Posted:
Credit for this gorgeous banner goes to Maham (Allbut1)!
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Hello, everyone! This is an important announcement. In reference to the much increased activity of the DC, and the sheer volume of posts that we get every day, it was decided that we should have a few more rules to keep the thread on topic and relevant to the show. Our fabulous Viewbie, and fellow DCian, Deeps, has come up with the following. Please take them seriously because it is for the betterment of the thread and all our fun times:
Dragon club thanks all members for their patronage. We welcome every POV & opinion and are grateful for all the members, visitors , stalkers , new entrants for gracing and making DC a super hit. As we all know this thread is viewed & read by tens of thousands.The reason we are a hit is , we have dedicated to discussing the show & every nuance of the characters, story telling and the show's technical brilliance primarily. Our vision was never about the actors but the Show. With our ever expanding family , we have to make some changes to make this thread more user friendly . So here onwards , we will be implementing some new rules which will be applicable with immdeate effect.
1. There is too much spamming & chatting which r not related to the show..Avoid it please . This forum has Chat club for that purpose.
2. Too much actor praising . We have Appreciation threads for it. Members can utilize it for that purpose. This is not to say it will not be allowed here . DC members can praise our actors in terms of looks , chemistry and acting for sure but without going overboard and hopefully limited to the scope of our show Punar Vivah.
3. Please stop bringing past resume/shows discussion of the actors needlessly.
4. Absolutely no personal lives talk will be entertained anymore. If you want to discuss GC or KS's personal life , this thread is not the place.
5. If you reserve on the first page (or even if you accidentally post there) you must fill that post with something relevant to the episode, be it a short or long take, a fiction piece, pictures or videos.
2. Too much actor praising . We have Appreciation threads for it. Members can utilize it for that purpose. This is not to say it will not be allowed here . DC members can praise our actors in terms of looks , chemistry and acting for sure but without going overboard and hopefully limited to the scope of our show Punar Vivah.
3. Please stop bringing past resume/shows discussion of the actors needlessly.
4. Absolutely no personal lives talk will be entertained anymore. If you want to discuss GC or KS's personal life , this thread is not the place.
5. If you reserve on the first page (or even if you accidentally post there) you must fill that post with something relevant to the episode, be it a short or long take, a fiction piece, pictures or videos.
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Today's episode was beautiful in so many ways. I just can't even begin to talk about how much I loved the Prashant-Aarti interactions that took place. KS took my breath away with her fantastic performance as Aarti, which will be the primary focus of my take today. I know Aarti is getting a lot of brickbats out there on the forum, but this reminds me so much of the days of Yash's craziness that I am going to let it go because I have faith in the CVs to carry out their vision, which has been as near flawless as you get in this medium!
Now to the episode... where to start?!
When Aarti hears Ansh's frantic voice on the other end of the line, I loved that the first person she thought of was Yash. It is another matter that she couldn't find him, but significant that he is her panic button, even though she knew that this might reveal the Prashant truth to him, she needed him more than she was scared of his reaction. Additionally, she has taken what he said at the Lalitpur reunion very much to heart, that the kids are his and she cannot separate him from them. If Ansh was in trouble, she knew that Yash would want to know and want to be there for his son. It has finally gone home to Aarti that she and Yash are a team, especially when concerning anything to do with the children, and that was very touching. I can understand that it was too complicated to try and tell anyone else where she was going, given the lie that would have to be perpetuated. She preferred just to slip out silently.
However, I loved that it was Palak and Payal who saw her leave and who told Gayatri... it showed that they were still insecure about her earlier flight and though they didn't have much screen time, I liked that they dwelt on this lingering anxiety for a moment. It also shows that the kids, as always are going to be a link to the truth. But possibly the most touching thing about this was how much Gayatri has improved! Instead of fretting in front of the kids or trying to extract more information from them, she told them to go play as though nothing was wrong. Such are the little changes Aarti's attention has brought to the lives of these little girls. Gayatri has witnessed how committed Aarti is to keeping the kids away from any stress and it makes her feel obligated and inclined to do the same.
Scindia house needed a leader, and because Yash, the natural leader of the three sons, was compromised because of his grief, SP had to retain the mantle long after he would have preferred to give it up. In addition, he was dogmatic and harsh, probably because he was overwhelmed by the responsibility of having to carry every member of the family by himself. Since after Palak's birthday party, Aarti took the lead and took responsibility for the family, lowering the burden from SP's shoulders considerably. She was another rational, selfless human with whom he could share the responsibility of decision-making for the family's well being. What's more, under her leadership, Yash was able to deal with his Arpita grief in any way he saw fit so he could eventually come out of it and take on the leadership position he is so naturally adept at.
