episode 233 dance meri jaan

 

 

the long take
i am looking at the edits and a song hums in my head, don't know if you've heard it...

a one and a two and a i love you
  i love you, i love you
  i hope and i hope that you love me too
let's play the game of love
a three and a four couldn't want you more
  i want you more, i want you more
  a hug and a kiss and i knew for sure
let's play the game of love
that's how it goes in the books i've read
where the rules are written down
when a boy meets girl not a word is said
but the heart goes round and round

it's a song from long long back, sung by tony brent and written by oliver jones and lavern baker.

ever since khushi has gone into her "occupy" frame of mind... take over the raizada empire's sanctum sanctorum, the master's den, demand squatting rights, be 50 percent stakeholder and certainly not sleeping partner, hire lakshmi ji as chief consultant, launch swami missile, and identify several strategies to make the raizada go ballistic... the story has taken on this mien of a game, a sport. two lovers are playing their game and the playing field is anything but level. also "ramanchi" is the naturally preferred tactic of one party, while the other one is depending heavily on the "get out shut up" tactic which has been used effectively earlier.

in that mood we reach an elaborate rangoli. for some reason, bua ji has gone to town and her entire backyard is now a bright flourescent rangoli. the damad ji and bitiya who are coming to stay with them for the first time post strange wedding, are entering the home not through the front door as they always do, but this way.

ok, since this is a game, i will "shaat up, indi," be sporting and enjoy the moves.

"arre wah, dekhiye aapke swagat mein kitni sundar rangoli banayen hain," khushi exclaims as she sees the colours... seems the rangoli has been made to welcome the son in law. we all know how big a deal it is to have the damad visiting the wife's home in india.

there's a tussle over the right way to tackle the rangoli so one doesn't spoil it while walking in. irritated with khushi's not this way, not that way, he comes up with a good solution... if it's so difficult, let's not enter at all, let's go back.
"koi mushkil nahin hai!" not difficult, asserts khushi, seeing where getting after him could lead to... and skips swift and sure over the rangoli touching only the empty spots.

and so starts the baiting of her husband as she instructs him on how to get to where she is at the door. go left, go right, no no no not there, okay now raise your hands and go round once... she is not going to miss a single opportunity to get after him.

carrying almost all the bags, rather uneasy about this stay in sasural, asr does as she bids without realising she is taking him for a ride.

while visually the scene is nutty and fun, one wonders if the man forgot to pack his brain while leaving shantivan.

then comes the beautiful moment when she reaches out and holds his hands. should i let them go and let you fall, she teases... and as asr looks at her all awkward and bent, she relents. only for the sake of the rangoli, she avers.

but when the banter pauses for a second, there starts the real game... of a feeling neither can keep a check on. a rabba vey of longing plays, she tries to go back into the offensive, but he falls forward and close... it's very hard to ignore this wanting. he frowns as he stares as if looking for something, she is disturbed... two people in a world of their own, nothing else does matter.

alas we must return to reality and the game. having enjoyed herself immensely at his expense, she refers to the rangoli nach, the dance she has led him as it were.

was the rangoli nach a metaphor for something? a difficult tricky path maybe? the days ahead will not be easy to negotiate, he will have to learn new tricks but at the end of it he will find something worthwhile.

a while ago, as aarwen has already noted, a rangoli brought them close to each other. that time he fell, and the two tumbled together to the floor, he protecting her the best he could... sublime moments of connection as colour touched both, the early tremors of attraction.

today, a different colour shades their feelings for each other, a hue of hate. it adds a note that is disorienting yet funnily it seems to accentuate the love. in a rangoli so many colours are brought together and balanced to complete the picture/pattern... a bit like love maybe, with all its different colours?

the episode starts with another kind of nach, the dance shyam is led to get to his soap. here there's no kkgsr giving directions, waiting to hold his hands and pull him across, instead a series of partners for the sabun dance... first thanks to anjali and her fountain of desire, he almost loses the soap, then along comes babli and takes it away, the hassled villain goes to hp looking for his lost treasure, finally it is with babli that he sights the delightful lifebuoy bar... a decidedly lakshminagar soap this is in the raizada mansion. perhaps the soap also lost its way.

at last the maker of weird plans grabs the red one with his filthy hands.

he says something to babli about how he can get her the transparent soap, where you can see "aar paar" through it. is that a contrast to his completely non transparent, essentially opaque and dark character?  much later during kidnap, i think we see him again with his red fetish. was this by chance or a clever way of showing how he remained of a certain socio-economic group in his mind despite his wife's wealth which he happily consumed and craved.
back at gh, the entire neighbourhood came to watch when they arrived, nice touch.

