Episode 134 Discussion: 28th Nov 2012

Madhu - Meri Mehndi, Mere Sote hue Pati, Meri Maa ki Sargi, Mere jaage hue pati

Episode 134 Discussion : 28th Nov 2012

Episode events:

Beautiful Madhu-Bittuji interaction, Rishbala interaction, Madhu's soliloquy during night when in their bedroom. Other than that events are Madhu is struggling to get sargi on the sly, for which she has to go through the infamous "Sargi rescued from Trashbin" and "sargi toxicated(mildly) by Dipzy" tracks.

Telly Tadka review - http://www.tellytadka.net/tellywood-bytes/analysis-and-symbolism/karva-chuath-drama-heats-upmadhubala-eiej/

What is Sargi ? And why is it important ?

http://www.karwachauth.com/tradition-of-gifting.html

Sargi
Sargi and Baya are the two most important gifting items, as without them the festival of Karva chauth is incomplete. These gift items are very traditional and are supposed to bring good luck in the lives of the married couple. It is Mother-in-laws who gift 'sargi' for their daughter-in-laws. This 'sargi' is a collection of sumptuous food consists of various types of sweetmeats and sometime clothes. 'Sargi' is given to the married woman so that she can eat them before sunrise, as the fast starts before sunrise and ends only after worshiping the moon at night. It is a tough fast, as the women do not take any food or water.

Baya
In the afternoon, mothers of newly wed girls gift 'Baya' to the parents of their son-in-law. This Baya contains few Mathris, Almonds and some gifts. This gift pack should reach the girl's house before evening. A small pooja to Gaura Ma or goddess Parvati is performed. Married women sit around Gaura ma and pray to her for the well being and long life of their husbands. A small pitcher or Karva with some water is placed in the center. While the story is being narrated, ladies circulate their Baya thalis. Apart from traditional gifts, nowadays there is a norm of showering various designers clothes, bindies and jeweleries, specially to a newly wed woman.

My Take from the episode.

I give the episode a B rating. 

Personally for me it was highly entertaining. You know... I am always for good drama and not just for hero and heroine...I hate melodrama.

I liked that.. Bittuji calling  Madhu...you are the female version of RK and I'm happy for your confidence, but I also get scared. Very true and honest comment. Confidence is like yet another razor's edge if you ask me. 

Mehndi rach rahi hai haato mein

I liked Madhu and sleeping RK scene...to the point of that mehndi getting stuck to him. Hope gaal pe lal spot na ban jaaye. Madhu was not even noticing it...I don't know why. Even when he was asking why she lied to him...with that yelling...she was not noticing it. They could have added a funny respite over there...

And OMG!!! Bittuji getting excited for the morning wakepum for himself and Madhu and also his excitement to see how the mehndi color came up on Madhu's palms. It reminded me of my lagaav with mehndi.  When I was young, I used to have the same excitement. Every year in Aaashad maas, I used to apply the fresh leaves henna...And it used to be the south indian style of dots...and OMG! I never was able to sleep in peace the whole night thinking, my henna will get spoiled. In the morning when I washed it away and then applied coconut oil, I used to go and compare with Moms and sis. Mine was always the darkest. And it used to darken more and more through the first two days. The hands used to look so beautiful with that color. My last mehndi was when I was getting married. Then ..as my heart broke...I never went back to Mehndi. Khair! I have no feelings for Mehndi now.  I am thinking...should I also say ...Ranjishen hain Dhuan ?

I was so elated looking at Bittuji's and Madhu's Mehndi scene, The color did deepen on Madhu's hands. It was looking beautiful. Puraani yaaden taaza ho gayi...all that excitement around it ...No teleserial actually shows the excitement to see hands once they are washed. Bittuji showed that childlike excitement today.

An aside...Anandi's Mehndi is much better with that space and her and Shiv's name written on her hands. Saw in promo scenes.

Sikky- Dipali

Oh! I loved their scene. Finally Sikky did something smart...coercing Dipali before all the ladies to have food from his 'haathon". I was just laughing mad at their scene. Mere haaton...tumhaare haaton...feelings hai saccha pyaar...Wow!!! Dipali must be super-hating all of that.

The logic behind Poly-packing before trashing.

