episode 155 here's your gift and all that swag

 
"kaisa taofa, bua ji?" what sort of gift, bua ji, asked khushi and out came a red bundle that had khushi practically choking.

bua ji has decided in her fit of love and sudden memories of her wonder days that her favourite niece is going to don her wedding lehenga for payal's wedding, after all, she was about the same size as sanka debi when she was her age.

a hilarious sequence handled adroitly by all four actors, the little looks exchanged between payal and garima were just right, while khushi and bua ji took the lead in bringing the house down.

my favourite dialogue: dekha, sanka debi kaise nissabd hui gayo hai...
see, how sanka debi has become speechless.

she has. and she never is otherwise, is she...

the one who can't stop talking was rendered silent by this red lehenga, an aunt's wedding dress. in almost a mirroring of this, a favourite ipk technique i keep thinking, she was speechless both literally and in her heart when another red lehenga became her wedding dress, in reality. then too she was forced. only that time talk of nand kissore couldn't deflect the approaching peril. 

an episode touched by wedding time fun and that extra dazzle in the air, also a sense of evil as snake plotted ways to use his over dependent wife's lack of faith in herself against her. creepy scene that falling suitcase one. how he assessed the situation, saw the opportunity and moved in. another mirror this. there is that asr like fleetness of thought in him, a sharp ability to quickly assess, but their essential characters are at hundred and eighty degrees from each others, so the same abilities find completely different uses and expressions.

life partners seemed to be the key to this episode. all the nuances and feelings around a wedding from love and joy to the heartache and sorrow of bidaai were here. i liked the way the story teller connected new year to meeting one's partner for life as well.
 
at shantivan, a scene unlike any in a hindi serial. three young men... very different men they, are in the drawing room. one immersed in love, the other in his packet of chips, the third sitting still at his laptop.

as the fun and games got underway and akash pined, while nk who had started the whole thing off with his talk of new year and the first face you see, etc., lounged on a sofa, munching noisily and being goofy chilled out cousin, a furious one glowered silently. everything about nk irritated him, not that he could ever be seriously jealous of this chap, but that familiarity he enjoyed with khushi certainly irked.

there was an easy urbane classic silly yet really funny intelligent air about the scene. yes, a bit reminiscent of joey, ross and chandler the three were, but they were indisputably nk, akash, asr... i have not seen this sort of thing pulled off in a serial hindi. they do try, but somewhere along the way i find myself just switching off. there's just no vibe, no understanding of what's going on, more often than not the acting is loud, trying to be funny.

here even when fairly cliched stuff happened, like nk stalking akash while he spoke to payal, there was a clean lightness, a genuine mirth and that all male robust energy, something was always sharp and right. if you weren't careful, your dil may take a liking to all three men.

interestingly, and i really wonder why, akash with payal was faultlessly boring but when he was with asr or nk, even in that hapless contour of his, something felt exciting. he felt real. could simply be that deadly thing called "kaamistry" heard of in episode 154.

then there was chemistry which doesn't even need the reagents to meet in a test tube.

the moment bua ji mentioned a gift had to be bought for payaliya's jeth ji, a happy face jerked into a frown.

"unhe kuch dene ki kya zaroorat hai?" what's the need to give him anything, exclaimed khushi meanly. something almost physical in the way she did the unhe... felt as though he was part of her.

"hum bataye? wo jo daftar mein aag bujha ne ke liye chhota cylinder aata hai na, wahi de dijiye..." she advised giving him a small fire extinguisher since he was always angry... others breathed, he just got gussa.

yes, asr was angry deep within, there was a fire burning him for far too long; and perhaps the "chhota cylinder" that would douse that fire that pain and burning, had already arrived, a gift for payliya's jeth ji. that same payaliya would be used to make sure his gift never ever left his side.

when talk went to how payal would soon belong to another family, my hackles rose. we really need to stop passing down this notion of a girl being a commodity, to be passed on to another family the moment she marries... almost all cultures have had these ideas and treated a woman as a thing. not right. definitely wrong. we are our own person, we grow up around our family, when we marry we accept into our lives our partner's fam just as he does ours... no beti becomes paraya.

