Originally posted by: Arshisarunfan
“Kya kar rahi ho tum?”
The image of Khushi in a red sari (episode 109), trapped in the circles of diyas 🪔 , and a mesmerized Arnav entering that circle to take Khushi out of that maze of diyas on the Diwali night, will perhaps remain one of the most enduring images of IPKKND !
It was that fateful night when lines were almost crossed, the carefully erected fortresses started showing visible cracks, the cautiously guarded fears, insecurities and vulnerabilities came to the fore! As if it was bound to happen since the air was laden with intoxicating magic, madness, inebriation which wouldn’t release anyone anytime soon! The ‘jaadu’ and ‘nasha’ were here to stay! The magical spell wreaked havoc in Arnav and Khushi’s life as the night of lights was steadily but surely leading to a spell of impending doom, darkness and agonising heartbreaks! ‘Yeh pal hai apna , toh iss pal ko jee le / Sholon ki tarha zara jal ke jee le’ (This moment belongs to us, so let’s live this moment! / Like hot embers let’s burn and live)! Arnav, who always wanted to be a man in control and prided himself to be the writer of his own destiny, suddenly realised on that night, to his horror, how close he came within inches of losing all control, of burning himself in the all decimating fire 🔥 as he, like a moth, started, as if in a trance, pursuing his flame 🔥 , his lady in red! It was a battle between his mind and heart!
He has already started to give away his heart to Khushi but his mind was not yet ready to give in! The control freak in him felt threatened as he knew that only Khushi could penetrate all his barriers and hold sway over his heart! He could not make himself this vulnerable now! He could not be the first one to admit that faraq padta hai (it makes a difference to him). So the decision was made, and Khushi’s heart was mercilessly crushed to pieces by the series of events that followed! Khushi meant the world to him but Arnav kept on growling stubbornly since that Diwali night that Khushi or anything related to her meant nothing to him as if it would change the reality if he kept on reiterating it bullishly! The turmoil, the tumult, the unrest, the agonizing heartbreaks, which had started during Arshi diwali (episode 109 /110 onwards), culminated in episode 124 when Arnav’s world turned upside down as Khushi revealed to him that she was now engaged to another man!
His world fell apart and all his semblances of indifference, his walls of control blew away leaving him torn, shattered, vulnerable and exposed! This was what he had been dreading since the age of 14! From that time he had meticulously erected those apparently invincible walls around him to protect himself from betrayals and heartbreaks! The only one who could penetrate those walls was Khushi and the only one who could sense his hurt, his pain now, was also Khushi, but Khushi too was equally (if not more) helpless as Arnav!
On the Diwali night Arnav wanted to show Khushi that she did not make a difference to him and he went ahead hastily, recklessly to announce in the Diwali party that he was going to marry Lavanya! But he desperately wanted Khushi to admit to him that all this is affecting her deeply, failing which, he heaped more hurtful words and insults on her! Though by hurting Khushi, he was hurting himself more as always! Today he had the taste of his own medicine when his heart was shredded to splinters by the news of Khushi’s engagement to another man! Now Arnav again needed to vent out his pent-up feelings of hurt, pain, agony, helplessness, frustration via his infamous anger! Or maybe he thought that was the only way he could mask his pain! He strode towards Khushi and snatched away her phone while she was answering her Buaji’s call to inform her that she had finally found her engagement ring 💍
Arnav looked broken, hurt, angry, and extremely troubled! A distraught Khushi was shaken to the roots by what she saw in his eyes! He was at the end of his tethers when he asked her, “Kya kar rahi ho tum?” (“What are you doing?”).
His carefully built mask of indifference fell off in front of Khushi! He always felt that he had the haq (right) over her and how was it possible that she didn’t feel the need to let him know? At this Khushi swung back with that iconic question: “Aap ko iss se kya faraq padta hai?” (How does it affect you? What difference does it make to you?)
Arnav: “Mujhe kya faraq padta hai? Mujhe faraq padta hai damn it, kyun ki m....”
His voice, throbbing with uncharted emotions, struggled to complete the sentence but he failed to complete it! The same struggle is replicated in a later episode (episode 177) when Arnav thought he had almost lost Khushi to a road accident!
But in this Maha Episode (Episode 124) for the first time, he admitted that it made a difference to him though he was not able to spell out the reason! He swallowed painfully the rest of the words! During Diwali he was hell-bent on making Khushi admit that he or his actions were affecting her - he kept on hurting her to push her to the edge and provoke her to react or confess about that faraq.
But today it was a major leap of progress from the Diwali night as his barriers of resistance came crashing down and compelled him to concede it first that it makes a difference to him! But wasn’t it too late? The engagement was already done! On the Diwali night Khushi had relentlessly demanded an answer from Arnav as she badly needed that answer to find some reason to prevent her impending engagement (for which she was being pressurized and emotionally blackmailed) with Shyam. But she got rudely rebuffed by Arnav each time she asked him those deeply disturbing questions which he could not answer without lowering his guards! The question he asked Khushi in episode 124 (“Kya kar rahi ho tum?” / “What are you doing?”), we, the viewers, felt like asking Arnav Babua while watching the Diwali episodes when he had recklessly and ruthlessly broken Khushi’s heart, ruining everything in the process precipitating the dreadful disaster which followed! He had menacingly grabbed her shoulders to threaten her to stop asking questions and drive her away (Episode 111). Almost a similar scene recurred in episode 124 - Arnav was again grabbing hold of Khushi but this time it was Arnav who was asking her the question - “Kya kar rahi ho tum?”
But at this juncture how can this question or even the answer to this question help them when both have formally or publicly declared to commit themselves to others? It was Arnav who had run away from his feelings, who was too terrified to answer Khushi’s questions, it was he who broke her heart and declared in public that he was going to marry Lavanya! Then why was he complaining now? Why was he exercising his right, his haq over her now? It has landed both of them into a monumental mess, a convoluted tangle, which readily reminds me of the image of the other maze I had referred to in the beginning - the maze of flickering diyas in which Khushi got trapped on Diwali night and Arnav entered the maze to take Khushi out of the trap only to end up later on with Khushi in a much bigger, more twisted maze of life events! [Another imagery of Khushi getting entangled by the wires of fairy lights before Diwali (episode 103) and Arnav helping Khushi untangle herself from the light wires, also can be recalled in this context)!
Now as the realization settled in that a more twisted tangle, a more convoluted mess has been created, stings of despair, frustration, anger, desperation, helplessness, and bouts of throbbing pain coursed through them which they could hide from the rest of the world but could not hide from each other and that escalated their agony and helplessness even more! Plaintive strains of Rabba Ve filled the air to break our hearts even further! 💔
While re-watching these high voltage episodes, I can’t help but wonder again and again how could Sanaya Irani and Barun Sobti understand the characters of Khushi and Arnav so well? So much so that whenever I watch these scenes, they don’t seem like a fiction but reality! Similar scenes, similar dialogues and plotlines these days are often being replicated by the same producers or different producers or channels in many new shows too but no one can come even closer to replicating or recreating the magic of Arshi or IPKKND ever! Arshi’s magic remains so enduring and intriguing even after a decade because in this case, Sanaya and Barun could go beyond the scope of the mere script to get into the skin of the characters they played, to live their roles so flawlessly that we cannot ever shake off their magnetic intensity and spellbinding charisma even if we try! This evergreen show and the lead couple’s chemistry will continue to captivate and intrigue viewers and fans for more decades to come hopefully! Greetings to all of you celebrating 10 years of this magical show!
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