"nand kissore ai gaye...!" krishna is here, with these words bua ji greeted the damad whose gussa she frets about.

i see asr's face and am perplexed. he is looking all uncomfortable and a bit cutesy pie. huh? is that you, asr? you have walked into this house several times before and always been in top form. even when you came and slapped money on the table in one of your rudest visits. this is the house where you brought her back from disaster that night of the guesthouse... the first time you had called her by her name and carried her in your arms...

whoever wrote for asr at this point was suffering from severe amnesia. i realise, we are here to see a more intimate tender side of the man, which he will get in touch with living with humble simple loving folk away from the wealth and formalities of rm. also he will develop this special sort of rapport with the two ladies of the house, becoming a bit of a babua even... but there must be a better way to lead this track than goofy asr.

he looked a little filmi in the "kahan phas gaye" way, then he showed his discomfort plainly and not at all classily, wiping his perspiration and looking around without a smile and again that oh heck what have i got into look, his body double did not help at all by looking nothing like the back and side of asr...

asr sat fidgeting while two women lugged a huge contraption. so not only brain, he had left all his manners behind as well.

the ladies rushed at him with food. all made oil free and bland thanks to khushi's strict instructions. for his health apparently. while i think it is in real bad form to mess someone's meal, okay, i'll accept it since the games are on and kkgsr is really really angry with him. she is beginning to remind me a bit of a capricious kali now... out to teach him a lesson, no matter what limits are getting crossed.

he was again not quite polished in the way he handled the food hurdle. but thank g he did wish his father in law.

a difficult yet poignant moment came when khushi asked him to call garima ji, "amma" not aunty. he was very disturbed you could tell. and since writers had decided khushi would lose all her sensitivity where he was concerned, she didn't even realise this bothered him deeply... garima ji picked on it and later she'd be the one to shush her daughter. garima seems to sense her son in law at a deeper level. she fusses over him in her sweet non aggressive way, while her rambunctious sis in law charges around doing the same thing in her characteristically loud manner.
in the middle of the long scene there were bits where i liked what i felt was a sweet openness to asr. he kind of likes food, i think... not that he fusses over it but a simple well made meal he enjoys. so when the food arrives he seems to feel disappointment... he is behaving a bit like a kid, i remember thinking at one point...sullen but not rude...

however, this is perhaps because i like barun and enjoy his interpretation, but really i did miss the essential asr here.

"babua..." the aunt calls.

helpless look from asr.

"tanik utho..." get up a bit.

she is taking pyaasa, the thirsty to kuan, the well...

perhaps this line hints at what's to come, he is thirsty for love and here he will discover a place which will assuage this thirst.

he looks on with that save me look, kkg is meanly asmile.

and a whole table is pulled by the three women... zor lagake...

"aaye rahi hai hawa?" is the breeze reaching you, comes buaji's desperate question.

he perspires and tries to eat, garima admonishes jiji, and jiji pulls the knob off the cooler in her frenzy.

this is all getting ready for that offensive aircon order no doubt.

he hiccups... khushi runs and starts patting his back... paani, paani... three women at it... this can feel a bit suffocating if you are sort of normal.

the broken mirror at the basin, i wonder what it means beyond bad luck of course. we also consider a cracked mirror to be inauspicious, so why would the guptas leave such a mirror out there?

the soap used by all unnerves him...he is not stand offish, he is naturally particular, plus years of having your own space and amenities really makes it hard to do this communal thing. happens to me... till i talk to myself and just go for it.

she comes to check if all is well, and then starts off about eating aloo poori. really? that is pretty thoughtless but what the, madam ji is playing playing.

he gets irritated and i realise, it's at this point that he decides to call home and get his own stuff over. dark brown and navy blue boy has had it... plus he wasn't keeping too well.

in the meantime, ganga and krishna and perhaps godavari, narmada and kaveri too are at the door with strange excuses and neighbourly requests...

clearly all are eager to see damad ji. mooh dikhai coming up. and i need a break from all this sport for a bit.

the short take
thankfully the man looked super hot in the opening scene of the episode and the last angry asr scene. his antics on the rangoli, that precarious balancing with the bags, arms and legs all over the place, oh just made my day. when i first saw 233, i thought i'd just write that and do edits. because honestly, that is all that i really truly absolutely enjoyed.



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