episode 135 feeling or fact

farre anyone?

now if you are a hotshot drop dead gorgeous tycoon with a mind for cracking deals and getting people to do what you want, convincing them in ways fair and otherwise that what you say is a thing of profit, anything else is sure to lead to loss, what is the one thing you will most need when off to handle a tricky situation?

why, farre of course.

what farre? you may ask with imperious impatience.

you know, those cheating wala paper.

things have come to a head, akash is storming out of home, mami's refusal to accept payal as bahu has him in a frenzy and the whole family is stirred and desperate trying to bring calm back. everything is happening too fast.

as this dramatic scene unfolds, an episode with two classic ipk elements is coming together. humour and the contrasting philosophies of kkg and asr. one light and frothy, the other deeper and just as defining of their relationship as anything else.

that sizzle of comedy which barun and sanaya pulled off together, added immeasurably to the ajeeb love story of one arnav singh raizada and one khushi kumari gupta, and was very much a part of what made it all so sexy.

khushi urges asr to go quickly and save the situation... doing things her way, of course. this entails emotion, dramatic dialogue, not cool headed negotiation as is his wont. he is highly skeptical of the approach, but recent events have indicated that sometimes she gets it right... sort of.

sanaya deftly delivers a completely filmi khushi with great conviction and not a trace of hamming. khushi is genuinely a bit hindi phillum, she is a fan of salman khan... her solutions to problems tend to have celluloid sensibilities. recall the fully togged dulhan on bed strategy to ensnare asr into marrying la, or for that matter the selling of bangles to fill his office with plants in a bid to sway his decision. not into excel spreadsheet type analysis and strategies, our jhalli.

"haan haan ab hum miss manorma se miss-takewa ban gaye hain, humre har baat pe problem hi problem hai," yes yes, wails mami in ascending melodrama, now from miss manorama i have become mistake, whatever i say is a problem.

"aisan third kilas chhokariya se hum apan akas bitwa ke haippy marriage kaise kar de?" with such a "third class girl" how can i conclude a happy marriage for my akash. 

oh the tongue is sharper than those garden shears today, she's been hurt deep by this independence shown by her doting, gentle son, and his lack of interest in rich, upper class girls is absolutely intolerable. she has been that "third class girl" and has struggled all her life to clamber up the social rungs and hit super first kilass, and now her bitwa is all set to bring an ordinary girl home as wife. politically, this ruins her... her much cogitated plan being to get son hitched to a wealthy heiress, and improve her status and position in the family transitively: saas of rich bahu, something grand and irrevocable about that.

poor manorama, all the insecurities of being born poor, if only she were a little less crass and obvious. but then she wouldn't have been mami, would she. 

chaos in the living room. the two conspirators – in these matters asr and khushi are absolutely on the same side, each for the happiness of their sibling – watch from above.

go go and speak, this is the chance... khushi tells asr. "aur yad rakhiyega... jodiya... uparwala... kahin na kahin sab ke liye..." and remember... couples, the one up there... somewhere there's someone for everyone. 

uff the hooey. he turns away exasperated.

which is when she makes the farre offer. little cheat notes... of course, who can ignore such wiles... a girl who is willing to give you all her farres, got to give her at least your heart. what say, asr.

living room is tense. for a change, even mama ji is present and livid at his wife's antics.

"mami ji," starts asr.

"khushi ji, aap kab aayee?" khushi ji, when did you come, asks anjali close to tears.

asr begins to present his case... highly tutored by the one who knows about such matters. well at least, that's what she claims.

"arnav ji aap sab se kuch kahna chahte hain..." arnav ji wants to tell you all something. khushi takes position to guide him, her confidence and smugness are too good to watch, and all over her smile.

"mami ji, mujhe aap logo se yeh kahna tha ki..." mami ji, i wanted to tell you... he rushes a bit, very uncomfortable, this is too corny for him. but he is awww cute conveying that, yes khushi, i am cool with this hesitant, awkward asr.

"ka baat hai, arnav bitwa? humka bolne ke liye koi muhurat ka baiting karat ho ka?" mami is impatient, sharp; what's up, arnav bitwa, are you waiting for some auspicious hour to tell me?

"nahin, mami ji..." his rasp is back, his no nonsense air.

"main yeh kah raha tha ki woh upar..." i am saying that, er, that up - again he attempts feebly. charlie brown comes to mind, especially the expression or lack thereof on his face when lucy says really gluey silly things.

a lame finger points skyward... all are intrigued... upar? above? what's there? a classic comedy moment.

khushi interrupts... with gestures... not that, this... and a smiling pose.

valiantly, the karmayogi pushes on... "haan, jodia..." yes, couples, he blurts. funny man, no clue how to do this soppy stuff. arnav singh raizada yells screams shouts, makes deals not filmi speeches. that is princess jhalli's forte.

"ji, uh, har kissi ke liye koi na koi kahin na kahin..." er, for everyone... someone, somewhere or the other. everyone is looking more and more puzzled, what's happened to the boy? this is not going well at all... and a huge burst of laughter is pushing at my throat.

"i mean upar se..." i mean from above... the man is desperate now. 

