the evening of havan is here.
shyam pours ghee into havan kund... "ranisahiba ke liye yeh havan kund ki bahut ahmiyat hai..." this havan means much to ranisahiba... so he toils... or so he says. he's planned to turn it into her funeral pyre with a most non-ethereal ether plan."sach mein, di kitni lucky hain..." really, di is so lucky. akash, as is his wont, remains clueless. but then who can blame him, even shatir asr is totally taken in.
what is it with our desperate need to love the son-in-law... no matter what. just because you're damat ji, you will get a special place and about a thousand points the moment you arrive. then if you really misbehave we'll take a few points away, maybe just to look objective. actually, we'll let you get away with just about anything. i mean look at you, shyam, you don't earn much, you live off your in laws, ahem bro-in-law, yet just because you make jalebi and pour ghee into havan kund and whisper the most bleh romance into your wife's ears, we are leaping with joy at the sight of you.
damat ji is a boon from god. while bahu is a girl to be kept under one's thumb. wah, kya patriarchy hai.
pour pour, pour some more ghee.
let that fire settle matters once and for all.
and thank you for your ghoulish lopsided grin. we get the point.
fasten seatbelts. gardener at work... dressed in waistcoat, i die, and deep blue shirt that started out in 175... strange collar but some people can make anything look good (well maybe not that lame white kurta, haven't they heard of khadi around here).
he's just been kissed by a girl he wants to kiss and kiss some more. yet he never thought she'd do what she did... and he never knew how much it would affect him. he is not very theek, exactly as khushi said. he's trying to calm down, pottering around his plants, watering, nurturing, feeling maa maybe. just a guy trying to get back to himself.
but two crazy women won't have any of that.
have you noticed how stubborn some really loving women can get. and how interfering? i like, teehee.
"khushi ji ki shadi..." khushi's wedding, his sis and nani ji are playing their determined cupid game. chhotey, i feel like yelling at him, you should have objected violently to that khushi's kiss, then this fate would not have befallen you, samjhe aap?
he hears the words and his eyes go still.
di... "kya baat kar rahi ho, nani?" what are you saying, nani?
"haan, humka lagat hai ki khushi bitiya ko humre hi ghar ma ana chahiye" yeah, says the old schemer, i think khushi should come to our home... are we stupid that we'll let such a nice girl go... and anyway khushi's and his jodi will be great.
he's ready to leave... enough! something inside him says.
oh chhotey, you here... yeah surprise he's where he usually hangs out when he's at home... so cute this overacting acting. a bit giddy these two women, but kinda sweet.
they want his opinion.
"kis bare mein..." about what. oh that look.
the bait is offered, the ladies want to know his thoughts on the matter or else how to proceed.
"kaisi baat..." what's it about... a break in the voice, sort of gentle, sort of floaty. throat gone dry?
nani with smile, di with assessing keen eyes on bro, "er, shadi ki baat.."
"jab ghar ma ittni achhi ladki ho toh bahar dhoondne ka ka jaroorat hai?" if there's such a nice girl at home, then why look for someone outside?
he seems sort of speechless.
"nani... i don't know..." poor guy, he is seriously imagining a shadi scenario with kkg and finding it hard to say yes, though nothing in him is saying no.
"i mean khushi aur... main..." so hesitant, husky, gentle... oh my heart broke thinking what happened to him thanks to one vile man that night. how terribly tender these feelings and what venom threw them in disarray, pain and madness mixed.
"nahin nahin," says his tormentor, his loving grandmother, "hum aapke baare mein thodi na baat karat hai..." no no, you're not the one we're talking about.
ooops.
they're speaking of... nk bhai ...!!!??@@*%^&* whaaa$@*!@t.
a look. ah, asr returneth. tan dan dan.
"what?" an explosion, asr ishtyle..
"nk???!!!"
"haan... haaan"
"aur khushi!!" oh the possessive taking of the loved one's name. she with his henna on her, his haldi, his kiss, his...
"kyun kya hua, chhotey?" why, what happened, chhotey?
"are you..." he's bristling, angry, irritated, going nuts.
aaargh the thought.
"i don't know, whatever..." he's gotta go. and a cool exit by hot head.
conspirators hi-five.
nani has seen "ek taraf ka aag," the fire on this side; now at the havan she will check out kkg...
we move to a sad and emotional scene at the gupta's. babuji can almost bless payal without help. was he supposed to get better soon? nk's camera had pictures. nk kept noticing how khushi was uncomfortable around shyam. in fact in 189, he will also ask her wasn't she supposed to talk to asr about something? here babu ji is showing signs of improvement. my socheka padi says, the "mu" as it was famously known, was supposed to clear much earlier than it finally did. maybe barun's shoot delayed matters, but could it not have been handled better? why do i know it could.