Cheetiyan bhi aa jaayengi !!! ANTS...Wow! RK mansion with so many naukars has Cockroaches, mosquitoes and Ants. I wonder...in winter, if Ants some out. I guess writers forgot that ants don't roam around in winter. 

And after that...it was just idiotic stretching...like rubber without any logic. Madhu could not pop a sweet into her mouth. She was looking for a prayer, a chair and a table to start eating.

The episode was entertaining until first 14 minutes. Later on it became a dragged episode just for 2 more minutes to create tension and push Dips go even further into hell...no chances of her every getting even into a purgatory. Kimam whatever it is ...that sure is going to spoil the health of our Madhu. Then finally it picked up again towards the end...

Rishbala and Bittuji

I hope you all liked when RK indirectly and directly asked Bittuji to get out of the room to spend few moments with his Biwi. WOW!!!! The guy is really lattoo about his Biwi. Shows to be angry, but he cares for her so much. That scene was reallty good and I would have given the episode an A if MAdhu had popped a sweet into her mouth while running to her room towards RK's yells. Likewise, you might have also liked Bittuji asking Madhu not to eat the food from the trash can.

Precap was mazzedaar, lazzedaar WOW!!!

Sargi packet - uthana from trashbin

Its not that as bad as you girls are imagining that picking up from trash is bad...after all every household may be maintaining their kitchen garbage in a clean and knowing manner. No ? Or is this the near 40 old shridevi thinking like this ...?  However I will say this. Whatever and whichever way the PH and writers justified the story around Sargi today...they could have avoided. They had to add all convoluted angles to justify the story. I will say...there was no such need.

Originally posted by apolloartemis

@Shri: it's funny that the ep got a B from you considering that it's sent everyone, including our dear leela, in a tizzy. Just goes to show you're thinking is one up

At Madhu diving into the dumpster to get her sargi: dears, why are you all surprised? This is Madhu, Padmini's daughter? You know, the woman who completes all traditions for her dirtbag husband? Madhu=tradition crazy. I honestly wonder if there will be a track where she will place RK above traditions, just like she is placing RK above her other relationships right now.

@leela: I know you are frustrated with  Madhu and her RaDunce love, but be patient...Madhu takes a while to take out the trash, so to speak...look how long it took her to see Mukund for who he was...heck she still lets Trishna walk all over her.

It'll be a slow process until RK becomes her no 1 priority. Until then, we have to endure.

Hey, Shri- what's your opinion on this remarriage thing? Assuming it's accurate? Are you like the rest of the main forum who thinks its a hideous, horrible idea, which will result in a lack of a storyline? Or do you see some hidden gems coming up?

AA,

@bold 1

I will accept that as compliment. Because falling on minority side is not that comfortable. So always happy if some are there on same wavelength as others and some are able to provide the bandwidth for others to thrive.

Anyways...my rating has always been away from popular ratings. I think ahead and react ahead. It always so happened, that I never could like the box office hits and ended up liking the average-ly successful films. You can see how I think... 

All the MAdhu rant, Dipzy rant, Padmini rant and Radhaji rant for that matter even Shamsher rant, I am done with that. I have ranted enough( early enough) and come to terms with their character FLAWS.  The flaws in these characters are never going to fade. Now with that reconciled understanding of the characters, I try to analyse the story and follow the patterns of the story telling, look at the weave and expect the characters to behave as they get dictated by their flaws. However, I do look for character growth. As in the character may continue to have his flaws, but he should not repeat himself with same action for same kind of experience. That way, all the characters are growing. Even the evil Dipzy to some extent. Because these days, she is not going to RK, but is now going to Rads. So that is something if you ask me and i should give that credit and leeway to story writers for growing their story.

@bold 2 - Madhu and her reason behind keeping Karva Chouth ka Vrat for husband's longevity

I liked it very much that you were clear on traditions vs relationships.

If we take Madhu and Rads case...

Madhu went against Rads and is keeping KC Vrat. --So Madhu placed her relationship with RK higher than her relationship with MIL.

However, when she wants to do KC Vrat for RK, she wants to do it in all right way. The Sargi is essential part of the ritual...where different soaps build ample tracks for the same. Many would remember that in Geet...how she was upset that she would not get sargi...but Maan gets it arranged through his Dadi anyways. So the writers are going by that. They don't want to upset KC watching crowd.