"hello hi bye bye..." manorama is quick to grab the words and twist them to her own purpose. the bride and the groom that come from upar, above... they should be of the same upper class. equal status... 

"one taap one battam naahi chalat hai!" one top class another lower class won't work. not one to mince her words, our spitfire mami. so what if her thinking is crass, effete, and utterly erroneous.

akash needs miss india, not khoon bhari tang, mami is clear.

so how long will asr's patience last. aren't his eyes already showing signs of change? impatience? ownership? time for "enough"?

"par, mami ji..."

"phool istap, arnav bitwa... esab philmi talk batiyane ki koi jaroorat nahin hai..." full stop, arnav bitwa, no need for all this filmi talk. uh oh.

la tries: but mami ji, akash's choice is also important, isn't it?

mami won't listen to anjali, akash, la, anyone.

our man is losing it and getting in form. he walks off, and those little eye movements stay back in my head to torture me mercilessly.

at the poolside. he stands, concerned, even angry.

  
she walks up to him, and promptly says the wrong thing, "arnav ji, aapne theek se nahin..." arnav ji, you didn't say it right.

"just shut up, khushi..." he whirls around. furious. in seconds he is the confident, on top of everything man we know.

"maine tumse pahle hi kaha tha... yeh jodia... koi kahin... ye sab..." i'd told you before... all this couples, somewhere someone... all this...

gritted teeth... supremely nasty yet utterly gorgeous, yet another asr trademark.

"yeh sab phaltoo ki baatein hain... it's nonsense." 

if there's one person on earth who doesn't balk at his clenched jaw, angry voice, it's miss filmi. she insists, "agar aap ne thodi bhavna ke saath, mehsoos karke kaha hota toh..." if you had said those things with feelings... and she gets even more movie-ish, reminding me of the cliched creative flakepot as she completes, "feeling, arnav ji, feeling!"

"mujhe mat sikhao apni yeh stoopid feelings aur lines!" don't teach me your stupid feelings and lines. but arnav ji, those feelings, stoopid or not, you are already swimming in helplessly... the jodi has been made it seems, somewhere it appears there's someone meant for everyone, even the heartless khadoos businessman whose strategies never fail.

"hum naahin agreeangey!" mami ji shrieks she will not agree. her husband reminds her of her background, that lowly status she has so longed to obliterate... things escalate. and in no time, mami is leaving home. mama ji decides to call her bluff and doesn't stop her, she is out of the house, hoping someone will call her back, too troubled to give in on her own. emotions are all in a mess, hysteria lurks everywhere.

out walks the cool suave tycoon.

"mujhe apne tareeke se handle karna hai," i will handle it my way, he's decided.

"problem koi bhi ho... professional ya personal... solution ek hi hota hai... aur solution kissi feelings ya dil se nahin aata... solution aata hai power aur paise se..." whatever may be the problem, professional or personal, the solution doesn't come from some feeling... it comes from power and money.

sexy cool voice, a graze of tiredness lacing it, and a certain authority that comes from tackling the din and grime of real life every day.

"yeh ek language hai jo sabko samajh aati hai," this is one language everyone understands.

i feel a sudden sense of sadness for this young man... what a lesson life has taught him. those who haven't had a difficult childhood will perhaps never gauge all its implications. this icy hardness was there in vijay verma too. remember "deewar," one of our first meetings with the classic angry young man? in him that aching need to be loved and freed of pain too. in deewar, the atheist was made to finally stand before god and beg for his mother's life, and then he had to die. we were not ready maybe for any other end. but this time round, asr will be able to stay non theistic and look forward to a life with the innocent mad utterly theistic love of his life. they did try to kill him, but we would have none of that. vijay verma would have been proud of asr. 

"got it..." he walks away.

this is the asr position. across from it sits kkg's belief... emotions matter. who's right who's wrong. i think the writers went with both. depends on the situation. 

in this case, asr was right. his smart taut conversation with his mami gave her the scenario succinctly. think with your dimaag, not dil. walk out now, and the position you've built over years is gone in a trice. make peace with the inevitable, use it to your advantage, you'll rule. mami understands this language, as his instincts told him she would.

and mano darling is back.

but before he went out to get mami, he showed his sweetest side without even realising it. his nani was collapsing as he came into the living area, in a second he was the loving, concerned grandson. held her tenderly, walked her to a seat, made sure she was ok, even di was not given priority at this point, he knew who was most perturbed by all this.

then arnav singh raizada strode out to get his family back in order. on the day he'd quietly bought his mami the necklace she desired, he showed he new her heart. today he proved he knew her head.

he is coolly triumphant.

she smiles a "see, i told ya," smile, still believing it was her idea that worked. 

no, i did nothing the way you said, "tumhara yeh khayal hi stoopid hai ki yeh duniya emotions par chalti hai," this very thought of yours is stupid that the world runs on emotions.

people understand "faida" and "nuksan", profit and loss... not "dil" and "jazbaat", heart and emotional considerations. 

mise en scene cleverly etched a little advance retreat at this point.

"ek baar phir tum galat nikli aur main sahi..." once again you were wrong, and i right. asr music. then that walk up the stairs, leaving all behind, ascending.

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