episode 159 a midnight forever

my baby moves at midnight
goes right on till the dawn
my woman takes me higher
my woman keeps me warm

what you doin in the back aah
what you doin in the back aah?
you should be dancing, yeah
dancing, yeah

she's juicy and she's trouble
she gets it to me good
my woman gives me power
goes right down to my blood

~~~ barry, maurice and robin gibb of the beegees, saturday night fever ~~~

anyone seen saturday night fever here? remember the song? tell me the words were not written for that woman and her man. i have never known what to call this episode. the shut up episode? the bara baj gaye episode? the huma hoon do episode? but as i watched today, i realised call it what you like, this one was about a song in the heart and body, about a dance set up by a certain nand kissore, a midnight melody that was all about a potent thing called love and it struck at the witching hour.

"bara bajne wale hain..." about to strike twelve... she leaps around in the dark with the ubiquitous jalebi.

bara kisske bajne wale hai, i wonder... "bara baj gaye," a colloquial take on someone/thing being messed up, done for... memory of a sardar ji joke. yet despite the cuteness of the moment, nothing feels like a joke. in a darkened room, stand the two who are circling each other in a parallel arena in an unseen plane. a dance of conquest and capitulation in progress... long long before the actual dance comes along.

between them the rose, challenge, the heart of it all... the one whose face you'll see at midnight, the crossover moment from the past to the future, that will be the one with whom you'll live your lifetime. a lifetime decided in one midnight moment. whom will you see at this moment? whom do you want to see? who will pick up that rose and look the other in the eye. as you can tell by now i suppose, i was terribly struck by the episode. especially the opening sequence.

he rises from behind her bed at her words and heartbeats start. were they his? the dhak dhak had arrived just that he was not tuning in? what's that look in his eyes, a little flustered... he knows what's coming.

"dus... nau...aat.." she chimes... no idea that the other person in the room was not her jiji.

"seven... six..."  outside the room and its bated expectations, under the stars an open love affair, gentle soft... stated. lovely, but no dance in it... maybe some sweet poetry. payal and akash... who knows, if the writing had remained steady, they might have reached the level of unsaid underlying communication that khushi and asr always had. payal closes her eyes.

  

"jiji, utho na..." jiji, wake up (open your eyes)... squeals and hops khushi... nice detail.

"paanch... chaar... teen..." he's wondering what to do... sees his phone... maybe he thinks of escaping after he's got what he came looking for?

"ek... aur," khushi takes a crunchy bite of jalebi... meetha for naya saal i guess... khushi is really determined to set up a great year... not see that laad governor's face...

he picks up the phone, she switches on the light, eyes shut still... jumps... "jiji!"

he draws himself up and is standing right in front of her...

she opens her eyes.

he had to be there i guess... there was no way out... not once the fort faraq was showing its cracks, not when he couldn't stop thinking of her no matter how crazy and weird she was. not when he hated to see her dancing with nk and some sixth sense perhaps told him... not tonight... no one else but me.

but that was all deep talk in his cells... he was still the man he knew himself to be. rough tough arrogant tycoon who has no time for such frivolous ideas as love, new year and that sort of nonsense.

she opens her eyes... and it's... not the face she expected to see. her smile slips. in shock... but was there any dismay?

a curtain wipes in a transition to his face... he looks a little helplessly back... he so didn't want to be here... or did he?

hey hey... while they both react without joy... something else within is having a blissful moment. you are here, yes i am, i knew you would be, oh, did you? lovers have conversations without words... all the time. rarely do they do it so eloquently.

direction, lighting, camera, music, acting... check.

she blinks... his hair flies a bit in the breeze. two people stock still... tiny movements without, so much going on within... wish i could see it all but perhaps it is too private a thing.

the jalebi falls.

she breathes a little heavily... an almost tearful look on her face... what is she to do with this gust of emotion, this pause that she wants to stay in.

two people caught in an undeniable moment.

before all the denials begin again.

this subtext rich nature of ipk thrills me. there seems to be an understanding of us humans way beyond the scope of this genre. we, who fight so hard to be rational yet are in the end, in essence, extra rational. just like love... faith... every emotion. we, who have tried so hard to express everything in words, find words for each and every phenomenon... yet the most important things in our world cannot be expressed in utterances... that's in looks, in pauses. in auras and energies. in the language of the body when it's driven by our spirit.

"aap?" squeaky and shrill.

"shaat up..." so the first words of the new year that he said to her were, shut up. niiice. so much right over a girl you couldn't care less for...

she raves, he tries to stop her...

"khushi, tum..."

"aap yahan aaye kyun," why have you come here... she's unstoppable. she has not appeared before him as he'd said and she'd sworn not to.

"kyunki mera phone yahan par rah gaya," because my phone was here... through clenched teeth (must say the setting up of that was pretty neat)...

"aapka phone akele chal ke toh nahin aaya hoga..." your phone couldn't have walked in here all by itself... poor man, his inquisitor has no idea about the glue shenanigans of the evening.

