song's lyrics, composition, and rendition enhance a particular sequence, so please humor me if I begin to speak about the song itself in addition to the actors' performances. As always, feel free to leave your comments and thoughts: they are greatly appreciated! (I will try my best with the English translation of the lyrics; feedback or more accurate translations are more than welcome - just send me a PM! I am slightly confused about some parts of the translation, to be honest, but I'll let it rest since I can't find better translations out there. The troubles of being a non-Hindi speaker who loves Indian music...)

This sequence is so beautiful in its entirety that I hardly know where to begin. The cinematography is stunning throughout the entire song, and the very first glimpse we have of Aarti is when she lights a candle in the darkness...We hear the sound of the match and see the flame transferred from the match to the candle before we see Aarti...The strengthening glow from the candlelight illuminates Aarti slowly, starting with the soft purplish-pink of her sari, and then brings her face into the light. There is a gentle, heavy-lidded serenity in the features of her face as she regards the candle's flame with a smile and listens to the rain outside. The gentle sounds of the rain pouring outside the open doorway, combined with the dark interior of the house, where candlelight and purple-tinted lights dance across the ceiling, as if radiating from the candles and reflecting off of Aarti herself, create a comforting, soft mood.

A thunderclap seems to call out to her, and she turns to walk to the door with a fond smile, stepping deliberately with slow, measured steps, almost as if in a trance. Aarti's love for rain is a trait that has been woven into this story so wonderfully countless times, just as Yash's hatred and fear of it has been extremely important. The rain is a liberating force for Aarti - she finds joy in reaching out and letting her worries wash away for a few moments; she is genuinely happy and carefree, young at heart in addition to mature and strong-willed. There is a touch of innocence about her, a warm, radiant aura that comes from within...This is how Yash sees Aarti when he returns to where he left her...

He observes her silently as she twirls, letting raindrops sprinkle onto her hair and arms, as uninhibited as a child. Abhi abhi toh pasand aaye ho: a fond smile touches his lips and softens his gaze as he watches her, this woman who had first walked with him in the rain many months ago...That same innocence and warmth had been evident then, too, as she had played in the rain with her son...now their son...And that was when he had instinctively known that she would be a wonderful mother to his daughters...now their daughters.

The two candles that Yash stands between, as well as the many other candles around him, were lit by Aarti; she brought light into his dark life...She IS light, happiness, and freedom. He watches her spinning: her face comes into view, into the light, for a second and then is hidden by the darkness of her hair as she turns away from him. Here, with her, he found a new life beckoning to him. If he chooses, this could be the beginning of life, a second life...with her.

His feet are propelled towards her as if acting of their own volition. His body silently conveys what his voice will not: He has lost...Even in his half-intoxicated stupor, he responds to her and moves closer - she has not called out to him consciously, she has not even noticed him, but he has lost his power to resist her. She turns, and an outstretched hand collides gently with his cheek. Realization sets in, her smile falls within a second, and she freezes. Deja vu.

"I'm sorry. Mujhe yaad hai aapko...barsaat se nafrat hai..."

Her voice is flat, all traces of joyful happiness gone. He studies her face, noting her averted eyes. They may be half-sober, half-intoxicated, but there is a shared awareness of each other, the past, and the present in this moment. Aarti steps away from Yash, but she is stopped by his firm yet gentle grip on her arm. She looks up at him in mild confusion, while his only response is to push her backwards lightly so that she is facing him. He guides her to the threshold and splashes water on her face in a smooth motion that catches her off guard - she brings her hands away from her face to see him smiling at her softly. He has never looked at her like this...And the rain...? Could it be that he...? But how...and why?

"Ab mujhe barsaat se...nafrat nahi hai, Aartiji..."

His statement is absolute, but Aarti is still slightly reluctant to believe that Yash could feel this way about the rain that he had harbored hatred against for so long. He sees the question in her eyes and answers with a blink, "Yes, Aartiji, I don't hate the rain any longer..." The light that had faded from her eyes just moments before returns - I felt that in that moment of veiled messages, Yash went back on his earlier words to Aarti about her bachpana and her "childish" love for playing in the rain. He has come to see how much brighter the world can be if a little bit of light is let in.

