Arshi... No words for your beautifully broken lines... They get my highest compliment today: Not that much provocation was needed, but coming to it straight after the epi, they moved me to tears... Mere words, they had failed to do that, thus far... 👏
Today: Done. & Done in the best "SARASWATICHANDRA" style!
Star of the Epi: Gautam's eyes... Followed by Gautam's expressions and his body language. He has always lived Saras, but today he tapped into that innermost core of the character. Words won't do it justice, the impact can only be gauged by the catch in the voice, the lump in the throat, the ache in the heart... Merely a semblance of the turmoil the character was going through. How brilliantly that translated on-screen, then leapt off from the screen and fearlessly assaulted our emotions as well.
Gautam Rode, for your whole ten-plus minutes of screentime today... *standing frickin' ovation*
Not to take anything away from the other lead. Jennifer was equally good and Kumud we have witnessed at her most broken... J has astounded all with the devastating language of her eyes again and again. Leading up to the wedding sequence and it in, all eyes were on J... Today, was Gautam's turn. And he did it a little too well, if you ask me. My eyes outright refused to leave Saras. I know it is just a television show, but... He broke me today. Devastation witnessed, is one thing. But devastation you can only imagine... quite another. Gautam enacted that today, very, very, very well 👏
Loved seeing Sunny today 😳 Felt like meeting an old familiar, friend 🤗 Here's hoping that the Desai's don't do a Kumari and shut the doors on his face! Such venom, Kumari... Perhaps called for in your utter ignorance, but when light dawns, the repentance will be even greater. And will still not suffice. Vidyachatur too happens to have a healthy ego. He is literally willing his choice and decision for Kumud to not just be right and correct, but the absolute best. In fact he is so intent on his willing that he is turning blind to all the red-flags peppered along his way. VC, Kumud ki shaadi bete se huyi hai, baap se nahin. Why is he taking the progeny for granted on the virtues of the pitah?
Guniyal... You are set on the path of enlightenment and devastating realisation, please continue that way. Satyamev Jayate... Truth only prevails and it will out someday. Regardless of whether it will be too too late or not. Truth never gives a hoot to personal conveniences anyway. Ironic how Guniyal's face lights up at the wretched name "Pramad"... Not because of love or affection per se, but because of the thirst for knowledge regarding the faceless who took her darling away. Guniyal is fast becoming a female Sherlock where "damadji" is concerned. Keep it up, G, we can only cheer ourselves hoarse! Even the littlest blow of verity extinguishes her wavering flame of conviction and hope. Then VC helps her to lovingly light it again, and I sing... Silsila andhe vishwas ka na inn dono ne bhujne diya 😡 ... VC clearly loves his daughter to bits, misses her like hell, but Afsos, Kumud ke baare mein sochte sochte, Kumud ke liye hi sochna bandh kar diya, baapu nein... The Desai's are in dire need of a Sunny intervention and so are we...
Pramad you are a bad, bad person and your dressing style is even worse. Keep it up. Zameen aasman ka farak saaf dikhai de raha hai, Kumud ke mann chaha pati, aur kismat ne thopa pati ke beech mein. A note to Grover: Fingers touched today. Four on the face. Five on the waist. I watched and I counted. If you did too, my sincere condolences for the current disturbed state of your photographic memory cause it certainly boiled my blood 😡 ... Pramad's laugh is so creepy. Psycho. Kumud was certainly Beta, first time so since wedding night declaration. I don't want her to take his shit but at the same, fear her Alpha-ness would appeal to Psycho Pramad. Double-edged sword, this
But Kumud was operating solely on "ehsaas" today... The past was threatening to overpower her... Little did she know, all that she held dear and still remained unaware of, would soon be engulfed in flames (J again superbly brought out the nuances, very refined!)... You could see her questioning her ehsaas, becoming visibly affected, hands in submission, she prays for divine guidance, for hope, for mercy and protection against this ehsaas... But how can one save themselves from a core part of them? He is in front of her, she refuses to open her eyes... Then with one word, one affirmative action, a mantra of oblation, requiring sacrifice, the two are told exactly of what sacrifice they have made. Something too devastating to comprehend in the moment. Even a lifetime can but fall short...