i want to hug the writers of khushi for making her say that.
whether we accept it or not, what we see and hear and like, influences us... time to show women with a bit of respect for us as individuals and also to unburden the man of his always got to be right with beatific smile, providing material stuff as if that is all he's here to do image. that sentence may be hard to understand, but you know what i mean.

ipk experimented a lot with set stereotypes... i liked that. there was healthy irreverence there and genuine spark. an empathy, a sense of character and story.

sometimes a simple line said so much about someone.  here khushi said something that gave us a clear view into her character. "aur jiss baat se man dukhi hota hai, usske baare mein socho hi mat..." and what makes you unhappy, don't even think about it, was her simple advise to payal who was feeling the onset of sadness at the thought of bidaai.

if asr's tragedy blighted his heart, his innermost, tenderest part... if he put up a fort to make sure nothing ever got him like that again; and in the bargain became the gussa spewing, seemingly hardhearted, incapable of joy, arrogant young man; khushi did equally her own thing with her share of rain.

she decided to look away from it... and look at what made her happy instead. she created her own reasons to be happy, almost a make believe world at one level, her sapno ki duniya. her stars, her relationship with dm, her eating, her talking, she did all it took to never look at misery. splendid magnificent effort. because maybe she knew you can't change a thing about what hurt her, made her feel terrible. she came out sunny, mirth filled, ready to slay dragons, yet inside her there remained a part that hid from harsh reality. never faced it.

perhaps that's why she had to meet the man who had never ever run away from looking at reality even when it made him sad, made him ache, made him angry.

man at laptop. i must as always pause to gawk.

pacing desperate akash... must meet payal. nk eats chips. asr finds this dithering by akash and nonchalance of nk, the whole thing... irritating. once in a way an impatient look at the cousins.

and then just like khushi had done, the seething at the mention of khushi by nk.

i fell for "so what, akash..." when the sweet man was all tongue tied and couldn't speak to bua ji.

nk's "mard ban!" be a a man, was funny.

but what became the episode's aaargh point was that walk by an irate man in brown waist coat and slim fitting trousers from the sofa to the stuttering cousin past the piece of furniture in the way. he is the shortest and slimmest among the three, he is also in sombre colours... but of course he commands all one's attention.

the word swag just enters the scene and stays put. the brain stops functioning.

"hello, bua ji" says the man as akash gapes.

a topsy turvy comic conversation gets going. they will not meet this episode. but they will rant/seethe at the mention of the other. they will also take turns to snatch the phone away from others to hurl anger and insults at each other. who's going to tell them that's how people who give a faraq behave, not otherwise.

payal's anxiety at not being allowed to talk to akash ji thanks to flakepot sis in deep conversation about dance moves with nk was funny. especially because nk was trying to flirt and get khushi ji time while khushi ji was totally oblivious of this. he said "round round" and one had to think of lavanya... thus pulling me back to interesting places and people in the tale i like.

finally payaliya's jeth ji had to snatch the phone from nk and caustically say, "na ki tum nanhe ke saath intelligent baatein kar sako," you called so payal and akash could speak, not so that you can say intelligent things to nk.

intelligent.

took me straight to the future this one. tum kitni intelligent ho.

the dialogue was gorgeous, brought out everything, including that grazing irritated fed up angry faraq. he adores her sanka, her silly prattle, her crazy gene. 
intelligent man, knows what will save him.

okay before i go, why was that voice at the end dubbed later? and it definitely wasn't shyam. maybe someone felt we wouldn't understand shyam is plotting away, so... say it to the masses. we are not so intelligent after all. 

this one had to be done.