"hey bhagwan..." holding her head... "sabse pehle humne kisska chehra dekh liya..." oh lord, whose face did i see first thing in the year. it's kind of rude...

he can't believe it... as though she is the only one in a place she doesn't want to be in...and maybe a bit angry too... the way she speaks of "kisska chehra..." the chehra many women would kill to see and this disdain from a chit of a small town crazy girl in pompoms. i feel his pain.

 
"excuse me..." oh spiritual sexiness... "maine bhi tumhara chehra dekha hai, ok..." i have also seen your face, ok... a come back... rough, angry, and just  a wee bit childish... oh holy g, save me from this child man... if she is child woman he is no less child man when with her in situations like this... kills me.

she thinks she is more at a loss because she's seen him... him... he, who had challenged her and said she would appear before him...

"ab kaun aya kisske saamne," now who's come before whom.

he's speechless... he is here. but... what the... he never meant to...

you've reached the wrong place at the wrong time just to ruin my new year... alleges kkg.

he still can't counter.

she's yelling, he's wondering how to get her to lower her voice and give her a smashing answer when her tirade hits a new pitch upon seeing the open window.

he walks forward with that incredible lithe grace... he has to shut her mouth physically with his palm (did lips suggest themselves as a better means, my unguarded mind wonders) and push her back.

"shut up... shut up, khushi kumari gupta."

she had just suggested he'd jumped in through the window. sanaya is at hyper khushi best. comical, yet interesting, and totally adorable. he wanted to touch her in some part of him. the force with which he walks up to her, like the ocean rushing to the shore i felt. this metaphor of arnav the ocean and khushi his happiness his shore never is too far away. there is an amazing undulating pull of attraction between the two reflected in what they say, how they look at each other, how they move. especially him... all the time walking to her then moving away only to come back again... the sea in motion, the line along the shore ever changing. dynamic, moving, energetic.

"chillana mujhe bhi aata hai, ok?" i can also shout, ok? yes... we had noticed.

he tells her what's going on... her eyes do dramatic replies and responses... but the moment his hand is removed...

"jiji!!"
 
cute, the way his body jerks instinctively and his hand comes up to somehow get her to keep quiet, "khushi main tumhe akhri baar bol raha hoon, ok?" khushi, telling you for the last time, ok? like he is fed up with this girl he just can't have enough of.

she immediately shuts up, then whispers... "jiji"... can't stop talking this madam.

he is now standing arms folded across chest... assured... maybe he thinks he's come up with a logical explanation for his presence here... and she will not yell... so maybe he can linger.


outside akash is promising undying love over lucknowi chat...

they're standing next to each other by the window... she is all gooey about love... akash ji's faith in it... he's not impressed, looks for his faithful phone.

at "isse kehte hain pyaar," this is called love... he looks up...

"... yakin hi nahi hota ki woh aapke bhai hain." difficult to believe, he's your brother, she says. he was walking away... he turns around... "excuse me?" she realises her folly, yeah you are talking about the great akash who believes in love, so why did you bring laad gov into it exactly? "lekin hume kya pata tha... ghoom phirke aap hi humare saamne aa jayenge?" you'd said, how would i know that in some way or the other you'll come and stand right before me (weak translation, sorry). but kkg, have you asked yourself why all your conversations, all your thoughts, ghoom phirke come and stop in front of this rakshas man?

"excuse me?" he's back by her side... "what?" to and fro moves the ocean... now some surf glinting in the moonlight.

"matlab"... as she expounds on the lovely akash and his yakeen in love which is why he has devised a way to see her jiji's face... the man cuts in...

"filmi aur stoopid bakwas hai." it's all melodramatic rubbish.

you think so, because you don't believe in love, says she.

doesn't he? isn't the breaking of that very vishwaas in love which he's carried in his heart so long. so much love for his father... his mother...  does anyone wonder what arnav singh raizada might have felt for his father? the only son, possibly much pampered in that patriarchal set up... the whole and good son... no limp, no problems? his father might have doted on him... what would anyone feel if their father, the greatest place of trust and the protector was found to be flawed, wanting, a traitor to a whole idea... how would his son feel? this was never delved into... but stayed in my head somewhere always. he adored his mother... maybe his father too? and now that love is shattered but can it just go away? in such a state what is one to do?

"right... nahin karta..." right, i don't believe in love, he retorts and turns away, there are places within he keeps hidden always... in fact even tells himself they don't exist.

"waise arnav ji..." and khushi brings him too close to thoughts he doesn't wish to ponder. it hurts too damn much.

she speaks of the yearnings of this first day of the year, the love people feel for their near ones... how they must be wishing for something for those they cared for...

she was looking away, she didn't see his eyes look a little lost, and that swallow, the adam's apple move up and down... every time he is near an emotion that overwhelms him, that swallow...

"lekin aap... aap mein itni karwahat hai ki, aap ko pyaar bhi bekaar aur bakwas lagta hai?" but you... in you there's so much bitterness, even love feels useless and rubbish to you?

