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Pooja is still kneeling in the hallway, sobbing her heart out when Brij finds her there. He helps her to her feet and asks her what happened. Pooja sobs brokenly that Arti has left her and asks him to get her back. (Awww! she's such an adorable baby! ❤️) Brij can't understand what she's talking about and immediately goes back to his "concentrate on your music and everything else will be ok" routine with which he usually distracts her. 😔
But Pooja has news for him - Arti knows about their relationship. Brij is shell-shocked and asks if she told Arti. Pooja denies it and says the kidnappers were the ones who apparently told her. Brij is furious and hiding it as he instantly realizes that his worst fears were true and Rangoli was behind this whole thing. 😡
He tells Pooja not to worry, he will take care of the situation with Arti. And then he lovingly scolds her as he takes her back to her room, asking her what she was thinking, breaking down in the middle of a corridor like that. 😆 (Yeah, good luck teaching Pooja how to be discreet, Bhaiyya Brij)
A little later, he is once again sitting close to Pooja and pinching her chin as usual when Bhavna comes in. 😳 Brij unhurriedly moves away a little but doesn't bother to get up.😲 He asks Bhavna to spend the night with Pooja because he has sent Arti back to Panchmarhi after the whole kidnapping incident. Pooja listens to him lie and doesn't change expression. He further tells Pooja that he's going to Bhopal in the morning for a quick meeting but he'll be back for her performance for sure. Pooja looks like she wants to protest but he leaves her with Bhavna who hugs her and tells her to focus on her singing. Pooja cries.
(So I have a question! Does Brij know that Bhavna knows about his relationship with Pooja? I thought he didn't because Pooja never mentions it when he goes off on one of his Don't Ask Don't Tell rants but he seems to be getting more and more comfortable using Bhavna as a cover and asking her to take care of Pooja and showing Pooja affection in front of her. Any other person walked in on them today and Brij would have jumped three feet in the air like a scalded cat!)
In Bhopal the next morning, Daddaji is telling Ammaji and Giridhar that it's a good thing Brij knew about the hit on Rangoli and got there in time or else who knows what would have happened. He's angry because he can't get in touch with Rangoli - and she arrives just then.
Daddaji notices the wound on her arm and grits out that the person responsible for this will definitely pay. (Psycho beti ka psycho baap is shining through!) Brij is listening with his political face on and agrees with everything. And then Bhaiyyaji comes out to play!
Daddaji asks Giridhar to call the police and tell them to be on the lookout for the hitman and Brij instantly jumps in to prevent that. He tells D that he already talked to the police and they're looking for the people involved. He also slips in that the hit was ordered because Rangoli is a soft target as the wife of Brijbhushan Pandey, the future CM. 👏 Then he weaves this intricate tale of how he doesn't want the media to know about the attempt because it's a bad time for such things to come out. It's bad for their clean image and for Rangoli's reputation as a woman. 😆
Now he brings up the fact that Rangoli has made a lot of enemies due to her lovely behavior and they can't even pinpoint who exactly because the list of her enemies is so long. 🤣 Neither Rangoli nor her family members have anything to say to that.
He tells Daddaji that he's arranged three ex-marine commandos as bodyguards for her and they'll keep a discreet eye on her. Rangoli bites out that he's going to a lot of trouble to keep an eye on her. He replies that he doesn't need to do anything of the kind because whatever she does eventually comes to his ears. By way of example, Brij lets Daddaji in on the little secret that Rangoli and M once again kidnapped some girl in Gwalior, making them sound like the top kidnapping duo of Madhya Pradesh who go from city to city abducting women. 🤪
Rangoli immediately screeches that she did no such thing as a furious Daddaji looks at her, shocked. Brij says he got the whole story out of M, and he knows all about it.
Next he says Rangoli needs to stay away from Mrityunjay because he's the bad influence. (Wah Pandeyjee! Poor little M is the bad influence, is he? 😆 He's like a chicken in the mouth of that fox you married.) He says he would have liked to kill M on the spot 😲 but he's also a youth leader and might be useful to them in the future so he let him live. However, unless Rangoli is kept confined to the house, she's going to make them lose the elections. And since she won't listen to her husband, Daddaji will have to talk to her.
Daddji throws his weight behind Brij much to Ammaji's satisfaction. He tells an angry Rangoli that she broke her promise to him and now she'll have to live according to Brij's conditions. A satisfied Brij asks Daddaji's permission to go back to Gwalior where the British Ambassador is waiting for him at the Tansen Music Fest and sarcastically asks Giridhar to take good care of his sister. Rangoli glares suspiciously after him, unable to do anything.
(Bhaiyyaji is beyond awesome - even when he's coldly discussing such things as killing off people for his convenience. Although we've only ever seen him threaten to kill people, the number of times he threatens to do so or promises it, I wonder how many people Brij has killed or had killed. Maybe Sangram Singh had reason to doubt to Brij was behind his son's murder.)
In Gwalior, Pooja is sitting in the green room, looking pretty and vulnerable and very young in shades of blue. She keeps remembering how Arti was her biggest cheerleader and support system who gave her the money with which she registered for that first competition where she met Brij and how she was so disappointed and angry with her the night before and the slap.
Krish comes in excitedly and tells Bhavna and Pooja that the whole place is full of all sorts of important people and they've all come to hear Pooja sing. He and Bhavna notice that Pooja is in tears and Krish asks her what happened. She tells them she can't go on stage, she can't sing without her sister. Bhavna tells her to buck up because she's about to be called onstage at any moment now and she can't back out now. This is very important for her career and there are a lot of important people from the world of music waiting to hear her sing.
Krish kneels down next to her and tells her to think not of her sister, but to think of what Arti told her. He tells her to close her eyes if she's feeling afraid. Pooja sadly tells him that every time she closes her eyes, all she sees is her sister leaving her. 💔Just then Brij and the ambassador arrive at the venue and the crowd applauds them.
Bhavna and Krish say she has to get herself together now, just as Pooja's name is announced and the fest begins. A tearful Pooja gathers her belongings and runs out of the green room, leaving her flabbergasted friends behind. 😲
But as she runs out of the venue, she is surrounded by media who refuse to let her leave. They grill her on why she's leaving - is she nervous or is there another reason. An upset Pooja tries to push past. A woman on TV says that nobody has ever left the Tansen fest without singing a single note on stage. The whole state had a lot of expectations from rising star Pooja but she appears to be frightened of the experts waiting to hear her sing.
(Please! Who are these ever vigilant media corps of Madhya Pradesh who treat each musical event like it's the biggest thing that ever happened to their state? And how many news channels does MP have anyway?)
Through the crowd, Pooja spies Arti's face smiling at her. Immediately, she calms down and makes her way through the crowd. The media let her pass because behind her come Brij and the venue director. The media start asking Brij if Pooja has destroyed the whole atmosphere of the event and she got stage fright. The director takes the mike himself to save Brij and says from next time onwards, they will take care not to invite "such people" to the fest. 👎🏼
Unnoticed by everyone, Pooja and Arti embrace tearfully. ❤️
Precap: Brij at the hospital threatening Mrityunjay's life. He takes out a gun, points it at M's temple and says he can either work as a double agent for Brij or else die right then. Shukla looks on. Arti folds clothes and tells Pooja that it's time to return to Bhopal. Pooja looks sad and worried in the same yellow dress she wore the day Arti was kidnapped. Mamaji tells Arti on the phone that he will come pick them up.
So it's anybody's guess where we're headed from here but at least now we know why Pooja is so familiar with M's men and why she opened the door for them. She thinks they work for Brij. 😕
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