writing a character and how not to lose it

chatting on india forums, sometime in 2014, a dear friend wrote the following in italics. i replied, you can see that below the italicised text. today, i read it by chance. iss pyaar ko made us not just feel, but think... perhaps that's why, it'll always remain significant. or as kk would say, hamesha. or as asr would say, what rubbish.


Some of us were utterly disappointed at how Khushi's character was reduced post the hate marriage. But I don't think its the male writers who have done injustice to this female character as it was females who were at the helm deciding for this show, be it the producer herself or importantly the Star Plus creative head who decides the content of every episode for a show (the one who thought ASR can be killed/ changed just like they could do with some other shows!). The regression of the female lead started much earlier than that where in post Diwali, the girl who once retorted by the pool side while she lost her payal, "Had I known, I would die but wouldn't have come to your place", bravo girl, went amiss! Post Shyam revelation, where she was denied of love by one and was coerced to get engaged to another only to realize him to be a lecher, neither her love importantly nor her pain was highlighted. Except for a couple of sequences post the so called Hate marriage, there wasn't any focus on her turmoil. Everything was left for one's interpretation.  This love story has been about the male protagonist from Day 1 and always meandered the way the he wanted, whether his struggle, denial, guilt, acknowledgement! 

As said in Geeta, "Swadharme nidhanam shreyah, paradharmo bhayavahah" (Better is one's own duty though devoid of merit than that of another well discharged). Isn't that what exactly seem to be the difference between ASR's and Khushi's actions, swadharma of the former and Paradharma of the latter??

This wouldn't necessarily make ASR right, the way he executed it.  Even if he were to ask and believe Khushi, having truly seen Shyam's madness for Khushi (pagalpan, junoon as Shyam said) in order to bear with him for the next 6 months, marrying Khushi would have been the only option, perhaps at her consent but not necessarily family's. But for him, the pain of the knowledge that her mother like sister's trust and marriage was in shambles would still remain! 

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horizon,

well said about the women who were in charge. and i do agree the story is primarily about the male protagonist. that in itself doesn't bother me... it is the bent of the tale, its reason for existence.

where i find a sad lack of responsibility in writing is in the way characters, especially the female lead, have been treated at will. yes, that started way back, not here.

no matter who is your protagonist, when you create characters you have to be true to them... if you are a writer with any integrity that is. to completely ditch the female lead's character, to make her into a meaningless muddle... that i thought was not done... of course, you will manipulate characters, even the main lead, but the task is not to lose them, however hard that might be... that is the  challenge of creative writing...

here i did feel khushi was treated in a most cavalier fashion... made into a caricature when it suited them, and then suddenly achchi bahu bharatiya nari... anything... along the way she was gone. whoever the writer was... the one who executes the words and story... messed up. i did feel a male indifference to a woman's mind here. centuries of patriarchy and seeing men as natural leaders... karta... has its impact on minds, male or female. gul, gautam hegde, ved raj, hitesh kevaliya, whoever started letting khushi become less, was wrong.

when one sees the final scenes of othello, desdemona still feels real... not just othello. many stories are about one principle character, male or female (zee's astitwa did a pretty decent job of portraying a female protagonist but created a memorable male lead too)... but the other characters remain relevant... as they are... not just as a tool. a rather clumsy writer's tool at that.

i do feel writing was ultimately weak. bits of utter brilliance, but no real consistency or commitment of writers... more a show of "cleverness" from time to time... in the middle of it all some lovely lines... but tell me if sanaya and barun were not saying them, would we be swooning?

can't think of anyone else who could have made stuff that was kinda corny sound practically divine, like a life lesson.

loved the geeta quote... still trying to understand it.

but the oft said karmanye badhikaraste comes to mind... that went missing, too much concentration on the fruit of action.