right in the heart of his fort, a strike.

another swallow... a hurt feeling that could span the globe and still have more to go around... again she doesn't sense it...

"aap aise kyun hain?" why are you like this?

main bas aisa hi hoon, says my mind... he knows he acts strangely, he doesn't really mean it, but that's how he is, he has told you long ago, only you don't know. lavanya knows he was trying to tell you many things all along.

our perfect worlds, our perfect raaj kumars who must be a certain way... but what if they are not?

what if they don't say love is everything to them... what if they don't swear eternity in soft caring voice...

what if this is how they say they are capable of more love and passion than you'll ever imagine, that they live and breathe only for that... what if...

again the ocean flows close to his shore, again he says i want you with his body his aura... so urgent his need, his desire for her, she feels it coming at her, she turns away...

"poori duniya kuch mang rahi hai, kyunki poori duniya paagal hai... maangne se kuch milta nahin hai... bakwas hai yeh sab... nakli phool aur taarey lagane se yeh duniya khoobsoorat nahin ho jaati..."

the whole world wants something, the whole world is mad... just by wanting you can't get anything... this is all nonsense... plastic flowers and stars don't make the world beautiful...

i want my mother back... i want my father to be a good man... i want my home to be mine.. i want everything to be the way it used to be... if only just by wanting we could get our world back. poor nasty brutish arnav singh raizada.

his voice is low, intense, his body thrusts forward, his eyes are dark wretched dead but a searing flame within... "yeh duniya utni hi bedard aur pathar dil hai jitni hamesha thi..."... this world is exactly as stone hearted and cruel as it always was. i feel so terrible for this betrayed young man... never can he ever trust...

"par tum nahin samjhogi..." but you won't understand.

and he takes it back to confrontation... from almost a confession of his helplessness before the cruelty of the world. he never explains himself to anybody... but to this woman... he perhaps feels a need to. she thinks he is heartless... perhaps matters to him... so he does the only thing he can... show power... try and hurt.

you don't have the thing that's needed for you to understand this.

what thing... kaunsi cheez? she asks.

he turns around, his confidence back, teasing, baiting... "mujhe laga tha ki tum poochho gi hi nahin..." thought you'd never ask.

"dimaag, kkg," says the dil man.

and nk has arrived with the flowers.

a sense of comedy of errors takes over this point onward. ipk changing flavour. must get the viewer happy sad tearful giddy and once in a way dead after all.

she runs back into the room when she sees bua ji and pushes him back into the room... he starts to protest and she shuts his mouth with her hand now. bua ji is up... please keep quiet.

what was that look in his eyes as he gazed at her so close to him. how splendid this exploration by barun of a man searching for his feelings for a woman.

trying to give it a name.

"kaun hai nand kissore... nand kissore..." who is it nand kissore, comes bua ji hurtling out of her sleep and her room. she will greet nk at the door. there will be all sorts of funny moments. several times will we hear nand kissore... bua ji will say in so many words that the lord had sent nand kissore, his name sake.

nand kissore... cheeks will be pinched... humre nand kissore.

nk will pass out at the thought of spending his whole life with her... her face being the one he saw first at 12 sharp. consequently the vision of the wedding, and the "huma hoon do, nand kissore" a classic moment.

in all of this fun, a little naughty look at a common human thing... an older woman and a young fresh faced boy... against the backdrop of a slightly heightened atmosphere: a wedding in the family. the most unlikely couple they may be, and it's all in jest... but underlying it, what gives it validity and brings on more laughter is perhaps our sensing that a fascination can be there in someone old and lonely for someone so cute and bursting with youth... an innocent sort of thing, a slightly sad sort of thing too. of course, here it's nothing like that... it's bua ji at her batty best and some clever writing to put krishna into the moment. someone was certainly vaishnav in the creative team.

bua ji sees nk as nand kissore's vishesh doot, special representative... he perhaps is... the one sent to completely water that seed of love in the gardener's heart, the one the cosmic gardener has sown... now as fertiliser, a little jealousy, just the right amount, then watch how that love grows, gains colour, brightness, a fleck of immortality.

khushi somehow manages the devil in her room, of course, moving to ott in her desperation. the drama of nk continues... bua ji looks at him mesmerised, nk is worried sick, garima ji puzzled... oh so he wants to wish khushi too? bua ji yells out to khoosie and payaliya, see who's come... nand kissore.

and asr hears of it, nk is here. the face goes into what the mode... yes, cosmic gardener, this fertilizer called nk that is laughter and jealousy in equal parts works good.

"whaat!"

khushi rushes out to handle the chaos there. all she wants to do is get rid of nk and bua ji back in bed somehow. now amma is also here. a deftly handled comedy scene, all players at peak performance.

the man in the room can't take it any more... "what the hell," pace, "yeh nk iss time yahan kya kar raha hai..." what's this nk doing here now... mutterings about his jet lag.

he has to see what's up... he peers out.

