episode 143/4/5/6 to freedom

in 142, one of the most moving break ups ever and now we are gradually getting ready to flow into an all new phase in asr khushi's life. both will soon be free of their commitments to other people and clash again in a frenzy of wild attraction. why is attraction such a crazy thing? but oh, thank g it is. how would we have the most granular raw fights otherwise which are rage on the outside but a mass of desire, possessiveness, tenderness, yearning within... maybe even love.

would like to do look at some scenes that stood out in these episodes.

   
143
 
when two girls like the same man it's hard enough, but when they are fond of each other and friends, how much more difficult it must be. especially when one of the girls realises the man of her dreams hasn't chosen her

khushi comes back from rm and has to tell her family there was no way she could tell anjali her husband was a lout. it was interesting to see bua ji and payal exhorting her to do the right thing, while, amma just stood there, almost grateful for this decision. till the end, payal stood firm on her pov, shyam's truth must be told. hiding it would be wrong.

but finally, khushi too felt as did her amma, "jo sach se humari jiji, akash ji, anjali ji sab ko dukh pahunche... woh sach hum nahin bol payenge." the truth which will hurt my jiji, akash, and anjali, that truth i can't speak.

and when payal admonishes her, she snaps back, why should she not want this happiness for her elder sister who has had hardly any reason to smile for so long.

creatives wished us to understand this decision to hide shyam's truth was not taken lightly for no reason, it was a complex issue, and everything seemed to be against a revelation at this present time.

when shyam slimed into his bedroom, anjali was still in a tizzy over khushi's break up, falling apart. shyam, of course thought it was all to do with him and raanisahiba would be slaying him soon. a nicely managed scene, but beyond the the little suspense and drama, what anjali said seemed telling.

"yeh rishtey ret ki tarah kyun hote hain... unhe jitna apni mutthi mein bandh karne ki koshish karo... woh utne hi phisal jaate hain... hum jinke bare mein yeh sochte hain ki yeh sahi hai, inpe vishwaas kiya jaa sakta hai wahi humara bharosa kyun todte hain?"
why are these relationships like sand... the more you try to grasp them in your fist, the more they slip away... the ones we think of as right, as people we can depend on, why do they break our trust?

was she talking about her father somewhere? she possibly the apple of his eye... till one day, suddenly a truth upends all, and then the terrible night. couldn't have been easy for her. there was the wedding that went haywire, an uncle who also turned out to be not what he seemed... a litany of broken relations... in anjali and arnav's life. "wo hi hume taqleef kyun dete hain?" why do these people hurt us. trust is a major issue with both siblings. the long, festering wound of a parent's betrayal.

that someone special slipping through the fingers like sand and disappearing bothered asr immensely much later, even while he pulled khushi's leg, he was so troubled he had to let khushi in a bit more and see his most vulnerable side, also his deepest tendermost self... and take her to maa's garden, the first person he'd ever brought there. both asr and anjali feared that their relationships would break, just as their parents' had. my little feeling.

i rather liked that unreal cute conversation between aap and aap. deepali was a strong payal as was akashaye a lovable, gentle, slightly silly akash. when khsuhi took the phone and pretended to be payal, i remembered my mother actually did that with her sister's boy friend, only to hear things she really didn't want to, hyuk.

"kijiye na.. koi baat. waise aap kal aa rahe hain na?" sanaya was of course corny and cute... say something... you are coming tomorrow aren't you?

"kya?" akash, clueless... what's new.

"kya? kya!" what? what! "kal humari sagai hai... aap nahin aayenge toh hume angoothi kaun pahnayga..." tomorrow is our engagement, if you don't come who'll put the ring on my finger? 

but by then asr is holding the phone, akash having slammed the it on him in desperation and disappeared.

"main..." starts the man, no idea what's up.

somewhere in all of this the shadi maskara, the wedding mood and fun and games start. a huge part of indian weddings, it's typical, this contour of looniness and ott everything. the whole bride's side, groom's side "rivalry." the teasing and clowning, and the endless rituals and customs.

a prank on a phone call seemed to say, it's all here.

suddenly he can't take it and lashes out in a terse voice, completely throwing her.