n i s h a n a   e p i s o d e s

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episode rambles 
fan fiction

shayad yeh nadani

ipk 3 anniversary month still on. i wanted to just sigh over the beautiful writing and delivery by a lovely inward sounding voice. i have no idea who actually wrote the "shayad yeh nadani" soliloquy of khushi's. what i do know is you rarely get such depth of thought and words on telly. not in a serial certainly. falling in love and romance are not arcane niche things, there's loads of writing on this... naturally to find what stands out is tough. so many things start sounding the same. here there was a brief to writer i think to establish love including the feeling of falling in it without using the word love... also to say it all using nafrat, the feeling clearly identified by the speaker. hate is akin to love, ha, mills and boon stuff, right... so how come these guys took it to this classic level. no hesitation, no yikes i will regret this later, but this is fantastic writing.

and sanaya irani, such flawless delivery. hits the insides makes you want to feel exactly those feelings. whoever directed her for this one... arshad k or lalit m... may jalebis rain on you all your life.


wrote this three years ago, the sixth anniversary month is still on i see.

the realm of hatred... and a soliloquy

my take on episode 255 

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baat aapki hai episodes

episode rambles

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episode 383 jaa rahi ho... the first take

"jaa rahi ho?"  are you leaving?

did you hear the magnet in that quiet voice? how it pulled her over.

"hume jana hoga... arav ke liye." i have to go... for arav.

on that second part of the sentence, i felt my heart break a bit as her heart began to splinter.

two actors who have pulled out all the stops, no limits whatsoever, when it comes to bringing asr and khushi alive. i am fortunate to be with them every day.

"tumhe kya laga, tum chup chap chali jaogi aur sab theek ho jaayga?"

what dd you think, you'll go away without saying a word and all will be well?

what an understanding of khushi's character there by her creators, the writers, the dialogue guys.

"khushi, let's say yeh sab sach hota... toh chhorke chali jaati mujhe?"

khushi, let's say all if this were true... would you have left me?

rabba vey...

that's a question love asks, all love asks at some point or the other. because the difficult, the unbearable, even the impossible to bear happens. and if it is indeed love, that word "too often profaned", then it grows, it expands, it takes a long deep breath of pure oxygen and feels its feelings, its truth. and it stays.

khushi's arms going around him convulsively said that, though her words were: "hume nahin pata... hume kuch nahin pata." i don't know, i don't know anything.

the conflict in her heart about fairness to asr's other tie, as important as hers, in those words.

"mujhe pata hai. agar tum koshish bhi karogi, khushi, tab bhi hum alag nahin ho sakte. arnav aur khushi humesha saath rahenge." 

i know. even if you try, khushi, you can't leave me. arnav and khushi will always be together. 

in the quiet of an embrace and the lilting rabba vey strains, my arms tingled, my heart melted, i breathed easy. that was a man who had truly and utterly submitted to love and knew what it was. his lover is yet to make the journey all the way, but she is nearly there. that's why at the end...

"tum aise kaisi ho sakti ho?" how can you be like this?
"aap ki wajah se." because of you.

last night in a letter he'd told her how she had made him more, better, fuller. her short four word reply seemed to say the same.

i fell in love with this love story a while back. never have i ever followed a serial before as my friends on the forum know. there was an understanding of this indescribable emotion, compulsion, called love here i'd not seen elsewhere in a while. it was classic and contemporary at once. it believed and was unafraid. it sang, it danced, it took extraordinary leaps and turns, it struck deep with the lightest touch. asr and khushi kumari gupta were so lovely, i could barely breathe when they got going. barun sobti and sanaya irani showed pyaar for their profession in a way that made you want to hug and hi five them every time they got it just right. which was practically every time.

i fell deeper and deeper in love. should have guessed it would be challenged. all pyaar has its dushman, its dukh dard dastaan. why should my love be an exception. it wasn't, starting mid feb all sorts of things started to happen, yet there were always huge bits of great writing and unforgettable acting. whoever wrote asr and khushi managed to remain true, with minor hiccups, right through. of course, barun and sanaya became asr, khushi without holding anything back. this level of commitment to and oneness with character is found only among the greatest thespians portraying famous characters. i found both in a telly show. unbelievable. wonder if fifty years hence asr will bring to mind an image, the way captain kirk or spock does. i think it will.

and now the dard/dushman factor just got raised a few notches.

but i, with a "hume nahin pata... hume kuch nahin pata," am still here. this episode, ipk seemed to hold me and say: i promise, main sab theek kar doonga.