bua ji in the meantime waylays the bouquet of red roses as nk tries to pass it to khushi. garima ji is looking pathetically funny, something tells her those were not meant for her sis in law. but too bad, no one but asr can give her roses, you see...

she comes back into the room.

"what the..." another expletive, "nk yahan kya kar raha tha..."


both pace... "aur yeh phool, woh tumhe..." and these flowers, he was giving you... asr doesn't bother to hide the jealousy, does he?

she is pacing. he cuts in in front of her and stops her nervous pace. both flustered, he can't take her looking like this... again crossing all that denial...

"kya hua tumhe, tum theek toh ho?" what's happened to you? are you ok?

i just knew by the way my stomach dropped to my toe and my heart missed a beat that it was the perfect delivery.

"bara baje humne aapka chehra dekha hum theek kaise ho sakte hain..." i've seen your face at 12 midnight how can i be ok? comes the sanaka queen's reply.

please go from here for heaven's sake, she urges

nostrils flare... "aur main kya kar raha tha..." what else was i doing?

her constant pushing away of him seems to have cut deep, he's ready to go out and face buaji too if need be... she drags him away... bua ji wants the darwajja to be opened.
hai re nk, she is coming apart. she tells him to lie down on the bed. he says she's mad. he falls on the bed thanks to her flailing arms and is soon lying on it, covered from head to to toe, being payal.

episode started on dhak dhak, ended with both on the same bed. this was going to be a year to remember.

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episode 154 lead me a budia dance

they are ostensibly at war... but the eyes say otherwise... feelings go their own way. quantum physics comes to mind, or what i think it ponders. the picture may be one thing on the outside at the visible larger level, but look a bit within, at that sub atomic plane, the story is just the opposite.

"aur jisska naam arnav ho wo kuchh nahin kar sakta, right? shayad mujhe tumhe pakadna nahin chahiye tha, girne dena chahiye tha, hmm?" and the one whose name is arnav can't do a thing, right? maybe i should have let you fall, hmm?

husky smoke layered quiet intimacy. that "hmm" gives me instant acidity.

there's sparring over dancing together. both asr and kkg aver vehemently they are going to dance with the other... not. nice setting up, what you don't want to do, life makes you do... i thought. here and in asli duniya too.

i noticed nani and di are already exchanging looks, so the vibes are being picked up by the canny ones around.

she went to practice with nanhe ji... he was stalking off... but how not to look back once, those feelings in him that make him do what he's never done.

nk even is perplexed by the look on the faces. khushi's especially.

sweet akash and payal danced away at their predictable pace while fireworks crackled all around.

writers wrote a fine story to bring bua ji over to shantivan and engineered a momentous meeting. moody madhu claimed the boy's paternal grandma and the girl's maternal grandma have to dance at the wedding. and well, since the lovely young bride's nani had passed on, who else but bua ji could fill the position.

bua ji got ready to give takkar to nani ji... just a while back she had sounded forlorn at the fact that no one asked about her any more, and now suddenly a chance to dance, which she believes she's very good at.. a nice flow in the story. writers had empathy for all teh characters at thsi point, even madhu and her assistant had something believable in their interaction.

"ek aad thumka lagaike aate hain, garima!" lemme go do a couple of moves, garima! bua ji laughed gleefully. watching nani ji and bua ji i again thought ipk had been blessed with really fine actors. nani looked so pleased at the thought of dancing and that added "ladkewale" stuff she did in jest... after all her akas bitwa is getting married. "hum sabko batana chahat hai, ki hum sabki nani hain," i want to let everyone know, i'm everyone's grandma, she declared.

in an episode that moved swiftly and flawlessly, not missing a single step, we came to the ghanti baj jayegi moment... the bell rang and of course nk opened the door for bua ji.

"kaun ho, nand kissore?" who are you, nand kishore, asked the aunt of the handsome young man.

"that's right, hi... aur aap ki tarkeeb?" replied the one named after the lord, delighted she knows his name. he, of course, got his hindi wrong, asked what was her "tarkeeb", way, instead of "tareef", name.

"jiyat raho, babua, khoob jiyat raho," bua ji blessed him with long life.

"ji hi toh raha hoon!" i am living, said he. loved that. then he continued, being somewhat literal, one can't live forever, some day everyone must... hoonh, he pointed upward.

bua ji was horrified, she had to trundle forward and stroke his cheek at that and say, one mustn't speak so.

khushi was delighted with the proceedings and said to her friend she knew bua ji would like him. her friend was happy too, "bua ji likes me..." he beamed, you could see him thinking this was good since he had someone from kkg's family rooting for him. nk is an abs sweetheart, busily going about falling for a girl and dreaming of getting her as he is supposed to at his stage of life or so he reckons possibly. such a harmless feel to this character, there is an innocence in him, reminds me of a playful gamboling young colt.

nand kishore, you're great!...  he smiled.

the two madhus clashed the moment they met. bua ji refused to be fazed by the intricate steps the teacher suggested and said she felt hers was a better way. nani ji showed some graceful steps.

