Saras & Kumud: Yin & Yang

Originally posted by: hotdogg

Some other musings again arising out of the CB thread...

Saras & Kumud: Why they will act the way they do and move the story forward

- SLB despite everything is delightfully old school.
- By delightfully old school I mean his definition / characterization of what constitues a man and a woman.
- He always creates a perfect yin - yang balance and justapoxes these characters against a deep / high emotional quotient love story.
- This trait has never wavered ever in any of his films (at least the love stories, except Devdas).

- How?
1) you never see any metrosexuality or Cosmo driven man in any of his stories (except Devdas). The man will be down, desolate, screwed or out of sorts (salman, ajay, hritik, nana patekar, saras) but you never see him sit and cry about it. He will be figthing all the way till the end on what he believes in.
2) At the same time his man is never an MCP or a boor (except Devdas). In fact his man is always so confident of his own maleness that he will never be threatened by his woman and will actually treat the female as an equal, learn from her etc. This male will go to war with anyone but his woman. With her he will always be willing to let go of a lot of things (ajay)...but only because its her.
3) BUT at the end of the day he will still be a distinctly male animal. He will still have clear ideas of what he is or not, what is right and wrong, what he wants to do or not, what he will not agree to ever.

4) And his women are always overwhelmingly feminine (aishwarya, monisha, madhuri, kumud). No question about it. Maybe that's why most have a similar in look and presentation.
5) At the same time, all his women have the guts and spiritual strength of a warrior. If they believe, they will take a battle with a problem or a slight to its logical end...
5) ...EVEN if means they have to sacrifice / burn themselves down to achieve it.

- This is a highly combustible, potent and magical mix. Pure yin & yang. So alike ...yet so different. An analogy would be an eagle and a falcon.

- And it is in these characteristics are the seeds of destruction by burning each other down or a lifetime of togetherness sown.

Saras:
- despite his traumatic past, his recovery, his love for kumud... will still always have very clear and distinct perspective of what is right and wrong.
- For e.g. due to his complexes, he never went boo-hoo no one loves me...just decided he won't love anyone ever. This was the wrong approach, but look the length he went along on his convictions.
- He is the male animal and has duties / obligations he has to adhere to despite what anyone (even kumud thinks).
- In his internal compass, if personal choices / relationships come in the way of his own definitation of what comprise duty and obligation, he will stick to his convictions despite what the other party feels like. For e.g. take last epi..he loves his mom (maybe), when she came in the way of his convictions, he just blew her away.
- Similarly, kumud's reaction after the event was against his understanding of love, duty and responsibility. He bent only because he loved her. But in the end he still made it a point to tell her she was wrong in her assesment of him and his definition of love / duty / right & wrong.
- that's the emphasis on 'zimmedari' / 'adhikaar'

Kumud:
- despite her fierceness, independence, sureity etc. is a female animal still.
- a warrior who has given her heart to her man.
- once she has decided to accept someone / love someone, she will travel all the way to hell and back... alone if she has to...if it helps her man / what her man or love demands.
- everything else now comes second to the demands / needs of her love.
- also if slighted / challenged by her love, she will burn herself down just to prove a point that she was right. You know...on the lines of...I will destroy myself for a cause and once I am gone you will realise you were wrong and I was right...then you will miss my love forever ...Or I will take over your entire burden because I love you.,..
- that's the emphasis on 'samarpan'.

So in the end it will be conflict between duty and love...and love will seem to be sacrificed AT FIRST GLANCE

.

However each will be:
- acutely aware of how much the other person has personally sacrificed
- admire the other persons sacrifice, knowing they themselves could never have done it.
- love each other all the more for it.

And Wash, Rinse & Repeat...
Each act / sacrifice will be taken voluntarily and will only increase their love & respect for each other...making it 'atoot'.

p.s. Edit: Too much use of male, female, animal words..but couldnt think of anything else to express the quality I want to describe. Hope its allowed.

Do tell what you think!

Hotdogg, this is very impressive. your post not only gives us lesser mortals a better understanding of Saras and Kumud, it also helped me learn a few things about characters in SLB's movies too. I am beginning to appreciate SLB's characterizations even more.

Originally posted by: Infofan

Hotdogg, this is very impressive. your post not only gives us lesser mortals a better understanding of Saras and Kumud, it also helped me learn a few things about characters in SLB's movies too. I am beginning to appreciate SLB's characterizations even more.

@ red - this has has been portrayed in the show pretty well. A character trait I highly appreciate.

Thanks, Arshi for asking Hotdogg to make an independent post. He would have never done it on his own. He is too modest.

Hotdogg - I am bookmarking this post like your other one. Keep 'em coming. Your posts always offer an interesting perspective, always a pleasure to read.