oh that slightest hint of a sly smile on sheetal's lips when he said : stay! and strode out. poor sheetal, she actually thinks she's got him where she wants him.

i just adored asr's confrontation with sheetal. her same old, it was a dark and stormy drunken night story, his what the and frown abs rejecting the whole thing, khushi's beautiful growing up into acceptance of a feeling and not judging him for having a child, his buying time to sort things out now that he has her assurance that she will be with him always (he needs her and never denies it from the moment he has acknowledged his love, in life too love asks just for that, okay i do sound mushy), the beautiful music over asr hugging arav (i felt he made a silent promise to the child to set things right), his words to arav: you are not alone (asr identifies with this boy's sense of being alone, it was his akelapan too that engulfed him till khushi came into his life and we heard him say as much to her the previous evening), enjoyed all of that and more yesterday. the family scenes, the structure and design, just about everything touched me and worked for me.

i don't know how things will evolve. funny, now it seems gul is out to destroy the man she imagined and made. creator, destroyer, the one and the same, something almost spiritual there. barun sobti, whatever may be happening out there, has never let me down in my deal with him. not a single instance, in more than 380 episodes where i've felt, he didn't give it his all. and the same with sanaya irani. in fact, most of the cast. there's a lot of beauty in that itself, for me.

so i watch. till asr is barun and khushi is sanaya and they are together. jab hum door hotey hain tab bhi paas hote hain. yehi hai pyaar. when we are far from each other, even then we are close to each other, this is called love. yes, i know i am being prepared. i am.

that's why i can still love.

"khushi, meri zindagi mein jo bhi hoga, sab tumhare saamne hoga... mujhe har kadam pe tumhari madad ki zaroorat padegi... are you gonna be with me?" 
 
"hamesha."

khushi, whatever happens in my life, will happen before you... i need your help at every step... are you gonna be with me?

always.
 
was someone talking to me? or am i being ott and filmi like someone we know.

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the meant nothing episodes

episode rambles 

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an extraordinary beginning

"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." began a tale of two cities, holding tightly within the first lines a sense of moment, of bated thrill, and a feeling something huge was about to happen. when i see episode one, there is that extraordinary intensity, like a dam about to burst, and a stunning grandeur, nothing about it feels ordinary, especially once you hear the helicopter's sound, then long legs unfold and a man climbs out and stands with his feet planted slightly apart looking up at an old mansion. a feeling that terrible things have happened assails you... you want that inert gaze to come out of whichever hell it is in. he begins to walk toward the mansion... dark and dangerous. pink and green and talkative and happy, she races toward him on her blue scooter with milk cans clanging on either side. this could have been a sweet and predictable love story... but something in the look on that man's face, his stillness, his walk... tells you that can never be... there's never been a story quite like this.

n i s h a n a   e p i s o d e s
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on looking at 122 again

something told him, it had to be her. who else.

and she did get caught. he wished he could...
he was ready to scream his head off, but h, they were not talking to each other. he had set the condition.

poor laad governor. 

and jhalli realised of course, what tripped him up. and jhalli couldn't stop the smile from sparking her eyes.

he threw a nice little tant. whacked the pillar, looked incredibly incredible and walked off.
 
but.

gahahahhahhhha, he could sense she was laughing at him.

so he turned around with that deadly look, i have a feeling one part of him could never quite process the craziness of her actions. not in his wildest could he imagine doing such things, or in fact, any adult doing such things.

and she adjusted her features, trying hard not to let rakshas see she was guffawing at his predicament. his defeat. the laad governor wasn't speaking to her, so... how could he yell and shout. even though he knew who was creating the racket while he did tycoonishly imp stuff.

and khussie bitiya of course couldn't let that mean chappie be. she had to get after him. oh, the complications of lau. and the sublime take on it by one tv serial.

look at these two... when episode started could i have ever imagined, we'd be going here soon?

or here?

and before you know it... here?

this intuitive, elegant writing about a relationship between two people... who were the way they were. this understanding of asr kkg's specific romance. this crazy graph of now irritated, angry, exasperated, now melting, needing, reaching. unimaginably powerful it was, and of course barun and sanaya just cracked it so sharp, you almost wept every time, even as you wanted to laugh with a peculiar joy.

