Originally posted by: indi52
asr talk on.
have i ever felt and fallen for a character more.
indeed a thesis can be written on him. especially given the unreal men populating our other serials.
no human being can be 100 percent perfect or all you want them to be. if we are to be honest that is. within us lie our flaws and our beauties.
i was blown away by what was beautiful in him, till his flaws did not matter.
passion, conscience, innocence, courage, boldness, extreme intelligence/quick wittedness, endearing straightforwardness, generosity, gratitude, belief in himself they were all defining characteristics.
it is not easy not to believe in god, stars, whatever, and make yourself solely responsible for your life.
sometimes it is downright scary.
easier to believe if you trust someone outside of yourself, if you pray and give prashad, if you put your faith in the eternal in some way obvious or evolved, things will happen the right way, the bad things will be allayed and good things come as blessings.
asr did not take that path... the terrible letting down by life triggered in him an aggressive defense position. he put up a hard, impregnable barrier all around and got ready to take it all on himself. and he did everything he could by it. worked like a maniac, shouldered the responsibility of his entire family, hardly gave himself any time for fun and games
he did almost everything for others, especially for the sister he loved more than himself in many ways.
to me this is a man praying his way.
and he was a survivor. with the scars of one.
those who loved him, his family, and maybe op (😳)
and aman, knew exactly what a lovely man he was. yes he was stubborn and
prone to crazy gussa, but inside him a pure beauty, an absolute giving
caring person. oh i can quite quite understand why la felt that funny love for him and
was willing to eat even stuff that gave her allergy just to make him
happy, she was not just excited about his money and position... she was
excited by his fearless, towering personality, and she sensed his
tenderness, the combination has me passing out as i even think of
it.
and what i loved hugely was that khushi fell in love with this man... who was not exactly the man she had imagined she'd love. but this one, with all his strange weird awful ways. there is an inherent excitement in this man, which almost anyone would feel, even those who disapprove of his ways. rakshas and laad governor is the one whom she got tired of hating and felt stirrings of a passion for that would not be abated, not even when he raved and ranted, not even when he forced her to do terrible stuff and constantly berated her. not even when he accused her of being a home breaker, a woman having an affair with his creepy bro in law. not. even. then.
all she wanted to do was prove to him that was not the case. she could tell how hurt he felt because of that misunderstanding... she needed to assuage his pain because he had become important to her, part of her...
that is the force of this character.
one of the most touching and telling things was his relationship with mami. the lady who gave her jewellery for his business, who loved him like her own and respected him. the crass woman whom the established raizada khandan might have found hard to accept. he felt her love, he somewhere understood her. completely. her need for power. her need for love. her essentially caring nature. he loved her dammit. uff that scene where without a word he buys the necklace she wants and sends it through di... he can't bear to see mami upset or feeling like she is not respected. whatever she might be, she is his aunt who loves him, he has a funny love for her too. lovely.
just like his nani is he in this astute understanding of character. in 211, he handles mami's hysteria, tells her to go relax... when she mumbles, "tumre liye," a curt really cute, "haan! mere liye," he knows she needs an out and gives it to her.
i have often wondered how this astute, perceptive man made such a mistake when it came to khushi on the terrace. was that trigger enough, did the story tellers choose their reason for his blinding rage well?
othello came to mind. the word "credulous" from eng lit classes. yes credulous, the opposite of astute/smart/thinking he became suddenly only for two reasons: because he loved her madly and because he was so insecure about loving, almost believing betrayal was around the corner.
his father's philandering and his belief that his mother killed herself because of that, undid many things in him, leaving a damaged part that had never been healed. he did not want to love. he did not trust love. and yet he did love. and then, suddenly like a self fulfilling prophecy his worst nightmare seemed to come true... there stood betrayal... the one he loved in another's arms... and while he watched, she exhorted this man to leave his sister.
