"trifles light as air
are to the jealous confirmations strong
as proofs of holy writ. this may do something."
~~~ iago in willliam shakespeare's othello ~~~
how not to think of the conniving, dangerous iago when shyam picked up khushi's handkerchief at the pharmacy. of course it came with the predictable calculating look and then we got treated to shyam's ever more irritating slanted super villain of soap smile. ah, alliteration, the man has me running to decorate the lingo with rhetoric.
after which the handkerchief disappeared. for hamesha.
i do wish that pointed picking of handkerchief was not quietly forgotten and made a smart appearance at some point.
apart from this one thing, nothing really caught my attention in this filler type of episode.
even the set up to get khushi and shyam to whizz off to fetch medicines (what else could poor anjali ask for) was not very convincing. nothing to stop shyam from asking the directions to a pharmacy nearby. khushi needn't have accompanied him at all.
but while the creatives think where to take the story next - an ad hoc strain is stalking ipk since before dilli mein bali days - asr khushi fights are what keep a sense of continuity. so this shyam and khushi pharmacy trip will ratchet anger up to another level, and that might be its only use. especially since the story around handkerchief will be dropped.
of course, i was touched and thrilled by the raging anger in asr and khushi and their tango in the green room. yeah, everything feels like a dance when the two are by themselves and that anger sets its pace and tone, its music. eyes blaze, breaths race, words are flung, arms reach out and grasp, thinning lips kiss ire.
"kyun...?" why? asr asked, angered by his wife's refusal to take the prize. and a fight began. he wants to win.. she won't let him.
"aapne wajah khud bata diya... ahsaan kiya na aapne hum pe... nahin chahiye aapka ahsaan!" you gave the reason yourself, khushi in red and incensed retorted in the middle of a full fledged skirmish, you did a favour you say... don't want any favours from you.
ever since he has denied that he meant something with his "main tumse hamesha,... hamesha..." there's a funny anger seething in her. she knows the man was trying to say something. she perhaps knows the man is crazy about her. during bali, she had said, i know laad governor's "bolti" is "band" when he sees me... so she is not unaware of her effect on him... but this constant denial of his and the brutal behaviour, innuendos, it's all getting to her. today she is angry, perhaps even more than him.
lovely sequence.
however the reason why payal and then khushi refused to take the prize, sorry... pretty silly. it does not establish what wonderful girls they are. it actually says they are highly undependable and judgmental. payal had raised her already blighted ma in law's hopes. sheer insensitivity is what she displayed by just dumping the act. and really payal who is sensible usually, who can transliterate the english letter for mano so she may read it, who can tick off asr when she needs to, isn't able handle the situation in a more elegant and intelligent way is hard to accept. what was that keeping quiet on stage, looking destroyed, dropping matka.
oh my poor mano, i quite get her going ballistic.
khushi's refusal to accept the prize... had that been fueled by her anger, i might have understood. but that unilateral decision taken more because she wants to help a girl, a little uncaring of the feelings of nani ji, i thought ... and of course, arnav ji. but she is mad at him, so that i get.
why must women constantly be seen as saviours? otherwise, what exactly will happen? a real ponder on patriarchy and its nerbhussiya-ness at the very thought of a woman who is a human being in her own right is sorely needed i feel.
khushi and payal are strong, capable, loving young women. they are intelligent. they care about family, they are raised with solid traditional values but have minds of their own. they feel real, they have surprising notes in their character which make them interesting. make them likable.
shouldn't that be preserved? or will our khushis and payals forever have to be "standardized" with open hair switches and ridiculous acts of so called sacrifice, the many tenets of achhi bahu-ness? reduced to objects that keep a patriarchal way of life alive and kicking... mainly women.
i love the character called asr, because he always but always treats khushi... and payal... and the other women in his life as people. and with khushi he is so so human, never taking away her right to be just that as well. those fights are between two equals... he never judges her because she yells and shouts, i get the feeling he enjoys that return fire... this man has never needed an achhi bahu, he is man enough to handle a woman. a person. an equal.
when an intelligently written script starts losing its iq... pretty hard to handle. maybe i should also drop a matka somewhere and look stricken. hello hi bye bye.
......................
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