the dancing duo has too many opinions thought the increasingly thunderous teacher.

there were also nani bua differences. nani is an expert dancer, bua ji wants simpler moves, which of course she positions as somehow superior.

watching trouble brew, nk couldn't keep quiet any longer and said there'll be "nagda" soon when he meant "jhagda", a fight. khushi corrected him as everyone laughed. no one noticed asr on the steps.

"khushi ji, aap meri heart wali baat kitne achhe se samajh leti hai..." khushi ji, you are so good at understanding what's in my heart, said nk.

and the episode took a lovely leap landing on the angry look on the staircase.

but then a surprising turn, as nk carried on nonchalantly with his atrocious hindi mix up, now saying old instead of wonderful... he said what nani and bua were doing was "budia" as in old lady when he meant "badhia" as in wonderful. 

shock and laughter erupted and mingled as the usual correcting started. khushi called out and pulled his leg, you are "budia" she said.

at this, the anger had to melt, the man had to let his lips slant in an amused smile. these two madcaps reached parts of him most things couldn't.

i felt something for the terse nasty mirthless 26 year old. he is not that much older than the carefree nk, yet he has not an iota of that hang lose happy go lucky streak, because he can't. he must be in control of things, he must make sure nothing goes wrong again.

a lovely glimpse into his character, his weakness for insane innocent lunacy. khushi and nk both have huge amounts of that, and somehow this always cuts through and touches the man. it's a trait he really does not possess and yet he seems to be defenceless before it. this pure sanka, this innocence in khushi he finds irresistible possibly and maybe that's why it's even more painful when he imagines that she is not really that innocent.

the scene glides onto a shot that's achieved despite the impossible angle. somehow khsuhi sees that smile. it does things to her, touches her. who can blame her.

a long flowing moment of just connection.

then he returns to ire and departs.

all this transpires around nk, often he is instrumental in bringing about the contact between asr and khushi. i wonder if his malapropism is the flute, the bansoori, which is played expertly to lead the lovers to each other.

snake seethes in bed, skulking. his wife mentions twelve midnight the next day. a light hint at the approaching night games.

but before that a little comic break as nk speaks of khushi's wonderful "murda", dead body, when he wants to say "mudra", hand/fingers position/movement. funny dialogue, because when khushi started showing her beautiful mudra, and oh boy sanaya was just lovely there, someone did almost fall flat dead next to her. 

the hot tea scalded him and possibly brought him back to life. asr was always terribly attracted to khushi's beauty, her lissome femininity drove him crazy you could see. something so natural and not phoney about it. that first rabba ve had been all about a lovely woman in diaphanous red, alluring, enticing, gobsmackingly gorgeous.

again the two seemed to have a private conversation in silence right in front of everyone.

"wow! khushi ji, kya murda hai!" deadly nk dialogue, pun intended, writers obviously were having a lot of fun.

it was nk again who brought up the new year story... seems the person you see at exactly twelve midnight on 31st december night, will be the one you'll spend the rest of your life with.

the moment this was said, asr and kkg looked at each other...  that one look far more revealing than all the protesting they did later.

neither wanted to see the other's face but he was sure she'd show up in front of him somehow.

"pata nahin kyun, lekin aaogi..." i don't know why, but you'll come, asr said. strange and lovely exchange. he knows she will be there. maybe he wants it?

"har baar galat time pe galat jagah pahunch jaati ho," you always land up at the wrong time at the wrong place. yeah, that's how they'd met.

"hum ghoom phirke aapke saamne aayenge? hum?!!" i'll come before you somehow? me??!!

she's mad at him, he at her... all is well.

"par honestly tum nahin dikhogi toh achha hoga..." but honestly if you don't show up it'll be better. we believe you, asr.

a happy episode that ended on an expectant note, a cool jig in it. a quote heard many times came to mind as they squabbled away, he with arms folded across his chest taking his time to look her over, she sizzling and yelling.

"the lady doth protest too much, methinks." in this case, even the gent was doing the exact same thing. 

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episode 153 play it again, nk

in which bua ji met nand kissore. the lady who had hollered the opening words of ipk and invoked the creator of all games, especially that of love... the young son of nand, she finally had a wonderful high impact meeting with the lord of her mind, over the phone, or rather, phonewa. perplexed was the mighty lady by the choice of "darshan" ground by the lord, though unable to contain her elation... he had met her mother on the terrace, but now he also appeared on the phone it seemed. ah well, such is the leela of nand kishore.

i heard about that meeting on the terrace and my mind flew to the terrace where a terrible illusion had gripped a man's imagination, got imprinted on his mind. were the writers already dragging our attention to the "chhat"? telling us there was more to happen there, not just the revelation of a man named after krishna.