Yash is the one who takes the initiative to splash Aarti with water again. His face lights up with an impish smile as he sees Aarti smile openly once more, and the two of them let go of their inhibitions to indulge in a splash fight. Pure joy - that is what is conveyed through their bright eyes and wide smiles. Gurmeet and Kratika are beautiful during this entire song, but I really felt Yash and Aarti's happiness as they played in the rain. If Yash is enchanted by Aarti's beauty and spirited personality, we see that clearly through Gurmeet's body language and we can see exactly why Yash feels the way he does.

Thunder startles Aarti and she instinctively reaches out to take refuge in Yash's arms, finding safety and solace nestled against his chest. Her head rests against his heart while one of his hands rests on her shoulder, holding her to him, and time seems to come to a halt as they stand there together.

I love the huskiness of Akriti's voice in this stanza. Her rendition lends a raw intensity to the lyrics as her voice takes on a whisper-like quality at times as it slides smoothly and dips deeply in turns - this gives me the impression of gliding, sinking, and drowning a sea of passion every time I hear it and I think it's so beautiful how Kratika's expressions during this stanza and especially the following one complement and further enhance that depth of feeling as Aarti stands in Yash's embrace.

This part of the song is perfection. This stanza and the one before it, that is. KK's voice is smooth, rich, and the combination of his voice, the parallels between the lyrics and the Yash-Aarti relationship, and the performances from Gurmeet and Kratika all combine to make this an incredibly poignant picturization.

The sukoon that is clearly seen in Aarti's relaxed body language and her soft, peaceful smile lasts for several long moments. I love how her fingers curl around his shirt sleeve and how her smile fades and returns, fades and returns, along with the way she blinks slowly, drowsily, in complete contentment despite her intoxicated state. That sense of belonging and the peace that Aarti finds when she is in Yash's embrace, no matter how loose it is, is so heartwarming. She hears his heartbeat, finds happiness in his happiness, and loves him so much that every gesture, every twist and turn of his, affects her.

All this time, Yash is holding Aarti close, but his body language is anything but relaxed from what little we can see. He is rendered immobile to a certain extent, as he listens to his heart and lets the moment unfold. Significantly perhaps, Yash finally responds just as the lyrics take a turn, "Abhi abhi awaaragi aayi, abhi na karo sambhalne ki baat..." He brings his free hand up to Aarti's shoulder, effectively holding her to him in a loose yet close embrace. I felt that Yash and Aarti both expressed their feelings of sukoon and junoon throughout this sequence but Yash seemed to embody junoon much more than Aarti because of his deliberate movements and the way he doesn't want to stay away from her.

It's interesting that just when Yash finally responds to Aarti physically by lightly placing his hand on her shoulder, her face tenses up just a shade, as if she realizes suddenly that Yash isn't standing there passively any more. One of my favorite moments (probably my most favorite moment) is when Aarti pulls away from Yash and her hair gets caught in the stubble on his cheek. Both Gurmeet and Kratika succeeded in making that into such an innocently intimate moment for Yash and Aarti. The heavy-lidded, drowsy-yet-awake expressions, the way Yash looks down at Aarti intently as she pulls away slowly, her eyes downcast (and this was only one of many Promo 4 throwbacks for me!), the way a few strands of her hair are still connecting her to him as she increases the distance between them, and the way they both relinquish their holds on each other ever-so-lightly, as if they don't really want to separate...Beautiful, beautiful nuances.

Reluctantly, Yash follows Aarti's lead and removes his hand from her shoulder, setting her free. His brow furrows in displeasure while Aarti takes a little breath and steps away, a flicker of a smile on her lips. I wonder if she was relieved that he didn't stop her from moving away or proud that she hadn't lost control of herself, or maybe it was a combination of both...The smile vanishes as she lets out a silent gasp of surprise when her pallu deters her from stepping any more than two steps away from Yash - she knows that he's holding her back, and that brings a wave of uncertainty with it, along with an undercurrent of excited anticipation: her body tenses up, she tries to breathe and maintain her composure, but he still doesn't let go...Is he trying to tell her something...? She turns her head towards him, then turns back, waiting.

