Dear Trish,
Thank you for sharing such an exquisitely sensitive and beautiful piece of writing with all of us. You have covered every possible angle of importance, and with admirable fairness and compassion.
The only, small reservation I have is about the title. Arjun-Purvi are no Romeo-Juliet. The lovers from Verona had NO inhibitions either about acknowledging their love or about doing whatever was necessary to protect it. They were not interested in sacrifices for 'family reputation', and Romeo, sighting Juliet, forgets all about Rosalind in an instant. Their love is star-crossed because circumstances conspire against them, not because they have the slightest reservation about going all out for their love. Of course, Romeo was 16 and Juliet 14, and it is perhaps only the very young who can count the world (and life) well lost for love.
Reverting to Arjun-Purvi, I have not seen the SBS segments (the links given by Dhruvi seem somehow to lead me invariably to a tutorial college website), which seem to be affecting the assessments of Arjun's behaviour and of future developments more even that the episodes themselves. However, I have some idea of what they show from the posts, and I agree that they are far worse than yesterday's party episode.
Even wrt the party episode, I see that there is somewhat more understanding being displayed now for Arjun's failure to stop the engagement. There have always been many excuses for his mistakes up to this point which I need not repeat here. And he is obviously head over heels in love with Purvi, as can be seen, apart from all that took place earlier, from their delightful exchanges before tragedy strikes. But all this is of no avail when he falters and chickens out at the crucial moment.
I have, as you know, been one of his staunchest defenders so far, but on this, I would agree with you. It is a sad fall from grace - an inexcusable failure of nerve at the time when it was needed the most. I have always believed, and said in this forum, that heroes, whether in great literature or outside it, are often flawed, and that this adds to the depth of their characterization. But their flaws – think of Othello or Karna in the Mahabharata - were also on the grand scale, and they were not due to weakness or folly. This one is.
In crunch situations, what a hero looks out for is to protect the one thing that is the most important for him, come what may. He has to choose, to make a stand. Here, for Arjun, it was his relationship with Purvi. And he fails to deliver. That he hurts himself as much, if not more, that he hurts Purvi is no excuse, or even a mitigating factor. If I had been there, I would have been strongly tempted to plant a solid kick in the seat of his pants. I am sorry to descend so abruptly from your elegiac style to the language of the streets, but that is how I feel right now.
What dismays one is not so much that Arjun is unable to stop the engagement. He could have argued vehemently and been silenced; he is in awe of his father and might be shown as unwilling to rebel against him openly. One could have understood that. It is the rationale that he offers for doing nothing – that he cannot reveal Purvi's name in front of all these people, that his father's image would be damaged, that Ovi's reaction would be unpredictable, and so "I cannot be so selfish" – that is unacceptable. In all this, he somehow forgets that abandoning Purvi to protect these others would really be the most selfish of all, for it is he who has got her so deeply entangled in this relationship, and he owes it to her to look after it and her.
For most of us, PR has been primarily about the Arjun-Purvi track, and that is in an unholy mess right now. It is not just that the CVs have (temporarily?) crippled Arjun's character. It is that they seem to be busy doing the same to Purvi as well. One can understand her 'sacrifice' for the sake of her aayi; she is after the daughter of Archana, who is a 'sacrifice' specialist – her latest being to sacrifice Manav's and her future happiness to please the selfish, surly and ungrateful Sachin. No wonder Purvi does not think twice about giving up Arjun without bothering that, as you have put it so well, "this love is not her individual possession but belongs to Arjun as well".
What is worse is that having done this, she seems, if the SBS segments are correct, to be abandoning her self-respect as well. Chewing Arjun out, and even slapping him are just fine, and we can understand that she cannot now repeat her by now familiar resignation routine and tear up the PoA, as she would never be able to explain to her family why she gave up such a golden opportunity. But why does she have to carry a file for Arjun to the restaurant? She now has full financial and administrative powers – the text of the first page of the PoA can be read clearly – and she does NOT need Arjun's approval for anything. Even if she did need to consult him about something, she could have sent the file thru a staff member. Why land up there, be snubbed by Ovi and shed tears seeing Ovi display her new found 'rights' to Arjun? This is not just folly, it is pure masochism.
What Purvi should have done was to concentrate on her new job and prove that she can indeed manage on her own and do even better than Arjun, as he himself tells her earlier. What I have admired in Purvi is that she is that rara avis among women in Indian TV soaps – an unaffected, confident, and extremely capable professional, who lives, breathes and dreams only about her work and can beat any man at this game. Remember the time during the lunch with Vinay when she immediately knows that the contract that would need changes would be the one with Malhotra Enterprises? Vinay does not have a clue. It would be a great pity if her unique pehchaan were to be reduced to the standard thyaag, and to languishing with tears in her eyes.
It thus all comes down to the same thing, that so many people can be turned inside out at the whim of the CVs. We have all fallen hopelessly in love with for a couple of virtual characters over whose fate we have ABSOLUTELY no control. And as for the idea that we can influence the writers of PR by stopping watching PR and thus lowering the TRPs, those suggesting this have no idea how the TRP system actually works. (Please see the link to a good article of January last on this: http://amic.org.sg/blog/2011/01/12/broadcasters-must-pay-to-expand-trp-system-india/)
The Indian TRP system is based on just 8000 viewer homes ALL over India, and the govt. now wants this raised to 30,000! For a country of 1.2 billion, where at least 200 million cable connections exist. So, we have NO way of making Ekta Kapoor (a prime example of a super-manipulative TV boss) and her minions change course if they do not want to.
