epsiode opens on a scene that almost has me yelling, "just loop it!" along with young man going down-isstairs there are all these off hand, not to make a great point of it sort of scenes where it feels a shame that they were shown only once. to wit: asr putting on tie, taking of waistcoat, unbuttoning coat, reversing... stuff like that. as the white big car arced away and they cut to man looking at rear view mirror going for a smooth long reverse spin, i felt an elation in my heart that was almost spiritual in intensity. i am serious here, of course.
he of course, says, "get out," and she is bound to come back with an "o" but there was something else in his eyes this time. not so harsh somehow. laconic as ever, he doesn't say much, just points with a slight gesture. she looks down, sees what's the problem, expression switches to slightly embarrassed air, she hadn't been expecting this, in fact was all set to go to war. the man was actually being decent to her. unbelievable.
she: dupatta
he: itsy bitsy teeny tiny turn of head... i interpret as, yeah, that's right. how so issmart, bwoy. why why why. just to kill aunties, i bet.
she scrambles off to change. he looks at her departing figure, face inscrutable, yet just a little bit of something almost indulgent lurking there. he shakes it off with an, "unbelievable!"
at rm, miss kkg is busy getting things done for the sangeet. she and anjali at work, she's on the phone, ordering sweets. "ji aap likhiye, kaju ki barfi, gulab jamun..." ji, you right, cashew barfi, g jams... girl talks, man walks down the stairs... "rasgulle..." pause... she sees him, he turns and looks at her... an infinite moment, she is ordering goodies that he can have none of, a funny pain in a funny girl for the man who calls her unbelievable and makes love to her regularly with a "get out."
"di, main meeting ke liye jaa raha hoon, thodi der mein aa jaoonga..." di, i am going for a meeting, will be back in a bit... she looks after him as he leaves, still rattled. i feel like leaping in front of her, waving my hand and saying, "haan haan, khushi ji, hum jaante hain ki aap asr se pyaar nahin karte..." yes, yes, khushi ji, i know you don't love asr...
in the car we have him looking as she leaves with a considering gaze, and now her. mirroring, ipk style. but a lovely way to say, they linger in each other somewhere. it's getting harder to just look away and drive off or call people laad governor. they register with each other. the eyes wants to look on... the dil maange more.
and then down the same stairs comes slither. she looks up, her expression again changes like that. he's positively lecherous with that icky smile. she turns away. again a paralleling. long back, in episode 49, there was a scene where the two men sit next to each other at the dining table and think of the same girl.
this is what i'd written then:
taking over from her husband, wither thou goest anjali says, guess what khushi is from lucknow. two frowns, a smile, and head turn one... head turn two.
so much enters a pair of eyes as the owner recalls a young woman telling him she's going away... to lucknow... forever.
tainting the purity of that moment, an illicit sneaky memory of a girl in a saree, looking beautiful, smiling. camera puts the two men thinking of the same girl in the same frame. felt more vulgar than la romping around the house in a bathrobe. obscene almost. bet that's exactly what the creatives planned.
there was always something tragic about the triangle that was created with a young, innocent girl at its core. she had no idea what was happening, and she definitely did not invite anyone's attention. two men, with other women in their lives, forgot their limits, one at least had no idea himself as to what was happening and the moment he did he acted the correct way, but the other? look at him... even now.
sadly, this is what happens in reality too. and in a place where a girl's "abroo," her respect her honour gets compromised at the drop of hat, where the onus seems to be almost on her to keep disgusting men from philandering, khushi is helpless in ways many in a contemporary, urban milieu with a western mindset may not understand. she can't blow the whistle top of her lungs even if she wanted to... too many lives, too many feelings at stake. the "respect" of the raizadas as it were, apart from her own families. but still, she could have told asr, that i have to say was a big mistake. it allowed for precisely the situation we are seeing right now.
our actions have their impact, their repercussions... nothing can save us from that. the meetha and namkeen of good direction in these two parallel scenes of the man falling in love and the man in perpetual lust. visually it felt like a triangle.
shyam tried to paint the truth in a certain light, sure it would get him what he wanted... anjali's money and khushi's "yes," his brain swarming with sick desire he planned and pitched his campaign. khushi was not taken in, and yet a night of difficult thoughts. the director too chose a different light to show khushi in this state. added dimension to her character, khushi had deeper planes and valleys in her, her sunny nature may not give enough hint of it. and when in front of others, she would not reveal her inner turmoil, khushi would not want anyone to worry on her behalf... maybe of that comes the attitude of "i'll take care of everything, i can manage," had the creatives not lost the plot when it came to khushi, we might have seen a hugely interesting character evolve here too.
the theme of triangles continued as 148 brought us yet another love story with three people. a solid lusty bromance.
