Since the episode aired, I have been dying to do an in-depth analysis of the family scene with the teddy bears. After much ado, I finally got the time to put it down so here goes. (It's a long one so make sure you have your beverage of choice and some snacks for the road on hand! 😎)
I think the first thing I noticed were how happy the kids were when Aarti said "welcome to the family" and uncovered the two large bears. Before the kids even really knew what was going on, they saw that the two big bears were sitting together, something that none of them have been able to take for granted in their definition of a family, especially after the ordeal they went through in the last few weeks. For this moment, the two bears represented their mother was smiling, their father standing behind them and all of them being together; all was right with the world.
The Positioning
Throughout this scene, something that I found very interesting was that Aarti was behind the bed the whole time, while Yash stood almost at the doorway and the kids oscillated between the two of them as the game progressed. Aarti did not come out from behind the bed the whole time, and neither did Yash take any steps forward, though they were constantly connected by the movement of the children as they came and collected the bears. It was almost as though Aarti was putting on a show for them, they were her audience and they could only see what she wanted them to see. This was a presentation of their family, from Aarti's perspective, but in which Yash played a key role because to each of these children, their family is not complete without both of their parents, as stressed later in the scene. However, the children did move close to Aarti and stay there when the inquiry about the little bear began and Ansh suggested throwing him out. At that point, Aarti retracted the littlest bear to behind the bed with her, in order to protect it, as she made the case for its acceptance into their family. And the first person that Aarti trusted the little bear with beyond the boundary of her protection was Palak, when she declared that they would take care of him. I thought that juxtaposition of Ansh causing Aarti to retract the bear and Palak causing her to send him back over, was very interesting and I will talk more about towards the end of the post.
The Descriptions
"First we will start with the head of the family. He loves everyone very much and everyone loves him. He is very strong, this family's Superman!"
Here it was interesting to see the formality with which Aarti approaches Yash's introduction. There is something of a detachment in everything Aarti says here, though it is very positive. He loves "everyone," where she uses a generic term instead of a specific one, to me shows that she is scared to say any more. She is not allowed to know Yash, but for the sake of this game and the children's happiness she has to play. When she says that he loves everyone and everyone loves him, and even when she goes on to say that he is strong, there is no reaction from Yash, except continued puzzlement at what this game means. Then when she says "superman," his eyes suddenly flicker and come alive. In that one word is concealed a moment of deep familiarity for Yash, one where he was completely himself, daring to attempt breaking the dahi handi, and reasserting his youth when it was questioned by flirting casually with his beautiful wife. This is also the moment he has been dying to return to ever since he won that boxing match, the one that has been eluding him thanks to Aarti's "strange behaviour." And from this moment, he was all ears for this game Aarti was playing.
I could swear, for a moment there was doubt in his eyes when Aarti showed no sign of acknowledging the inside joke on saying "superman," and the slight smile that came onto his face as the kids exclaimed "Papa" was undoubtedly one of relief and realisation..."so she was talking about me." When the kids hand him the bear, the smirk on his face was unmistakable, "she said I was Superman!" That Mumbai-wala feeling of uncertainty, anticipation, and happiness is back for Yash in this moment and he is ready to enjoy it fully once more. Little does he know that it is all an illusion created by Aarti, because of her fears and, to a very different end.
"This one loves her kids very much. She helps them with her homework, makes them good food and plays a lot of games with them. If there are tears in her children's eyes, there are tears in here eyes too."
So we go from over general with Yash's description to super-specific in Aarti's description of herself. Here, instead of describing her attributes or her qualities, Aarti focuses only on what she does for the children, specifying that she "loves her children" (and no one else, ahem!) very much. I think it is pretty obvious that this comes from her desire to fit into the role that Yash has relegated her to, without crossing her boundaries, so not to even risk provoking him. And yet you wonder nonetheless, who is Aarti? And where is Aarti? Is she defined only by what she does? Is she defined only by her children? It is a given that she can't proclaim to be Yash's wife at this stage, but is that all she wants to be other than her kids' mother? What about her painting, or her hockey...or even something like how much she loves laughing? I guess it goes to show how much of herself Aarti is giving up to be everything that Yash wants and nothing more. Ultimately this is going to hurt both of them, but most of all the children, because she is so much more to them than just their provider of basic needs, and she needs to acknowledge and embrace every part of herself to believe that.
When they entered into this marriage, just for the kids, I think both of them were equally proud (read stupid) and sure that they could never fall in love again. Aarti, being more open to another chance at love, thanks to Prashant's betrayal and her own general attitude was humbled when she fell for Yash, but because of her low self esteem, she somehow cannot tell when her experiences cross the line between humbled and humiliated. Being humbled involves the acceptance that she can't control her feelings, or fate, that she cannot control Yash's feelings and can at best respect them and be patient with him. Being humiliated is Yash dictating the terms of the relationship, and Aarti hankering to follow, and mould entire personality around his wishes, simply because she is in love with him and wants him to be happy at all costs. Ultimately, Aarti has to find the line that separates the two, and find herself in the process. It goes without saying that Yash is yet to be humbled from his prideful stance. More than Aarti, he has the power to shape his past and present because while Aarti can't control Prashant (what he tells her, or when he shows up), Yash can and does control Arpita, so it is much harder to knock him off his self-assigned pedestal. But as a result, when the fall does happen, it will be a much longer fall and harder impact than it ever was for Aarti, who managed to catch the breeze most of her way down.
