Goodbye to Dad, his dulhan and his daughter

 Watched the last episode of Mere Dad Ki Dulhan last night ... although I haven't been writing, I've been watching the show faithfully since it resumed after lockdown ... it reamined watchable till the end, with a few oddballs here and there ... understandable, given the circumstances. Shweta Tiwari came down with corona, Varun Badola's wife did too, so Varun had to self-isolate till he fortunately tested negative. Despite the hiccups, the makers managed to give us a nice fun show till the very end. They kept it light hearted for the most part, and the characters remained true to themselves ... helped, I guess, by the fabulous actors who played them. Varun and Shweta were very good all through ... I have to say Anjali, playing Niya improved by leaps and bounds through the year and she was so good to watch. Must have learned a lot with such senior actors. 

All the rest too, the actor playing Doctor, Pammy mummy, the four friends - Kabir, Shree and Kajal ... all were fun and were just nice people ... the kind you might meet anywhere in real life. 

Swara, poor girl, got a bit of a raw deal ... I would have respected her more (the character, not the actor), if she had realised Kabir's feelings for Niya and walked out the relationship herself, rather than clinging on to Kabir when it was so obvious he was with her on the rebound from Niya. Rishi (Shaleen Malhotra) also got a bit of a raw deal .. his character was quite weird and the transformation was one of the most poorly written tracks in the show. 

Anyway ... good fun watch ... will miss my evening watch ... but will now catch up with all the shows online which I've been meaning to watch! I wish this team and these actors all the best ... I believe Anjali has already bagged a new show ... I will give it a shot for her ... and hope that I see Varun, Shweta and the others back on tv soon. 

Back again!

 Posting after almost 6 months ... thanks to Corona and the lockdown, all shows were on hold, and I pretty much switched on the online platforms for my entertainment, as did most of the world, I guess. Shows resumes about a month ago ... bravely, I think ... as we now get sporadic reports of TV actors coming in positive for the virus. This scourge seems to be slated to be with us for some time to come.

In the meantime, Indian TV seems to be struggling with fierce competition online ... there is barely anything to watch. I continue watching Mere Dad Ki Dulhan and also started watching Shaadi Mubarak ... looks like the veteran actors hold my interest far more than the newbies. Interestingly, the top draws in the two shows I watch are a husband wife duo ... Varun Badola in Mere Dad ki Dulhan, and his wife Rajeshwari Sachdev, who, though not the main lead, is simply brilliant in Shaadi Mubarak. Have to say, the young girl, Niya in MDKD is also doing well ... she is holding her own with the two veterans Varun and Shweta, and has come a long way from the start of the show. Also helps that there are no outright over the top villains in MDKD, all the characters are pretty normal and real for the most part, so it continues to be watchable. 

Shaadi Mubarak is a more typical show ... Manav Govil as hero is over the top ... partly his character, and partly some overacting ... not very impressed with him so far. Rajshree Thakur as the heroine is very pretty ... looks younger than her age in the show ... while Manav looks older ... she is a more typical bechari abla nari, conservative and docile, but with some spark. Rajeshwari Sachdev as her samdhan is brilliant ... a lady who is on the surface the typical sharp tongued vamp of most shows, but when you scratch the surface, she has the most amazing liberal views ... not least of which is welcoming her bahu's mother as her friend, rather than her samdhan ... and trying to drill some sense into her mamta-for-her-useless-son clouded mind. Hope they keep her this way ... 

Watched a number of shows online during the lockdown ... I liked most of the Hotstar shows, well produced and directed, and with much less maa-behen gaalis than what has become the standard rural India gangster shows on the other online platforms. Also watched a couple of shows on Voot ... not bad either. 

Started watching Indian Matchmaking ... first episode is a hoot ... will continue when I can. 

Heartbreak

Heartbreak has turned Guneet into an angry young woman ...and a man hater.  So Ambar has his work cut out for him to woo her.