"yakin toh mujhe nahin ho raha hai ki tum abhi tak pehchaan nahin paai ki akash nahin main bol raha hoon." i can't believe that you still haven't recognised, it's not akash, i am speaking. so he's angry with her in the way he always is... but a bit miffed too? she didn't know it was "main," the only "i" she knows. unthinkable.

"hic..." khushi's cogent repartee.

"haan main bol raha hoon." yes i am talking. no name, just like that pyaar of ipk. we should all know who he is. and oh don't we all.

woke up the whole episode, these few seconds. brilliant. the sheer power of asr and barun's portrayal, and the intensely layered communication between asr and khushi. the rest of episode at one tonal level, and then a quick burst of gunfire, rat a tat a tat... back again to even tone.


144
 
but lavanya you don't have to...

yet she has to...

"please kuch mat bolo..." please don't say anything. lavanya is packed and ready to leave. once the engagement of payal and akash is done, she will go. i wonder why she keeps insisting that he say nothing; even later, the constant refrain, don't blame asr. methinks the writers try too hard. it's ok, asr is human, if he's made a mistake, he has, and he is to blame for some things too. he is moving in the right direction vis a vis their relationship, as is la, no one is to blame more or less... some relationships are just not meant to be, as a says later. that take was good and plausible.

the woman in red tonight is la, yet asr isn't looking at her. it was never the colour, was it?

the gift is here. and a nice round of practicing in front of the door... when i met you first you didn't believe in marriage and look at you now.
of course, he has to open the door just then and surprise the confidence out of her.

one look. "kya?" gruff, irritated. swoonworthy.

"tum mere liye gift layi ho?" you got a gift for me?  now why am i thinking, it's a loaded statement... yeah she does bring the gift of life and love to him, becoming the reason for him to open up and feel alive after so many years. also, tonight maybe she herself is a gift for him, at last, he's not bound to someone else... for the first time since he's met her, there's no one else in his life. a feeling of subtext all through.

"nahin... uh...lavanya ji ke liye bhi... aapki sagai hai na... matlab dono ki... congra... badhai." no, uh, for la too, it's your engagement... i mean, bot of yoy... congratulations. she's stammering and on edge instantly.

the eyes are saying so many things.

not only for the engagement... for being the guy who didn't believe in these things yet made sure jiji and akash did get together and is himself getting tied in a relationship now.

he's thoughtful... bordering on pensive... no smart comebacks.

what's up, asr?

again felt like he was thinking of saying something to her, but she's called away...

"hum aapke liye aur lavanya ji ke liye bahut khushh hai... " i am really happy for you and lavanya. she pauses, a sadness in her slipping through.

"hu..um chalte hain..." i'll go.

a nod. that's all.

she turns away as though she wanted to hear something. both look disturbed... a a sense of good taste... he looks at her gift.

only the music records the uncertainties, the discomfort, the turmoil.

la cries by herself... when your heart breaks it just does. he walks into her room.

she turns away, wipes her tears, "asr, tumhare poochne se pahle main tumhe batana chahti hoon... i'm fine." asr, before you can ask let me tell you, i am fine. la really was the girl who got asr... but he wanted someone who confounded him, who never wiped her tears like that, whose every tear bothered him, each and every time. c'est la vie.


145

akash ji held payal ji's hand... haww.

the handsome couple descends. nani and la joke about dancing, nani pushes her to dance. salaam e ishq, salaam oh love, and two girls dance to celebrate the evening dedicated to ishq. payal and akash look ecstatic, the audience gathers to cheer, merriment all around. and then that moment. 

he stands there looking at the dancers, his eyes only on her. she notices that... so does la. but he has eyes only for khushi. today he just wants to stand there looking at her, no questions, no explanations, nothing. he is a free man, and perhaps at last something within him feels it.

yet he is concerned about la, he's trying to do the right thing, so he calls aside his family and tells them it's over between them.