I also really loved Yash's reaction to this part; he was like, "ah I get this game now." And the way he looked at that pink teddy bear had so much fondness, respect and affection. And I hate to say this but he seemed so happy with her description of herself, probably because it fit so neatly into what he wanted her to be and what made her comfortable. He was thanking her silently with his eyes, and I just wanted to whack him over the head and tell him he has no idea what he wants!!!
PS: I just LOVED Kratika's little giggle as the kids pushed the bear into her arms! I watched that like 100 times. It was like for a second Aarti forgot all her troubles and got carried away with the fun of the moment.
"This one is very naughty and stubborn but he is his Papa's favourite. He is the little superman of this family."
So of course, you know what I am going to pick on here. "Papa's favourite?" I am even going in the vicinity of thinking Aarti is resentful of Ansh's closeness with Yash, because I know she is not. Yet it was sort of nagging nonetheless; why on earth would she choose that as Ansh's quality? I mean, it is strange in the first place to tell any of your kids that they are favourites, true though it may be. And it is possible that Aarti was saying Ansh was a favourite of his papa's rather than the favourite, but the question for me remains, why say that in the first place? It also stuck me that she called him naughty and stubborn, two arguably negative terms for a child. And the "chota superman" is yet another reference to his association with Yash. This takes me back to the Mumbai moments where, whenever Aarti challenged Yash, the girls would cheer for her and Ansh was invariably on his father's side, defending him and saying that he would win. I don't think this was lost on Aarti, though it probably made her immensely happy at the time, and maybe only a little bit lonely at this moment. So I don't think she is resentful at all that Ansh has formed such a close bond with Yash and vice versa, but I do think she is keenly aware of it. Because of this awareness, I think she is sort of "passing Ansh on" to Yash, asking him to take care of him while she dedicates herself to this baby, indirectly stressing to Yash that though he may be a handful, Ansh is his most loving and beloved son, and a little replica of him...his "ansh."
(It is funny how in this marriage, the way Aarti and Yash have defined it, Ansh is Yash's "lawful" kid, while the baby is in a sense "illegitimate," because it was conceived outside the terms of the marriage.)
"Now the second child of this family. She is very shy and and hesitates to speak but if she gets angry, she is totally dabang (no idea how to translate that!)."
Here I felt like Aarti was doing the shortest possible recap of her own relationship with Palak, and how it evolved from one of defensiveness and anger to one of Palak exposing her vulnerability and opening her heart to Aarti. Palak is, essentially, a very shy child who forced herself to become vociferous in defense of the things she thought were under threat, like her own vulnerability, her father's feelings and her mother's memories. She didn't have any friends at school and the anger and the frustration that came of not being able to mingle easily was translated into resentment against the people she couldn't mingle with...and hence she became a bully, with her attitude fanned by her grandmother and great aunt. She was taught that the only way to succeed was to put other people down, and so a naturally reticent and non-confrontational kid was made to think that the only way to survive was to be horrible to others and ensure they don't encroach on your vulnerability. And I think she took it upon herself to "protect" her little sister in the same way. The fact that Palak was almost always "dabang" except in rare moments with her father, throughout the first part of the story, just goes to show how constantly and intensely angry she was, and life, at god, and mostly at herself. But with Aarti's help, she slowly righted her world, with each of her mothers finding their place in her mind and heart, and her father more demonstrative and happy than ever before. So she began to accept herself and the idea of working to overcome her own flaws, with the unconditional support of her parents, rather than putting other people down to feel good about herself. She has realised that her parents can actually take care of her, rather than her having to take care of them and so she has let go her iron grip on her own vulnerabilities. But I have a feeling Aarti was also hinting at Palak's protectiveness, which I think is going to come into play in a big way with the notion of Aarti carrying her little brother/sister.
"This is the smallest in this house and the most beloved, the princess!"
There is really not much to say about this, but the flicker of sadness that crossed Aarti's face just before she talked about Payal was interesting. Did she reailise she was coming closer to revealing the crux of this little game? Or did she feel a certain connection with Payal being the smallest, the baby of the house, and the tiny little thing inside her? I like to think that of all the members of the household, Payal was closest to the baby from Aarti's point of view, sweet, innocent, and artless.
Colour
In addition, Payal's teddy bear was the same colour as the baby's, the colour of honey, I suppose suggesting sweetness and warmth. But that was just one of the striking things I noticed about the colour choices in the scene.
