good morning, priya, gandhari, beena,
while my heart is leaping at the thought of the chulbul this pm, and i can't believe i did this to myself, just wanted to leave a thought on the man that i can't seem to focus out of.
read the ny times article again, this time on the front page of my iht, ma in law in full glory splashed across. such delightful abuse of the low wide angle shot.
never realised tv has overtaken film industry in terms of money. wow.
oh the influence of this medium. and the opportunity for positive change moneymakers couldn't care less about.
but back to the man. funny, that while doing research, the writer never came across the phenomenon known to those who know as asr.
how completely unlike all other men portrayed onscreen he was, he had a live in girl friend while he stayed on in the fam home. the matriarch, in this case his grand mother, accepted it, he said to his sis what's wrong with having a gf, haven't committed a sin.
the house decor was as close as you could get to a real home's feel (ok we don't usually have devi maiyaa mandirs in the dining area), people wore pretty normal clothes mostly, and even if there was exaggeration it was done with an eye to balancing the visual and the character range. manorama mami was likely the mr dolittle of ipk (of course, there's no one quite like my hot fave, but like mr d she was bizarre and spoke home truths, even bitter ones).
there was exploration of powerful love and its meaning, without any interference from ma in law, who in this case was a beloved memory, wrapped in pain, and if anything she taught her son to be positive and forward looking, have a conscience. she ultimately saved his love life.
the heroine was "plucky" to use the writer's word and not easily bowed by power or money or convention. she was really a buffy. yeah she had this dopey love for wedding and its rituals from the word go, and she also deeply believed in the sanctity of marriage, but she could shrug off a live in relationship, even say later that she was ok with whatever happened before he met her.
the families were made of all sorts of people, different inclinations, mind sets, religiosity, modernity, whatever, pretty much as our families are. the best part, no sense of claustrophobia in the air. right at the outset, nani's close mind was challenged by much loved grandson, and she succumbed before that love. touching touching touching.
also in the end we saw that the man who was most simple, gentle, knowledgeable in shastra, and overtly full of love for wife, spoke shuddhest of hindis, very good boy, well he turned out to be unadulterated scum.
on the other hand, asr was an atheist, had thrown away his dad's surname, unthinkable in our land unless you are a superstar already or in an art movie, proudly wore his mom's surname, he was self made, foreign educated, his language was smattered with a fair bit of angreji, he loved western clothes, he was fashionable, he actually bought expensive bags for his women (how he stereotyped us, but me loves bag 😳) and he lost his head completely and forced the one he loved to marry him in something ridiculous called contract marriage. he showed her so much love one point onward, that we were even willing to see them have sex before the conventional saat phere social marriage. and guess what, despite all sorts of playing to the galleries, we did.
and did the indian audience refuse to accept such a hero?
when this hero left, we went crazy. in india and elsewhere, not just elsewhere. we all know of 7 year olds who loved him and 73 year olds who watched him and loved the show. channel and production house didn't know what hit them. they had to can the show.
strange neither the helpful people at star plus nor other channels mentioned this.
well maybe in the next article on our gargantuan tv industry.
had to go on a bit. you all know me by now. thanks for reading.
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