krishna again everywhere and in this episode, the new entrant named after him is called by two other names and mistaken for the real deal too. i wondered if i was trapped in illusion imagining this connection. but could all those allusions to nand kishore be just coincidence? the driver, the washerman, the young new friend of the heroine, the villain, the uncle (as in mama ji), the servant (hari prakash or light of krishna), i am sure there were more, and of course, the call of the ultimate gopika, bua ji... all were named after the one with 108 names, our krishna. the writer might have done it in jest, or to layer the tale... either way, worked for me.

to be honest, the episode felt very mid weekish, a bit dull and as if midway to something. i was particularly flummoxed by the desultory almost dismal choice of music for the dance practice. it droned and it kept our emotions and involvement at its own bland level. everyone held hands with partners and danced away while madhu ji, who is supposed to be very strict, beamed.

of course when the teacher told "cartoon" (today krishna would get two, no three, more names) to look into his partner's eyes, there was further fury on a face that had turned at talk of nk putting his hand on kkg's kamar/waist. now at all the talk of look at her with emotion, with "pyaar", he can't take it any more, he leaves. khushi turns her head, intensely aware of the man at the back.

during the break, akash and payal continued to sway away even without music. everyone noticed it and made silly jokes, so very typical wedding that. their "kaamistry" was mentioned, again it felt like a little joke from writers,  a replacement as it were, since viewers and forum were always on about asr khushi, barun sanaya chemistry. 

shyam played a pointless red carnations game, an elaborate idea, alas khushi was not impressed.

at gupta house, bua ji pulled out a lehenga with a very large waist and lamented the days when she in that would make her husband swoon "behonsh".

"aisa lagat hai, garima, jaise kauno aur janam ki baat howe... ab toh koi poochta hi nahi hai..." seems, garima, that was another life, no one asks after me any more. i felt bad for bua ji. inside that not too small nor too young woman lurked a romantic heart and a desire to be touched by love again maybe? and why not? she was lonely, widowed, childless, alone in a huge city and by nature slightly flaky and dramatic, surely she had a right to her romantic yearnings if any...

she decided khushi should wear the shadi ka joda for payal's wedding. another hint in bua ji's mouth about what's to come on the night of that wedding.

soon after that, still quite touched by the talk of her salad days, the definitely not salad eating bua ji called her niece.

nk picked up the phone and said, "hello!"

"hai re nand kissore!" called out bua ji.

and the roller coaster ride of mistaken identities got going...

wonderfully written dialogues, funny, witty, strangely poignant at times...
bua ji and nk had their first chat. writers took this relationship to a loopy rib tickling place over time, there was something tender amid the raucous about the whole imbroglio... nk believing bua ji was after him, and bua ji with her kind, garrulous auntyish love for the sweet babua.

"hum hai nand kissore!" i am nand kishore.

bua ji went into a trance practically.

"nand kissore! humre nand kissore..." nand kishore, oh my nand kishore. how a relationship starts who knows.

karan goddwani and abha parmar were absolutely fabulous and suddenly music was on cue. lots of shankh and bansoori, conch and flute.

when khushi broke her illusion, the lady was irritated and told her to take back the five rupees she'd asked to be offered. the sense of play ran freely through the episode.

kkg was getting everyone on the floor and ran right up to asr beaming. he made a nasty face, mockingly said, "kitni baar bolna padega ki tumhare saath dance nahin karna hai..." how many times do i have to say, i won't dance with you.

she said, same here.

he waved her away with a go dance with nk, he's my replacement.

madam was mad at him. sanka rose.

"chhotey!" she yelled and started a whole game of love, giving krishna name number 110 and 111: chhotey, arnav ji. after all sakshat nand kishore was the "replacement" of the only laad governor.

asr watched angrily as she bestowed smiles on nk and said things to provoke the one who can't be replaced. and again i thought, was nk supposed to be the replacement bridegroom and did channel force the wedding of asr kkg, because nk did disappear soon after that as though his work was done, part over.

"bala, yeh ladki nahin, pataka hai pataka," bala, this ain't no girl, this be fire cracker, said madhubala ji.

bala... balaji, an incarnation of lord krishna.
and was "pataka" yet another hint hint wink wink?"arnav ji! aap ko koi kaam theek se nahin aata kya!" arnav ji, khushi called sternly to nk, you can't do anything properly.

"hume toh lagta hai iss naam ke log koi bhi kaam theek se nahin kar sakte hain..." i feel people of this name, can't do anything properly, she provoked. asr always had a thing about his name...

"na naach sakte hain na ga sakte hain na hasaan..." they can't dance, they can't sing, they can't make people laugh...

he walked furiously right into them as she almost fell while twirling, but he held her firm, making sure she didn't collapse. it was all a bit contrived, but that "kaamistry" did its thing. hey hey... rabba vey trilled in, all felt right with the world.

little eye movements. how brown are those eyes. a hand gripped a shoulder as we have seen before, her face held a bemused look. no one can replace this man, nor this woman... hai re nand kissore.

 

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episode 167 play to win

asr looked fabulous. kkg was beautiful. the episode moved swiftly, and something said, this was possibly a filler. the amount of time spent on shyam chasing scorpion, then anjali cooing over shyam's imagined chot, clearly indicated there was no real story to tell right now. 

