Symbolism of the Retro in the Recent Episodes

Although the last few episodes, especially with Taiji's entry, have had a serious tone, one cannot help noting the almost shakesperean comic undertones of the recent episodes, which makes the CVS and PV truly unique. The recent episodes right up to Arati's revelation, have been a comedy of errors of sorts, rife with symbolic overtones. First, at the Dubey's surprise party all lights are off. Everyone is hiding in the decorated house to welcome the Dubeys. Arati, dressed in the retro get-up answers the doorbell thinking that she is welcoming the Dubeys, but what breezes in is truly a retrograde specimen in the form of Taiji with her feudal views about women and marriage. It is almost as though the house was decorated to welcome/air out retrograde notions and themes about women's place in society, their responsibilities and their duties. It was immediately off-putting when the caricature in the form of Taiji aired out her views without compunction, but really speaking, her thoughts and ideas are not that far off from Prashant's recent soliloquies, where he convinces himself that his fault was really small, and that he needs to be forgiven and deserves a second chance at having Arati back in his life. Even Sr. Dubey, given a chance, would also agree with his son's thoughts. In an extreme form, the character of Taiji is the mouthpiece for Prashant's thought patterns.

Next, we come to Yash's attempts at love-revelation. Here too, the retro theme is seen to play out to the fullest, with Yashji's reconstruction of Arati's past in the form of a shrine of her old photographs. In so doing, Yash is building a subjective continuity of his perception of Arati from the past to the present. He keeps mentioning this continuity in the form of his observation of the innocence of Arati's eyes and the openness of her smile in the retro photos. As one well knows, subjective perceptions do not match the objective reality, and Arati's past and present do not flow like a glorious and cohesive narrative that Yash would like to believe.

Thirdly, the whole hotel scenario, minus the CCTVs, reminded one of the earlier "date" planned by Yash, balloons and all. Both the earlier date and today's doomsday date, had the strong presence of Prashant, representing Arati's past --her retro package of memories and lies, hidden from Yash. In the earlier date, Prashant featured as a voyeur, schooling Yash on Arati's tastes, the retro past slyly slithering into the present, making Arati suspicious. In today's date, also, Prashant is very much present, this time in person, caught in the process of trying to edit out Arati's past from Yash's construction of her retro-narrative. On a mission from the mother Shobha, who has, right from the start, been adamant in her unwillingness for Yash to know Arati's past, Prashant rushes to the rescue. Here we have an interesting, yet impossible scenario of the retro past in the form of Prashant creeping into the present with a mission to edit itself.

No wonder then, that the retro theme was ironically appropriate for celebrating the anniversary of the Dubeys. On the surface, Arati and the Dubeys, donning retro outfits, appeared to be having fun, reliving and reveling in the collective past of the seventies, while continuing to deny the force of their own past. It is interesting to note that the only young adult not wearing a retro outfit was Prashant, as he himself was the caricature of the shady aspects of everything retro in Arati's life, without needing a costume. Overall, the contrast between celebrating the nostalgia of a collective past, while denying their existence at the individual levels was really well played out in the retro theme.

Finally, from Arati's point of view, it is not surprising that Arati, spying Prashant in the CCTV is on a rampage. Dancing in the retro costume for fun was one thing, but Arati certainly has no desire to have a dalliance with her past. Misconstruing the situation, Arati, as it were, "sees" the past trying to revive itself. The forcible rejection Arati's past that was kept deeply in the dark, much like the figure of Yash in today's episode. Finally, the past spills into and affects the present. Only this time, all props and costumes designed for effect have to come down. The scales in the vision have to be scraped and the past reckoned with. All that is retro is not automatically romantic, nostalgic and good. It also has its silhouettes that cast shadows of fear and suspicion, that have the potential to break newly built trust and communication. With so many people, Yash, Prashant, Taiji, and mother Shobha, trying to selectively construct Arati's past, how Arati go about taking charge of redefining her own past? What effect will it have with her life with Yash? Let us wait and see.

Great analysis of the retro theme! The theme really played out to cover a numerous amount of things, like you mentioned, including Yash putting up Aarti's old pictures. I enjoyed reading your post!