Sajan reunion ... far too short!

8th Nov episode

As I predicted ... Sajan reunion finally happened :) after the longing glances Gunji was throwing Samrat on Friday, it didn't seem too far off! And it seemed fitting and right that it should happen on Diwali - the first Diwali was memorable, their confession was on Dusshera, which was actually telecast around Diwali and it was appropriate to have this confession on Diwali too ...

But my chief complaint ... FAR too short a scene ...
My second complaint ... penny pinching ... they should ideally have had this scene with fire crackers as well, as both the SG flashbacks showed firecrackers in the bg ...

Usually ... in fact, almost through the entire show, SG scenes have been very well written and conceptualised ... but this one really showed the visible bias - or sheer inability - of the current writers ... badly written, far too short, didn't give the actors time to develop the scene at all in terms of emotions ...

and so, for the first time, the fact that the scene came across as well as it did, I will give the ENTIRE credit to the actors ... they lifted it with sheer acting prowess and again, for Gunjan, with dialogue delivery ... her dialogues were delivered flawlessly, her voice rising and falling with the emotions she was portraying ...
What I really liked was that Gunjan stayed in her S2 character - her apology was completely different from that of the one after the V nite, and even from the one after the Neel episodes - here she was soft-spoken yet sure of herself, the ebb and flow of emotions starting from the first half-smiling 'tumhe sorry bolne ki aadat pad gayi hai', then the lovingly spoken 'galti tumhari nahin hoti, phir bhi sorry keh dete ho', the half admonishing 'tum itni aasnai se sorry kaise keh dete ho?' ...
and then slipping into the remorse, self-recriminatory mood - 'mujhse to ek baar bhi nahin kaha gaya' ... then it all comes tumbling out ... that she punished him for no fault of his, that he always tried to bring a smile to her face, and she hurt him again and again, and he never said a word ... whenever she was in trouble, in pain, he was always by her side, she turned away from him, made him a stranger to her, yet he gave her more support than even her own loved ones ... (FINALLY realising that he means more to her than dratted sister!) ... how does he do this? And she didn't say sorry even once ...
And he stops her by putting a finger on her lips ... you don't need to say it, because without your saying anything, I understand you ...

'tumhara dil bahut bada hai, Samrat' ... and this is still her apology - all those times she hurt him, but he has no bitterness, no complaint ... he's forgiven her without a murmur, he still loves her as much as he ever did ...
and he replies ... 'kyunki tum is dil mein rehti ho' - corny, cheesy, but heartfelt ...
then he asks self-mockingly - was I too filmy? and they both laugh softly ... and this was where I saw the new S2 SG the most clearly ... especially the next bit where Gunjan just says simply "thank you" ... and puts her head on his shoulder ... thank you for forgiving me, for loving me, for wanting me back in your life, for not giving up on me, on us, when I did ... a couple who are made for each other, meant to be with each other ... whatever happens, they can never really be parted ...
And then Samrat sees the ring ... she's been wearing it for ages now, surprising he never noticed it earlier - so was it deliberate that she wore it before Dhruv's truth was exposed, to show that even before she knew Nups, her sister was really back, she already knew she needed Samrat back in her life?
He says - 'yeh ring' - and she smiles - so finally you noticed it ... and he knows that yes, they ARE back together as before ... and he reaches to kiss her ...

... but holds back ...

My feeling - the last time they were together was ZDP, and after that their separation was long and bitter. This time he wants to do everything the right way ... only after he has the right to do it ... in other words, only after they're married.

And this is when I would have liked them to go out, hand in hand, and see the Diwali firecrackers lighting up the sky - would have been a fitting end to their story ... and a fitting new beginning ...
part 1
part 2

but of course, we have to go back to bedroom scenes ... skip MN, fwd to SaNu convo, which was ok, then Sayank ... Mayank playing Bauji...
And here it was the reverse of the SG scene - although the scene was well-written, acting let it down ... Mayank CANNOT do this kind of stuff convincingly at all - he was unconvincing as the watchman and as Swaminathan, and equally unconvincing here - when he tries to do a different voice, all he does is speak more loudly ... doesn't work for me at all.
Which leads me to musing - of the four actors, who was actually good at nautanki, especially different accents - Mayank has been bad all through - loud voice, but no convincing or consistent change in either voice tone or accent ... Equally unconvincing was RP as Cheenifry - or w/e she was, she was downright awful, as Kashibai she was totally OTT, the actress who played Amba was far better ... Sanaya as coy, simpering 'swami' wasn't great either - again, she can't do nautanki ... although her Paro was beautiful ...
So the best of the four, by a long shot is Mohit ... surprising for a guy who was labelled a non-actor - his Bhavesh was good, his SSC was brilliant, the Punjabi accent was fantastic, the voice change was brilliant and consistent. Then he did a short Jat impersonation - that was perfect as well ... and just one line in a Nepali accent - and that was perfect too, judging by the fact that I actually noticed it - a single dialogue ... so my opinion of Mohit's acting abilities is actually going up quite a lot!

Last bit ... Sam-Uday and the hospital MN-Sam convos were strictly time-pass ... Nups screeching again, mute button pressed ... scenes seem to have been put in to fill time until they get on with revealing Nups' pregnancy, and whatever the next twist is in the SG track - gosh, even in saas-bahu shows, a pregnancy isn't such suspense! But WHY a new SG track - why don't they just get married now? Let's hope Samrat's proposal gets more screen space than today's SG confession scene did.
And why was Gunji missing in the second half of the episode? MJHT is no fun without her!

Naveen's link - SG reunion