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Tonight's episode rained questions on Rudra, Paro and Sumer, mostly. All sorts of questions - spoken and unspoken, answered and unanswered, silly and profound. Each giving us fresh insight into the characters and a tantalising glimpse into the upcoming track. Here's how they unfolded:
Rudra's eyes, anxious with unspoken questions, strayed more often to Paro's face than to the floor he was striding down. In fact, so singular was his attention on the drenched girl in his arms that it was hardly surprising that he tripped over a step and almost dropped his precious bundle. He would learn the answer to that question the moment he laid her tenderly on his bed. She was soaked through and had developed a fever.
But the dip in her health didn't stop Paro asking Rudra the one question that was playing in a feverish loop in her head: "Now do you believe in my love?" Rudra's low "shaanth," while nowhere near the answer she wanted, still reassured and satisfied her enough to stop her repeating the question. And it allowed Rudra to get on with the urgent task of seeing to her comfort.
Rudra's solution to getting Paro out of her wet clothes, the first step to making her comfortable, was to fetch Mythili. But having got his sister-in-law, deeply-concerned, eminently capable and raring to help, Rudra found he could not leave her to get on with her task until he stuttered out the most important question of all. "You...uh...um..you'll take good care..."
Reassured that she would be most considerate - no repeats of causing Paro accidental pain by shifting her aching legs, for instance - Rudra went to Bapusa's room to change into dry clothes, examine his reflection in the mirror, and voice his guilt-edged frustration about "that crazy girl". A reflection that prompted his suddenly-alert father to agree that Paro must indeed be mad to want to be stuck with a dessicated old maid like his son. Leading Rudra to question God for having sent Bapusa as his father, when he so patently should have been Paro's.
But Bapusa was just getting into his stride. And shortly homed-in on the question in his mind. Adjuring Rudra to forget the 150 others present when Paro proposed to him at the awards ceremony, Bapusa asked Rudra: "Tell me about you. How do you feel?" But was sorely disappointed with Rudra's plaintive: "I feel angry, what else? My blood boils!"
There was a positive fusillade of questions awaiting Rudra when he returned to his room and attempted to take over Paro's care from Mythili. "You'll handle it? But why? You don't care about her. If she remained outside of her own free will you should have let her. Why did you bring her in?" His answer just raised more questions. So what if Paro had fainted? She was just paying for her madness. What was it to Rudra? Nor did Mythili buy his humanity as the reason. She'd seen Rudra's face when Paro was moaning in pain, and the pain that was reflected on his face had nothing to do with humanity and everything to do with feeling Paro's pain.
Which, of course, made it imperative for Rudra to deny the existence of any feelings for Paro, when once more he was alone with her. "You are nothing to me," Rudra said loudly, as he took the wet cloth off Paro's head. And repeated it a number of times in a number of ways for the benefit of the sleeping girl. Having made his (lack of) feelings clear, the million dollar unasked question was why he felt it necessary to dash to Paro's bedside, and place his palm under her pillow, so that when her head rolled off it, it would land on his palm and not on the mattress a few inches below.
And why Rudra then found it essential to sit in vigil by her bedside all night, while she slept with her face cradled in the palm of his hand, her hand curled around his wrist in a facsimile of the way he held hers. Perhaps it was the familiarity of the hand-hold that prevented him from dislodging her grip in the first place.
Sleep would give Rudra a brief respite from questions. But make up for it by assaulting Sumer, who returning from a hard night's work, was unlucky enough to run into his mother. Kakisa demanded that Sumer tell her what he'd been up to? But would have to be satisfied only with the cryptic comment that while lightning had flashed in the night, it would only strike in the morning.
Came the dawn, and came a new set of questions. Rudra's query about Paro's health was no sooner formulated than answered by the back of his hand touching Paro's forehead. No fever. Paro's question about who had brought her to his room, Rudra answered.
But her next two questions, which reeked of desperation, he conveniently ignored. Paro wanted to know who'd changed her clothes and what had happened last night. But Rudra presented her with a studied silence and an eloquent back as he grabbed his uniform and ratcheted up her anxiety. Her frantic "Major Saab" was no way near recompense enough for how much trouble she'd caused him, but it was better than nothing.
Sumer, sidling towards the front-door to sneak a peek at the result of his labour, found himself sweating bullets as the newspaper was snatched out of his hand by Rudra. Fortunately for him, Rudra was distracted by a telephone call from his office and loosened his hold on the paper. Rudra's "I'm on my way. What's happened?" had to be the sweetest question Sumer would hear for a while.
Another stellar episode from Team RR. The story fairly hurtling towards tomorrow's hate marriage, which made tonight's PaRud moments all the more precious and sweet. There were other moments worth cherishing. The Paro-Dilsher scene was endearing for his faith in her innocence and her refusal to let him down with Rudra. Rudra's enforced soul-searching at the hands of Mythili and the burning of the current MU were huge causes of cheer. And Kakisa's alarm at Sumer's foolish messing with sleeping lions held out hope of retribution. Much to enjoy today. Almost enough to dispel the dark clouds of Rudra's suspension that are blowing in in time for tomorrow.
Today we got crisp dialogue, excellent screenplay and yes clarity on the layout of the confusing courtyards. đ Acting was on-the-ball, with the honours going to Ashish, Sanaya, Kali Prasad ji, the actress who plays Mythili and the actor who plays Sumer. đđđ to them all for convincing performances and the crew for a great episode.
Looking forward to Paro and Rudra's wedding day, finally!
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