I think we should all concentrate instead on praying real hard to Ganapati Bappa, so that he, in his grace, might grant the PR creative team some sadbuddhi, and rescue Arjun-Purvi from the quagmire. If Ovi has to lump it in the process, so be it. After all, no one ever seems to have spared a thought for Rosalind in Romeo and Juliet!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Purethought: Posted: 03 May 2012 at 8:51am | IP Logged
Romeo and Juliet
What happened in today's episode and what is to follow, after today's sbs segments, we all know. I kept ignoring messages in the forum, another Archana and Manav in the making, but I was wrong in doing so. I betrayed my own heart. The sacrifice will begin and soon.
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."
This quote has always applied to our handsome hero from Canada -- Arjun Kirloskar -- a man who charmed his way into our hearts by falling in love with the darling of our hearts, Purvi. He did everything possible, and as intensely as possible for a woman he finally knew he had fallen in love with. He took a direct rejection from her head-on. He feared no one when it came to confessing to her, in her locality, right in front of her house, in the midst of a community of strangers. He gave up his powers to his company to a woman he loved, cherished and one who had insensitively once rejected him. He told no one about his new found emotions and tears, and packed his bags to return to a country where he was raised. However, as destiny would have it, or his luck, Purvi, his lady love, realised her love for him before it was too late. He found her waiting outside the airport, crying, and the moment he saw her, he knew it was him she was crying for. His heart swelled in happiness, when he saw her blush, his lips cracked into smiles one after the other, when she nodded her head and said that she was happy he had not left India. His breath caught in his throat, when she said "I love you" to him. His dream had indeed come true.
A man who feared no one when it came to business and now in love, all of a sudden fell victim to a moment of cowardice or maybe simple shock. Yes, he displayed complete and utter helplessness at a crucial time. On the day when it so mattered, he just did not open his mouth and his heart. He did not defend his love, he saw the pain in Purvi's eyes, but did not do anything. Did he not remember how difficult it was to convince Purvi when she felt wronged? Did he not remember that she left him because of that one forehead kiss misunderstanding? and that she had rejected him outrightly, even after he had confessed. This engagement is a major wrong in Purvi's eyes and Arjun knows it. Had he said something there and then, Purvi would have understood. But standing there in a trance, and getting enagaged, to another woman, was akin to plunging a knife into Purvi's heart, as was into his own.
However, he is human after all, and when the going got tough, Arjun Kirloskar, the braveheart crumbled. I shall wait for another time and another day, when Arjun returns to the intensity of love that can turn instances of cowardice/or perhaps shock into events of fearlessness. But Purvi, the love of his life, has slipped through his fingers, as the ring slipped into his finger.
My heart today goes out to Purvi Deshmukh. A lovely woman, who at the moment, has only memories to lean on and an inner strength, which I know will take her through the events which are to come next. She will freeze those loving emotions she yet feels and will not trust Arjun for a long time to come. She will also sacrifice herself for Ovi, that I am sure of, because of a debt she feels she owes to Archana and Manav. And for that she might show herself to be someone she is not, so as to gain disapproval in the eyes of Arjun, a man she so loves now.
Romeo and Juliet, the perfect couple, had an imperfect ending. Arjun and Purvi will now sacrifice for Ovi, someone who I don't think has made a place in our hearts, the way ARVI have. Ovi, never will make that special place in my heart. Never. Arjun, the man who dared to bare his heart, has changed into a putty in the hands of circumstances. The light of his courage has in this moment been taken out.
I hope Arjun and Purvi , the perfect couple, somehow, have the perfect ending, inspite of it all. I still have hope that Arjun will get out of his trance, and return to being a man of intense courage and bravery as we have always known him to be. And Purvi will not eventually turn into another Archana, and give away her love to Ovi as a present, because this love is not her individual possession but belongs to Arjun as well.
But Arjun, I believe from the sbs segment, goes on allowing Ovi to hug him in front of Purvi. Is this the love we were all craving to see? Is this what made ARVI so lovable? Is this the intense Arjun we all knew? Arjun allows Ovi to yell at Purvi? I am glad Sushant left the show. He would have stagnated here after a while, because sometimes in PR love is gagged and people sometimes find themselves hurt and saddened. Because men of honor and bravery all of sudden develop feet of clay. But I have some hope for PR, the sensitivity sometimes displayed by the overwhelmingingly deep characters like Archana, sometimes Manav and Purvi, at times Arjun, keep my heart attached to Pavitra Rishta. Because under all these layers of manipulation and sacrifices, is a river of love, which at times resurfaces and tells us that true love and bond surpasses all negativities.
I do still hope ARVI have it in them to climb out of the mess and find a way out of stifling relationships that mar true love.
P.S. -- I am sorry if I hurt anyone's sentiments. But I just shared my own. I do still love Pavitra Rishta, always will for showcasing true love as real as it can be.
Trish
Mannat Har Khushi Paane Ki