in terms of plot, for it is certainly that so we can get to 170 and its annihilation, the pressure on kkg and the guptas had to be increased. and so it was that mami ji took offence at the supremely nervous waddling bua ji's little mistake and sped off in a flurry of maminess to give bua ji "jindagi bhar current". she spiked her drink and despite all the rigmarole of glasses nk set off, managed to get her opponent woozy and making mistakiyas on the floor.

and the scores took raizadas to 14 while guptas lagged behind at only 4.

two questions here.

1. the judges gave nani ji only 7 out of 10? really? these are very stringent judges and maybe should be instantly dispatched to our dance shows.

2. why did bua ji dance with mami ji if they were from opposite sides? so did they practice together? and if so when and how?

okay okay, not asking any questions. just wondering about the format of this yalgar yalgar sangeet. love the songs... now it's pardeh mein rahne do... yeah, someone sure is hidden from all here, in purdah.

khushi quoted everything, from shah rukh khan (so she was unfaithful to salman ji? bewafa?) and qaynaat to sarfaroshi ki tamanna in her melodramatic bid to instill courage and confidence in her humoungously nervous humongous aunt. but the war she was declaring was clearly against the laad governor, who was so terribly on her mind that all it took was for akash to ask a simple, "sab theek hai na?", everything all right?

next thing you know, khushi is off into a tirade about that man, "theek toh hum uss laad gov ko karenge unhe haraake," i'll fix that laad gov by beating him.

aksah is mystified. his bhai is nowhere around, yet his sis in law to be is gritting teeth, balling fist and giving it to him verbally. ah well, he assured her, all is fair in love and war. khushi kept quiet for almost thirty seconds. no, maybe ten.

"haan bilkul, hum uss laad governor se darte warte nahin hain!" yes, of course, i am not scared or anything of that laad gov, khushi yelled and waved her arms. you know who will overhear this. he is meant to. but perhaps a less predictable devise could have been found.

no matter. man looked good enough for me to forget all loopholes. shetty, as has been noted is many seventies' films, bik gaya.

arnav singh raizada was enjoying checking out the vision in maroon, but his eye was really on one and one thing only... winning. he kept the pressure up.

"dar koi aur raha hai... haath kissi aur ke kaap rahe hain..." someone else is scared, someone else's hand is shaking, he jeered in the most delicious low voice while kkg clutched her lehenga. khushi's emoting and expressing through her hands was always interesting.

and though i felt her reaction was a bit too marked, it may have underscored all the turbulence in this young girl as she battles with her own attraction for a man from outside her milieu. an exciting, challenging, handsome, undeniable, unstoppable, unforgettable, most irritating man. she must beat him. she mustn't lose.

yeah, though nothing much was said between the two. this episode the tension and torque in her was palpable. something was building.

a thing that struck me, though i couldn't figure out it's meaning, was that shot of the three nand kissore. three krishnas? is there a story or reference somewhere? felt as if the writers and director wanted to say something and it was more than just bua seeing triple in an inebriated haze.

how cutely, she beamed, "bahut natkhat hou!" you're very playful... and pinched the desperate nk's cheeks. then she asked about marriage.

i fell down laughing. the writers were having too much fun with madore as in madhumati and nand kishore. ah hidden love story of ipk.

in the visible love story the man smiled meanly at the girl. oh, yes, he means to win.

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episode 329 husbands and brothers

next time you are searching for a boy to marry your girl, and maybe you advertise in the papers or in shadi.com, if you prefer... bharat matrimony, you might like to be particularly choosy for your girl. forget doctor lawyer engineer... insist on a multitasking, multi talented man. who knows, in this age of restructuring and job cuts, he may lose his rozi roti... and then? what will he feed your poor ladki, who of course will be a helpless creature with only one focus in her life, her pati dev, maybe his mamma too as is soundly advised by our serials... in case she wants to get a job, the impossible hurdles set by ma in law will have to be scaled... what if, in the meantime, the restructuring happened to the swami.

so i give full marks and more to ipk for presenting the ideal damad ji. he is a lawyer cum electrician cum drummer.

see?

see?

and you thought tv soaps were irresponsible. cared only for trp. hah. never. our dhaiyya ho is a prototype of the ideal husband and son in law. only one drawback... extremely elaborate designs of plans... no chance of being employed by mr jobs, alas.

look at the whole way he approached project khushi. be ghar jamai in one place, paying guest in another. lie to anyone and everyone, concoct all sorts of tales at the drop of a dupatta or aap bhi na... too much work, i say. well thankfully he didn't say he was lawyer to one party and electrician to the other. would have complicated his life further.

straight after the good son in law, we plunge into the issue of actual and not actual mother. a touching scene between bua ji and amma, but was it a tad too sweet? maybe i am diabetic really. or have become one since the advent of dadi and new improved ipk.