back at rm, he is getting ready and di is on her mission convince bro. stop asking me if i'm fine, i am, he says to her.
so she thinks of sort of emotionally blackmailing him into submission. now akash will have someone, if you also had, who knows what might happen, in case something should happen to me... that kind of thing.
the whole thing misfires.
the moment he hears his sister say, what if i'm not okay... off he goes on a crazy insistent path of nothing's gonna happen to you, not while i'm here. while his sister frets about this missing of mark, his worry, his love, his fear of losing people he loves, his complete devotion to his sister take the lightness to a deep and lovely place.
a beautiful kiss on a sister's palm by a brother who really cannot imagine living without her.
and she too loves him so so specially.
just realised... there were three kisses in the story... by the poolside were two and in his bedroom one. what will transpire will at all, because there were two most important people in his life. not just one.
lovely touch, he kissed both the women he loves.
"zindagi ka kya bharosa..." what's certain in life, di said. and he froze.
"aisa kuch nahin hoga... maine kaha na aisa kuch nahin hoga."
he cannot deal with this, he is fragile. somehow patched together on a blind and thick blanket of himmat, barun was asr in all his layers. one moment irritated at the talk of marriage, the next, scared, terrified for di, and then the man who makes his own destiny... "maine kaha na... aisa kuch nahin hoga." i have said, haven't i, nothing of the sort will happen. "aisa" will not be allowed to happen, it will quake and run away before such determination...
he looks back at her with a love in his eyes that could make the ugliest moment pristine.
"di... aap hamesha mere paas rahengi..." and the sweetest... "samjhi aap?"
di, you'll always be with me... do you understand?
snake of course enters with his creepy banter and takes her away.
nice direction.
at the rm doorway again we stand, all here for havan. mami bestows nasty smile, payal in jeopardy, a little tension, akash oblivious, he has not told anyone what payal had specifically asked him to. really.
asr is looking at her consideringly, wonder what he's thinking... both in post kiss trauma come nirvana.
khushi has too many packages in her arms, then twists her ankle on her heels, and, guess who should reach her first. nk.
so krishna still uses jealousy as a weapon, and di and nani, like happy devotees are chanting the same bhajan. jalan... that's what nani ji wants. and that's what she'll get. the most sublime kind too.
asr is most unhappy at this ungainly swiftness of nk. the shoot was done separately. doubles visible. but as long as i can see angry young asr, me no care (or try to be no care).
"anjali bitiya, khushi bitiya aur nanhe, sath mein kitna achha lagat hai, hai na?" don't khushi and nk look good together, enquires nani mischievously.
he can't take it any more... "ya! baat aagey badani chahiye, perfect jodi hai... dono aadhey pagal hain aur utna hi clumsy bhi hai." he is brusque and done with all this tamasha.
yes, you must take this thing forward, they are a perfect pair... both are half mad and half clumsy.
she stops at "perfect jodi" and turns, how could you and lots of other eye talk, di and nani have to notice, what to do.
switch to shyam babu thirsting for ranisahiba ka thoda pyaar thoda waqt... creepy games with perfume... he douses her with combustible ether. heartless utterly, this man who thinks he loves khushi. one day he will scatter with equal generosity shards of glass on the floor to lacerate his eight month pregnant wife... his hands capable of so much.
as anjali and shyam enter the sitting room, mami and mama ji say things underscoring shyam's importance in his wife's life. anjali bitiya only needs damad ji and pooja to be khush.
what about the boy who needs only anjali to be as happy as he dares to be.
a little excitement around anjali's ether doused saree. she might change it, but damat ji persuades her not to. nk's camera must have heard, i won't let you change this saree. so useful that would have been later, in a revelation sequence.
in the meantime, asr seethes watching nk next to kkg.
"khushi ji, yeh wohi bangles hai na, jo hum select kiye the?" khushi ji, aren't these the bangles we chose?
no she wore them from home.
and why is my stomach churning looking at the way he looks at her.
she's a little khafa khafa looking once in a way at the man who gave her her first kiss.
snake gets up to answer a call supposedly, but in fact to let his wife burn while he's out of harm's way...
there is a god.
strike... strike... the match is about to be lit, but...
"anjali bitiya..." nani ji became the instrument, the saviour and suggested that akash and payal sit in front.
someone's saved from the fire, while the jalan of another it was deemed will be taken to unbearable limits.
and again the clarified butter came to the rescue. months ago during janmashtami, ghee had fallen on him, and there was a memorable moment between the two as he passed her the container. now it seems, the ghee from the gupta's is not here. and it is important for the ritual
khushi says she'll go get it. bua ji says, it's unsafe at night. khushi insists she will go and come back, not to worry... two men react... "i'll go," says the swifter, less complex one.
music soars. anger registers. and disappointment in a certain kissed girl's eyes?
a lightly handled episode, setting up the scene for the drama ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment