15/11 - Epi 388 ... Independence ... the Independent Way

Thursday 15th Nov

First half of the episode ... tolerable.
Indulgent Arnav looks on, as wanting-to-prove-her-independence wifey repairs her mistake with complete confidence.
Khushi loses her temper - he made her look foolish again.
SN - she's doing a pretty good job of that on her own, actually.
Arnav confesses he wanted her to come to office, so he could make up to her for being nasty earlier. Khushi is not happy ... first he called her foolish and incapable, and now he says he knows exactly how she'll react ... he just wants to show her that he's smarter than her in every way.

Back home, she's still annoyed and determined to find something to prove to her annoying condescending husband that she can achieve something on her own.

And she finds a Mrs India contest to do so. She's got it.

In the kitchen, doubts start creeping in ... her only talent is making jalebis. She can't do this.
But then she remembers Arnav's taunts again ... and pulls herself together ... decides she can do this.

"What can you do?" A puzzled Arnav ...
"Whatever I want to do ...' Khushi still annoyed, still smarting from his earlier words, wanting to prove her point.
'What I want you to do, can you do?' A challenge that normally gets her going ... But not this time. Turned down. She's annoyed.
'Absolutely not.' Meaning, and I don't even want to ... so there. I'll do it my way.
All he wanted her to do was make a cup of tea ...

A small Rabba ve  ... in front of Nani and Mami. Mami thinks they need to end their never-ending honeymoon.
We fans think Arshi need one legit proper honeymoon.
Arnav tries to defend Khushi, Khushi tells him she knows she made a fool of herself.

Anjali and NK both encourage her, that she is capable and intelligent.

Arnav tries to manao Khushi in the privacy of their room ... come and work with me in the office, I know you can do it.
But Khushi wants to do things her way ... independently.

Life lessons from Arav ... unless you try something, how will you know whether you are any good at it or not? And you have to try, level by level.
And Khushi is all geared up again.

So far so good.
After this ... pure idiocy.
Khushi tries the model walk in her room ...
She asks an ever-obliging, though puzzled, NK to take her pictures. Then gets upset all over again ... 'I don't look like a model, I look like a behenji.'
Next try ... walking in heels. Heels which she wore happily and easily last year, suddenly she can't manage. CV's, a word of warning ... we remember props and footwear too.
A fall in the kitchen, a call from Arnav, which makes not much sense. Use your will power. 
And final satyanash ... diet of salad and fruit. With knife and fork.

Not final ... one more. New make up and lots of it ... clown face Khushi. And she ropes in Arav to help her. 


When I wondered if the cv's really could be so foolish and have this 'cut my nose off to spite my face' kind of mentality, that we were hearing from the news, I mentally gave myself - and them - the next two weeks as a test to check.
Apparently, the story goes that Barun wanted to quit the show/ take a break. PH wants the show to stay on air. Hence the Sheetal track, to ease out Arnav, and leave Khushi heartbroken, ready for a second love story ... and a second innings for the show. And if Barun returns, Arnav does too ... and Khushi gets her first love back ... after a satisfactory period of separation, heartbreak, angst, jealous lover Arnav as he returns and watches from afar ... 
Good story, and can be done. It can even accommodate Barun's break. And if he really ahs quit, then it can turn into a second innings for the show. IF THE CV'S WANT. 
 
For this, Khushi's character had to be preserved, and in fact strengthened.

So if Khushi would go OTT and stupid in the next two weeks, I would give more credence to the idea that cv's are really that foolish that they want to spite themselves and their audiences, and systematically butcher their own characters ... so that if the PH is pushed out of the show, they make sure that there is not much of a show left behind. In the process butchering their own creations. 

It seems the cv's really are that foolish and short-sighted. 

A systematic butchering of characters.  
Akash and Payal have been part of the furniture for a long time. Finally they decided enough was enough, handed in their notices, and left. 
Daljeet protested that her character didn't get any importance. She was retained because fans created an outcry. The PH then gave in to her demands for increased screen space - by turning her from one of the most loved sisters to one of the most detested.
Thumbing their nose both at the actress and at the fans?

A script writer who has been with the PH since the inception of the show left the PH. Leaving behind a message that he was unhappy with the tracks being presented to the audience, and the worst of the lot being adopted, while other options were apparently reserved for the PH's new baby.

Arnav was butchered during the Sheetal track. Fans protested, SP heard, so he was redeemed. In barely one and a half episodes. Although some thought did go into closing the loops there.
But Barun is leaving anyway, his character doesn't matter much ... not for long. 

But Khushi is still there. And Sanaya has her own fans, who will watch the show for her sake. 
So ...  more destruction is required.

Diwali ... the most important festival of the year, cut short and squeezed into half an episode. A festival that last year, lasted almost a week, and gave us some of the most memorable moments ever of the show. Passion, pain, hurt, angst, heartbreak ... all were there, the writing, direction, lighting, acting ... all at its peak.
This year ... half an aarti, half a rangoli scene, and no romance at all.
A 360 of the first ever romantic moment and first Rabba Ve ... presented in a cut and dried manner ... a small 4x6 photograph ... the only reminder of the first time Arnav saw Khushi and was mesmerised. Apparently that very significant moment doesn't deserve any more thought or attention than that. 

More important apparently is to start the arguments on parenting. A newly married couple, thrust into parenthood of a six year old. 

Next for character destruction - Khushi. 
Last year, Khushi told La about child labour going into making crackers, and refused to light them. Diwali is a festival of lights, not of noise.
This year, Khushi wants bombs, anaars, chakris, the works.

Last year Khushi single handedly earned for her family ... first by working in Arnav's office, then by trying a sweetshop business, making and catering sweets, and after marriage, starting her own Dabba service.
This year, Khushi apparently has amnesia about all those things, she refuses to work in her husband's office, as she wants to find her own way ... forgets that he has handed her her own company to run any way she chooses ... and decides that the best way of showing her independence is by participating in a Mrs India contest. 
Not only that ... the preparations of the Mrs. India contest are expressly designed to showcase Khushi the clown. 

Either this is the cv's particularly disgusting brand of toilet humour, which apparently doesn't allow them to treat any serious issues, especially those of Khushi, in any proper light whatsoever. Take suicide track, take Sheetal insecurity track, and now the Khushi independence track ... because if they did, Khushi would walk away with all the sympathy. Maybe the head of the PH, herself a woman, has some serious issues with showing women can be sane, sensible and mature.

Or this is their attempt to massacre Khushi's character yet again ... so that Sanaya fans don't stay with the show after Barun leaves, as we were planning to do. Hence kill their show more effectively ... Because if Barun fans leave, Sanaya fans leave ... then who will watch this show, which has run for months now on shoddy scripts, poor locations and badly designed sets, and the worst costumes for the best looking leads on television ... only on the basis of SaRun chemistry?