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episode 290 an uncanny silence

what if you are watching something that you love deeply, where you have seen the most sublime moments transpire and then full of hope and a feeling in your bones you are going to see some stunning stuff leading off that now, you go and sit in front of the tv.

and then what starts unfolding, first feels like the beginning of that wonderful thing you wait for.

then starts to confuse you. are you missing something here? and how come there are so many shots of a man's double? and why is the man standing practically stock still, he who is always animated, known for fleet agile movement, the finger jabbing, the alacrity of his muscles and sinew? and why does he not speak? hasn't he kept quiet too long already?

you still wait, putting your faith in what you love and say, bet they are getting ready for some real smashing story point here. see, see, how shyam is in offence is the best defence mode? and there, he is beginning to challenge all the evidence nk and khushi are coming up with...now even payal has jumped into the fray... and mami ji has brought up many questions.. now surely...

but some part of you is beginning to go slack, feeling hope melt away, a funny fear creeping up. this may not be going at all where you think it is.

again you give your flailing heart a whack and say, believe... baat sach ya jhoot ki nahin hai... baat hai vishwaas ki.

and you watch. more courtroom style drama. ah so you invaded my privacy and got your evidence? oh really, i signed the papers? so where are they?... and the bad guy rages while the good guys look flummoxed and lost and growing more desperate...the voice application password comes up. and nk in his usual unguarded way, chasing the truth, fighting the bluffmaster blurts out, "yeah woh i love you khushi..." and the cat is out of the bag.

a man looks at a cretin.

the game enters the final mudslinging rounds. defence rushes and ambushes the judge.

he starts screaming and anjali shocks him and me with a raised hand. you know, even on this watch i got taken in and asked myself, so how exactly did they turn the story after this moment?

nk thinks he has got through. a beautiful shot of him beginning to smile, looking at di.

"behudi baatein karna band kijiye," stop saying shameless things, she bursts out.

"band kijiye, aap dono!" she turns and yells at khushi and nk.

this is the moment when asr would have stepped in, i note.

but he doesn't.

nothing really to say about this episode beyond that excruciating sense of disappointment when he just kept quiet.

because writer had written so.

because of exactly what reasons will always escape me.

and really the whole oh so clever attitude brought to this moment of story, a tragedy... a sense of cheap thrills in the writing and the direction.

this was really not the moment for it, it was the last place in fact. also, yes, one episode of asr's silence... that has traction, increases curiosity, makes the viewer a bit nervous yet excites... because the expectation builds.

i have no problems with the whole "look into my eyes and trust me" thing either... i have a huge problem with the story telling, the heart of the writing, the depth the writer sought. no matter how much one rationalises, what feels wrong, just feels that way.

and the mind and muscle and rhythm of heartbeat stops responding... no matter how much the head says, stay calm and keep vishwaasing.

290 was a sad sad one. because writers forgot that when we go close to ipk our dhadkan becomes tez. and the reason is the same... because somewhere heartbeats unite.

when you play with the heartbeat of ipk, you play with mine.

i understand that even the screenplay writer of the show has laughed and said, it is only a tv show, so stop getting so caught up with it. i am sure neither barun nor sanaya will perhaps understand exactly where the involvement is and why ipk means so much. of course, i expect no sensitivity or understanding from gul and star plus who view such things as merely "products" to be assessed in terms of "profits" which in their thinking is only of the monetary kind.

and if they sniff immense love for the show they would only again use it to make money, nothing else.

and really i don't blame any of these people. a tv show is not supposed to matter so much.

a man is not supposed to snap an unknown girl's dori and the woman is not supposed to fall in love with that man and that man is not supposed to turn out to be a magnificent creature with the most spectacular attitude toward, of all things, women and actors on tv are not supposed to act so well and a suave wealthy man from the world of fashion is not supposed to go all crazy about a girl in a tight churidar with pompom and choti and we are not supposed to feel and sense a man on a screen at this level, nor a woman.

but supposing is what the rational part of us does. the extra rational hopes, yearns, loves, ascends.

never was a rational thing anyway. never could we provide proof of why and where and how.

but if anyone had looked into my eyes, or yours that day, they'd have seen the sadness that perhaps khushi felt when on the night she had expected so much, he came and said grimly, shadi karni hogi.

that moment when he kept quiet, when i knew he didn't... well then on it was just my eyes watching, not really me.

and now shyam has actually admitted he signed the divorce papers. 
 
