9/7 - Epi 292 One Dream Dies ... Another is Born

Monday 9th July

One dream died ... one illusion shattered. An illusion built by a master of deception carefully painstakingly over three years ... shattered by one moment of greed, an outpouring of lust and an overpowering ego. Three of the seven three deadly sins ... and they finally brought Shyam Manohar Jha down. And destroyed that illusion that he had so carefully created.

And the destruction of that dream, the shattering of the illusion left disaster in its wake. A family torn to pieces ... the favourite daughter of the house left crying bitterly, alone, unwilling to believe still in the perfidy of her spouse ... the matriarch of the house left the bitterness and sorrow of yet another child's tragedy ... the aunt, who was mother, angry at the betrayal not only of the son-in-law, but also that of her son-like nephew ... a husband angry at the secrets kept from him by his wife ...

And the only bond that survived the tempest was the one that was born in hate ... because it took birth in the center of the storm ... it had weathered all the storms already, and grown slowly and steadily till it gained so much strength, that this latest storm, which destroyed the rest of the house, couldn't touch it. A new dream, born in the shadows of hate, and grown into full bloom amidst the chaos of deceit, lies and betrayal ... a new,indestructible bond ... if it could weather this storm, it could weather anything.

A Rabba ve today which felt like the real thing ... which was the real thing :"> :"> :">

*edited*

Episode update:

Arnav throws Shyam out of the house … all Anjali can see is Shyam … and Shyam knows it.

Arnav shuts the door on Shyam and turns to Anjali … ‘I’m sorry, Di … but I trust Khushi … I know she’s telling the truth …’ his tone not victorious but apologetic … he did what had to be done, but he left it so late … 

Mami’s expressions as Arnav shut the door on Shyam … angry satisfaction … NK’s expression as Arnav says he trusts Khushi … quiet vindication …

And Anjali’s world collapses around her … as does she … 

Anjali’s room … Anjali on her bed, Nani and Mami, the two mother figures, one on each side, their child is hurt, and they hurt equally badly for her … Arnav and Akash, her two brothers, her protectors on one side, they failed to protect their sister from the ugliness that was Shyam because they never recognized him till it was almost too late … the three outsiders, Khushi, Payal and NK on the other side – the three crusaders, the ones who brought out the entire ugly truth … and shattered the entire family and the relationships within it in the process.

Anjali struggles to sit up, Nani Mami help, but Arnav’s hand is shaken off … Arnav knows what’s coming, so does Khushi as they exchange a look … the reason why Khushi kept silent for so long is becoming apparent … 

Mami tells Anjali she needs to rest … Anjali directs an accusing look at Arnav, and he can’t meet her eyes … he looks away in guilt, as Khushi watches in distress …

He needs to talk to Di alone …

But before he does, Nani demands an answer to the question haunting the rest … he agrees meekly, because he owes them an explanation … but first, he needs to mend the most damaged relationship and the most important one … 

And they all leave … except Khushi who questions him with her eyes, her troubled look speaking her thoughts … he gives her a barely perceptible nod … I’m ok, I’ll manage … and she leaves too … but waits right outside … 

And Arnav tries to convince his sister … who stares with a dead look on her face … he couldn’t let her stay in her false world any longer … this, what he did, was for her own good, to protect her and her baby … and he lays his head in her lap like a child, begging for her to understand … after all, she is his mother, isn’t she? And mothers always understand their children …

And outside, Khushi sinks to the floor in despair … the very thing she dreaded, why she kept quiet all along … even more than Anjali’s sorrow, the fear of seeing Arnav’s pain … because his pain is her own …

Going back to the fb’s at the poolside when Khushi crashed into Arnav after discovering Shyam’s truth for the first time … they were all about Arnav’s bond with Anjali, not Anjali’s love for her husband … even more than sparing Anjali the pain of knowing about her faithless husband, she dreaded what it would do to Arnav, to see his sister’s pain … 

But all Anjali can remember is Shyam, her perfect husband, the one who loved her and was ready and willing to show the whole world that love, who was waiting eagerly with her for their daughter … that Shyam is the one she still loves, not the monster she just saw …

While Nani and Mami bound together by their grief for the daughter they both love so much, cry together to see her world shatter … and both remember the man they thought they knew, the man they admired, respected, loved … the one who brought the whole family together … who remembered what each person liked and took care of them … Akash remembers the brother-in-law who made them all smile … and they mourn the death of the man they loved and thought they knew, killed by the monster hiding beneath that smiling facade ...

NK watches the destruction left in the wake of the storm … the shattered relationships, the torn bonds … a family torn to pieces …

Khushi waits outside Anjali’s room as Anjali remembers Khushi’s accusation - Shyam kidnapped her brother … Payal’s accusation – Shyam betrayed her by getting engaged to Khushi … not only  faithless husband but a criminal … and Arnav’s punishment …Anjali's three offenders.

And Anjali passes her judgement in a voice that is dead and devoid of all emotion … she withdraws from Arnav … ‘Arnav, leave me alone …’

Not Chotey … Arnav …

And even as he protests, she takes his hand and throws him out … of her room … and her world … and shuts everyone out as well … she doesn’t want anyone, she will be alone … 

The family is distraught, none more so than Arnav … he strides away from the rest, leaving Khushi hurting even more deeply for him … she knows the pain he’s going through and his need to hide it from the rest … but she aches for him …

Nani sees Khushi's pain … Nani the wise elder, Bhishma pitamah … she has full trust in Khushi, and knows Khushi could do none of what Shyam accused her of … and that Khushi is incapable of lying … Nani reaches out to her …

But Mami is not ready to forgive Khushi so easily … she held out a helping hand to Khushi, and Khushi kept her in the dark … and hurt Anjali in the process … Mami cannot forgive the hurt to Anjali … not so fast …

Akash is equally angry … not because he disbelieves Payal or Khushi, but the reverse … why didn’t his wife tell him the truth? And he is justified …

NK moves to comfort Khushi, but Payal remembers she is the older sister and not just a wife … and moves to comfort her … a Khushi who is distraught at her Arnavji’s pain and hurt … one sibling bond re-forms, while the other one cracks wide open ...