The other major one was the fact that Aarti was wearing the same colour as her teddy bear, light pink, while Yash was wearing black, in opposition to his teddy bear's white. White symbolises purity and light while black symbolises darkness. I think it has to do with the truth and each one's state of mind. Aarti is more or less peaceful with herself, and her love both for Yash and for this baby as seen by the light pink. But Yash is at odds with himself, both because he doesn't know about the baby, and I think his future self who does (as represented by the white teddy bear) will be furious at his present self who says awful things in ignorance, and because he is unable to be honest with himself about what Aarti means to him. I think it is also the contrast between the way Aarti sees him and the way he sees himself, and he has missed the former terribly because seeing himself through Aarti's eyes was what was allowing him to come out of his shell and embrace life again, because he deserved to and because he owed it to the people who loved him and stood by him in his years of grief.
Yet another striking use of colour, was the fact that Aarti gave a white bear both to Yash and Ansh, once again stressing their association. She perceives this union of two pure souls so well and wants to articulate it physically and verbally, as though ensuring that they are also fully aware of it. Truth be told, Yash has stirred a doubt in her, because we can see that his relationship with Ansh is stronger, if anything, but I think the fact that Aarti feels the need to articulate it in so many ways, so many times is a testament to the fact that she has her reservations about his constancy and for the first time feels the need to step in and reiterate Ansh's bond with Yash.
And Palak was the only one who got a vibrant colour, blue, which was probably subliminal Zee TV promotion! 😉
Finally, the New Member
These reactions were probably the most fascinating part of the whole scene (and that is saying something!). I thought it was really, really intriguing that of all people, Ansh was the first one to point out that this child was not in their family, let's throw him out! It was so true to character because Ansh has never taken well to shifting relationships within his concept of family. At first, he was very reluctant to include even Yash in the family unit that was just him and Aarti, and the idea caused him so much discomfort that he felt the need to physically hurt Yash to stop him from invading their space together. It was only after the kidnapping, when Yash saved Ansh despite Ansh's open rebellion, that Ansh accepted him as an authority figure in his life. Similarly, he was deeply uncomfortable when Aarti started paying more attention to Palak at his expense (during the debate track), and he had to learn the hard way that he wouldn't always have his mother's undivided attention, but also learned that he could depend on his dad to fill in the blanks at those times. Now, yet again when he sees an aberration to his idea of family, his first instinct is to expel it and go back to the previous status quo. Payal is not antagonistic but confused at who this little one is, and Palak was the only one who smiled as her first reaction, only to be met with Ansh's death glare. 😳
Similarly, when Yash accepted the little bear as part of their family, Ansh merely parroted his words but didn't know what it meant beyond that (boys will be boys!). It was Palak who reached for the bear and told Aarti that they would take care of it, later comforting it and initiating it into the sibling bond, so to speak. I talked about Aarti's barrier being the headboard of the bed, and until Palak asked for the 'baby' she didn't dare let it past that "Aarti rekha." So I have a feeling somehow Palak is going to be instrumental in this pregnancy track and we are going to have some serious mother-daughter bonding moments where Palak does and says those simple things for Aarti that Yash over-complicates his thoughts too much to think of. The same way Ansh understands and brings Yash out in a way that his biological daughters could not, I think Palak, both as the only experienced older sibling of the family and as the naturally protective person she is, will somehow share a connection with Aarti during this most trying of times, that will supersede even Yash's involvement, him being restricted by the uncertainty of his position. We were discussing how there was something left incomplete in Aarti's bond with the girls, and I think this track is going to bring that a full circle and see her forging a bond with Palak (and maybe Payal) that is as deep and mutually comforting as the one Yash and Ansh share.
Now here is what I found really interesting about the kids' reactions, and I will end with this. For any decision they needed a nod from both their parents. Aarti's sad story about the little-alone-bear touched their hearts no doubt, but when she asked if the little one could be a part of their family, they all looked at Yash for his approval. Again, he seemed surprised to be considered in the decision, to be acknowledged as an indispensable cog in the family decision making process, but it was only when he agreed that the kids accepted the little bear and began to play with him. Similarly, when Yash declared the bear's name to be Aayu, the kids didn't react immediately but looked intently at Aarti, waiting for her response. It was only when she smilingly affirmed by repeating the name, that they turned back to the teddy bear and began their chant of "Aayu!' These kids are entrenched in this family now and they are by no means going to let either Aarti or Yash off the hook. Neither did Aarti come out from behind the bed, nor did Yash take a single step forward, but because of the kids, the new member of the family was accepted, named and embraced as part of their unit, with both of their parents equally involved.
This scene illustrated that no matter how stubborn and/or contrary Yash and Aarti are about their feelings, this family is super glued together now, thanks to how much the kids have invested in it; no matter how much our two dunces over analyse and over complicate the situation, they are stuck together for life!
Anupamaa