he did it apparently for parivar's izzat and ghar ki shanti...

distracted part of me notes, yeah, even khushi had said that, or believed that when she kept quiet about shyam. interesting...

but not really.

when they couldn't tell the story perhaps the way they wished to, either because of channel interference or because they had run out of inspiration or whatever, there was a tendency to turn toward being what is known as "hatke" to stay "ipk". hatkeness being identified as a feature, a key differentiator of brand ipk.

that is when ipk always suffered most. because all this loop closing and clever writing was really the little hooks that brought in and kept a thinking contemporary audience. even the chemistry, while integral, was not enough in iteslf. what really had me here and in dhakdhak was a deep deep love romance and love story... an understanding of the nature of love... a daring to explore it, hope, yearn, ascend, not give in to cliches.

and that suffered when asr did not speak.

for me.

he has just saved about an hour and a bit ago the woman he loves more than his life. of course, he is worried about his family, his sister... he has just realised the sister's husband is the heinous one. he knows apart from trying to kill him, this man left khushi tied and gagged on a road to die.

he knows khushi has reached a point where she can't keep quiet anymore.

but no matter how worried he is about di... would he still keep quiet when the pressure on khushi is increasing like this? when he hears about that password, would he only leave it to a cold hard stare? and when his sister turns and accuses khushi of behudi baatey would he just let it be?

"main tumhare b-" he has already said... just a bit back... he has seen her almost gone. heartbeat not audible.

i tell you... this is really not funny.

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episode 338 khushi... you?

the rage and the incredulous look. that's all i really remember from this episode. and then the helplessness...

when you love someone with all your heart, you can make massive errors, but you can equally be absolutely a hundred percent spot on right. that emotion makes you react in ways unfathomable i believe.

if seeing khushi in shyam's arms completely played hell into asr's sense of judgment and he erred hugely, equally did he learn to believe and trust and realise the truth, thanks to that same emotion. and once he knew shyam had messed with both the important women in his life, there was no going back. never again. not even if his beloved sister was aching and begging for a change in his decision.

he knew shyam was bad for her. and he would not let shyam anywhere near di. he in fact was out looking for a sensible, effective way to nurse di back to health.

and anyway, i didn't quite understand the strange collapse of anjali's health with the nurse calling out every next dramatic turn for the worse in monotone. nor did i get the super flap by her family, and all the achhi bahu khana making and competing. was this ipk?

finally of course, instead of going to a doctor khushi went and knocked on the murderer's door because creatives had failed to find a more interesting way to bring shyam back.

as i have said before, i understand the dramatic potential of this "twist" but for that you have to convince me that khushi had areally good reason to do so. alas, you haven't done that. so all it does is makes me think why am i watching this episode.

then i see a man turn on the staircase he had just started climbing (sorry the super tan tan tan entry of your favourite villain and focusing on his shoes just as you have before on asr's did not get me all excited so did not mention it) and his expression changes, and i am glued. all thought stops. could it be not only because the chap is gorgeous to look at, the man we call hotwa, but really because he is in character. that is asr. the man i met in episode one still capable of fabulous out of control anger especially when his heart is involved.

he came down swiftly, chucked his jacket onto a sofa, he had been elegantly carrying it on the crook of his arm... and went right up to shyam and stopped him... hand straight reaching for collar.

to that right correct anger... salaam.

he was not going to tolerate this man in his home. i was glad to see his nani and mami, and later nk and payal, none of them looked pleased at the sight of the man di was pining for no matter how much they cared for her. sense, intelligence, ability to take the right decision... valuable things.

would be good if these instead of mahaanta was the key differentiating property of the achhi bahu format endorsed by television land. a land which is our virtual duniya from eight to twelve every evening.

asr seethed with fury... who brought the abhorrent pretender here he wanted to know.

