Thursday, September 8, 2011

7/9 - Epi 70 ... Clash of beliefs

7th Sept

Buaji expresses her distress about the humiliation and tells Khushi that if she leaves her job, she (bua) will support her completely - a big thumbs up for Buaji. Khushi says she knows, but for her, this is a job which is giving them the money they are in need of. So she will do it - to the best of her ability. And put up with whatever it takes.
During her four days at AR, she faced not just public humiliation, but also physical abuse, and a life threat. Compared to that, this is nothing - plus she has received the money upfront. How can she back off? Would she have to return the money? Or has she already sent it to her parents, so she cannot? Plus, the matriarch is on her side, so she has some support, which is actually meaningful, as opposed to Manju aunty in AR. All in all, I can understand Khushi's decision to continue.
Payash scene - sweet. Finally they progress the Payash story. So this might happen in tandem with Shyam's truth emerging, which might give Khushi another reason not to burn her bridges with Arnav and the Raizada house.

Pooja starts. In view of Khushi's decision to continue with her job, could understand her normal behaviour with Lavanya, but felt it should have been tempered with some slight hesitation at least. Here she carries on as though nothing ever happened. Part of her determination to look forward? Being too caught up in the festivities? Or just a directorial glitch? Because Khushi has been shown to be a person who doesn't really hold grudges for too long - the one time she sounded off Arnav for the guesthouse episode, she was herself not happy with the whole shouting match. But I would have been happier with some hint of reserve with Blah, for a few moments at least. And where and why did Anjali suddenly disappear from the puja?

Arshi scene - I preferred Arnav's lines ... I don't want to attend the puja, so I won't. Let your God strike lightening on me for that - I'll wait! And Khushi takes it as a personal insult - Balgopal has sent a sign in the form of ghee on his shirt, how can he not attend?
*sigh* Indian blind belief at its best - or worst.
So Khushiji takes it on herself to bring Arnav to the aarti.
Mixed feelings on this scene. At first take, I sympathise with Arnav completely. Belief is a private thing - he has lost faith in God for his own reasons, and by dragging him to a ritual he doesn't believe in, is not going to magically restore that faith. Plus faith cannot be forced, it has to come from the heart. This seemed more like Khushi's own agenda - taking Arnav's atheism as a personal challenge and meeting it headon, with more sensibility than sense. But then, isn't that what ASR had done in office with her? Given her idiotic, stupid jobs to do, just to show her down and try to break her? So both seem to be equal in the ego department for sure. And the challenge wasn't really to change Arnav's beliefs, but more to make him join in a family celebration.

But the situation was very forced and inconsistent with what had just happened earlier. Since when has Khushi become so fearless with ASR? Till the last episode, she was in tears about the police incident, how has she recovered so completely, to be able to face him without shaking, as she was doing till now?

My take - one missing scene - where Arnav fired Blah about bringing in the police to RM without asking him, and telling Blah that he doesn't want a repeat of her stupidity. Blah saying that she just did it to verify Khushi, Arnav replying that Khushi doesn't need to be verified at this stage, after knowing her for over a month. A few biting words about Khushi being a gold-digger but not a thief, or not being stupid enough to try robbing a house where she is the only outsider, would have cemented his tacit support for Khushi, and a few added words about advising Blah to behave herself and not antagonise Nani any further than she already has done, would have put Blah further to hating Khushi but following her quietly as she did in the puja, and probably started to soften Khushi towards Arnav, at least enough for the ghee scene.

Also, I think the challenge to bring Arnav to the puja was not really to change his beliefs, but more to make him join a family celebration taking place in the house. And also, to avenge a perceived insult to not herself - for Khushi is prepared to swallow insults to her own self quietly - but to her Balgopal. It was as though Arnav had challenged Balgopal - I won't attend the aarti - what will your God do to me? Will he throw lightening at me? He can't harm me. So Khushi says, God will bring you to the aarti. With some help from his devoted servant, of course!

La blah tying sari, and trying to provoke Khushi again - leave the job if you can't teach me. Which Khushi can't do, of course. So she swallows her insult and pretends nothing has happened. And the part where she tells Blah to bring Arnav for the aarti is definitely her own agenda - her own challenge with Arnav - nothing to do with getting Blah into Nani's good books. Khushi seems to have learnt some tricks - she is not as simple as she looks. She's figured out how to manage Blah all right - Blah being dumb helps, of course. Because Blah can only resort to crude, direct stuff ... anything slightly subtle seems to be beyond her.
Don't think that Khushi thought about Blah getting into trouble with Arnav - she is genuinely not bothered about ASR at the moment. Except for some occasional touches and rabba ve's, she is not very conscious of him yet. Or maybe also, Blah being firmly in place, it's not Khushi's nature to think about ASR, as he is so obviously taken. Plus again, it's a job she wants to succeed at, and get the hell out of RM with her money.

Blah with ASR - he shouts, she cowers and runs away. He's already pissed that Khushi tried to pull him for the aarti, Blah gets the rough end of his tongue. And of course she can't handle it. I wonder if Anjali alone had tried to call him for the aarti, he might have agreed, but because it was Khushi, he said no. Because how can he listen to anything Khushi says?!

Khushi's plan for bringing Arnav downstairs and lighting the diya works ... and Anjali cements it by persuading him to stay for the aarti. Loved Khushi's wink to Balgopal and the mischief in her eyes. Arnav is of course glowering all through.

Like I said, I do sympathise with Arnav's feelings, plus faith cannot be forced. So being forced to attend a ritual is a big no-no for me.
On the other hand, Arnav has been shown to be a neo-athiest - the events in his life turned him into one. But also, he conforms to many of the traditions of his house fairly willingly - giving up non-veg during navratas being the first one, he may have gone to the mandir for Teej for Anjali's sake, but he took part in the aarti there willingly, he fasts for Raksha Bandhan with Anjali ... the beliefs are there buried deep within him, which is why Anjali is able to persuade him so many times so easily. So maybe this was the first step through Khushi's efforts, taken unwillingly, but taken nonetheless ... and a typical Hindi serial (and filmy) one ... the hero cannot be an atheist, he has to return to God at some point, preferably through the help of his saintly mother, sacrificing sister or his lover.

And Shyam the villain is emerging ... so hopefully the story will start to move now! He may have fallen in love with Khushi ... but now he just wants her.

Another Arshi moment - the diya shielding - loved this one! Short and sweet. Really like the way the eyelocks here are short ... not long and everlasting! Shades of things to come - mami handing over the reins of the jhoola to Khushi ... and Khushi to Arnav. Just some touches of awareness on Khushi's part, and Arnav is still glowering.

ASR overhears that Khushi hatched the plan to bring him downstairs for the aarti ... methinks he wasn't so furious about coming down as he was about losing to Khushi's challenge. And Khushi made it very clear that he had lost her challenge by staying for the aarti, and she was happily gloating about it. So although he fired Blah for falling for Khushi's tricks, his main anger will come out at Khushi as per the precap.

On the whole, I found a lot of inconsistencies in characterization, which I had to really think to try and explain. Seems as though the episodes are being written on a day to day basis - the CV's really need to chalk out whole tracks well in advance - it has the makings of a good complicated story, and this piecemeal work is very annoying.

Links
Part 1
Part 2

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