What I'm about to say is based solely on the gif set down below. Because I haven't watched the show for the past three and a half months, I don't know the details that led to ShiVi's impending divorce or in what ways their relationship had progressed.
Lemme know how accurate / off I am. Also, it's been a really long time since I made an analysis post, so I'm going to be really rusty in terms of putting my thoughts forward. Lemme know if something doesn't make sense. đ
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Disclaimer: I had made this gif set earlier and had added some colouring effects to make it pop and look pretty, but my manipulation doesn't change how the scene was originally designed. Since the shades and hues used in the scene are on the brighter side, only the positive traits associated to the colour will be examined.
Commentary:
Knowing that it's Shiva's dream, there are a lot of things that stood out to me. I have broken them down according to their appropriate sub-heading.
Color Blue
Whether it's in the scenic background, the way Raavi is framed, or ShiVi's clothing, there is one colour that stands out, the colour blue.
Due to its association with the skies and oceans, the color blue has come to represent positive emotions like tranquillity, serenity and peace. It also signifies traits like trust, loyalty, and reliability. (Hence, why in North America first responders such as paramedics, police officers and firefighters were blue uniforms).
For ShiVi, these traits should be a foreign concept. They are in the midst of an ugly divorce after all. One can assume they hope to find peace once the dotted line has been signed, but for it to exist before the divorce has become official is suspicious.
As we know, this isn't reality. This is Shiva's dream and in it, he has created an atmosphere where he finds comfort and Raavi is in the direct center of it. Even if she is revving up a bike to ire him up, this is his version of peace.
The Revving of the Bike
Though in this dream it was Shiva who was predominantly talking, it cannot be ignored that it was Raavi who initiated this interaction with her revving the bike. If it hadn't been for her making the noise, Shiva wouldn't have been made aware of her presence. This also harkens back to how they have always interacted with one another. Yelling and screaming, pestering the other with their taunts or jokes. They have very rarely shared quieter moments with each other and allowed themselves to be vulnerable with one another.
If Raavi hadn't been revving the bike and Shiva had seen her, he wouldn't have had the motivation to approach her. At least with this, he got something to crib about and prove her wrong. In this context, he is chiding Raavi in regards to the bike. While I'm not an expert on the matter, a quick Google search showed that revving it too long can cause the engine to overheat (source). Ergo, what Shiva was telling Raavi was a word of advice that would have helped her out in the long run. Raavi, on the other hand, chooses to ignore him and revs it even harder as if to purposely irk him. This little moment can very well parallel to their real life situation where Shiva may have something to share (or might have even shared something) that would have proven Raavi wrong in some capacity. Rather than hearing him out, she continues to ignore him and purposely does outrageous things that she knows will make him angry. Because after all, it's easier to anger Shiva, make him lash out and then prove him wrong on account of him being violent and aggressive, rather than admit her own mistakes.
Grounding
"Tujhe zameen mein utaar na bhi aata hai mujhe."
Raavi has always been depicted as a girl who has her head up in the clouds. Whether it was her aspirations to marry Dev, her overly optimistic outlook on life or her whole ambition in life being wanting to be married into the Pandya family - nothing about her has ever been quite practical. Knowing who you want to marry is a good thing. She may have seen certain admirable traits in Dev and thought, yes, this is the person I want to be with for the rest of my life. However, she failed to take into account whether or not Dev wanted to marry her too. Having optimism is good as well, but to the point where you start deluding yourself that everyone in the world is going to be a decent person is not. Hence, why she felt so betrayed by Dhara keeping Dev's truth a secret. Knowing the kind of family you want to spend the rest of your life with is also a positive thing, but having it be the only ambition in your life is not. What is the point of her going to college if she won't put that education to good use?
Though Shiva is extremely devoted to his family and may have only passed the tenth grade, he has years of work experience under his belt. From working at the store, he has had the opportunity to meet a whole variety of people whether they came in the guise of customers, colleagues or business associates. He knows when someone might be trying to play him and most importantly, knows that not every person in the world has a kind heart. He is rough and tough on the outside because he has seen first-hand what happens to those who are timid and afraid to speak up. Never wanting himself to be in that position, he always speaks his mind whether people like it or not.
In this regard, Shiva is the correct person to keep Raavi rooted to the ground. He had attempted to do so with his remarks about her never marrying Dev or coming into the Pandya family but unfortunately Raavi chose to ignore them and live in her own bubble. Shiva has brought her down to Earth in a more literal sense as well as he was the one who saved her when she tried to hang herself. Shiva may be a man who functions in a vigorous manner, but given the kind of extreme highs that Raavi lives in, it is going to take nothing less than extreme force to make her see certain truths and reassess the kind of decisions she is making.
"De. De race de."
Going by the context of the scene, Shiva taunts Raavi to rev the bike after pinning her dominant hand behind her back. She of course is unable to do so given how forcefully he is holding her. It is also to be noted that Raavi wasn't going anywhere. She was stationary in her position, repetitive in her act (revving the bike) and never once looked at Shiva while he spoke to her. It was only until he invaded her personal space and touched her that she gave any sort of reaction. For him to goad her to carry on with her previous actions after he has disrupted her ways is meaningful as Raavi can't go back to how she was. The flow that she was existing in has been broken.
Similarly, in their reality, Raavi can't go back to living life as she used to. Even though they were forceful circumstances (the marriage, sharing the same space as him, him saving her from multiple near death experiences), Shiva has left an imprint on her life that Raavi simply cannot erase even if she wanted to. He will always be known as her first husband and whatever sentiments she may have grown to have post her marriage to now, they are all in relation to him holding that position in her life.
Overall, the act of revving a bike is not a bad thing. In fact, it's needed in order to warm up the engine so that the driver can go wherever they desire. By pinning Raavi's hand, Shiva is taking away her ability to do so. Given the way she was throttling the accelerator, Raavi could have damaged the engine and ruined her chances of going anywhere for good. However, by physically holding her back, Shiva is protecting her from making that mistake as well as inadvertently displaying his own desire of her not going anywhere.
"Chod."
It is the only line Raavi has spoken in this dream and she has spoken it while being in pain, struggling to get out of Shiva's hold and not even looking at him. Again, a reflection of their present circumstances where their divorce must surely be inflicting a lot of pain onto Raavi and she would want to be as far away from Shiva as she possibly could.
End Comments:
I feel like in a way this is a callback to the simpler times where Raavi's mere presence and antics used to extract a reaction out of Shiva. The premise of her flaunting the bike that Shiva wanted, him scolding her about mishandling it and then forcing her off of it all comes off as a bit childish too. It makes sense given how ShiVi knew each other since they were kids and this is the dynamic that they grew up in. It does make me wonder however if this is the only way that Shiva knows how to be around Raavi. I'm assuming Shiva has male friends, but I'm not sure how many women he has interacted with, that too in a gentler, romantic manner. Yes, there is Raavi but she doesn't really count given how he has always treated her roughly since they were kids. A few years in college could have benefitted him not just for the literary education, but also for the social education as he would have been interacting with people who were of his age. The few minutes of interaction he might get in the shop isn't adequate enough to teach him how to react in varying scenarios.
This is a dream of the simpler times for Shiva but it is also a dream where it isn't just Raavi who's stuck, it's him as well.
Channel V Dil Dosti Dance
Arjun