"answer me, dammit! kissne bulaya tha tumhe?!" how does this actor keep himself so convinced?

after the requisite dramatic pause, came a single word from the nineteen to a dozen girl. even that felt wrong. khushi would never talk like that. she may walk up with head bent, clutching her hands or rush in with a thousand explanations, but that cool smug voice. ugh.

the first time i saw the episode, i think i was more shocked than asr. just as i could never believe shyam had kidnapped asr despite all the huge thunking bricks chucked at us as "hints"... i also could not believe khushi, of all people, would bring him back, no matter how many times they showed her muttering to herself, even saying there might be "anarth" and she could not let that happen.

and why anarth would happen so easily, i didn't get. anjali had a miscarriage and was weak, why this melodramatic handling of the whole thing?

"humne."

he looked up and in his eyes was stupefaction followed by a rush in of emotions... i wonder what they were. horror, anger, sense of betrayal...

"khushi! tumne!!" he sounds flabbergasted.

and the emotions pile up. she does this little let me explain to you thing, hand on his shoulder, holier than thou look on. "arnav ji!" hushed urgent whisper, she knows better tone... he is the one who doesn't samjho, understand. "hamari baat samajhne ki..."

he flinches away. incensed.

a real person. yes, that is what i would do too. there can never be any explanation that will justify this.

and there isn't, no matter what the writer writes.

upstairs in her bedroom, anjali, the offering, has heard "mere shyam ji's" voice and she struggles and heaves to sit up. i watch daljeet... a rather dramatic way about her always. she takes the frame and makes it hers, she has a certain presence. and i really don't mind her acting too. again, it's the writing that doesn't gel.

daljeet does this lover in unbounded need of her lover thing, hurls herself out of bed and rushes limping and falling to her husband. out of the room, down te many steps, dash against the walls then finally face to face with him... hair open and flowing, desperate love in eyes, a joy descending on features... almost manic. she looked beautiful to me. and yes a terrible poignancy in her love for a sick creature. for her love was always true. an emotion that can make you think galat and sahi both.

asr looked on. did a funny helplessness come into his eyes? he could not stop di from falling into shyam's arms. but he did tell shyam, he did not believe him when shyam said he was here only for anjali's sake.

i felt asr's extreme loneliness. he knows what is right. but there's no point. both the women he loves are not with him on this.

and when anjali hugged him, he really couldn't bring himself to return the hug.

no one had taken more care of her than him... today achhi bahu knows better. i think khushi is out there on the steps looking at this scene as had once before gazed at a brother and a sister from outside a temple. and her eyes are brimming over, feeling terrible for her laad governor.

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episode 360 yes, i am bad.

 

"the gods do make playthings of us ... but it is we mortals who provide them with the tools."  melina marchetta

at last, justice did come and strode in determined to have its day. a highly dramatic denouement unfolds. shyam, who is anything but nand kissore, is about to be vanquished and anjali, gandhari in so many ways, must lose her blindfold. how assiduously she has defended him, putting all at stake, even her own morals; but alas for nought, an evaporating feeling in her eyes seem to say. not april, with apologies to t.s e., october is the "cruelest month." alas, poor anjali. we enter the days of check mate, the last few moves, the drum beats call out.

i am happy to see the obnoxious and obscene miscarriage maker in the centre of the stage, snarling, spitting venom, writhing and lurching, only one knowledge in his eyes: it is over. yes, this is the end, my fiend.

as the drama began, and nothing seemed to touch me though the content was exciting, i wondered. and then i saw him. the man who'd said, "main laaoonga."

he sat by his sister, watching her every move silently. she laughed, she smiled, the little princess of her castle, she who'd never been asked to grow up, get real. he watched her without word, his eyes worried: what will happen to you, my dearest one, when your fantasy disintegrates as it will any second now?

as the emotions moved across his face, i knew it'd be he, who will check. and mate. check aur mate hui gawa, trilled the shatranj khiladi mami of yesterday.

every frame of this man was moving, and spoke and said stories no one could have written. without him, this episode would have left me just disturbed and cold. there were vignettes of fine acting by daljeet, abhaas, nani ji. but who kept it ipk and together for me personally was this man.

ipk always took me to the greats. there was always a moment in it completely missing in tv soap. isn't there a something of macbeth and his lady so black in the character of shyam? he who killed his own baby, the way lady m told macbeth she could if need be. 

