I thought i wud share dis with u guys becoz its realted to sachin's show
Discussing Vaidehi's agnipariksha
A. L. Chougule
Posted online: Friday, September15, 2006 at 0000 hours IST
Amidst the chaos and confusion of power games and family politics, women protagonists on television have been getting into affairs, multiple marriages and settling down scores with relatives/friends-turned-foes in their search for marital bliss, happiness both collective and individual and personal identity which however remain as elusive as the search for the elixir of life. But Vaidehi is not so lucky. Cheated and stuck in a marriage to an impotent man who is increasingly getting insecure and negative out of his physical shortcoming, Vaidehi's agnipariksha is becoming a long-drawn battle where the man will not accept defeat easily.
So what's really in store for her? Will Neal, the new family member in the Jaisingh house who has come from abroad at the right time, bail out the Jaisingh family? Or will he side with Vaidehi and become her emotional anchor and may be later, her love interest? How far will Aryan go to prevent Vaidehi from walking out of the sexually-dysfunctional marriage? These are the questions that are uppermost in your mind when you visit the sets of Vaidehi.
But first things first there is some old- world charm on the sets of weeklies that you don't find on those of dailies. Less confusion, a leisurely pace of work, actors completely in tune with their characters and no waiting for scenes to arrive. Almost everything goes according to plans, including the lunch break, which is the time you can really chat with actors at leisure.
Marriages, as the saying goes, are made in heaven. That however, doesn't seem to be the case with Vaidehi. The middle-class girl was charmed and sweet-talked into marriage by Aryan who wanted a social respectability. That was his intent and he had the full support of his father. Only his mother, played by the one-hour weekly's producer and veteran actress Aroona Irani, was the sole voiceless dissenter in the entire drama of lies and deceit. "As a woman I really feel sad for Vaidehi because marriage is a sacred institution and you really can't cheat someone for your own self-esteem," says Irani who had saved her first daughter-in-law from being bumped off when she became pregnant out of an extra-marital affair. Will she help Vaidehi get out of the trap? "I really can't disclose anything," pleads the veteran actress. "Right now there is a new twist to the story with Neal having come in to live with the Jaisinghs. He is obligated to the family and has been asked to do something that he dislikes doing." That is to impregnate Vaidehi? "Well, Aryan has told everyone that Vaidehi is pregnant. She can't go in for an artificial insemination because Aryan's problem will become public knowledge. Neal is a white character. He knows Aryan's secret but his conscience doesn't allow him to touch Vaidehi," adds Irani, firmly keeping the twist under wraps. "You will have to wait and watch how the problem will be resolved this month."
Will Neal become Vaidehi's love interest? If that happens how will Aryan react? Irani is tight-lipped. But Pallavi Kulkarni who plays Vaidehi, answers the query in a roundabout manner, "Vaidehi's struggle will continue. But her sulking period is over. She is angry and frustrated though she still cries and feels the pain when she is alone. She is also tired of making the marriage work because Aryan won't listen and wants to have his way in every matter. So now Vaidehi has started giving him tit-for-tat," says Pallavi who feels that the relationship between her and Neal will be purely friendly. "He understands her problem and pain and is sympathetic towards her. He will be more of an emotional anchor for Vaidehi."
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While we will have to wait and watch what happens next, Pallavi loves her role. "The character is very bubbly and full of life," she smiles. "It has lot of emotions and shades." Ditto for Sachin Sharma who plays Aryan. "It's an excellent role and such roles rarely come your way. It has given me a lot of freedom to portray a variety of shades and emotions," says the newsreader-turned-actor who doesn't have any problem playing an impotent husband. On the contrary he did not even hesitate or think twice before accepting the role simply because he took it as a 'golden' opportunity to play a 'daringly-different' character. In his opinion impotency should not be treated as a taboo subject anymore. "Aren't we talking about AIDS and HIV very openly?" he asks. "When people are being told to have safe sex and have one sex partner why should we shy away from talking about impotency, which is also a disease?"
Aryan, according to Sachin, is a complex character. His various shades will unveil as the plot thickens. "Aryan is an arrogant and very negative man. But so far the negative trait of his personality has not been fully explored," he adds. A lot of drama is waiting to explode. "A lot of things are going to happen in the family and every character will go through his or her own agnipariksha. Aryan will turn into a totally black character from a negative one . He won't care for anyone and come out as a completely self-centered and ruthless man," says the actor adding that he has got a positive response for the role. But how is the serial faring on the TRP charts? "It's doing well but can't call it excellent," reveals Irani who has stayed away from direction lately because at her age she can't handle the pressure.
"I am a sensitive person and get bogged down easily if things go awry for some reason. I also like to pay attention to small details, which do not fit into the larger scheme of things today. Besides I need scenes well in advance which is not the case now," she explains. However, her involvement from script to the final edit is very much there. "I sit over the script, attend the channel meetings, and supervise over costumes and other details." She gives a lot of credit to Sony's creative team for their creative inputs. "They tell us what's going right and what may not work. Their contribution adds lot of depth and colour to the story," adds the actress-producer.
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