Due to the corona virus outbreak, shooting has stopped for TV shows and movies ... and it's quite obvious that the episodes are being stuffed with flashbacks to try to lengthen them ... flashbacks are quite well placed. The best placed ones today were when Guneet remembers her last three betrayals ... by KK, the first online betrayal, whom she met in real life, and he stole her life's savings .. then NDP, the second online betrayal, a man she actually fell in love with, felt a soul connection with ... and then he betrayed her too, when he stood her up at their first date ... then Anurag, who she feared was too good to be true ... and her fears were justified. Though he had some excuse for his bitterness ... must have hurt that he lost her to an unknown, anonymous online virtual man!

Wonder where the makers will take this ... will NDP surface online again? Or will Ambar woo her as Ambar Sharma? Hope for at least a partial return of the khadoos Ambar Sharma ... the new man is way too mellow!

In other news ... Sanaya and Nakuul Mehta's new short film - Ved and Arya released today. Sweet film. Something new for Sanaya ...

And finally ... prayers that the corona virus outbreak comes under control soon ... life is completely disrupted globally ... a microscopic virus has brought the world as we know it, to a standstill. 

Coming clean ...

Last scene first ... abrupt editing here ... Is it a dream? Or does Ambar really tell Guneet that he is No Drama Please? And in the precap ... has Guneet left the house?

Ambar seems to have accepted that he fell in love with Baawra Mann. And he's had time to think after the realisation that BM and Guneet are the same person ... and come to terms with the fact. Then he heard Guneet say that she isn't in love with NDP, she will never forgive him for standing her up ... she doesn't even want to meet him again. So he's reconciled to the fact that he has fallen in love with her, and that she will not reciprocate. He's feeling bad enough about his behaviour that his main motive is to apologise ... not to profess his love.
But for Guneet it comes as a huge shock. Such a huge shock ... that all she can do is repeat ... 'You're No Drama Please?!' again and again ...
She too had lost her heart to NDP ... he has had time to absorb the fact that BM is Guneet ... she will need even more time to absorb that Ambar is NDP.

Rest of the episode was quite serious ... but well done. Ambar defends Guneet from her 'to be but not to be' mother in law ... Anurag leaves after some parting bitter salvos to Guneet ... showing he's not quite the knight in shining armour that he made himself out to be ...

Niya and Kabeer have a long heart to heart where he tries to persuade her to return to work ... life is not fair, deal with it. Kabeer really cares for Niya ... he is struggling between the roles of strict but fair boss, and close friend who wants to be more ...

And I liked Ambar Niya scene ... where Ambar realises the extent of the havoc he has wrought in Niya's life ... that she lost her job because of his antics. 

Mere Dad ki Dulhan - Anger = hurt

So Ambar knows who Baawra Mann is.
He's angry ... his usual reaction. Angry with Guneet ... for being Baawra Mann. Angry because for the first time in years, first time after his wife died, he found someone he could actually talk to ... not Nia, his daughter ... but someone he could talk to as an equal ... bounce his thoughts off, without fear of being judged, and found wanting ... of being 'wrong' ...
Even the couple of hit and miss encounters with 'real' people ... the woman at the restaurant ... the lady who played the mouth organ ... his age, some common interests ... but nothing he found in common with them on meeting them in real life.
But Baawra Mann was different ... almost from the start. He had found himself talking to somebody at his own level ... someone who also had her own doubts and fears ... so he felt less self conscious sharing his own ... someone who, when she told him on chat about her roka, it disturbed him so much that he actually fired off an inane message ... and then spent the rest of the day regretting that impulse ... and actually wanted to apologise ... to say sorry... to say he was wrong ...

And he did. Ambar Sharma, who finds it difficult to say sorry even to his own daughter ... managed to pen a beautiful heartfelt apology to the unknown Baawra Mann ... because he really missed her absence in his life.

And Baawra Mann is Guneet??? A woman he hates? A woman who fights with him constantly?

He's not angry at BM's betrayal ... not angry with her for getting engaged. After all, BM told him she was getting engaged.
He's just angry that Baawra Mann is Guneet.

His first stirring of hope that even he could find ... not love, he's not quite ready for that ... but a companion, a humsafar, someone whose thoughts match his own ... someone to talk to ...
All those hopes dashed.
Because Baawra Mann is Guneet.
And he hates Guneet.
And Guneet hates him. She even told him that if he was the last an on earth, she would never be with him.

And Guneet is equally upset. Dr Anurag is a compromise. She's getting on in age ... she is forty years old ... as her mother never fails to remind her ... it will difficult, if not impossible to find a man, a husband, a companion. She should take what she's getting ... and after all, what's wrong with Dr Anurag?
So why is she so upset at NDP's betrayal? At his no-show? She was let down once earlier too ... by another online man who turned out to be not what he said he was ... she should have learned her lesson.
But she hadn't. Someone she had felt a connect with NDP. She felt he was special. Someone she could talk to. Someone she could share her thoughts with.
And he turned out to be another fraud. And this time it was worse ... because she had actually felt that connect with him, that she had never felt with anyone before. She has lost a friend, a confidante, a soulmate.

Hence her uncharacteristic anger when Ambar forbids the decorators from decorating the house for her roka. Usually its her mother doing the fighting, and Guneet plays the peace maker ... but not this time. She was deliberately picking a fight with Ambar ... because as she told Randeep ... she wanted to fight, to shout, to scream .. to cry ... Her anger needed an outlet. And Ambar Sharma provides the perfect one ... she always fights with him ... he can take it ... he won't wonder why she is fighting ... because that's what they always do.

Ambar doesn't want to see her face. He knows she is also hurt ... but he is too hurt ... every time he sees her face, it reminds him that he has lost Baawra Mann.

I really don't understand the tenant - landlord relationship though ... Guneet and her mother take Ambar too much for granted. A tenant making free use of the landlord's kitchen, the supplies ... and now demanding the space downstairs for the roka?
Ambar was right - their lease is for upstairs, not for the whole house. Makes for better drama ... but the writers have been very good in most things ... this is poor writing.

TV and web shows

Mere Dad Ki Dulhan ... is becoming a decent watch, as Ambar Sharma slowly shedding the worst of his khadoos-pan, influenced by the interactions with his online friend, Baawra Mann. I would be skeptical if it wasn't for the fact that I have personally had a lot of online interactions and made some really wonderful friends online, some of whom are now good friends in real life. I guess even online, if one is careful, one can actually connect with people with similar mindsets.
So yes ... online friendships can lead to real life friendships ... even at the age of 50 plus. As Ambar Sharma is finding ... sometimes one can talk to unknown, anonymous people freely, free of the fear of being judged too harshly ... when people don't know you in the context of your family and relationships, and can evaluate you without all the extra baggage, without being influenced by their own relationships with your loved ones.
And Guneet too ... she has resisted all match making efforts by her mother ... was Ambar Sharma right, and was she really using her mother as a shield to protect herself from her own feelings, her own weaknesses? Ambar holds up a mirror ... and her online friend, No Drama Please, encourages her to go for it ... meet the doctor ... after all, it will make her mother happy, and she can always say no,  can't she?
I like the way they intersperse light hearted scenes with more serious ones ... the fun scenes of the four friends getting Ambar ready for a date ... who is this mysterious Sweety, anyway? Doesn't Ambar want to meet his online friend? Or is 'Sweety' a proposal from someone else? That part is not clear.
Also I like the arc of Niya's office troubles ... yes, she left her training period less than two months into it, after being sent by her office ... and yes, it will have repercussions on her professional life and career. Is it justified? After all, Niya and her father only have each other ... so is it okay for her to put him first? Most children do not ... they do put career first, usually with encouragement from their parents, who feel that children have their whole lives ahead ... but it's something to stop and think about.

Tara continues to be quite irritating ... how can a 16 year old girl be so dumb?! But then she is from a very small town, with no experience of city smartness at all ...
Wonder if her father will actually go to Canada ... or will he stop in Mumbai to train his daughter and help her struggle to redeem his name. Or does the actor have some more work lined up, for which he needs a break. Or is it a plotline to ensure he is not around for the drama lined up for the enxt few weeks. The show ends in February ... so not too long to go.

Watched Jamtara on Netflix ... interesting show, all the more because it is based on a true incident ... a phishing scam by some poorly educated, almost illiterate youths in a backward village, Jamtara. However too much drama ... and not enough details ... how did the kids get the bank details of their victims ... Also I'm quite tired of the rural India gangster dramas ... I want to watch some lighter, urban shows, like Made in Heaven and Four More Shots Please. I can't take more of these gangster shows with their crude language and violence.

Watched De De Pyaar De on Hotsar finally ... Tabu  has some amazing screen presence!!! She lights up all the scenes she comes in. Ajay Devgan looks bored and has the same expression most of the time ... the new girl Rakul Preet is pretty but barely adequate in acting skills. She still does better than Ajay though ... and one wonders what she found to fall in love with in that man, a man who doesn't have the gumption to tell either her or his wife the truth about his relationships - her, that he's still married, and his wife, that Aisha is his girlfriend. Ajay Devgan's looks and acting don't help either ... he's neither charming nor good-looking ... and he looks disinterested most of the time. I loved the talking to Tabu gave her daughter and her in-laws at the end ... stop blaming him for your own faults. And honestly ... since it was a guy falling for a younger woman, they gave the ending they did ... otherwise, Tabu the actress, and Manju the wife were so much better, as actor and character, than either Rakul Preet or her character, and Ajay and his character. 

Movies and Shows

The Rise of Skywalker ... the last in the nine movie series of the Star Wars saga ... a saga that began in the '70s when I was still in school. Haven't really followed the new movies as they came out, but caught up with a few over the summer because of my daughter, who is an avid fan ... and went with her for this last one, more out of nostalgia than anything. Okay watch ... the ending was really stretched ... giving Bollywood a run for its money!!!

Knives Out - great fun watch ... one of the best movies of the year. A whodunit in the old Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot style ... kept me guessing till about halfway through ... and was a totally fun watch all through. Acting top notch ... with some old favorites, including an almost unrecognizeable Christopher Plummer,  a savvy Jamie Lee Curtis, an ageing! (sadly!) Daniel Craig ... and a really cute Latino heroine, whose name should be more familiar than it is!

Also watched the first few episodes of the YHM spinoff, Yeh Hain Chaahatein ... supposedly about a single mother, but was amused to note that the single mother is not actually a single mother, she is just raising her dead sister's child. I suppose that is progressive enough for SP ... to actually have a single  mother would be too much for them ... although a divorced dad was acceptable. Acting is quite bad ... screenplay is weak and very crass ... no subtlety at all. Doubt I will watch this.

Mere Dad Ki Dulhan ... still watching this ... the show has improved as has Ambar Sharma's temperament ... Nia seems very dependent on her dad, but he is actually slowly breaking away and interacting more sensibly with Guneet, Dr Pandey and his staff. Even his interactions with his boss's son, Randeep are more restrained than I would have expected. The story regarding the breaking of relations with his wife's sister and family needs to be more fleshed out still ... but I'm reminded again of why I like Varun Badola so much as an actor. And I am loving Shweta Tiwari as Guneet ... liked her in Parvarish, but she was quite loud and crass there ... here her character is evolving nicely, and I am becoming her fan.
The younger hero, Randeep, needs to tone down a bit ... though he seems to be getting more comfortable with his character ... and I actually like his back story as well ... not just a spoiled rich brat of an indulgent father, but a young man actually trying to make his own name independent of his father, with little success ... still quite spoiled ... but he now has a solid reason to actually work hard and make the travel agency turn around. Wonder if Nia will go back to the US, or will leave her job and stay back. Now that Randeep is firmly in India for at least six months, either could happen. Again I liked the way her boss Kabir quite firmly told her that she has to go back, as she doesn't have a job here any longer. That probably means that she leaves her job and training, and decides to work with Randeep at the agency ... I will be sorry if that happens ... I wish she could complete her training, but two years is a long time for the show to run without her!

Also watching Tara From Satara ... total time pass.