Yes, another one and my insane friends are reponsible for this!
Statutory Warning - If you are not a Sai Ketan Rao/Raghav Rao fan....put your hands up, turn around and slowly step away!!
I had dreaded this episode, to be honest, cringing at the thought of Raghav being more ridiculed than he already was, turned into a caricature, a joke dressed in outlandish costumes and bathed in exaggerated mannerisms. It promised to be a circus by the looks of it ( that precap), a death knell for this show!! I was confident they will bring this actor and character down on his knees with this cliched and predictable turn of events.
But today he brought me down on my knees and I don't mind going down on one knee for him too š!! Ketan turned the tables on each and every one of us know-it-all sceptics. He proved that a fine actor owes all he does and if a performer knows his job, he can pull off any character with a finesse and panache that can take breaths away!!
Very few, I believe, could have done what he did today!! Or rather has been doing from day one of this show.
An unfortunate and ironic fact for us intelligent women of today is ...we watch the show for the man. Shocking, tragic but true!! Because majority of Indian TV female leads are not worth a second look.They are all the same kind, self-sacrificing, mahaan, jagat matas, putting everyone first, self- righteous, paragons of virtue and high morales, unidimensional, saree clad, gehno ki dukaan...blah blah..I can go on and on but you get the picture, we all do.
And the men get all the meat, they get to have all the fun!! They have the opportunity to be creative, they have the good fortune to portray the whole spectrum of emotions. If you are looking for power, for flawed perfection, for humane qualities of failure, arrogance, pride, manipulation, selfishness, look at the man!! (And this is the main reason why I can identify with them more than the females). The hero has it all, the looks, the role and the attitude coz they are the real TRP pullers!! (How I hate to say this as a woman)
But in this legion, Ketan is in a class of his own!!
The way Raghav Rao has been enacted has been sheer brilliance from day one!! An actor's performance is never one directional and he made it clear from his first shot. The voice, its modulation, the speech, dialect, accent, the body language, the stance, the way one walks, even stands, eyes, face, expression, the hands..every part and particle of your being can add to your performance, every damn minute fibre of your existence can create an onscreen persona...and all this and a lot more was Ketan's clear message!!
So easy to overact when you have an OTT character like Raghav Rao to perform. There is nothing subtle about Raghav, he is so loud, so attention seeking, so in your face yet Ketan gave him such clout, such raw power. He got Raghav respect, he gave him dignity and made him likeable and eventually lovable. He made us stand up and take notice everytime Raghav entered the screens. Raghav's addition to any scene ensured a solid performance, he got the hearts racing, the adrenalin pumping and to say that it was all due to his looks would be an injustice and that's an understatement. Such sheer screen presence!! Raghav was such a fine balancing act and Ketan created a masterpiece!!
No words can do justice to an actors fine perfomance so coming to today...he was overdressed to the core, yet carried it off with such ease and confidence. His swagger was worth a look!! Hats off to the guy who can make even this look sexy!! When you owe it, you show it!!
And his entry in the D asylum..fire!! He had just one eye to emote with and emote he did...get goosebumps when I remember how he wouldn't take his eye off Pallavi. The intensity of that gaze, the heat of passion in that eye..the changing moods. First his shock, his concern. He clearly depicted Raghav's state of turmoil! Then his relief and a second of disappointment when she couldn't recognise him. Mandar and Sanki, everyone trying to grab his attention, but no he would not allow any of that. Then his love, his adoration. Then his hate and disgust, indifference towards Mandar. The cherry on the top how he shoved him off without taking his gaze of Pallavi, the message loud n clear - I give a hoot about you dude, I am here for her, get lost!! That one eye even reflected his badass attitude š¤£ And it send shivers down my spine. How in the world can someone act with one, only one eye yaar?
And what body launguage!! Never in my wildest dreams did I think that me and Kaku will be on the same page but man..does this man look royal!! He drips royalty, makes one and all believe that he is no ordinary man. And all of this without his face or facial expressions or voice, none of the standard actors tools at his disposal and he still manages to convey it all with an eye and a body..wow!!
A zillion reasons to walk away from this show but only one is still enough to keep me here..Sai Ketan Rao!!
P.S. Not a hormonal teenager, so don't like to drool over actors (characters are fine) but have to give credit where it's due!!
Hindi TV Shows