akash and asr were always shown to be close to each other, but with that interaction on the stairs started a boisterous fun time with the boys. two of them were here... the third was about to appear. before that, his aunt of course had to say a few bizarre things, act as chorus, apprise the audience of the essential details of the new entrant. like, he comes from kidney... "kidney se aay raha hai aeroplane udke..." the aeroplane is coming flying from kidney... instantly to mind that old sardarji joke where he taps his head and says "kidney, kidney," when asked what's the secret of his phenomenal knowledge of biology, meaning "brain, brain," needless to say... way before santa banta there were these simple jokes, silly but unforgettable. i bet utkarsha naik knew it too. no wonder she enjoyed herself so much.
seeing the over excited aunt, asr is intrigued. akash enlightens him, "aap ko pata hai na aaj kaun aa raha hai." you know who's coming today.
for once akash has a good idea... run.
the man is a bit slow on the uptake today, he's still wondering, what's the date, "o god i forgot... par usske liye car bhi nahin bheji..." but i haven't sent a car for him...
akash is in control of the situation, wow... "nahin don't worry about that... driver ko pata hai ki ussko airport jana hai..." don't worry, the driver knows he has to go.
"usske flight kab hai akash?" when is his flight, akash! a note of panic in the hushed voice... they do not wish aunt to know.
um... desperate watch check by akash... a hand gesture... gone, too late.
finally, "let's get out..." sexiest ever. the entire staircase interaction is worth playing intermittently as episodes run. akshay and barun are in perfect sync, you can feel the zing between them, and they are funny... no doubt about it. none of that thick meh television soap humour here, it's real, sexy and guffaw giving.
adding to this, mami's arbitrary twistiya, "kaas tum log pharen-return hote... gori gori daater in la aati aur kahti, maam, hum tumri daater in law hai." if only you were foreign-return, fair fair daughters-in-law would come and say, mom, i'm your d-i-l... "humse kahti, bootiphool mother-in-laaa," would have said to me, beautiful m-i-l... please note look on her indian nephew and son's faces, especially the neph.
the "foreign-return," what a concept. how it excites us, this thing of "abroad," while we adore the motherland, somehow the touch of foreign land (by which i think we mean essentially western countries... uk, us right on top, australia not too bad either, once in a way, a germany or france) hayeee how we loves it. such a lot of pride in saying the son got educated abroad, or the sister has been living in london you know, or the neph is coming from kidney, aastraliya.
for mami ji, nand kissore, her own nephew who lives in gora-land is no less than a major status symbol. she who was a maid prior to her marriage, has very few things she can flaunt that give her "face." one of them is arriving any moment now.
can you blame her for going all filmi and repeating a scene from a popular film, movies being possibly her main source of info and knowledge (as mine is a daily soap)?
delightful set of scenes.
"ok... hum chalte hain," nephew can't take it any more, he's gotta go.
"have fun," smiles son as he hastens to make his exit... but alas too late.
"maasi..." a voice from nowhere, where, is he here is he there... nice touch, creatives, funny and sort of cocky... this is nand kishore, krishna, after all, his voice cometh from the heavens it seems.
ooo aay gawa... he's here, mami ji as proud maasi goes into super drama. the two bros fall apart, mami fancies she hears a helicopter landing a la kkkg, anjali asks the wrong question, "chhotey, waise tum unse itna darte kyun ho?" chhotey, why are you so scared of him... man not happy.
enter nk.
"aai gaya humra pharen return bootiphool babua humra nand kissore aayi gawa" ah the ecstatic aunt. she whirls around when at the last minute nand kishore stops the game and appears... on flamenco music. akash grips asr's shoulder. time to for support group. (those who have had cousin's cousins they couldn't take, or even cousins, but had to in that nice indian happy big extended fam way, will know exactly what the two feel at this instant.) but the rest of the clan is delighted. so cute this spiky haired cool dude, ear stud in place.
"you know, mausa ji, yeh india ke sparsh bhi na..." nk said "sparsh" or touch for "farsh" floor, and so started the saga of wrong hindi words that would keep us giggling and deciphering wildly forever. have to say, karan goddwani has this clean clean feel... difficult to dislike him, and yes, if i had a cousin like that i'd run for cover too.
he told all to call him nk, short and sweet and then gave asr the name which stood a 180 degrees on the other side from the haughty arrogant three initialed rakish one... "hey naanav, naanav mere bhai give me hug!"
naanav? phhwa...
"arnav," corrects the man coldly... but this is naaty nk you're up against.
"dekho dekho naanav ke naak se ghooan araha hai..." of course, he means "dhooan" smoke... that's coming out of asr's nose ... everyone takes turn correcting his hindi... but i'm stuck on the image of fire breathing asr.
as nk carries on regardless, through gritted teeth asr enquires, "aane mein koi takleef toh nahin hui?" no problems getting here?
and sweet nk, as innocent in many ways as the extremely non-phaaren-return khushi, launches into a lovely account of all the fun he had flying business. all those people who are too jaded to appreciate these little luxuries should listen to this lovely flakepot. bright gleaming life in his eyes.
the triangle is complete. yo, bromance.
but before i go, nk said, he had no trouble doing the entire journey... even cried after watching harry potter, but after getting to here, he found it difficult to find the main door. what... are the creatives trying to hintiya something...
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fanfiction