the mix of emotions being tapped to reach the viewer was not unusual though. this being a soap, every episode had to have its prescribed balance of laughter, sadness, passion, humour, drama, villainy, etc., almost all serials have it. but ipk always mixed the potion so you would be left gasping slightly, positive seeing stars.


episode 122 the khanak of you
episode 122 design notes

i have lost count of the number of times i have watched 122 and many others. every time even now, and it's been almost five years since ipk ended, i see new things. thrilling things. and how my fingers itch to make caps, make edits. classic really this show and the feelings it brings about.

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faraq padta hai kyunki episodes

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just plain sanka fun

remember these girls?

and their "honewale jeeja ji", the soon to be brother in law? 

okay, as far as i am concerned, please don't award him that jeeja ji title. a certain cretin named after nand kissore has tainted those words forever for me and i thank writers and payal deeply for never calling the rakshas, jeeja ji.

i still giggle idiotically when i think of the goings on of these episodes. and there is a man in them who rivals asr's hold on my imagination. the ankh micholi player o o om prakash ji. khushi's frantic efforts to keep the laad giov in the dark about the brats running about his home, her flawless craziness and panic, don't tell me i'll never see such sanka again. 

ipk had a zany, almost unrehearsed sense of fun. an uninhibited outburst of laughter. and writers and actors who got it so right. there was also, i felt, a neat blend of western and typically indian humour getting comfortable with each other, reflecting the current mind state of many urban indians, whether they live in india or elsewhere. at the same time, if you were not from the city even, you'd respond to sanaya's naturally weird khushi with her tenderness and earnestness and pluck. of course, asr's magnetism which cuts across language and many other barriers (currently indonesian girls are in a state apparently over this sutied booted khadoos rakshas) is bound to get you. and i am sure no one, no one, can resist the charm of my sweet op. 

episodes 89 - 91 or the dhakdhak acidity episodes

watch vm: a man and his crazy girl

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dhakdhak acidity episodes
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fanfiction

the man with no dil

has hindi television ever seen this? or any television? a man who doesn't know how to love, or so he says; and now has a girlfriend living with him, but is terribly moved by a girl he has no feelings for. or so he says. how can he? he doesn't even have a heart... or so he says. so what is it that he feels as he watches her/ and what is to become of the girl who loves him and says as much. such a beautiful juncture in a play of emotions... things might have gone terribly wrong, but such wonderfully poised handling.

|   episodes 86/87 the gussa of asr   |

|   episode 88 salt water   | 

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episode rambles 

fan fiction

episode 350 a twist of love

this was bound to happen.

dadi had been brought in to set up a strange remarriage aimed at trp and to break it up using the whole woh aurat thing and have viewers in a mess.

somehow having viewers completely nerve wracked is seen as a clever means of keeping us pasted and glued to a show. and the more bizarre the ploy to wrack those nerves, the more the fiendish joy of channel at transfixing and bludgeoning viewers to submission.

it is always a terrifying sign when a character like dadi is devised to "fix" things.

it essentially depends on unfixing me, the one on the other side of the screen.

how did serial writing get to this dismal state? or maybe, when the new dynamics of cable came to india, along with it came this diabolic vision of augmenting viewership. which is of course all important to the framework of cable... you get advertisers based on the number of viewers you show, not on the quality of the programme. there is no pride in quality here, only numbers...

but even then.

i know, ekta k's balaji seemed to have set the trend of bizarre story telling... but when any medium starts out, there are all sorts of different routes to success (of the monetary kind) sought by players in it. how come the hindi soap on the most viewed channels never developed variety, diversity, genres? everything ultimately genuflects before a high pitched nonsensical idea, often referred to as "twist" or even "mahatwist" which leaves you shaken and your iq and eq ejected to outer space?

of course, this is accompanied with dizzying camera swings and twirl, sound echoes and blasts, and flat exaggerated acting at a level perhaps never seen anywhere.

