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episode 212
she waits for him in the morning, a mischievous air about her. he comes back from a run looking unnervingly good, destroying my concentration. there's a tussle over who'll get to the bathroom first.
a playful air. light plink plonk music. khushi wears her simple home clothes and looks lovely, also determined to ruin her man's happiness. if he has done what he has to her, she is going to settle the score with an extreme sanka fuelled revenge plan... arnav singh raizada ko satane ke sau tarike. a hundred ways to bother asr.
great insight. khushi must react to the chaos in her own way. she can't become a sad sack or get overly heavy and serious over the whole thing. our innate characters always assert, ascend.
so yeah, this should have worked.
yet funnily, for me at least, something never felt right about the whole kkg over the top hit back. something was not felt right, not written right. like i couldn't feel khushi any more. i can believe she would choose to be in supreme sanka as she took on a man whom she had strong feelings for and yet who had behaved horribly by doing what he had that evening and keeping the threatening attitude up... but would this be the way? almost cartoonish?
she was never ever a cartoon. not even in her most chamkili days at ar... her look was strange, her facial expressions were never "cool", her constant hey dm and eating and looking horrified at the ways of the big city were rather cute and funny, but she never ever was someone you laughed at, in fact, i liked her mind and her can do spirit, and her tackling of things her way.
there was always a sense of depth alongside that inimitable fey quality of khushi, so brilliantly brought alive by sanaya.
here i felt a certain lack of depth came about in the writing.
i have often felt that no one really was sure where to take this story after the wedding, which many think was imposed by the channel. original story envisaged a slightly different situation...
i will never know the facts... anyway, the way serials are written in daily soaps in india, everything is fluid. things change all the time.
guess that takes its toll on things.
while watching these episodes, i felt the girl i had met back in the early days became somehow thinner and flimsier than her original character here.
i love the madness of mausam hai suhana. sanaya really sounds awful and totally happy. her plan to sabotage the happiness of mr i am the lord of all i survey laad governor involves slowly raiding his daily existence, taking over his space, his peace of mind, till he is floating about in abject misery, highly sataoed.
the bid to take the bathroom before him has them both running to the bathroom door like kids, trying to beat the other. their hands reach for the knob at the same time, and meet. but both are too busy trying to win to get all mushy.
the man bestows an irritated look on the girl. i am destroyed once more.
"pehle main jaaonga!" i'll go first... he.
"hume bhi jana hai!" i too have to go... she.
he's not happy. she sneezes. loud and not bothering to cover her nose.
he draws away and tries again, "aur yeh ghar mera hai, yeh kamra bhi aur yeh bathroom bhi." this house is mine, also this room and this bathroom.
okay barun sounds awfully good saying it and looking haughty and exasperated. but dialogue a little flat, childish.
it's all a set up so we can come to the point when she can claim, it's my home too.
"what do you mean humara ghar bhi hai, khushi kumari gupta?" what do you mean it's my home too, kkg? he snarls.
"... singh raizada!" singh raizada, she completes her name.
and then the killer punch is delivered, "aadhe saal ki liye, aadha room aur adha bathroom mera hai..." for half a year, half the room and the bathroom are mine.
khushi's claiming half of everything that is his for that half year he has married her for was sharp and clever. i wish they had played more with it.
"soch lijiye!" think about it, she threatens sweetly when he refuses to give in, she will tell everyone she says about the six month nuptials.
"tum aisa kuch nahin karogi, khushi... d'you understand?" you'll do nothing of the sort, thunders asr, but she knows she has scored. oh the grin.
he wins the bathroom anyway. no imandari here. and in comes a ditty that is all about the weather and beauty and very bad singing... "aaj mausam hai suhana!"
madam is destroying poolside. what the f man comes raving out. and lallalalla...
it was funny, that whole dhobi ghat making of poolside.
so why did i sort of not like it?
again, too slap stick... flat.
but got to say the strapped for funds and sets creatives did a madly good job of making poolside multi task, from lovers corner to torture chamber.
she made a bid for her "hissa" share of the pool... again that hissa thing... means part of something, even oneself.
"shut up!" flew at high decibel... beautiful.
"kya hua? koi aur gana gaye?" what's the matter? should i sing something else? perfect timing and cadence. sanaya too good in comedy mode, light fun sexy.
"get up!"
"kya? aap kapde dhoenge?" what! you're going to wash clothes!
he lets her go and take the bathroom first.
he paces outside, his usually gelled and brushed back hair, flopping on his forehead. a lovely easy, bedroom sort of look.
khushi emerges happy and victorious, drying her hair with a towel. another altercation starts.
"don't act smart, khushi!" threatens tycoon. "yeh mat samajhna ki..." don't think that...
and a swish of wet hair, a sound coming in, and a bemused look beginning on a man's face despite his resolve not to be affected by khushi...
hey hey...
strands of his hair fly... and why doesn't it look corny.
she wipes hers without knowing what she is doing to him. she has no idea she needn't look for ways to bother him.
oh she bothers him anyway... a lot. a lot.
camera moves and shows the two of them. i stop breathing. hey hey ... hey hey hey... tell me what else is love.
rabba vey...
i am reminded of that look in the office back in episode 22, the first rabba vey. she is so pretty and innocent as she dries her hair, that touch of her cool wet strands, a caress, has him feeling too many things... he just stares bemused, lost.
struck by the silence, she turns.
he's still lost... his eyes dreamy, his facial muscles relaxed.
happy trill of music. "aap kuchh keh rahe the na..." you were saying something, she says..
she has no idea what she does to him. i loved this little scene. there was something pretty and innocent and yet grown up and real in it. barun and sanaya both wonderful... they always added their own interpretation, making things more somehow.
he returns to the moment.
"huh, eh woh... nothing..." he mumbles.
so so tender and sweet. asr.
she keeps playing her achhoo game.. the moment goes...
you just never wanted to see her in that state, did you? i think looking at asr... never imagined anything that happened would or could.
he gives in... "theek hai, kal se main jaldi uthke naha loonga!" okay, from tomorrow, i'll get up early and have a bath.
... later she will say, it's okay, you don't have to apologise... because you loved me so much. he did.. and that was what got me so involved... this intense, sensitive exploration of love.
she made fun of him, she sneezed constantly till he had to say, she'd better sleep on the bed, he's of course doing this only so his di is safe and doesn't catch an infection. she took over his cupboard. it was harrowing for the man right through. and we also had some really awful creepiness from shyam. a desperate, "open your eyes, di..." from khushi.
for me that little moment with the wet hair, towel, smile, unawareness, and a man arrested was what it was all about.
thoughts/edits
i liked the wardrobe takeover shots, there was a nice symmetry there, and a totally sexy expressing by the man in waistcoat and jacket.
what was that with mami and payal and food tasting frenzy? then the now assertive akash eating fruit, admonishing mother in his way... why did the payal akash story lose direction the way it did? aaj mausam hai suhana, never knowing the reason ka hai bahana.. lallalalallala.
suddenly a cut to asr shrugging on his jacket. why is it that i find barun terribly dashing and attractive while doing stuff like this? of course he had to turn back and i had to pause, do shift+control+4 and make caps. then edit edit edit.
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