when garima said she wanted to meet dadi and ask forgiveness for her "kiye", her actions, some sixth sense said to me, the story was changed. 

then of course all my senses went into red alert as man was spotted sitting on sofa with laptop, frowning. h, i even forgot how garish the green all around was. the man catches the air around him and makes it still, i swear, when he is in deep concentration.

"wahan pe ek aadmi tha na?" wasn't there a guy there, he asked suddenly alerted by an empty space that was not so a moment before, thank g he is alert and not that comfortable about things, a sense of danger lurks.

and a sense of other things. he heard the wind... it told him what it had said many times before... it is she... she is here..

a little smile...

hey hey hey hey hey. i am beginning to get lost, shucks what's this letting go of all matters grey at the very thought of romance. this gust of wind has trained me too by now.

by the way, who is the creator of gust of wind in ipk? or is it a staple of all serials as flying hair is, to notify us duhs of pyaar approaching? yet, even if it is a staple, this is a special type, like basmati or golapshoru gobindobhog rice. that sussurant sound, hushed and yearning, not like any other. hey hey.

i found, "bas pata chal jata hai..." too pat, so shan't tarry there.

liked the teasing by a man in casuals while his girl is all decked up. as everyone has heard before, i did not like the lehenga, it had no ethos or idea to it, just a so called "designer" thing, designed mainly to show navel.

and khushi's make up was to brittle and strident. maybe they changed the make up girl. maybe he was a guy and multi talented like shyam and went off to fly aeroplanes or perhaps helicopters, who knows.

the truly talented mami, mano darling, outdid herself. pointlessly being nasty and sashaying light brainedly.

"caman, fallowj me..." this is my quote for the day.

garima's hands remind me of khushi's... all her nervousness, fear and fret are conveyed through them. piyumori mehta is not a bad actress. wish story had supported her instead of making her walk around for episodes looking stricken and peering over her shoulder in quaking fear.

ah we have come to the part i really liked in this episode. three good looking men all by themselves, being young, being normal and talking nonsense. there was an ease, a lack of "set up" and trying to be meaningful that spoke to me. and while i didn't quite understand the bridegroom's ensemble, looked like jodhpurs and a galaband in brocade or some such... he did look totally handsome in it. and in the scene with dadi next episode, somehow that funny suit added a dimension of grandeur, scale and depth... i am obviously a bit mami like, ott is my birthright, samjheo!

"tamacha karengey!" nk meant, tamasha, fun, i suppose and not slap. but of course everything he says can be connected to things that will happen or are happening at the moment. "hum yahan baithke ek achhi si horror movie dekhenge," we'll sit here and watch a nice horror film, gosh i should have been prepared. everything about the despicable miscarriage had a horror film feel to it...

but here we went straight after horror movie mention to dadi, at this point, the real horror. the garima meeting dadi drama was extended again... payal was looking pretty and being rather sweet.

khushi and asr had a little moment of their own on the phone, talk of a small red nose, "chhoti si lal nak," "toh tum mera phone aise hi rakh dogi? bina pehle aap pehle aap kiye?" you'll just hang up on me without the you first no you first thing?

lovely flirting.

khushi decides to give him a little nok-jhok and hands the phone to bua ji.

"halooo..." goes the lovely lady.

"what the f..." says the very bad very bad damad ji. really did you just w*f your aunt in law, you rude boy? haww.

"hai re nand kissore..." yelled the lady and at that very moment her very own nand kissore, babua nk got the phone.

"dude, phone.." damad ji had called out to the young man. "i don't know, some girl" was asking for him. our man from sydney was instantly alert and ready for action here in delhi...

honestly, i thought he was brilliant and that bua ji nk thing, there's something haw and hot in it... maybe deep down nk has a martinet fixation, hyuk, how explicit is his personal horror film, bua ji in bridal wear, that too a white wedding gown... i love it, the whole mad alice in wonderland fantasy feel but why am i getting the feeling this is ripped off from some film? why why why?

nevermind, i am gagging at the whole craziness... and how good does barun looking, looking down at whatever and trying to suppress a guffaw. the vartalaap was too good, both verbal and nonverbal.

"meri hindi bhi machhi hai..." my hindi is also fish. oh fish.

suddenly cut to "chanchal damad ji" talk... people are talking, loudly and rudely, as all the guests at rm do about the missing son in law. khushi looks hassled... she carries something in her about him, still a sense of disquiet, of guilt. daljeet had a tragic air about her, she is another one who can really get into a feeling and almost wrap the air with it, pity there was no real story to back this.

asr was looking happy, light coming down the stairs when talk of damad ji ko bulana... calling damad ji ... was overheard. his grandmother was going on in her monotone about getting the multitasking shyam over. call him now. huh? who has his phone number? nani?

"dadi, woh aadmi iss ghar mein wapas nahin aayega..." dadi, that man is not coming to this house, said a young man in a regal suit, anger rushing and settling on every line of his face, making his eyes glint.

i had wondered first watch, what was coming up next. there was something thrilling about that gaze and tone of voice.

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