Flames obscuring his lower face... Across the pyre she behelds a vision. The eyes which had so mesmerized her, had invaded her reality and consciousness... Those eyes that alone held the power to take her to hell and back... This, the fire was threatening to engulf. And she was powerless to stop it. Took me back to the dah sanskaar... The picture, she had burnt, but what of the fact that its hues have penetrated her whole, colored completely her very core? Aaj sach mein nazar padhte hi Saras ka asal wajood, Kumud ke saamne aa gaya. Her "ego" rendered her powerless then, and life, her choices, have rendered her incapable today of doing anything but staring back. Simply matching his pain on every frickin' level. She did her best and that was quite enough.
Apt that Saras was wearing white. There is something so affective about relentless flames leaping over a color synonymous with purity. And Saras defined 'pure' today... The flames have licked at Saras' purity. They have engulfed him. Consumed him. Like a lost boy, banished, he walks away... Disintegrated. Her misty gaze beseeches him... And like a phoenix rising, he turns... In a gesture so simple, so pious, so... Saras... begs forgiveness, from the goddess who joined him again with life. With the sheer dread of the currency that he has paid her back in, providing for her to wear someone else's mangalsutra and sindoor... The eyes that were haunted yesterday, have beheld a full-fledged nightmare today. Disguised in the most cherished of visions. And for her, she may be pinned in place by society, her marriage and all, but you could see her soul and it was dying to break free, to uninhibitedly crash into him... Alas... Only the two possess the power to break each other completely, and in this moment, they realise they've done exactly that... With both rendered incapable of collecting the precious fragments yet. But in time, with time, they will *fingers crossed*
When a heart breaks it is always subtle. One, at the most, two are privy to it. It is wordless, the sound it makes not everyone can hear. Not everyone is meant to. Nor they should. The ones who do, the blessed, yet cursed ones... It tears them apart. It leaves them reeling. Aaj kuch aisa hi hua, but it was taken further. The setting was at the cross-roads of life, the masterstroke was that of fate. The collision was fiery. Wreckage of broken dreams lay everywhere. Those unaware remained blissful. Those other two, they were subsumed whole into the inferno of their own inadvertent making... Two broken individuals, gripped in place by something invisible... A connect. A tie, binded so strongly that not even the most insistent of flames can loosen their bond. They are stunned at the audacity of fate. The powerplays of destiny have pitted them cruelly in front of each other. Saras on one side, Kumud on the right enconsed in her marital hell. Beech mein aag hi aag... It's consuming position aligned with that of the rest of the Dhan's. Ergo, in just one shot, a striking snapshot of the entire chessboard.
A special mention to "Kuch Na Kahe"... This being SC, where nothing is, for the most part, done for simply the heck of it... One minute into the episode, hearing that momentous tune, the emotional impact could not be greater... Like a phoenix it came, to lure us again... Familiar, calming, hopeful, but carrying with it the power to break our hearts. And in the end moments it exercised that very power. Mercilessly. The charge that "Kuch Na Kaho" has imbibed... The history, the nostalgia and heartbreak it carries... The hope it still hands out. The man, the woman, and the love it celebrates... Yahin hai kahaani Saraswatichandra ki!
Final thoughts: HEARTBREAK MASOCHIST. There, I decode myself. Why else would I have watched that wretched sequence some more than twenty times now...? Knowing full well that the impact refuses to subside. It actually strengthens its ridiculous hold with every viewing! Saras and Kumud, you look at them and something clenches inside. Thank you, to Gautam and Jennifer, to the writers and the director for making the last ten minutes so excruciatingly irresistible. It was simple. It was sincere. It was outrageously heartbreaking. Full marks 👏
Edited by IdiotViewer - 12 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani
