Saturday 28 November 2015

mere paas maa hai... ek jashn episode 2



i was looking at a part of the episode where i thought i'd liked barun's voice. something of asr was in it. which is when i heard the word.

my breath did a leap, my ears pricked up. what was that he said? no, he couldn't have.

i rewound and heard once more. then again.

yes, there was no mistake.

he had just called his mother, "mom."

 

in my mind, a young man standing feet apart, looking up at an old mansion. shehnai playing.. a boy, a bride, a woman running, gunshot.

maa.

flutter of pigeons' wings.

in quick flashbacks i recalled key scenes where his mother had been mentioned.

kya... kya meri maa mujhe dekh sakti hai.
can... can my mother see me?

aaj se tum meri maa ki bahu ho.
from this day you are my mother's daughter in law.

chauda saal ka tha mein jab meri maa ne suicide kiya. my mother committed suicide.

i was fourteen years old when my mother committed suicide.

arnav singh raizada... he had rejected malik, his father's family name, and taken his maa's name.

she was never mom. she was key to the character of asr, her life and death had absolute impact on his evolution, she taught him to have values, a conscience, he never ever could really come to terms with her death, a part of him winded and damaged ever since... she brought to his heart sukoon, serenity, peace... all of which taken at a very tender age. that dark brooding man of the first episode of ipk was like that because of maa... not mom.

maa... echoes somewhere close by when you think of asr.

khushi came and touched him with her powerful innocence, her sanka, her beauty, her gentle soft kindness, some part of him lying locked for years, had to open. and in seeped a feeling he hadn't felt since the death of his mother. a sukoon began to find its way back again. his heart opened and received its touch.

how can anyone take that name he has for his mother lightly?

meri koi maa nahin, meri maa mr chuki hai.
i don't have a mother. my mother has died.

some part of me takes the hit pretty badly when things sacrosanct to ipk are played with. i know one should not get so involved. yet one does.

i wish i could ask writers why this diluting of character, of script, of the entire nature of ipk. i understand young people need to be attracted.

but weren't they always attracted? hugely? and lately in russia and the middle east too? despite dubbed voices?

then why this playing around?

mom?

let me go back and check again, because i still can't believe it... yes, he did call her mom.


just before he said that, a couple of moments alone with his plants. something in me sighed. always good to see him with his garden. he is without armour here. no public image, just as he is... and so very gentle. or at times violent. among his plants, the gardener feels free... and in sync.

"mujhe shuru se hi paudho se lagav hai.. yeh baat nahin kar sakte na... kissi ko chot nahin pahunchate."

i have had been close to plants from the very beginning...  they can'tt speak you know... they don't hurt anyone...

barun always makes"chot" sound poignant, concentrated, beautiful. (he may not mean to, but that's how i hear it.) it's always all of asr's chot, his elemental pain. perhaps even more cataclysmic that the pain of being born, being torn away from one's mother, one's home. this one was given when his mother was wrested away from him... he standing there helpless.

mom ko bhi paudhe bahut pasand the.
mom also liked plants a lot.

his mother loved plants, maybe he sought solace here, feeling her presence among the green... they were alive, growing, something he associated with his mother that was here, bursting with life... not dead. visceral connection between asr, maa, paudhe (plants), chot, not speaking. they're very giving by nature.


he clearly identifies with them... like him, they cannot speak. and perhaps like him, though he doesn't know it, they are giving. and most vulnerable, tender, loving his voice, when he says, they don't hurt anyone. he has been hurt too much, i think.

and now, writers hurt him more. i am wondering why the one who doesn't/can't speak has been chosen as the narrator. i'd have thought khushi would do the job far more believably and naturally. and we'd giggle merrily along while he snarled and snarked and was incredibly loving in his ajeeb way.

mannat ki chabi has come up. darga too, and lucknow.

i am a bit confused by the sugary dialogues aimed at cute. wasn't the usp of asr karwa karela? we adored him like that. even when we said we didn't. for we knew his heart was shining clean. and that gussa made him him; also rather sexy the way barun did it... his whole frown, turn of head, body language, ohhhohoho.

nature doesn't disappear because you live with the love of your life. thank you for the gardening shot. the only thing that felt real... ipk.

asr does not play sweet games with hp where hp seems to have the upper hand.

and if i may say, however nutty she may be, khushi is not a demanding, tantrum throwing sort... she will make him suffer a bit but not act in this attention seeking manner. she is a fun mad cute pagal, who is crazy about her arnav ji... baat aapki hai. this whole thing is reminiscent of asr's birthday episodes. not among my favourites.

we are told all is well with shashi ji and the sweet shop thrives. a bit predictable really. that promise of completing "adhoori kahani" being tackled with heavy handed vengeance

nani ji calls on cue. another cute convo. i think asr needs to be rescued.

and no, he doesn't say "panga" (episode 1) nor "chatka" nor anything that sounds so lacking in LOL "aukat."

ripping off that dialogue everyone knew back then.

"mere paas shashi ji recovered hai, mannat ki chabi hai, panga hai, chatka hai, tumhare paas kya hai?"
i have a recovered shashi ji, the mannat key, panga, chatka... what do you have?

"mere paas mom... enough!"
i have mom... enough!

 eyes go still, light reflects off clear pool like irises, shoulder thrown back, bereftness descending over face, a quiet meditative voice, slightest rasp in it, crisp delivery, "mere paas maa hai."

hamesha.


credit to salim-javed for the unforgettable and much quoted "mere paas maa hai" dialogue from deewar.



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ps: in episode 1, he said khushi stole the scooter. i thought the scooter belonged to her, their family... the name of their shop is on the spare tyre cover. dear writer, please take a little interest and write, in your rush to complete the adhoori kahani, are you losing the essential story... wholly?



on the tyre cover, the name of khushi's babuji's shop: sattwik mishtanna bhandar. didn't understand that story of stealing the scooter. okay, went and saw again as a friend said she stole it from teh man she called kaka ji... she said, "kaka ji, hatiye!" as she almost banged into him, he said, bitiya arre are, just exclamations, maybe that was meant to convey she had swiped the scooter. i didn't get it. also she seemed to know how to ride and later i don't recall any talk about this. in episode 2, everyone at home was instantly alert when they heard the sound of the scooter, i took it to mean, they knew it was her... because it is her scooter. anyway, i may have got it wrong.





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