Though this piece is chiefly for MandA lovers, anyone else is, of course, welcome to read and post their comments. I just wish to say that my intention is not to offend anyone's sensibilities, or provide fodder for gossip, but to articulate my thoughts on a topic that has been close to my heart.
The "mystery" i'm talking about is this--we all know that Mona and apu have a magical onscreen chemistry, and to many (myself included)it has seemed that it is not just acting, but an actual attraction. Now the question is---
if Apu was attracted towards Mona, why did he marry Shilpa?
And there is another point--
we know that Mona and Rakshanda are the best of buddies. So we would expect Raks to have Mona's best interest at heart. If she suspected that her friend had feelings for Apu, why did she introduce him to SS?
I have been thinking a lot about this topic (weekdays i think about JandA, weekends are for MandA!) and here is my take on what might have happened:
As Love_Apurva said, there was an instant rapport between Mona and Apu. However, Apu always related to her as Jassi and not as Mona. It was Jassi he saw and knew, day in and day out on the sets. He did not get an opportunity to know the person behind Jassi because, for one, she had a VERY hectic schedule; and secondly, whenever she went out in public, she had to go as Jassi-- specs, braces et al. Moreover, the Sony people would not want Armaan and Jassi to be seen together in public as that would kill the excitement of their pair. Nor could he take her out as Mona because the press would be hounding her in no time, wanting to know the face behind Jassi.
So one may say that Mona Singh, the person, was still a stranger to Apu. Now i think it was around this time that he had broken up with his girlfriend of several years-Akansha, and so far as i know the reason was that she wanted to study filmaking and he, perhaps, wanted them to settle down. (Apu did say in his interview that if SS had been ambitious, they might have had problems) That incident must have badly disillusioned him. So now he wanted a life partner who was not very ambitious and who cud take care of him. Raks, as his friend, saw this and played Cupid between him and Shilpa.
The thought of Mona never crossed their minds because she was on the threshold of her career and they knew how ambitious she was. The fondness that Apu felt for her had not had sufficient time to grow into love-- JJKN started in September 2003, and Apu and SS met in December 2003.
However annoying SS may be, one has to admit that she has her own charm--she is pretty, outspoken, and can be very caring about those whom she DOES love. Moreover, she has always said in her interviews that she is working only because she wants to enjoy her family life later. So she fitted the bill for Apu's ideal wife. It isn't surprising that he was charmed and wanted to marry her. SS had also been ditched by her BF around that time, so one may say that they fell in love on the rebound.
In the excitement of meeting SS and later marrying her, Apu wud not have noticed even if Mona had started to have feelings for him.( I'll cum to that later!)
Even in JJKN at that time, the focus was on the Purab-Jassi pair, so their interaction was more limited than ever.
But once Purab left and Jassi's (innocent)revenge track in JJKN started, all of a sudden there were a number of intimate and passionate scenes between JandA--the Octavia confession, raj's house hug, AND the V-day hug. (When i watched this scene for the first time, i got a stab of wonder--it seemed so real. Now i know why!)For the first time ever, touching Mona closely and enacting all those magical moments with her, he became aware of her as a woman.
Previously, they had just been great buddies and he could relate to her without any inhibitions. If you've read that int of his taken in Jan 2005(which buff posted), he speaks of her in a very relaxed and affectionate manner, even saying that he would like to work with her for the rest of his life. Whatver affection or attraction he felt for her, he thought that it was just the way Armaan ought to feel for Jassi, so that was part of his character.
But another int , taken around April has him speaking of both Mona and SS in a rather terse and reserved manner. Moreover, he spoke repeatedly about the importance of being faithful to one's wife. Perhaps he had started to have feelings for Mona and he was trying to fight and control those feelings.
This far was Apu's side of the story. What about Mona?