the hindi masala film is much laughed at and its "formula" not exactly considered high art. the running around the tree thing is now internationally known (if i am to go by the prompt mention of that by people i meet who aren't indian the moment hindi films or bollywood is mentioned). yeah, the films were often corny... very silly. there were all sorts of defiance of science and reality there, but somehow they were never this egregious. when you left the hall, you usually felt happy... upbeat. even though you were junking the whole movie. and in that running around the tree some inner chord in us was touched i bet, otherwise why would it get such attention... trp :). plus along the way, some really great stories got told (far more progressive and interesting than the saas bahu serial), unbelievably good songs got written and composed, and yes, we saw wonderful acting. again and again.

so why this horrid lack of art in our soaps?

here i feel practically brutalised by the nonsense. as i watched the dadi "revealing" the "sach" about garima to asr, i wanted to scream: why why why are you doing this to a serial that escaped ordinariness so wondrously, despite being a regular commercial hindi  soap?

was it necessary for dadi to be written so terribly unintelligently? even the most paltry villains of the sixties and seventies got written better. asr's nani was such a delight, what happened when they thought up his dadi?



"bataiye arnav, kya yeh sach janne ke baad bhi..." she harangued, tell me, arnav, after knowing this truth will you be able to live with khushi.

he had told her i won't be able to live without you. so i guess this loop closer had to come... will you be able to live with her.

she went on and on and so did camera. finally when she said, "ab aapko kya karna hai yeh aapka faisla hai..." now you have to decide what you're going to do... he looked up.

the eyes had so much in them.

i had to make a cap.

and again i wondered why it was never realised that ipk had some of the best actors on television and they were capable of telling a great story.

anyway, asr faced a situation many may have experienced. the classic conflict between two loves. as his mind swirled with thoughts of sheesh mahal, of maa, of that night, the mention of the other woman... i wondered where it would go.



and here a lovely note of story. ultimately his thoughts took him to khushi... on another night in his life he'd never forget. if that night years ago was all about darkness, this night just gone by, was only light.

 

he finally left the room. of course, viewer to be left worried sick. but even the first time, i somehow couldn't see asr not turning up.

i was also reminded of the other time two loves came into conflict in his life. that time he chose to protect his sister. for he felt that was his duty. and he had no idea at a conscious level how vital khushi was to him. his very breath.

but now he knows. and i was sure, this complex man would not act like an idiot just so "mahatwist" could be created. ah so many stories on the forum. he won't come... he will leave and hide somewhere, punish himself, just like nani had told khushi once... she will be pregnant and they will meet years later...

i can almost see him scanning through possible scenarios and saying, "sab bakwas hai."

i have no idea what saved us from these situations. there was also the option of him having an accident and forgetting all. or him being thought dead and returning after years when khushi is married to nk and has  a five year old daughter, who is of course, asr's (mahamahatwist).

halfway through the episode we moved to the bride's home. and there, not damad ji but dadi arrived. intense melodrama ensued but of course.



"tumhe sach mein yeh galat faimi thi ki woh yahan mandap tak aayga, garima?" did you really have this misunderstanding that he would come to this wedding mandap, garima... asked the strident grandmother in unmodulated loud voice.

garima never was convinced, i liked the fact that she and asr, both were taken aback by dadi's magnanimous kangan giving to khushi. and garima was uncomfortable all the way through. i also liked the fact that the reason she couldn't tell everyone about her being "woh aurat." not some crazy story, a simple human one... she was scared, scared for her girls, scared because she is their mother. went with the character of garima we have seen all along.

the other thing that felt right was the fact that both daughters sprang to their mother's defence. she who had taken care of them and loved them as if she had given birth to them

nani ji had a heart breaking expression as she processed the information that dadi hollered and she felt the pain of loss again. i liked the fact that she tried to get a handle on the conflict within her... her love for her daughter and that for her grandson, also her love for khushi...but other than things like this, there was such a complete lack of beauty in this night of galat faimi. our sweetest songs are often those that tell of saddest thoughts as shelley has told us long ago. so yes, if the idea was to show how a vengeful vindictive "galat" woman would devise a bride not married at her mandap for another bride not married at hers revenge, it might have been crafted with a lot of loveliness, even if of the heartbreaking kind.

look at how poignant and unforgettable the other night of galat faimi was. when he said shadi karni hogi.

i guess the creatives were letting go of their show gradually, as channel demanded trp; and ph bosses lost interest unable to handle this thing they had created.the mahamahatwist was that a simple tv soap had become a classic, when all that everyone had sought was money. more scary than dr frankenstein's creature.

oh i feel for the poor channel and ph. teehee.

a little gana on the glorious thing called twist.

credit uploader/youtube 

 

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that i love you dammit episodes

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episode 158 speak softly love

hush. speak softly. bua ji might wake up.

in dimmed light, among shadows and whispers, a clandestine air clung to the episode. at times stung by sheer nefariousness, at others touched by passion. and at least once, lit up by an unexpected spark in the heart, quickly snuffed by a lie.

the entire episode felt like a prelude in many ways. a build up to something big, the bated breath of the last evening of the year in it. what did the coming year hold? what was to happen at 12 midnight...

shyam swayed with his wife by the pool. a deadly wire waiting to spell death. she so trusting, so gullible. he peculiarly devoid of any conscience. all set to kill her merely because she comes in the way of him grabbing his latest fancy. khushi ji.

she would have gone too, if an elder hadn't stepped out at the right moment. mama ji.

"bhagwan ke sukar hai hum aa gaye sahi waqt pe..." thank g, i came out here at the right time, said mama ji in his customary quiet yet astute way. there was a sharpness in him, an ability to love, and perhaps a man who was romantic in his own way, seeking a more lusty mate than the upper middle class women of his generation.

sahi waqt. right time. why did i get the feeling, this was a little peek into the future. story would bring us to a point where mama ji would arrive at a timely hour again, to reveal the truth of shyam. remember him and shyam at that key makers'? what happened to all those hints that were dropped? all vanished, along with this understated actor with an endearing hold on tongue in cheek humour.

in a darkened living room at khushi's place, mama ji's son, like his father a romantic at heart, has come to woo his lady love. amol palekar in the mid seventies comes to mind. the classic portrayal of the middle class everyman with a gentle tender quiet lover in him. his view of romance a little different from the matinee idol's with spark, storm and thunder. no no, here a shimmery caressing sort of breeze of feelings... wafting, lilting, and seeking sweet affirmation.

but tonight akash, when thwarted by his cautious payal ji, showed the thrill of passion. in just one unexpectedly grabbed and held hand.

payal is confused... and excited... and scared.. not used to midnight trysts clearly. akash has planned a surprise for her, gallantly he holds out his hand... will you come with me... she is of course demurring. they sit at the gupta house dining table, pickle jar in front (365 days a year the jar sits there... when does the pickle ever get ready?).

akash reasons with her, everyone's sleeping, khushi is visiting neighbours, he is proposing a something close by. please come.

payal jumps to her feet and requests him to leave.

as she hurries off, he catches hold of her hand to stop her. and something ignites. not akash ji and payal ji for this moment. they were just akash and payal and an "i want you" unspoken between them.

akash had something smouldering in him too as did payal. within the essential calmer, quieter make up of their personalities, there was the possibility of passion. one that could have been used well in the story. we crib about the destruction of the tale, but i wonder is it possible to stay true to what you try to create if every week it has to be assessed for marketability and you are badgered to change things around, somehow fit that moment's "brief"? i have heard ved raj say that they had no idea payal and akash would become a couple when they started out but somehow these two seemed to come together well, so a track was created. might have been successful too. but the frenzy for trp, the silliness of thinking just showing lots of asr khushi with no real base/story coming along would solve all problems... not accepting the ebb and flow of everything, even trp... just finished it all off.

i can't cook a thing straight if too many dos and don'ts are stipulated... write a beautiful story? not possible i think.
in their moment too, a prelude... to what is still far away in the future. between asr and khushi, this exact gesture will be repeated with them. at least twice. akash and payal were often like mirrors in another timeline."shikayat toh nahin karna chahta, par aaj main parde ke pechhe chhupa, table ke neechhe bhi..." don't want to complain, but here's all that i suffered today for you...  so cute akash is doing a gentle blackmail to get her to agree.

