Well, folks, I was in two minds about whether to spare you this one or not, but today's high decibel slugfest, which was more of a walkover for Manav than a contest of any sort, needed some special notice. But I promise to keep it brief, by my standards, of course!
The first thing that strikes one about this conclave was the attendance. It was obviously held in the D residence, so why were Manju, Vinod and Ruchi (with all her super abundance of pearly whites in place) there at all? I cannot even guess, and I wonder why, while they were about it, they did not rope in Mittal and Punni as well.
The only ones missing were, in that order, Onir, who was probably out collecting more job refusals, and Pari, who was.. where do you suppose she was? In that rickety jholi all by herself while Mommy dearest was shedding picturesque tears in discreet silence as her Manav baba roared at her? Perhaps Onir was not wearing out his chappals after all, but was babysitting (now) his ladli beti .
Next, it seemed, as Manav was holding the videocam, that he had had a viewing of Ovi' s touching farewell message to her spouse. It is an open question whether there was a general showing for the whole assemblage, but since there was no big screen in the D residence, one presumes that the rest of them were expected, as they listened to Manav shouting louder that one has ever heard him do before, to dot the 'i's and cross the 't's for themselves.
DK of course did not need all these grammatical aids, but he was moustache-heen today (I say today since these days, his moustache appears and disappears at random, like the grin of the Cheshire cat), and without the hirsute decoration for his upper lip, he is like the shorn Samson. He thus does not utter a word all through.
Manav worked himself up to fever pitch, and let Arjun and Purvi have it with both barrels. The point was not whether he was fair in the blame he laid, vociferously and with a pointed finger eerily reminiscent of his now comatose ardhangini, on the twosome. When one is the prosecutor, one does not 'understand' the defendants or the lawyer for the defense. One goes for the jugular, and this is exactly what Manav does.
In the process, he gets the First Person Award for actually asking Ms. Mahaanta, for the first time in this benighted serial, what she was thinking of when she saddled meri beti ( the distinction he made was as sharp as a knife cut; for him, Purvi is now beyond the pale) with the child of her husband and a 'doosri aurat' . Did she imagine that she was doing some mahaan tyaag?
Since this was precisely what Purvi had thought ' a take echoed, then and now, by her two devoted followers, Arjun and Onir - she not surprisingly held her peace, and let her tears roll down her cheeks silently. Arjun took up her slack, and while even he did not dare touch the tyaag angle, he did stoutly defend his love against accusations of dhoka. And himself as well.
In the process, he terms the tryst in the dirty, wet shack that led directly to Pari, as a bhool that was committed anjaane me. To listen to him, one would have assumed that it was nothing out of the ordinary, but rather like Kunti trying out the mantra and ending up with Karna.
Arjun's having summoned up the courage needed to offer that defence against the dhoka charge had an unexpected follow through. Manav, after fixing him with a basilisk glare, grabs him and literally drags him into the adjacent room and bolts the door.
What follows furnished enough grounds for Arjun to sue the CVs for the assassination of his character; yes, yes, we all know it has been going on for months, but today, they defined what 'nadir' means. Or for Rithvik to do the same for making him do such pathetic scenes.
He literally cowers before the glowering, menacing Manav, and if like me, you thought these adjectives, applied to Manav, are a contradiction in terms, well, think again.Arjun's mouth droops, his Adam's apple works convulsively. His otherwise expressive eyes mirror nothing but an abject hangdog expression. As Manav demands to be told whether he loves Ovi, and barks Itna hichkichate kyon ho? , Arjun, far from attempting some sort of nuanced explanation, gulps, and babbles that yes, he does indeed love Ovi. I was astonished that (a) such an astute business negotiator did not see what was bound to come next, and (b) that having lied about his loving Ovi, he could not tell one more lie, that he no longer loved Purvi.
In one sense, I applauded Rithvik for having played so much against his natural grain and still managed to carry off such a pathetic take on Arjun, but then again, this is not the sort of scene for which an aspiring young actor seeks to be applauded. The bulk of the TV audience, which cannot distinguish between the actor and the character, is more likely to sneer at Arjun's dismal display of weakness than to admire Rithvik for a bravura performance.
When Arjun comes out and announces that he is going to give Ovi time to 'understand this rishta' (some expression, that), Savita makes it unambiguously clear that this cannot be his decision alone, and that she will make sure that their marriage does not fail. Arjun looks blank, and almost forgets to look miserable. But when she adds that they do not believe in divorce in their family, and that marriages are for saath janam, the poor chap looks, understandably, appalled.
The rest of the episode consists of trivia. The only noteworthy scene was in Onir's chawl kholi, where Sulochana has just made a visitation to warn Purvi to stay away from Arjun. When Purvi's patidev lands up, and the baby starts crying, what does her aai do after she has deduced that Pari is hungry, which is a not unexpected development? She does not, as you would expect, go to the kitchen counter to warm up some milk. Instead, she investigates Onir's by now empty purse. Was she going to get the baby milk from the bazaar and then feed it? So much for careful parenting.
She also seems to be astonished that the poor chap's purse was not like Draupadi's akshaya paatra. Perhaps she has forgotten how to count.
When she informs him that there is nothing in the purse, Onir gives a spirited imitation of a ticketless traveller when collard by the TT, looking in each pocket in vain. But of course, the fact remains that they are, apparently, bankrupt, and Pari will, barring some miracle, have to survive on mamta and fresh air.
In the precap, Purvi is shown telling Arjun (who is, as I had predicted, already there for the first of what would undoubtedly have been very many visits) that she has been 'asked not to meet him'. It is a strange statement, that too from one who is not overly hesitant about departing from the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth when it suits her. If she does not amplify on it tomorrow, Arjun is likely to be left with the entirely wrong impression that the objector is Onir.
Let us thus await what the morrow brings us, on this and other points.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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