I think, from the very beginning, she was bowled over by Armaan sir. she has said that when she started shooting for JJKN, she was comfortable with Raks and Maninee but in awe of Parmeet and Apu. When Apu made her comfrtable, it won her over. As time passed, she started falling for him but, like Apu, she just thought that those were jassi's feelings for Armu.
Apu's marriage may have jolted her a bit but since she had never even dreamt of a relationship with Apu, let alone marrying him, it did not break her heart. On the sets at least, Armaan sir was with her. perhaps that's why, they did not stick around together at parties--SS was the main reason of course; but i also think that the lovable Apu singh side of Apu's personality gets suppressed whe he is with SS, so maybe Mona cudn't relate to him in that mood and so decided to restrict their interaction to the sets.
Then the makeover happened. Mona emerged from her glasses and braces and at last had the freedom to go out, give interviews, reveal her real self. Apu realised that Mona was as lovely as Armaan's Jassi. He felt drawn to her. On screen JandA's romance was in full bloom; offscreen, romantic feelings were blossoming.
After the makeover, when Mona appeared on "Just Pooja", she kept on saying that she was just like Jassi, maybe because being Jassi brought her closer to Apu. In fact Pooja was asking her quite a few pointed questions about whether enacting all those romantic scenes made her REALLY fall in love. Mona seemed a bit conscious at this question, and then said--"When you are on the sets, you have to completely fall in love with that actor (NOTE: she said ACTOR not character), but once you give the shot, you'r back to normal." I think she revealed more than even she realised.
Then came Amritsar. Away from Mumbai, away from most of the media, and most importantly, way from SS, MandA rapidly drew closer. They were on the verge of falling in love. However, both were still aware of their restrictions, so they denied their own feelings to themselves. Whatever they felt, they articulated as JandA onscreen. That was the reason for their out-of-this-world chemistry.
You know, in Tu meri jaan hai there is the shot where both are in the dargah and Armu suddenly takes J's hand, comes closer and gazes into her eyes? Guys, whenver i see that scene, i get the uncanny feeling that those are MandA's feelings, not JandA's. It gives me the goosebumps!
They returned from Amritsar, but the pull of attraction continued, and they had ample opportunity for expressing it--the Studio ahem-ahem, the SH case where J whisks A away from the party like a protective wife, and the wedding scenes. Mona's int on SBS, which many criticised later because she was assumed to have been lying about the wedding taking place, actually shows that she was really feeling like a happy bride about to marry her Armaan sir. I don't think she knew that it was being called off-i'm sure it must have been a shock to her too. Remember, Apu said in his interview that they were not informed that the wedding would not take place.
Anyway, the 5 Aug fiasco happened, and JandA separated. Stuck in NainitaL, with Pervman and MM for company (ugh!), Mona must have come to terms with reality. She realised that she had got so caught up in the character, that her love for Armaan had led her to love of Apu. Now J's chances of reuniting with A were slim; suddenly being Jassi had lost its attraction. That's why, perhaps, she started asking people to address her as Mona and not Jassi.
Now they're shooting together again but now Karan is supposedly a part of Mona's life--maybe that's why Apu seems so lost when they're around. There is now inhibition between him and Mona, especially because now he must be fully aware of SS's insecurities regarding Mona. In fact i think the statement on NB about him not regretting his marriage was to allay SS's insecurities. MandA are trying to get back to their normal lives, but it will take time. Maybe Goa will give them a chance to repair their friendship and at least learn again to relax in each other's company.
Had JJKN been an ordinary soap and JandA a regular lead pair, perhaps all these complications wud never have arisen--they wud have acted on their attraction; who knows, they could have been happily married today! Fortunately or unfortunately, the relationship between Apurva and Mona has been inextricably linked with the relation between Armaan and Jassi. JandA are inseparable from MandA.
Apu was right when he said that it is destiny which decides relationships. It was destiny that brought Mona and him together; it was destiny that kept them from expressing their love; and destiny will decide what course their relationship will take next.
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