What people here over IF, Facebook forget is that...Madhu is a very ordinary girl. She is not a Drashti Dhami. Everyone wants her to be a perpetual Sherni. But she is not. The Girl is from a chawl, born to a poor mother (Padmini...though she got married to a rich man and entered a rich household), was still studying and is just a beautician in Mumbai. Come on ! Girls! How can she become sophisticated in thinking ? Nearly impossible. She will need to be in RK Household to sankritize herself. It will take time. RK himself mocked at Madhu. Did you see his derisive face when he called Madhu...tum chawl mein rahne waali...tumhaari kya aukaad and tumhaari kya izzat types. The only thing that RK ever liked in Madhu are her beauty, honesty and courage.

Now courage does not mean the same as brave. Brave is the highest category of being fearless. Courage is just an emotion...a state of mind that allows you to stand up for your belief. So Madhu is that Houslon waali girl that her mother taught her to me...resilient and courageous and to be surviving. This trait is going to be so apt for her to become a heroine. Otherwise, would people like us become stars ? No.

Against this background of Madhu, she is just thinking like her mother. While there have been posts expressing the same last two days, everyone is now unhappy with the trashed sargi track. If you ask me...eating that food from a packet is not worth analyzing at all. What is debatable is...would Madhu had taken the sargi from the trash bin had it not been protected/preserved in a cover ? That would have been worth watching. I am literally clueless there as how Madhu would have acted there. Since all this is debatable...the writers just added that cheenti line, made Dips shove the food in poly bag and made Madhu win the Sargi round. If you ask me, the theme is all a clunky device.

Now coming to your questions...will she ever place RK higher than traditions.

Madhu does not have pretty much any choice. She is just living her predicament. Given her choice she would want an easy and smooth life. But she ended up in an incomplete marriage with RK. Initially she wanted to forget everything of it under the guise that she did it for her father. But RK mentally tormented her to keep thinking on the incompleteness of her marriage, as that was his theme of revenge. He would never let forget her. While he was master of the game, she was supposed to be just his game until she rebelled when she was pushed to wall.

Once RK stopped his revenge game, Madhu too forgot questions on her status quo with the marriage. 

Her first question to herself was how could she forgive a man who married her for revenge and who destroyed her reputation and hurt his family. She got few answers that helped her to tag along with her husband. But still the question of whether she was completely married to him or not existed in her mind until she got to know the he accepts her as his wife. But that was not enough for her to take her commitment to the next level. She needed something from RK to bind herself with him. She gets his story, his confession of what she means to him and gets sanction from her mother...so now she has got the courage to treat RK as her husband.  

What is the first opportunity that she got. KC Vrat.  

Now she is defying everyone. 

She is defying her MIL

She is defying her husband

She is just being true to herself. She is following the ritual because she wants to. 

Never before she felt the person (RK) as her rightful husband. Now she wants to claim him as the husband and NOT the unacknowledged RK whom she saved when he was dying, yet calling her pati when required before external agencies (and not before RK). 

She basically is upgrading herself in RK's eyes from NoOne to him to being His Wife. Isn't that a BIG thought in itself ? Before all this great idea of hers, how can she then forego adhering to traditions now ? Wasn't she trying to build a bridge between a 4-phera adhoora marriage as per her husband's vows to her to a full-fledged marriage by daring to think of having the husband break her fast ? Is she not then regaining her full status through the same traditions and rituals ?

@bold 3

The above then leads to remarriage automatically. Jab Biwi mana legi Shauhar ko that I am your wife even when you did not want to me to become one, what can Shauhar say except present her true marriage as the gift of acceptance.

That reminds me of this Marathi story. The Kotwal (the male protagonist) would not sleep with his wife and yet keeps demanding a male heir(or just the child) from her. The frustrated wife schemes, plots deviously.  She manages to become his mistress and conceives. And finally shows him his child and says I won the challenge.

The means can never be bad if the end is beautiful and being executed by strong minded and passionate people in all honesty and zeal, no matter how conceited they look. Spark of life. The husband may look as the bad one...him to have an affair, commit adultery, but then story presentation is so beautiful that we are ready to forgive him. After all the wife was so seductive that he had to fall. So it is wife's kartoot as well.  Complexities...they make us think. 

That was one long post. I got carried away.