 

and we have one of those very few times in ipk when every face is focused on for reaction shot... ah, it is a hindi serial after all, brand architecture demands a sequence like this, think i.

in the meantime, khushi has found out. chamkili knows and cannot chill, as suggested by la...  "aap bole ya na bole isske zimmedar bhi wohi honge" whether you say so or not, he must be responsible for this too, says she with accusation darting off her eyes... well, he is in away, but it's you too actually.

"and that said, let's not take away happiness from the new couple."

khushi dives in to protect la from him... that rakshas. who is looking absolutely smashing in his gala band, the very first time so formally dressed. 

146
 
she's angry... storming at him.

"khushi tum iss tarah kyun..." khushi, why are you... he's perplexed by her behaviour. and really, why is she slamming into him so aggressively. who is she to him? who is he to her? what right, really? yet, she started assuming she had some sort of right a while ago, didn't she? and he never really stopped her... despite his "tum hoti kaun ho?" what splendid intimacy, this attitude of "haq."

"aap har baar hamari nazron mein yeh sabid kar dete hain ki aap arnav singh raizada hain..." you always prove that you are arnav singh raizada indeed.

"khushi, tumhe pata nahin hai ki kya hua..." khushi, you don't know what has happened...

she retorts, when you're there, not difficult to know what must have happened...

he has to hold her hand and drag her to his little space... naturally.

rollicking argument ensues.

he: what you don't know about you needn't speak about!

she: zaroorat hai (there's a need to). you have to tell me this time what's your excuse for breaking la's heart..

he: listen to me...

he's gentler tonight. she's the aggressor. but why so angry? is la incapable of defending herself? or is khushi upset because of something else? maybe something in her needs to know that he can commit? or perhaps somewhere deep inside she'd felt terrible at the thought of him with someone else, and now the guilt of that is sort of niggling. complex this whole thing. that's why maybe he even tolerates it.

she: don't want to listen, you were right, you don't understand feelings, only the language of money and power...

alas, if only she knew...

another brilliant exchange, this time between chamkili and la. a frenetic air all around... chamkili won't let la leave. a loaded tug of war between the two with la's dress. they both want the same... person. someone must let go.

when things settle a bit, khushi tries to bring back joy... some day we'll both find our raj kumar. and if i should get married first, you must come to my wedding.

"main nahin aa paaoongi.." i won't be able to come, acatch in her voice... a pensive la as memories of asr yelling at khushi with concern, "main, bas, main bas aisa hi hoon," and him watching khushi dance, float by.

then, a lovely handover, la style... "chamkili, tumhe mere liye aur ek kaam karna hoga... asr." chamkili, you have to do one more job for me... asr.

"tumhe asr ka khayal rakhna hoga..." you have to take care of asr.

khushi steps back, letting go of la's hands.

"sirf tumhi ek ho jo usse woh sab kah paati ho jo wo nahin sunna chate... i mean asr ko kya chahiye yeh unhe khud hi nahin pata... par tum tum toh samajhdar ho na khushi"

only you can tell him all those things he doesn't want to hear... i mean, what asr wants he himself doesn't know... but you understand things.

"ji?" khushi can't see where this is going, a tad uncomfortable.

"aaj nahin toh kal tum samajh jaogi... chahe asr samjhe ya na samjhe..." one of these days, you'll understand, whether asr does or doesn't.

a large loving hug. in parting.

la leaves... a girl who changed all she could about herself to be loved by a man and his family, though he never asked her to. maybe she lost him here, but she also found love and respect from his family... and when the original la returns once the dust settles, there will perhaps be a positive change left in her from this whole experience.

a scene that sticks. anjali asks, "par hua kya hai chhote... hume batao toh sahi..." but what's happened chhotey (why are you braeking up), at least tell me.

"bata deta..." grits teeth. would have told you... then he can't go on. i wonder why. is it because he still has no idea... or is finding it impossible to fathom these feelings... or because he still has no idea that she is free... like him?

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