Monday 4 January 2016

episodes 284/285 a tale of two wives






"chhor dijiye anjali ji ko!"
leave anjali ji!

"matlab aap kehna chahti hain ki hum... anjali ko chhor de?"
you mean to say, i... should leave anjali?

finally, she did say those words. she actually persuaded shyam to leave anjali, or so he thought.

and finally another person became the target of another mu. what manorama raizada saw through her binocs and heard with her own ears were not what she thought they were.



once more, the rational mind, the five senses didn't read right.

almost the same scene had been witnessed by a young man full of hope standing at a terrace doorway once and everything had fallen apart that evening.

in a curious echo of that moment, mami ji misunderstood what she saw... and decided, exactly as her nephew had done, that phatee saree and damad ji's truth had to be told to anjali. instantly. no tarrying.

like a parallel of that evening of the wedding, she dropped everything and rushed to apprise her niece, despite a sprained ankle and an aching heart. she couldn't believe what she had seen... khushi had just asked shyam to divorce anjali and he had not raved and ranted, instead said, he would do exactly that... and she just knew she had to protect the niece she loved so much.

love.

at the centre of so much in ipk. how love sits in us, how it makes us do what we do, how it has so many sides, how really it is almost impossible to categorise and name.

even shyam, in the monologue in his mind that played as he spoke to khushi, was planning to seize all that was arnav singh raizada's, especially the object of his "love"... khushi.

didi ki saut... at this point, a part of that format seemed to be playing before us. such a direct assault on anjali, even if it is all just a plan to correct the mistake khushi had made by getting papers signed by asr for shyam.

i guess for the conflict at the centre to grow more intense and pivotal tis had to happen. but i felt the story wasn't strong enough to establish that that was the only thing khushi could have said to get him to sign.

shyam had switched the a papers, in 285, we saw how she did exactly the same and got what she wanted. this switching of things, people, perhaps another ipk trait. khushi that first night was not supposed to be on that ramp.

another thing i find very interesting and intriguing in ipk is how all sorts of things set up reflections and recall. dialogues are often repeated in slightly different words, shyam and asr seem like two opposite expressions of an idea of an independent individual. floating fabric, dupatta or curtain, say many things.

and now this stool.



scene moved to a warehouse and a taught elegant man in a vest and black pants working up sweat. he was doing presses as though in a well equipped gym when all he had in reality was a wooden stool lying flat on the floor.

now i can't look at a stool in that position without thinking of rangoli. a man on a stool, the stool wobbles, the girl looks shocked, she had been staring at him and he at her, no words, just frisson and tremor of what who knows, then he loses his balance and falls... on top of her almost, rolls with her and they lie on a bed of colour. powder in red, purple, green, yellow flies creating a haze. a feeling envelops all.

i was gawking shamelessly as asr and wondering again how barun can manage to look this god in that state, when he started the game of provoking rocky. seemed like managing to send that note to khushi had done wonders for his mood and determination to get out.

"bas teen hi ho... baki log ko bula lo!"
just three of you... call the others. he said without even bothering to look at the henchmen.



"lekin kya faida hoga... main toh bhagne wala hoon."
but what's the point... i am going to run away.

he was sleek and crisp and in character. was he entertaining himself too while setting up some discomfort in his captors?
whe rocky pointed the revolver at his head, asr was sure, "tujhse nahin hoga... arnav singh raizada aaj yahan se bhagne wala hai. aur tum mein se koi bhi... mujhe rok nahin paayega. hut na..."

ah, you can't do it, he dismissed rocky with a cool stare. asr is going to escape today, he repeated... and none of you will be able to stop me. move, buddy.

oh that "hut na..." thrilling and earthy.

teddy bear henchman is scared, what shall we do if he does run away!

284 was really about this scene and that mami and anjali sequence.


nk said to a fretting khushi, "hum zaroor sitaphal honge..." we shall certainly get custard apple. he meant success as in safal, but sitaphal i am sure was not a randomly chosen word. sita was clearly being brought in, a mythological, larger than life dimension being added.

then khushi said words that made reminded me of the word patni, wife.

"arnav ji ko bachane ke liye hum kuch bhi kar sakte hain, kuch bhi..."


to save arnav ji i can do anything, anything.

isn't there a wife in that desperate commitment toward a man. anything... anything to save him. khushi has a thing about going out of her way, doing things that may even harm her for her loved ones... something about her will to save her arnav ji no matter what indicated he has become part of her life, her mate really. for who else would she tolerate shyam's slimy touch and lascivious talk?

mami ji finally reached anjali.. she who was lost in her temple visit, dedicating yet another pooja for the well being of her marriage. a wife there again. one who saw herself primarily as patni, her sustenance, her strength drawn from this relationship. she believed she was loved and that belief was so very essential to her life itself.

mami ji clarified, "matbal oo tumka dibhorce dede..." means he should divorce you.

disbelief rose in the air

shyam signed.



in 285, laad governor came home. on a ragged scrawl across a crumpled paper. and his wife hugged him tight, close to her chest.


nani ji was surprised khushi hadn't opened her gift. shyam was sick in his desire to see her reaction to the saree. had he chosen it? okay, i don't need to know.

he said it was like her teej saree. it wasn't. but again, just a word and a whole lot of memories rushed back. no need for flashback. at teej asr had opened her fast, as a husband is supposed to... so many strains of pati and patni in these episodes. a husband and wife who were true to each other despite marital chaos. and another whose entire happy lovely relationship was a mere lie.

"khushi ji, kal aap thoda free rahiyega humne aapke liye kuch plan kar rakha hai..." khushi ji, keep yourself free tomorrow, i have plans, said shyam. i wondered what it might be... of course, it was his sweet plan to kill asr. but what of asr's plan... he's going to escape... today.

anjali refused to believe a word mami ji said. even if she remembered seeing khushi with her aap bhi na several times. she decided, her inhone couldn't have said he would divorce her.

it was all a misunderstanding... galat faimi.

lovely texture in writing. yes it was a misunderstanding, yet not of the sort she thought.


she fought valiantly to keep her illusion intact. a wife who finally decided she would hear and see what she wanted to, not what was possibly true. i liked daljeet and utkarsha naik's interpretation and the treatment of this crucial scene... a sense of drama in it, and layers. this scene is the precursor of what it to come soon... a girl whose whole life is based on a galat faimi will choose to stay with that illusion.

khushi confided to her friend, her sakha nand kishore that she calls her "unhe" laad governor. this girl believed he was her husband. later writers thought she could say her marriage was just a sauda. but as i see her here, i know she never thought he was anything other than her husband. even though he had done what he had that night and suspected her the way he had, treated her so wrongly... yet he was her laad governor, her unhe, her pati.

two wives, both in love... terribly... with their pati... both in red, not by chance i am sure, when one swears before dm she'll do anything for her arnav ji and the other also before god dreams of her man and refuses to believe he doesn't love her and will leave her... take us down the trail of two love stories. stories completely dissimilar yet both really about that mysterious ajeeb thing... love. 

 

just a short scene of asr... did he just kill teddy bear's best friend? he sure finished me off.










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