Posted:
Today the CVs gave us a mixed bag with some memorable PaRud moments of stunning intensity as the repercussions of yesterday's rainstorm played out.
Paro, needing to know about Rudra's meltdown, decided to ask Sunehri and learnt of Rudra's abandonment when a child. Visited suddenly by her butterfly friend, she followed Rukmini down to where Rudra sat brooding and was caught looking at him, eyes broadcasting sympathy. Rudra, eyes narrowed, asked her to leave. But Paro, incoherent now with her new knowledge and his stung pride, hesitated. Head whipping around Rudra strode up to her, his temper rising with every step. Until he thrust his face into hers and laid the blame on her.
"It's all because of you. Because of you I have to pretend to be your fiance. Because of you I have to live in the haveli after all these years amongst these wretched people. I'm having to pay for your sin, your mistake, your silence." Incensed by Paro's hurt, innocent eyes, he railed against her, "...refusing to admit your and your village's crimes...don't look at me out of your pity-filled eyes...I hate you, am beginning to hate your face." And stalked off leaving Paro reeling from the explosion and re-examining her craziness in pitying such a monster.
Came the dawn, and Kakisa's discovery that the Smoke Maiden had lied about belonging to Jaipur. The girl was a dab hand at the kind of embroidery that was done locally, but knew nothing of the kind for which her hometown, Jaipur, was famous. Suspicions roused, she set her darling son, Sumer, the task of investigating the girl's background - her way - with a couple of raps on his head to get his brain working. But there could be no harm in tripping the girl up when the opportunity presented, could there?
On that cheering thought, Kakisa sailed into the kitchen and tasked the Smoke Maiden with cooking breakfast - the kind that her fiance loved. "Potato," the girl replied. "Potato in yoghurt?" Kakisa lured. "No potato batta," the girl dodged. "Isn't that a local preparation? I thought you were from Jaipur..." she persisted. "Your son taught me," the girl wriggled out. No she was not as straight as she looked. She needn't come to her for help with the breakfast.
So, reluctantly, Paro went to Rudra for help, much to his discomfort and Dilsher's patent delight. She couldn't find the stove in the kitchen, just a four-mouthed box. "Gas," Dilsher tapped his unamused son on the shoulder, by way of translation. Paro didn't know how to operate it and couldn't ask the ladies of the house in case they suspected her story. Seizing the opportunity to throw his son and future daughter-in-law together, Dilsher exhorted Rudra to teach her how to work the gas, only in order to prevent the lie being discovered, of course, and to make potato and rotis in the style to which they were accustomed.
Ignoring his father's very transparent matchmaking efforts, Rudra led Paro into the kitchen and showed her how to operate the stove. Then she couldn't find the grinding stone. So he had to demonstrate to her how to use the mixer. And then she wanted him to get the salt - it was just out of her reach. So he handed her the jar. Then waited, narrow-eyed for her next request. But all he got was a pair of raised brows and a wordless question. So that it was he who had to explain himself. "Anything else?" his accents made it clear that he was being put upon. But she only shook her head.
He was almost out of the house, when his uncle caught up with him. His fiance was making breakfast, so Rudra had better stay, otherwise it would cause comment. And against his will Rudra had to rejoin the 'family'.
It was not a happy congregation that sat down to breakfast. Kakisa's resentment at being unable to trip up Paro in the kitchen had taken on a nasty edge when she lost her seat at the head of the table to Dilsher, and had to face that snakelet across the table. She sat now like a hungry shark, eyes trained on Paro. Rudra, thwarted in his escape bid, and still seething from last night's routing at the hands of his aunt, was also in an ugly mood.
Paro served him breakfast, but Rudra, hands bridged over his plate, not touching his food, eyes distant, was as remote as he could be. Even Kakisa's jibes at Paro could not induce one muscle to twitch. Then Mythili started pouring out the tea, and Kakisa saw light in her new-found friend - the teacup. Parvati should pour her fiance's tea, surely, she started off. So, Paro duly poured the unseeing Rudra a cuppa. Then brought around the sugar bowl, much to Kakisa's malicious enjoyment. "How much sugar?" Paro had barely uttered the question, when Kakisa pounced.
"It's amazing! You remember what he likes to eat, but not how much sugar he takes in his tea!" But Kakisa, with her intimate knowledge of the elements, should have known that lightning does not strike in the same place twice. This ruse would not work - again. Sure enough, the brooding, smouldering Rudra decided to rejoin his family. "Parvati knows that I don't take either milk or sugar in my tea. But she doesn't know that after coming here I've found the weather in this house unusually bitter, so I need sugar to temper it. And if it's still not tolerable then, milk." And with every evidence of enjoyment, much like his father's, Rudra drove the point home. "But it's also about whose face I see in the morning...any one of your sons, then one spoon; both together, then two; and if the weather is unusually rotten and I see you, then..." And before Paro's aghast eyes and his father's appreciative smile, he emptied the entire sugar bowl into his cup.
But avenging his defeat and vanquishing his opponent brought Rudra no lasting joy. As Paro made to leave the empty room his hand shot out and held her back. "...Your blood must be boiling with anger and hate...having to feed me, take heed of my likes and dislikes...for the man who's made your life hell." Paro pulled her wrist free and made to leave, but he caught her again. "But you can escape all this...just confess to your and your village's crime. I promise you I'll try to get you a light sentence." His words were falling over each other in his desperation to convince her to release them, him, from all this.
But, last night's anger and hate still ringing in her ears, deafened Paro to his entreaties. She wouldn't release him; save herself; end this. "...If I suffer then you burn too..." And she would not be budged.
Tasting defeat for the second day in a row lit Rudra's rage. It made no difference what she'd learned about him and from whom. It didn't matter. She didn't know him. And, incandescent with fury, face clenched, eyes shooting sparks, teeth gritted, he crushed any advantage she might have thought she had on him. "But don't dare to think that you know me, understand my hatred, my suffocation, my fire, my rage. Don't be under that misconception that I care about what you think or understand. A woman, that too a beautiful woman like you may try but she'll never be able to wear away this stone."
Today's was a scorching episode, intensity tempered with some delightful moments, no doubt to give us still more intensity. The scenes where Paro asks for help in the kitchen, and Rudra gives it, speeded on by Dilsher's overt matchmaking, were heart-warming and romantic. Contrasting sharply with the intensity of PaRud's confrontations.
I'd wondered how Rudra would react to Paro seeing him cry. And the CVs answered the question today. Rudra, ego-stung, was on the rampage to prove himself invulnerable. First with Paro, then by squashing Kakisa and then with Paro again at the end. But with no apparent relief in sight. Rudra, last night's altercation ripping the scabs off his deep wounds, is now desperate to get out of the haveli and out of the witness protection situation. And seeing Paro wield her power over him has not gone down well with so alpha a male. The hate track is in full flow.
Acting honours are again Ashish's for his fiery face-offs with Paro, but also for his nuanced help in the kitchen. ššš Sanaya, smiling and eager with Rukmini, pleasant and helpful with Mythili and Sunehri, dismissive with Sumer, reluctantly pleading and standing her ground with Kakisa and Rudra, was a joy to behold. ššš The supporting cast were all convincing.
In addition to the extra 15 minutes, the CVs gave us the first 'Parvathi' from Rudra, although I wonder if he'll call her that later on into the story, Rukmini, and for fans of another love-hate classic, 'farak nahin padta'. Much to enjoy today!!
Health and Fitness
Hindi TV Shows