just when he thought he'd lost, she said she would, "it's very cold outside..." yes, it's delhi, payal... "hum shawl lekar aate hain..." i'll get a shawl.

her gallant offered her his jacket, pleading with her to hurry up, before anyone woke up and came into the room and discovered him... one threat of that having just been averted, and in the bargain much suffered.

he  is about to get up and leave. but he is stuck to the chair.

so started a round of comedy with the lover stuck to a chair, though mysteriously at one point a sheet appeared, it covered the back of the chair, and found its way to the space between the stuck posterior and the cushion. nothing, as they say, is impossible.

a great struggle to free the midnight lover boy ensued. bua ji woke up. quilts were thrown to cover the truth. bua ji almost beat the boy to a pulp, but payal showed courage and brains and a presence of mine that saved her young man's life.

it was a riot.

and in it was another scene soon to come in a new avatar. a shot of mr akash singh raizada under the dusty musty quilt, a precursor to the angry mr raizada in a similar state but in a totally different frenzy.

finally payal convinces the stentorian aunt, that she would manage all, you just go to sleep in peace... "aap aram se so jaiye buaji... hum kar lenge." in a short while khushi will be saying the same thing to bua ji. the whole evening the two girls will try to get bua to sleep and get up to some ahem with the boys... hawww.

just like those bad bad girls they are not not not at all like. this is terribly cute. human nature i guess, when romance arrives, a little clandestine behaviour becomes de rigueur.

"khushi agar hoti..." if khushi were here...  payal needs khushi to solve problems... but she doesn't have her phone with her.

"payal ji payal ji payal ji, mujhe chhorkar mat jaiye... bua ji phir wapas aa gayi toh" akash exhorts payal not to leave the room, in case bua ji arrives again... akash, chill baby. poor man in such a state... akshay almost convinced me that he was indeed glued to the chair.

"m... m...mein bhai ko phone lagata hoon..." khushi is payal's and asr is akash's problem solver...

bhai is at laptop, looking grim... and sort of ddg. i need to pause and gape.

"hello...bhai..." whispers akash. shush, bua ji will come... she the gabbar singh of this sholay night. two men, two women and a formidable villain. khushi will definitely go basanti later something tells me.

"hello, akash, tum itna dheere kyun bol rahe ho?" akash, why are you talking so softly! ah the frisson of impatience in the voice already.

he is stuck, wails akash. yeah, asr is not surprised, bro had gone there to get embroiled in things romantic.

"bhai bhai... main waisa nahin phansa hua nahin hoon, main chair pe phansa hua hoon... bahut boori tarah se." no, bhai, i am not stuck in that, i'm glued to a chair... badly.

aaah so... but someone else will be "waise phansa hua" soon. stuck like that...

a major explanation is furnished by akash... silent film style only on music. then "what!" an expletive splits the night.

followed by "that's ridiculous. now what!"

if you'd come... akash pleads.

"main nahin aa raha akash, tum uss khushi kumari gupta se help le lo... waise bhi usske paas bahut saare stupid ideas hotey hain..."

i'm not coming, akash, you take help from that kkg, she has many stupid ideas.

khushi is not here.

akash is visualising the new year morning with him glued to the chair, babu ji walking in. is stuck/glued another soon to come theme?

"yeah ok...main aata hoon." bhai can't take it, he capitulates.

bhai! bhai!... meri ek pant la aana... please, please get me a pair of pants, akash requests his impatient bro.

an exasperated look...

and we have nk doing his quilt act. once satisfied with his camouflage, "khushi ji... main aa raha hoon," he declares to flamenco beat in bg.  khushi ji, i'm coming.

somebody else is also coming to not see uss khushi k g.

when he arrives at gh and realises she's not here... "thank god, yahan pe nahin hai..." thank g, she's not here. so he has given that 12 o'clock thing credence. and why that forlorn look as if uh huh, he almost wishes she were around.

akash: haanh?

asr looks back startled and immediately guards his expression... "er, nothing. let's, er, get your problem fixed."

sabse pehle sabse simple cheez try karte hain. let's try the simplest thing first.

simple?

akash is rather good as the uncertain ditherer.

tense moments...