This is why SP was so disappointed in Aarti when she ran away. He saw it as weakness and carelessness, something he doesn't expect from her. Yash taking the fall for her running away was a great foreshadowing in that sense because his family will always have sky-high expectations for her, and she will always go out of her way to fulfill them... that is her zidh. And like I said yesterday, Yash is now getting a sense of Aarti, a sense of when he needs to respect that stubborn resilience and when he needs to gently override it, for her own physical and emotional well-being. After all Aarti is a human being and she will not always be able to live up to the expectations of the Scindias, and that is precisely when Yash will be there to stand between her mistakes and their disappointment, just as he did today when he justified her absence and forced his family to carry on the pooja without her. Unlike Aarti herself, Yash understands, even without knowing the entire story, that she can't be the perfect bahu all the time because sometimes other things will be more pressing.
Phew, and I am just now getting to the core of the episode! Aarti was wonderful today. She was the picture of dignity, covering a multitude of conflicting emotions. Isn't it ironic that all this time she has been happily pretending that Prashant is dead, and the moment she finds out he is in fact near death, she is utterly horrified and goes out of her way to save him and make sure he is alright. I loved the way they showed her panic because it showed how false her denial has been, and how dependent it was on the fact that Prashant was a terrible person who would never change. This shows that Aarti never hated Prashant, she was only angry at him for the things he said, which helped her erase him from her mind, long enough for her love for Yash to take over her being.
Now she stands at a crossroads, with Prashant saying the things she waited for him to say for five years, but with her new feelings for Yash being such a big part of her at the same time. And even though I don't doubt her love for Yash for a second, it must drive her crazy to hear those words she had been waiting for for so long, finally come out of Prashant's mouth, be it his remorse at losing her or not knowing or acknowledging Ansh, and his now apparent affection for him. I can't help but imagine there would be a subconscious pull towards that life where everything was simple, where she was one man's wife and devoted to him for life, realising her great love story, enjoying her doting in-laws, bearing her husband and lover's children and enjoying them with him. How blissfully oblivious she could have been if only Prashant had come to this realisation and voiced these feelings one year ago, before she had heard of a Yash Scindia... the man who changed everything.
With Yash, it is true, Aarti has not had it simple, and far from blissful. She had exacting in-laws, a family that was reluctant to accept her son, two angry, grieving little girls who did not welcome her as their mother or even their friend, and was saddled with a sometimes vacant, sometimes volatile man who couldn't see past the memory of his dead wife. And yet, through all this, she has gotten from the Scindia family the very things that would make it impossible for her to even consider returning to Prashant. Although it didn't seem like it at first, there is a strong sense of justice and reward in the Scindia family. When Aarti put herself all in to the marriage and began to see things from other people's perspectives, she slowly earned consideration, acceptance, affection, commitment, trust, deep love and I think most important of all, respect.
This is what she really never had at the Dubeys. She did everything for them, and yet they treated her like a child, who needed to be coerced into doing what was good for her, who couldn't make her own decisions. Prashant was the extreme, in imposing his decision that their marriage was over without even hearing her out, and Shobha and Dubey are the milder version, because they do love her and want her to be happy. Still, there is no trust in either of them that Aarti is a mature woman who can handle Prashant's illness with poise... they honestly believe that she would be heartless after knowing the truth! This is why Aarti could never go back to her old life, because as simple as it may seem, devoid of all the complications and baggage of the PV, she could never settle back into that life, bereft of that fundamental respect for her as a discerning adult. The Scindias don't even know everything about Aarti, what she has suffered and how she has coped, and still, in such a short time, they understand her essence. The Dubeys, though they know every detail and lived with her for years, have still not managed to wrap their heads around the formidable woman she is, and continue to see her as impulsive, emotional and childish...nadaan, as Shobha keeps parroting!
However, that being said, I loved the palpable history that was constantly hanging between Aarti and Prashant in the hospital room. She was trying to be formal and pragmatic and yet the expressions on her face, and the breaks in her voice betrayed the truth of her turmoil. I loved the bit where she asked about "vo" because the pain in her voice and on her face was just heart breaking! It still hurts her pride as a woman that he chose another woman over her, but it is not because she wants him but because it points to the flaws she believes she has, the flaws that made him leave her in the first place. When he tells her of his remorse, she lets him speak only long enough to hear that she was not the wrong choice... she was the right one, only Prashant chose wrong. What she knew all those years was true, that he was better off with her and Ansh and his parents than that woman. He was wrong, not her. And yet the satisfaction she can derive from that knowledge is limited because that is no longer what she wants, so she cuts Prashant off because hearing any more would be too painful, too dangerous for both of them.
Needless to say, thanks to the essay you just read, I loved the episode! I can't wait for what is next!
Cricket
