30/10 - Epi 375 ... Mis-Match

Tuesday 30th Oct '12

Whole cast back with a bang after almost solo show by Sanaya yesterday. Got so used to seeing her all the time that I was missing her when she wasn't on screen!

First office scene was as silly as expected ... and as expected Khushi did not find Arav's name.
Surprising that Arav actually saved her.

And Khushi still wondering about the DNA report!

Arav gets 2/10 for his painting ... marks for Art? For such a small kid? Sheetal Arav scene was sweet - Sheetal wants to cheer up Arav with BB.
Arnav is suddenly very pally with Sheetal ... a slanging match about who's better at BB ... Arnav or Sheetal, mostly between Arnav and Arav ...

Khushi decides to mano her husband with BB match. *Head desk* woman, manao him with your strengths ... your cooking! Not something you know nothing about! But then she wants to do things his way.

Whole family plays BB.
Khushi jealous of Sheetal ... finally reacting normally, like a jealous wife. Arnav totally ignoring wife in favour of ex-girlfriend ... another slanging match, as though egging on Sheetal purposely.

Has Arnav finally seen what Khushi has seen all along and decided to get to the bottom of it?
Or is he expressing his annoyance with Khushi about the DNA test by being extra pally with Sheetal?
Or neither - he's blind as usual?

Precap - Arnav Arav Sheetal together - watched by a morose Khushi, suddenly realising she's pushed her husband towards his ex-girlfriend in her misguided zeal.

*edited*

On the whole, I didn't mind the episode although the execution still has a lot of holes, but I can see some glimmer of where this track is going and how thery're going there. Just a glimmer though ... cv's need to make things clearer still, and recheck their old graphs of the basic characters, because they're being compromised big time!

Do I blame Khushi for hyperventilating and having doubts? No I don't ... because however you look at it, however much you argue that Arav being so much like Arnav is sheer coincidence, the fact remains that so many coincidences cannot be a coincidence. And if the CV's make out in the end that this was really all in Khushi's mind, and there is nothing fishy about Sheetal, then I as a viewer will feel very cheated. Not saying Arnav is the father, just saying that Sheetal has some ulterior motives. Whether Sheetal is Arav's maasi, Mystery Man Dhruv is Arav's father, Sheetal is typical vamp out to get Arnav ... whatever ... just give me a really good reason why Arav is a clone of Arnav's down to the What The's ... 

I didn't care much for the first scene, but I was expecting worse, I thought I would be cringing and I did not. I think the complaint has reached the cv's, and the mindless OTT comedy has been scaled back. As expected, the peon adventure yielded no result ... so what exactly did the scene accomplish? Was it just a filler? Stupid one if so - and why use the main lead - she's overworked enough as it is!
Another complaint which seems to have reached the cv's is Arav's outright rudeness with Khushi - today he was better. Still a bit precocious, but the outright rudeness was scaled back thankfully.
2 on 10 for that painting - naainsafi indeed!
For the first time I felt a normal mother-son relationship between Sheetal-Arav, as she tries to cheer him up with his favorite game ... that was a sweet conversation.

And also for the first time, Arnav did something uncharacteristic - he had been avoiding Sheetal all this while, probably out of regard for Khushi ... now maybe because he's miffed at Khushi for the DNA stunt, he didn't make any attempt to avoid Sheetal, but instead he went out of his way to chat her up, and reminisce about college days, pull her leg a bit, even goad her into conversation.
SN - This is exactly what I would expect normal college friends to do.
SN2 - So was Arnav really a normal college guy all along? And here we thought he turned into ASR at age 14 and stayed that way for 14 years till Khushi came into his life!
SN3 - or was it just a miffed Arnav, still annoyed with Khushi, thinking WT*, I stayed away from Sheetal for her sake and she doesn't even trust me this much! Well, too bad, I'm going to act normal with my old friend, let's see how Khushi likes that!

Sheetal stayed pretty aloof throughout the conversation and made no attempt to take up his challenge, in fact she tried to get away as soon as possible.

Khushi overhears, sees Arnav getting uncharacteristically animated about BB, and arranges a match.
Again - like the family movie outing, like Arnav's birthday party - Khushi arranges something which she thinks Arnav will like, WITH THE ENTIRE FAMILY ...
It doesn't seem to have entered Khushi's head yet that to manao Arnav she needs to do things for him in private, with just the two of them. Her insecurities again? She alone is not good enough for Arnav ... for him, his family always comes first.
The BB match didn't include Sheetal - Khushi included all the rest. So she wasn't being such a fool ... she just saw Arnav getting excited and animated over basketball and tried to arrange it for him.

Has Arnav really gotten over the DNA test so easily?! And not given a second thought to why Khushi was worried enough to get it done? 
Match begins ... Khushi dressed in her usual Anarkali and trainers. Sheetal dressed in bb gear and strips off her jacket on court, and then does her stretching exercises ... as NK ogles. So did Akash for a wee bit.
Arnav merely looked superior and smug ... you can't win.

The reason Khushi didn't wear sleeveless Tshirt and leggings - no one would have looked at Sheetal if she had. CV's knew that. They had to provide a contrast.

I did not see the need for Khushi to kick the ball ... really, cv's? What is  need to show her so foolish?  Again more deliberate contrast.

And finally Khushi sees Arnav and Sheetal playing ball together ... NOT the way that sounds ... and the green eyed monster bites hard.
Will it be green eyed monster or will it be her insecurities? She's not good enough for Arnav, she's not from his world, not educated enough etc etc ...

Arnav ... I didn't feel he felt anything for Sheetal. But his insensitivity to Khushi's concerns did surprise me. He is the first person to have picked up her insecurity, he was the one who insisted she exert her haq on him ... I thought that once he knew the reason for Khushi's insecurity was Arav, not Sheetal, he would deal with that accordingly.

So his sudden cordiality with Sheetal surprised me ... is it because he's miffed with Khushi about thinking he and Sheetal were involved when he's told her repeatedly that nothing much happened between them? So he's making a point to her ... I was keeping away from her for your sake, but you still don't believe me, so now deal with it! For a person who had become so sensitive to his wife's moods and turmoil, Arnav is not coming off well at all ... he seems to have forgotten all his sensitivity after marriage.

If this track is about Khushi's insecurities, they are going to get worse before they reach flashpoint. Today was just the start. And we had better brace ourselves, we're going to see worse days for Khushi before the explosion. The precap was just a starter.

And if Arnav is really miffed with Khushi about the DNA tast, I don't expect much romance from him for now ... I expect him to be the way he was today .. cool, a bit curt, not angry but not completely normal either. He didn't want Khushi to play because he thought she might get hurt ... he handed over the ball to her on court without much fight, in contrast to Sheetal, with whom he was playing seriously ... he stopped teasing Sheetal about their old days when Khushi asked about Ramu ... but as far as he's concerned, he said there was nothing much between him and Sheetal, Khushi has to accept that.

Much the way he expected Anjali to accept his dictum about Shyam without giving her the entire story, without any explanations or proof.
But women don't function that way. And insecure, worried wives definitely don't.