Teri baazuon mein meri chaahatein samaaye...
Teri dhadkanon ko meri dhadkane sunaaye...
Teri khwahishon se meri khwahishein rihaa hai,
Teri karwaton se meri daastaan bayaan hai...
Kya sukoon, kya junoon, humnawaa...
Hum toh haare, maahiya re...
Moonde naina, neend tihaare...

Uncertainty, nervousness, anticipation: all this is very much consistent with what we know about Aarti. She loves Yash immensely, but she does not seem to think of herself as an attractive woman; there's a deep insecurity within her that shows in her involuntary reactions as she becomes aware of Yash coming closer to her. Yash, on the other hand, very deliberately gathers up Aarti's pallu and slowly drapes it over her shoulder. He has been watching her closely, reading her body language, and through that one gesture, he silently reassures her that he will protect and respect her; she senses this without even looking at him: her hands move away from her shoulder as soon as she is secure in her knowledge of her husband's silent message.

What she probably didn't expect was his feather-light touch wreaking havoc on her senses even with a layer of fabric in between his fingers and her arm. Still, even this interplay of reactions is understated (thank you, Kratika and Gurmeet) - Aarti's eyes shut lightly and open slowly when she realizes that Yash has stopped...She turns just a little, with a tinge of curiosity, and then he moves his hand further up her arm...At every point, he has waited for her nonverbal cue, even if he was the one who let his desires lead him to do something out of impulse (like grabbing Aarti's pallu or touching her arm) and I find that to be extremely endearing. It's very sweet (and rather cute) to see how, in spite of her nervousness, Aarti wants this as much as Yash does. She surrenders to him when he smoothly lifts her up into his arms, and even though there is hesitation in her eyes when he looks down at her, she does have her arms wrapped almost entirely around him for support. That fragile paradox, as expressed in one significant line, is in many ways perfect for Yash and Aarti: Kya sukoon, kya junoon, humnawaa...

A few parting thoughts:

- Promos 3 and 4 keep coming to mind over and over every time I watch this sequence. Kratika's light make-up is one reason (I love when she's styled simply) and both Gurmeet/Kratika's expressions at various points throughout the entire song reminded me of the promos, too: Aarti's expressions as Yash gently grabs her hand and guides her into the rain, for example, or Yash's unwavering gaze full of intensity, curiosity, and concern; and Aarti's hesitant glances and downcast gaze in reaction to Yash...

- Countless throwbacks to previous scenes...Yash and Aarti's relationship progressed so much by the time they reached this point. It's lovely to look back and see how much things have changed. Fabulous storytelling, too.

- The camerawork, as I've said before, is stunning! I love the way curtains are used in this show, whether in the montages, pictures, or in the episodes. In this sequence, we couldn't see Yash and Aarti clearly from behind the curtains except during a few brief moments. That created a sense of peacefulness and intimacy in the most sweet and innocent way possible. They were half-hidden from sight, behind the curtains blowing in the wind, until they pulled away from each other.

- The flow of the music, as usual, is complemented perfectly by the actors' actions and expressions. Even the smallest transitions in expression (watch Aarti's expressions at the end after Yash drapes her pallu on her shoulder) flow in tandem with the music. I'm always amazed at how this happens every single time!

- Sorry about the lack of poetry and flow in the translation! I think a semi-literal translation should be somewhat helpful for those who want to learn the words...that's how I came to gradually understand Hindi songs - but translating is still quite a tricky task for me. And then there are the parts of this song that are troubling me, translation-wise...Well, I hope this helps a little.

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A/N: Thoughts about Jai Jai Shiv Shankar and the first part of the episode can be found here:

Love the way you've described the foreplay especially the part when Aarti was playing in the rain and Yash was watching her 😳😳😳

GC & KS were just phenomenal and the way they played Aarti & Yash made us feel like we were looking at a real couple in their intimate moment ☺️☺️☺️

And the song selection was another great piece ❤️❤️❤️

after reading the whole post , i am surprised to see the detailed expression of arya in the song written so beautifully .

I'll try to reply to individual comments as soon as possible!