"i have given suck, and know
how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
i would, while it was smiling in my face,
have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
and dash'd the brains out, had i so sworn
as you have done to this."

oh shyam had a lady macbeth in him and it's a pity his raanisahiba never saw who he was. she allowed him to become god in her eyes, and he did just make her his plaything. his pawn. as a woman there is an insane rage i feel for her, as a person i wish to tell her: this is what happens when you don't take charge of your own life, when you refuse to see reality, refuse to get hurt. 



yet all my self righteous rant was silenced as i saw the truth hit her eyes. i wished to protect her just like her brother. there is something truly vulnerable in anjali, that makes you want to forgive and hold her even when you know she is wrong, or she is partly responsible. i always found her character interesting, touching, and full of possibility... one could take her to great heights, however trp and things kept that from happening.

she never became the raizada she had it in her to be.
the warrior had tears in his eyes, but he was ready. when the cue came, he sprang, "you tried to kill my sister with those medicines." and after two days of baiting and the fresh raw recounting of his deeds before all, the enemy slipped, "that was not to kill her, that was merely to abort her baby."

"if the assassination
could trammel up the consequence, and catch
with his surcease success; that but this blow
might be the be-all and the end-all here,
but here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
we'd jump the life to come. but in these cases
we still have judgment here; that we but teach
bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
to plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
to our own lips."

                                                         

again words from macbeth come to mind. there are consequences to all our actions. and we face them right here, on this earth. the lessons of our mythologies too, actually, and this is the mythology period of ipk or so i feel. the episodes were first telecast around durga puja, as devi paksha set in and the whole country went into dussehra mode... not a chance happening i think. ram would soon pray to durga to come when she is not supposed to (okaal bodhan) to help him slay ravan. and the goddess would come. evil would be removed. 

from a morality point of view and in terms of content, the episode worked for me. however, the execution was not my glass of whisky. as such, that doesn't trouble me. sometimes i'm happy with the content and don't dwell on the form. plus there were a set of eyes that wouldn't let me look away, that brought meaning to the whole thing.

but before i go, i really wanted to say this, for it's on my mind. i have always been very fond of khushi. there is a natural, funky, free, spirited, and "like no other" side to her that makes her very very dear to us. i am worried for that girl. i sense i'm seeing her become "like many others" before my eyes. like asr, this is a rare character. 

strange, she no longer speaks to dm, wouldn't taking on shyam be a reason for a deep chat? she rarely fries jalebis, she doesn't even rabba vey. all she wants to do is be patni, and save parivaar and parampara. newly married (as she wished to) to the man of her dreams. no nok, no jhok. even if shyam and his vinaash were the need of the hour, surely there was space for a bit of cootchie cooing in the middle of it all? something unnatural here. i don't even see that khushi smile any more. saddens me. yes, sanaya's voice is lovely and she has incredible poise, a bit of audrey in her here.

 

that is beautiful emoting there, but still, i miss khushi. ever since her marriage, i have barely seen her as she is. the humour is too much or the seriousness. had i glimpsed the girl i know a few times last couple of days, the impact of this scene would perhaps have been much much more. 

if shyam is anjali's culprit, he is khushi's too. in a way more. for she in no way encouraged him or invited his attention. 
he duped her, lusted after her, tried to molest her, ruined her hopes of a relationship with the first man she ever felt anything for her and at a time when she hadn't even given the feeling a name. oh those tender days of love awakening, killed by shyam at their infancy. she wasn't pregnant with child, she was pregnant with the first touches love.

khushi's deep, layered and terrible feelings around shyam are justified. i'd like to hear a bit about that too. both the women in arnav singh raizada's life have lost something infinitely precious, thanks to this man. khushi has bravely fought to save anjali, who will fight for khushi? or maybe i needn't ask?   

shyam manohar jha is making all the wrong moves. the others, like pieces on a chess board like the day asr returned after being kidnapped and the interrogation got going, stand still as he moves madly about again, much as he'd done during the earlier round which ended on two slaps. not this time. have to say, though most of abhaas's acting felt like jatra, overdone, i did like that break into eyes closed, eyes open, and a sudden flight to "hum bure hain!" 
the warrior looked on. eyes like steel. it was done. game over.

adapted from my crooner take on this episode.