"payal ji, yeh glue lagta hai bahut achhi quality ki bani hai..." payal, looks like this glue is of very good quality, akash battles frustration in his way. wonder what would have happened if bhai were stuck instead. poor chair, would certainly not have survived.

he's of course, carrying some glue dissolver or whatever they are called. payal is sent away by the boys as the operation glue bye bye takes off.

memories of eighth standard summer holidays visit, akash recalls glue on his bed and being stranded there the whole day.

"why are you telling me... i didn't do it," says bhai. but what's that look?

liar.

thank g she ain't here.

liar.

i hate you.

liar liar.

he is not carrying trousers for akash, so bounds into khushi's room to ask payal to get some pants for her fiance, and bangs against the chair.

soon a fashion statement by lover boy akash. dapper in pa in law to be's big bad pants. (um, doesn't shashi ji always wear pyjamas though? hmmm, socheka padi.)

"bhai, kaisa lag raha hai." how am i looking, asks the desperate akash. what a hot date, in these sexy clothes. poor boy.

"bahut achhe lag rahe ho..." you're looking great, snaps back the un-simpatico bro... as in stop asking stupid question, get on with doing what you came here to do.

payal says sweetly, "haan achcha hi lag raha hai." yeah, it's looking good. takes up for the underdog always, this young woman.

hotwa stands in the night waiting.

lovers retire to nearby huddle. darwaza bhi nahin lock karna padega... the door won't have to be locked. niiice touch.

he is about to leave... when... oops no phone... and where could it be... inside... goes in after a lovely bit of considering things.

i enjoyed the entire setting up of asr reaching khushi's room at the right time.. sahi waqt was key to this episode, wasn't it? every detail was taken care of to transit asr to kkg's domain, for a little hamesha making. well written, light and crazy yet focused.

in walks madam jalebi and cracks standard see you next year joke on her way into her home... she will have such a good time with jiji...

lariya bhi toh jalane hai... kuchh achha bhi toh mangna hai. got to light crackers, and ask for something good.

well something gorgeous is standing in your room. did you ask for it?

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episode 157 love under the table

i think it was around 10:45 that i started feeling the restlessness. almost half the episode was done and yet no sign of sanka devi or laad governor, what was up? i must have seen the episode a couple of times before but for some reason i had not taken note of the fact that there was actually no sign or sight of khushi and asr in this one.

has that ever happened before? a whole chapter without both hero and heroine? okay, while this does not go down well with me, i guess the guys needed a break. daily soaps can be the most draining thing for the leads.

in this trying hard to be considerate viewer mode i will say, the episode wasn't as flat as you'd expect minus essential elements. it didn't peak or had you completely wrapped around its little finger, but it didn't tank either with you in head desk frenzy.

akash and payal and bua ji created enough stir and craziness to have me laughing. akshay can be pretty funny and he is really good with the lost hapless akash bit. deepali was funny, it almost looked as though she wished khushi would appear and relieve her of the duty of bringing humour to the story, but she was not bad. bua ji of course had so much fun overacting like mad. lavanya would have surely told her not to overdo it. the triangle though did work and time passed merrily.

nothing made an indelible mark but it was all rather sweet.

snake on the other hand was creepy as usual and that whole romancing the wife before killing her business was bilious. mama ji interrupted. snake looked worried. anjali smiled and preened and looked thrilled at her husband's lovey dovey behaviour.

first time i watched i had thought snake might succeed in causing injury. i was so relieved when that didn't happen. i needn't have rejoiced, we know what he did succeed in doing later.

surprisingly, the man who during the first half of the story failed at succeeding with every plan he cooked up, suddenly was invincible in the second half. he could fool asr, he could kidnap, kill, dupe, even be wooed back by khushi... what, as they say... ever.

akash and payal romanced under the table. he actually tricked her into holding and stroking the hand that was not injured... how brave and romantic, teehee. but he was rather cute when he asked if he could sit on the chair after all the table under fun.

affected by khushi ji's sanka, the writers have worked out a far fetched, completely lunatic yarn to get arnav ji here... for that midnight moment.

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