when he saw her with shyam, chhap gaya hai dimaag mein... the mind stopped functioning, the heart broke, he went crazy.
gussa was his gear, his weapon always, this time he wore it like an armour, covered everything with it, body, head, eyes, lips, ears, and acted with full asr might.
only his heart, kambakht refused to be covered.
now this nuance, anyone might have written in, gul, gautam, whoever, but could anyone other than barun communicated it it with such poignancy, such presence? i know my answer 😳, asr ultimately was given life by barun... not the writers.
yes, they presented an interesting framework... but we must remember, the character had hardly any dialogues that revealed him. that job... to present the complexity, to feel the taciturn character and express him as he is, that was left to the actor finally.
i can't imagine forgiving anyone else that dragging to the temple, that laying down of ultimatums. and here, not only did i not want to hold khushi's hand and take her away from him and tell her "no need to love that brute," i wanted her to be near him... because i could sense he needed her desperately at that moment. i also felt bad for asr, really bad... not only for kkg. that was really the actor's doing.
i also believe barun made asr much more complex, nuanced, and unutterably sexy by playing him the way he did, he made asr more than what was written. okay, barun is naturally an attractive man who has that turn on factor... i am glad he used it to the hilt to make asr lovely. saw 347 where he proposes... will you marry me, a silly hackneyed line, how he used barun's sexiness and asr's keen mind to make it heartstoppingly real.
in plays
and books, characters are told by their words and action. here there was action and silence, just things in the eyes, the
jaws, the turn of head, a little smirk, a little darkening of chocolate... what the, dammit, bas, khushi, tum theek ho? seatbelt, get out, toh tum khush ho? became memorable quotes, say them and dhak dhak sure to unleash. because i love you dammit. can that ever be said without feeling ears flame, pulse race, a picture of angry eyes and voice flashing in the head.
years ago salim javed assessed the mind of the audience and wrote the angry young man... but if amitabh b had not brought that man to life and made him more with his interpretation, his intensity, hi voice, his droopy piercing unblinking eyes, his tall unyielding presence, his way of speaking, his way of pausing, and so much more would that angry young man become the concept he became? an actor's contribution in creating a character that is performed is invaluable, crucial. not everything is written in, the actor fills in the gaps and makes the character what it is. shakespeare's othello is beautifully written... but it is not enough to be a big dark man and mouth the lines to get the man.
on that terrace doorway, his heart broke to smithereens. he resorted to aggressive defence. sab kuch mere control mein hai. and again he learned... uh huh, everything is not in your control, especially your heart.
there was a destructive anger, an insecurity and vulnerability about loved ones that played hell into his and her lives, a certain "cut off" from the world around that interfered with empathy... and an extreme stroke of that belief in himself thing combined with a sense terrible chaos ignited the day of his parents' death... he believed everything was in his control.
life would of course go out of its way to show him otherwise.
and yet, he did not succumb, instead intelligently assessed and learned and tried to grow within that experience.
within him is the inherent mark of a larger than life, striding, extraordinary character. he reminds me of great individualistic heroes. i accept him as he is, with his every flaw.
that anger i would love to know more about, and if he could learn to control that a bit i'd be happy for him. but don't control it too much, i'd say, then it would come out in some other ugly way... i hope love will heal him somewhat, and there will come a day when he would have his nightmare less frequently. i am quite happy to hear him talk the way he did on karwa chauth and then try and respect his wife's point of view but not become her clone. i have a feeling his wife likes him exactly as he is. the way he likes her as she is.
there will be fights between them no doubt, parts of him will remain unresolved... but he will add texture i know, and who knows exactly as she'd predicted, maybe one day he'll come home with two young women on his arms and tell kkgsr, get out, you're too old for me. ha ha just kidding.
he would grow old fabulously, remaining sexy beyond belief at even 95 i believe.
i thought i would write two lines on that man of few words. look what he made me do. yeh asr bhi na... i hate you, dammit.
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