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episode 354 camera finish

there was something so positively strange about 354, it was completely ajeeb. and i don't mean that in a nice way.

just now we have seen the struggle the two have gone through to get married. finally you have the beautiful coming to mandap, albeit somewhat late, by the tycoon... and the lovely jhalli bride throwing her arms around him in front everyone, just holding him, needing him. and he the same.

this has come after days of drama and tension. surely you can wait one episode before jumping into some crazy story involving shyam and cameras. cameras i think are an obsession with the writers, just like dawai, and why is it that shyam has these cameras up at all? and even if he has, must we see him just minutes after episode opens?

i remember cynthia's extreme ire with the post marriage hoopla to avoid any intimate scenes between two people, now twice married to each other.

what is this coyness?

or was it not coyness, more a deal? had the channel allowed the writers to move away from the separation idea and have asr come to khushi at a simple cost... you must have some nefarious drama on and not let any happiness in. that way audience will be tense and trapped.



and yet, ipk writers used to be so good at balancing the good the bad and the shyam. so what happened now? guess i'll never know.

a most bland episode, like kheer without sugar. i am remembering how asr hates it and smiling. so where are those writers?



instead shyam in red on a wedding night. how pathetically boring. he sits peering at a computer while his wife comes and goes without noticing what he is seeing.



khushi and asr spoke of his mother and his hurt. again, nothing touched me, though yes, the dulha looked deadly. such a pat conversation, all the so called right noises made. this show was about making the wrong things sound right, dammit.

couple of lines from one mr asr i did like.

"tum meri behen ho..."
are you my sister...

he said to nk, a weird smile in his eyes. now i have been watching this man carefully when he is with nk, he has such a glint in his eyes as the nand kissore from down under gets going. this is too cute thinks the aged aunty viewer, who has never been part of trp audience alas, for then she might have mattered.. asr is a little helpless before the loopy coz. just as he is before the lunatic bride. and this surely is true bromance.

"di ko uss aadmi ke aage kuch nazar nahin aata."
di can't see beyond this man.

he adores his sister but knows her well. and that slight irritation in his tone, so natural.

"jitni bhi giri hui harkat ho yeh insaan kar sakta hai."
however lowdown an act may be, this man can do it.

he knows his jija ji well too. i like the fact that asr learns from his mistakes. no one can ever convince him again that shyam has changed or is a good guy. he is base, that is all there is to it. human asr is, he makes mistakes, but fool he isn't.

so i am afraid, i don't think on his suhag raat, despite the cheesy linked hearts on the wall, he would waste any time talking about this and that. he would actually lay her down on the bed and start making love to her immediately. with extreme passion.

maybe the writers didn't write that only to spare poor shyam.

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the meant nothing episodes

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episode 260 why him

"hume chhoone ki koshish bhi mat ki jiye aur bahar nikal jaiye yahan se," don't even try to touch me and leave this room, she says.

he grabs her hand.

"aapke aansoo sirf usske liye bahte hain jo aapko sabse zyada dard diya hai," your tears flow only for the one who has given you the most amount of hurt, he is perplexed, pained almost. why is it so, he wants to know.

"aapko sach mein nahin pata..." you really don't know, do you... she has a strange smile as she says that.

there might have been no need to write anything on this episode, watching was hard enough, but for the little something i thought i noticed in the shyam khushi interaction.

was there an attempt to bring back complexity... that natural human element of envy and obsession, both quite a part of shyam's mind. he directly asks her what is it about the other guy that makes her want him, his touch though he is so incredibly nasty to her, gives her only sorrow and hurt, it seems to really perplex him. yes, he is disgusting to even be there with that phone as his excuse and his weapon... but he felt more real for an instant than the lecherous obvious flat one of the shirtless episode and the others in recent times. his agony seemed genuine and his obsession too... he lost his cool with his wife. the carefully maintained facade which holds through most things, slipped. something about khushi wanting asr and almost telling him how much when she says rhetorically, you really don't know do you, just penetrates that thick coat of self enraptured amoral/immoral excessive egoistic godless gunk and he bleeds. he also knows that his game was not played to adroitly, she knows he is not interested in the papers he had been feigning great interest in just to keep her on tenterhooks and perhaps to adhere her to him. both his dil and dimaag are challenged. it leaves him shaken.

