Why Punar Vivah? - Episode 3 Discussion

This episode was nothing short of splendid. I loved every moment of it from start to finish and I am still so caught up in what I saw that you will have to forgive me if I am not entirely lucid in this post. The relationships, the pain, the fight of each character was just amazing and I was hooked the entire time, my eyes glued to every little nuance on the characters' faces. A big round of applause to the whole team today because that episode was fine art and superior craft. 👏👏👏

Ok so there is so much to talk about today that I am not just going to ramble on but try (mind you, try) to give a structure to my take so I can remember and get everything in. For this purpose I am going to first talk about the Aarti parts and then the Yash parts.

Aarti is just full of surprises! When the first episode gave us the feeling that she was the perfect, stay at home bahu, who had had a perfect, arranged marriage, we learn today that she is in fact a working woman. Although this wasn't confirmed until the precap I kept wondering if she worked when she said she fulfills all of Ansh's wishes. She is still clearly not over the abandonment of her husband and seems to be, dare I say it, in love with him still. Even though it has been years since he left her, his memories still have the power to make her feel his presence around her. This was no ordinary love but a deep one, one that she felt from the pit of her soul and such a love is not easy to erase. It is a pity she wasted her commitment and her capacity for love on such an unworthy object.

I am loving her mother in law more and more and the closeness of their relationship. It was wonderful when Aarti joked about Shobha being sick of her and wanting her out of the house. It showed how secure both of them are in the knowledge that they are family and the relationship they share, which resembles far more closely that of a mother and daughter rather than a saas-bahu. We knew she was a righteous woman who wanted to do right by Aarti in the first episode itself but to see her character unfolding as a loving, motherly woman who is wonderfully human is a treat. Characters like this can easily get preachy and they have managed not to go there so far with subtle scenes that show her as flesh and blood with feelings rather than a corporeal PSA. She is living with the knowledge of what her son did, though we don't see it because I don't think her desire to see Aarti happy at this point comes from anything other than her love for her.

Aarti and Ansh are just so adorable that it makes my stomach hurt. 😳 I loved watching how much she enjoys her kid and being with him, from the giggle she had about him wanting puris to the hearty laugh she had over him not wearing clothes to bed. Is that an open loop I see, btw? Maybe Yash will be the one to teach him why pyjamas are important. 😆 I loved the way he was squirming and wriggling when the fan stopped. And my goodness, the whole part about the letter was heart breaking. It is clear that Ansh does not ask for those things only because he wants them (which I am sure he does) but also to feel the presence of a father in his life. Although it must break Aarti's heart to see it, it also provides the very strong basis for the argument in favour of PV.

Hokay. Now on to Yash. Yeah, so I think we can safely say the guy does not want to get married again. 😳 Clearly this is not a new topic in the family and he has been resisting their attempts to get him married for a while now. I guess he is the older son as the kids called the bahu chachi. So she is the badi bahu of the family by the death of Arpita. I guess that is why the MIL was chastising her in yesterday's episode because somehow in her eyes, she is still learning the ropes. We also got a time frame on Yash's widowed status, ie three years. I can see now why he was reluctant to come and sit with his family as he knew this topic would come up.

I have to admit though, the first scene with him and the kids was a bit awkward and I wasn't totally convinced. I can attribute this to two possible things. One is that GC is yet to settle into his role as a dad and had some starting trouble. OR the other way to look at it is that his relationship with his daughters is just not as organic as that of Aarti's with her son. He seemed to be overpowered by the little girls who were throwing witty taunts and him and each other! 😆 They were obviously adorable! I got into the whole deal of him as a father when he pulled the little one into his lap and started combing her hair. That felt much more natural. And by the time he put them to sleep I was much more convinced as he seemed more relaxed with them.

I LOVED the scene of his "over reaction". He is clearly hyper sensitive about these kids as he feels they are all he has left after his wife has left him. Again, like I mentioned yesterday, I am reminded of Chas in the Royal Tenenbaums, who controls his children's every action after losing his wife so that he can keep them safe. I also loved the juxtaposition of him hugging his girls like his life depended on it (where I started to buy him as a dad for real) while they stuck their tongues out in the back. He is a serious guy and maybe not so in tune with this aspect of his kids, nor does he really know how to cope with their mischief.

Finally, the scenes with Arpita in the picture were flawless! I loved his monologue to her and the way he was desperately begging her for a solution. He is clearly still grieving over her loss and she was clearly the mature one with the reigns in the relationship and he the impulsive one with the temper. I get this idea because he calms down and realises his own fault when he is talking to her, which makes me think this is something she would have said to him. The pain in his eyes was palpable both in the monologue and in the scene where his mother tries to ask him how much longer he is going to hold on to Arpita and for that I give him full credit today. That last frame with him leaning on her picture was beautifully shot and I loved the idea of him leaning on her for support, but he is leaning on a mere image which cannot really help him.

It was interesting to see the contrast. While Yash has pictures of Arpita all around and talks to them, but is answered only by silence which he must interpret, Aarti has no pictures of Prashant (as expected) but has vivid memories where he talks to her but she cannot answer. This could reflect their respective states of mind. One tries desperately to cling to fragments of his past that have slipped away while the other has trapped herself in a situation in which the past pursues her but she can't go back to it.

And finally (for real) who was that sister character??? She was scary and will clearly be the saas-bahu melodrama element in the script. Just when we thought we had seen the last of the scheming females. But even her character is interesting as a bitter spinster...

OH! I loved the precap! I am so glad these two meet outside the context of marriage and get to share some lighter interactions before they are dragged into the meat of the story. I too would love if they were the ones that chose to get married.