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Right, today's RReview is only of THAT scene, simply because I can't focus on any other!! 😳😃 Actually, tearing myself away from THAT scene has been next to impossible so you'll excuse me if this post is a tad delayed and most likely incoherent.
Here then is my Memorable Scene of the Day: Full Body Restraint.
First, we see resident hottie, Rudra, sitting chest covered (was that the blooper mentioned in the forum?) and the rest covered too on his hospital bed. Rudra's gazing at Paro who's lying defenceless next to him - well almost next to him, separated as they are by the flimsiest of drapes, which have been further pushed apart for ease of viewing.
Paro's forehead wrinkles ever so slightly as she slides into her flashback. In tandem, Rudra's drawn brows signal his pain. He turns to pick up his knock-out pills and is about to tuck one between his lips when he's stopped by a cry. That's Paro protecting Rudra even whilst she's asleep. Thus warned, Rudra drops the pills and lurches to his feet with the help of the curtain frame. His new helicopter view warns him that the cries weren't a blip, but that Paro is getting increasingly agitated.
So far she's been shouting "No, no...don't do it...they'll be crushed by the sticks...Mamisa, let me go...they'll burn..." Rudra's frozen at the end of the partition, unsure what to do next. And then she cries, "...let me go to Ma and Babusa...the fire...they'll burn..." At that Rudra reels back and lets go off the frame. He realises that she's dreaming about her parents' funeral.
Rejecting what's he's heard; wanting no part of her nightmare, he staggers towards the door yelling for the doctor. But Paro's body is rebelling violently, shaking, kicking off the covers. As he dashes to her side, she's screaming, head thrown back for Mamisa to let her go to her parents...that the fire's been lit...that they will burn...
But for her arms that must have been restrained during the actual funeral, Paro's body is in the grip of an inner storm so turbulent that it whips her torso off the bed and back down on the metal head-rest of the hospital cot. Almost, that is, because, Rudra's hand is between her head and the metal bar.
And now, his palm cradling her head, he lowers it on to the pillow, all the time trying to keep her flailing arms from ripping out the IV line. He manages to hold onto the arm nearest him. But Paro's legs won't give up the fight so easily. She needs to run to her parents. Rudra tries to shush her in an effort to ease her distress. Distress that has engulfed her completely, much as the flames must have enveloped her parents.
But to no avail. And so finally, Rudra flings a leg over one of hers, and when that doesn't work, over both her legs, while also pinning down her remaining free wrist. He might be draped over her much slighter frame in a full-body restraint, but still Paro's fingers claw against an invisible force. Until they brush against the rudraksh around Rudra's wrist. And then they still.
Then, his body almost completely in tune with hers, he soothes her down from her nightmare. And finally, although her chest, like his, still heaves with her turmoil, Paro is at peace.
So yesterday, I missed the dhamaka, and wham! today I'm given it in multiple measure. Thank you cast and crew. 👏👏👏 So hats off for the brilliant idea and excellent execution that gave us a facsimile of intense lovemaking cloaked in a much more mundane act. Yet was it mundane or was it love-making? Were not PaRud's senses, mind and body touched by the other? Like when Paro was affected by his rudraksh and he by her cries, her shaking body.
And what brought it on? For me, it seems that when Paro held the gun to her head, it was because she'd had enough. Her rope had frayed and she'd been hanging on by a thread. And today when Rudra fell at her feet that last thread snapped! Paro wanted to end it all at that moment. She wanted to go back to her parents. And this was her subconscious making itself heard.
What a mind-blowing scene! I haven't seen the likes of this scene on TV or in movies before. Having said that, let me just qualify that while I haven't seen this actual scene before, I have seen this treatment once before, memorably in the epic restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Meg Ryan starts off slow but ends with a full-blown pretend orgasm! Before you wonder if my mind is completely blown, let me explain that Sanaya's treatment of the nightmare is similar in that it started off slow, built into a tornado and then receded, leaving her and Rudra winded in the aftermath.
The other thought that struck me as I watched Rudra was that much like the horse-whisperer Rudra too 'whispered' Paro out of her nightmare.
But treatment/interpretation cannot work without the acting abilities to pull it off. And the acting today was AWESOME! 👏👏👏 to Sanaya for so compelling a performance that it dissipated the high of this ungentle faux coupling. And equally 👏👏👏 to Ashish for staying true to his character throughout, and for not striking one jarring note in the entire performance. What an intense, creative, unforgettable, EPIC scene!
On that high note, I shall wind up this post. You see, the scene beckons yet again... 😆
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