my feeling, in a rather inspired creative take and with clever writing, shyam in his core was the other side of asr... shyam was often painted with asr like features but with definitely the ugly end of the brush. he too had that shatir thing, he too had a feeling for khushi, he too believed in making his own life... but he lacked an essential element, something asr practically defined... conscience. and yes, an inalienable purity in the materials that made him... shyam was ashudh, impure incarnate, maybe that's why his hindi had to be so shudh, so pure. and so we saw the other side of those very traits. no idea why but i am thinking of ghee spilling on asr at janmashtami and some sort of message of his purity coming through, ignore my wild mind.

for a moment i felt for shyam that more complex feeling... he felt like a real human being with a completely messed up character. something of the fallen angel perhaps in him... the one he adores shuns him and prefers another. no matter how wrong or warped or vicious he is, a sense of an emotion in him, a genuine cut.

had they worked with that, might have been interesting, but they kept waffling and shifting and finally made him completely meaningless.

i must say, i felt bad for abhaas. not a bad actor he... to have stripped his shyam of all subtlety and made him loud and meaningless was not good for the story and really sad for abhaas. he might have pulled off a far more shaded character, though yes, shyam never ever was the true antagonist of asr. stature just not there.

here his envy of asr is quite clear... what is it about him that you like so much... why do you reject me.

hints of this will keep coming up i seem to recall. but nothing will be done to make it part of narrative.

apart from this one thing, 260 really felt as though all creatives had taken time off and left writing, direction, editing, sound, everything to rookies and interns. perhaps 258 and 259 exhausted them.

otherwise how can anyone after those dhamakedar twist episodes, for once living up to the eternal tv serial promise, have regressed to this.

in terms of the logic of khushi opting out of involving cops and looking for private investigators, there was nothing off. but everything else was. everything. including the way manorama mami's antenna sprang up and how she got involved. it was as if people with no knowledge of ipk were suddenly directing it. and what was that whole detective agency set up... the writing was so obvious you wanted to run and hug them and say there there... really.

i have noticed that in my earlier pieces i have said that i believe writers led by ved raj and gautam hegde tried their best to hang onto the whole thing, but channel and trp and an "adjusting" production house were too much to push back against. i am a copywriter, i know these sort of pressures can ruin things... but now more and more i feel, someone fairly senior among the writers also just let it go... lost the passion.

that was the thing.

that passion one could always feel earlier now seemed to diminish. only to reappear in little patches here and there. and every time it did, it brought utter beauty. alas the lack of passion also took us to the other end of that.

260 certainly was not touched by passion.

and there was no barun. 

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shyam said it

"thoda dard hoga-a... par iss payr ko theek karne ka ek hi ilaaj hai."

shyam said this in episode 14 and did to buaji's foot exactly what asr did to khushi's in 110.

wow, i thought, i wasn't imagining it. it was a deliberate thing in ipk. almost everything asr did or said, that was significant, was done or said by someone else. often shyam... sometimes others, but presented another facet of the same thing. there was always this sense of reflections, mirrors, deja vu.

shyam and asr seemed to reflect two sides of something, as if the same thing passed through different material changes entirely and becomes something else, and reveals the nature of the material itself.

don't you think this thoda dard hoga and the foot treatment is too similar to be just a coincident or people running out of ideas?

similar dialogues often got said by different people in ipk. i used to wonder why... hitesh kewaliya not being able to keep up with the pace and demands of a daily soap? or was there something to it? a technique of story telling? creating recall and layering memory with what's unfolding before our eyes.

i am always intrigued.

diwali and koi matlab nahin episodes

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