Anjali cannot live without Shyam … her perfect world is her husband and child, she wants that at all cost.

Arnav in his own hell … he wanted to protect Di always but he failed in doing so … it was essential for the truth to emerge fully … but it ended up hurting the person he wanted to protect from all hurt …

ArSHi … (they both had baths :) ) Khushi in white night suit … shiddats realized :">

Khushi comes out after her bath and looks around immediately for Arnav … where is he?

By the poolside … lost in thought … 

And Khushi remembers Arnav’s words … she’s as important to him as Di, he proclaimed his trust in her to his family … but now the rift between him and his Di … and she is the cause … will he feel the same way still? After that marathon sludgefest, that bitter exchange of words, and all the ugly truths that came tumbling out … will he understand why she did what she did? And her nervousness shows in the way her hands tremble as she brings the tray outside to him … in her eyes as she is scared to meet his …   

He reads her fear ... he takes the tray from her and she accepts his silent message and she turns to leave … he wants to be alone with his thoughts and she knows that … she knows he likes to be alone, to hide his pain … he doesn’t want anyone near him when he’s hurting …

But today he does … and today he sees her pain, her fear ... and rises above his own hurt to reach out to her, to reassure her … he is there for her, they are together in this … in everything … today he’s ready to share his pain, and to share her fears … and together they can lay both to rest … 

He puts the tray down, and she comes slowly closer … while his eyes reassure her … I’m there, we’re together, I haven’t gone away from you … his hands reach to hold her shoulders and that’s all she needs as she comes to hold him tightly in a fierce hug … finally crying out the anguish of the entire day, the pain, the fear, the humiliation … as he holds her tightly, his own pain, his regret in his eyes … he put her through so much, and she never complained even once … She was with him all through … she is his, and she will never leave his side … and he can now believe that …

He wipes her tears in silent promise, sees the marks on her face where she got hurt … as they exchange looks, but no words … and then he lifts her in his arms as her arms go automatically around his neck, as though they belong there … she’s had a hell of a day … time to rest … on his bed, on his side of the bed … in his room, in his life, in his heart …

And his turn to leave and go … let her rest … but how can she rest if he’s not there … she can’t bear to let him out of her sight now.  Her turn to hold his hand, begging him not to go … for once putting her needs first … and his turn to answer her unspoken plea again, as he sits down by her side … yes, he’s with her always … and she turns her face into his hand … finally, after fifteen agonizing days and nights, she can sleep peacefully. 

 My thoughts:

Parts I loved – “I trust Khushi” … three words which changed the entire world for the Raizada family and its members …

Nani resurrected as the matriarch – she silently watched the entire ugly drama play out in front of her, gave the warring sides equal opportunity to state their cases, watched with horror the unmasking of the smooth, silver-tongued monster to reveal the ugliness hidden inside … and now she demands explanations.

Anjali states her allegiance … husband over brother. Even though said brother has returned from grueling fifteen day ordeal, has been in danger of his life … but she finds it too difficult to switch the image of the loving husband entrenched in her mind … she won’t do it. The brother takes a back seat … he is no longer her ‘Chotey’ … he is Arnav. 

Loved the family’s reactions – all completely appropriate and beautifully, subtly expressed …

Nani understands completely what Khushi went through during the ordeal, and reaches out to comfort her, stopped by an angry Mami …

Mami believes Khushi all right, her anger is for hiding such big truths from the family – and from her, when she was with Khushi all along in the investigations.

Akash – furious husband – he has the right to be! Not furious because he disbelieved Khushi’s and Payal’s story … but because he has the right to be told. Payal has major problems ahead of her. But the big sister is here to stay … as she stays to comforts Khushi over rushing to plead with Akash.

NK – the silent observer … part of the family, yet standing on the outside, watching the trail of devastation left by the storm … the relationships scattered and torn into pieces lying all around … he knows the truth, he has been both witness and participant … he will help to put the pieces together.

Loved the flashbacks of every member of the house as they mourn the death of a member of the family and remember the good times … for the sweet-tempered, good-natured well-respected son-in-law of the house, Shyam, has died a painful death … killed by the monster they saw in his place.

As for Arshi … where do I even start? Right from the first look when Arnav says he trusts Khushi, the two are bonded together tightly, in their constant exchange of looks, their constant unspoken communication … the look when Arnav asks the family to leave, Khushi looks at him, and he gives a barely perceptible nod … the way she waits outside for him as he tries to talk to Anjali, the most difficult talk of his life … Arnav’s torment as Anjali shuts him out of her room and her heart, and Khushi is as distraught as Arnav is, her heart crying for him … and somewhere inside that guilt about her own role in all this … 

And the last Arhi scene showed why this Jodi has been winning all the awards till date … that Sanaya/Barun simply don't need dialogues to emote, their eyes do all the talking ... and that love is not always about romance, it’s about trust, reassurance, faith, and simply being there for each other …as their bond has gone through a trial of fire, and emerged strengthened and honed into pure gold ...

An episode which restored the beauty of the original IPKKND ... sans melodrama, crying, screeching shouting voices and loud clanging music ... an episode with subtle performances, hardly any dialogues all through the episode, silent tears, expressive faces full of emotions and a perfect background score.