Posted:
Nice reviews from everyone, some very different takes which made it fun! 😊
It felt like today's episode was the second half of a twofer - it took yesterday's and today's episode to put the picture together for me. It's about starting afresh, yes - but not just starting with a clean slate but going back to fix everything that was done wrong the first time. Then it was revenge, ego, control, now it's about love. It is about Shlok being the man Astha first fell in love with but for real. Not that the oversized ego and the compulsive need to control are going away, but they can co-exist, cede sometimes even to love. dsr11, I liked your comments about this is yesterday's thread and also the way you looked at compromise and I agree. Most of the time change is incremental and about a few facets of one's personality but change sometimes can be a fundamental/core one too. One of those will come up for Shlok pretty soon when he has to choose between his father and his wife.
I don't doubt that he will fight such a huge change tooth and nail or that it rock the foundations of his fledgling relationship with Astha. He did tell Astha that he was willing to give her all kinds of leeway provided she didn't hurt his sainted baba. That's his line in the sand. Bingyy if you're setting that up as a test for Shlok's love for Astha, then he will fail. I'm pretty sure we don't need to wait to find that out. But why should that be the acid test? He failed that one with Swati, the first go around he will likely fail Astha too. So I don't see how that proves that one is his unattainable true love and the other is his safety blanket.
The point to me of the terrace scene (apart from cheesy romance! 😃) was that Shlok was able to find a way to get his own way and keep Astha happy too. The ultimate happy solution where they both win but it isn't going to be so easy from now on I think. The apology was a nice - it was sincere and it seemed heartfelt, although the going down on one knee seemed much to me. I'm not one for the grand gesture but he was doing that to be Astha's Shlok I think, which is kinda sweet! It did occur to me that we're seeing some of the joys of fiction - Shlok goes down on one knee and apologizes, plays the romantic lover and with that he erases the world of pain he put Astha through that well near destroyed her. Ah... that real life could be so easy, so tractable! 😆 The apple scene - meh! I'm not a big fan of having allegorical scenes force fed, so it didn't do much for me. I
Of course, the most interesting part of the episode to me was the Sojal drama that ensued, particularly the way it went down. Everyone feels for Sojal, but no one dares to stand up for what is right. Anjali the enforcer is setting herself up for another world of pain and it won't be easy to watch. The scene that really grabbed me was manipulator par excellence playing Shlok - he blames Anjali for all the ills, takes on the halo of a martyr who has to compromise to keep the peace for the greater good. Shlok who comes in to plead his bhabhi's case not only walks away empty handed but even more convinced in his baba's greatness and his mom's unworthiness. Smooth, Niranjan Agnihotri - very smooth! 😛
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