Episode 184 Discussion: 1st Feb 2013

Adventures of Rishbala: Trip to Ajja-Ajji's Village. 

Part I- Who is the Superstar? RK or Madhubala ?

Events of the episode

1. RK and Madhu "Superstar-Fan" tease leads them to skid the car off the road. Car fails to start. They need a mechanic. The cell phone network is not reachable and so they are left with no choice but to take the help from passing by bullock cart party of a man and three children, who have recognized RK as Superstar RK.
2. RK in the bullock cart is annoyed at the children's cacophony of advertising his coming to the village and expresses his anguish at the damage of shoes caused by the kid. Madhu teases him and reminds him that his life is going to be like that when they are going to have three kids like them. Madhu ecstatically tells RK how she is happy that Superstar RK is going to leave all his stardom and come away with her.
3. Upon entering the village of the children, they find out that mechanic has gone to a different village. Rishbala plan to leave. But the whole assembly of village people; who are fans of Superstar RK, protest about this and they ask them to stay back and that soon the mechanic will be called for.
4. Now the problem is where Rishbala are going to spend their time waiting for the mechanic. Enter Ajja, the ancient man of the village, who has AC in his house. And biggest twist is that Ajja does not recognize RK as a Superstar. Ajja's grandchild balckmails him to accept villagers request to offer hospitality to Superstar RK and his wife Madhu. Ajja agrees and takes them to his home, though he keeps calling Rishabh with different names such as Rushidhar, Rushi etc. RK is annoyed.
5. Enter Ajji. When RK is introduced as Superstar RK, she asks for him full name. She takes a steep dislike to RK and finds fault with his name. However, she takes a deep liking to Madhu and expresses her pleasure at Madhubala name. To RK's dismay and frustration, she calls Madhu as a Superstar material and to take her blessing before they leave.
6. She offers them a room. RK wants to turn on AC. Ajji tells them that first it has to be cleaned. Madhu offers hers and RK's help to clean it up. RK is upset and Madhu taunts him to look at himself in mirror admiring his Superstar RK looks. RK snubbed looks on at Madhu. Episode ends.

Episode Reviews

I enjoyed the episode. Thoroughly. The episode was about Star perception by Public.

I liked the Marathi actors Sushma Bhagat and Vijay Kadam as Ajja-Ajji. Loved the welcome Vijay Kadam got with that Bigul Sound. LOL!!

I found it very interesting that Ajji...(Sushma Bhagat) looks at Madhubala's OLD TIME filmy name, reminisces yesteryears Madhubala and fondly teases her. She said that MB is a STAR MATERIAL. For me the BALL HAS BEEN DROPPED by CVs for the FIRST TIME.  Rishabh name was not liked by Ajji. He was being called Superstar RK. And this old woman obviously might have been nostalgic to Superstar RK (Raj Kapoor or Rajesh Khanna) in her years and so she might be trying to uphold the previous era superstars by demeaning this current superstar's name...Just a feeling I got when I watched the episode. Case of Fandom !!!! Favorite pastime of Fans:  Offending the other to defend another.

About Ajja and Ajji both not giving Bhav to the two city dwellers, it is very natural. Villagers are known to snub City Dwellers in harsh and also in sweet manner even as they adulate them to an irritating point. That's how they defend themselves by taking pride in their lifestyle by taking a dig at the outside challenge as displayed through mesmerizing foreigners to their land.

I liked RK Mansion scene as well. Noways Dips does not hurt me because Sikky takes care of her. Wow!!! This is what I always asked of, replace the incestuous drama to make RK weaker and bring a natural Dips in her own capacity. Clearly her migraines and her constant work to be good Bahu before Radhaji is frustrating and stressing her out. I remember once she said about Kuku and Sikky, "Baap ne career bigaad diya aur Bete ne zindagi bigaad di"

Amidst all this, the love and romance gets better for Rishbala. Today I felt for the first time after Love Confession post KC track days, that Rishabh and Madhu were uncontrollably getting infatuated with each other. They seemed mindlessly getting attracted and yet not being able to do anything about it. They were seeing each other's new avatars in new setting. This crazy period of romance from other angles, usually always comes when we change the regular setting. We call add "spice to life"...Zest of life. I just  loved how they ignored themselves and were adoring the other and feeling so happy there being with each other in all of this. If this was a film, something seriously sensual would happen...just that yeh TV hai Bhai !!!

And finally my advice to Film City after reading Charu's comments about Village in yesterday's ED thread over Page 6. The sets were designed by V Shantaram in 60"s 70"s I guess. At that time Village looked like that. So my advise to officials is, please upgrade the village sets to look contemporary with changing India now. Yes thatched houses are still there in villages, but along side thatched houses, REC rooftop houses are also there, that too multi-storied. I have been to many villages in Telengana district of AP. Its a mix of ancient and modern amenities in villages.

About Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, Filmcity, Mumbai, read here.

http://www.mumbai.org.uk/tourist-attractions/film-city.html

Over the "Aalishan, modern" bed...other than that, what I did not like.That Ajji knows that RK and Madhu sleep separately and so quilts given separately just like in RK mansion. Can they make it all less obvious to viewers and bring in things naturally in time. No one puts a quilt on the bed in daytime in traditional households. They stay in the closets. Sometimes, the set designers/art directors are two robotic. Sigh!!!

More on Stardom....

I really do not know how a Superstar feels when people surround him in adulation.

But in 1998, when we were attending our cousin's wedding in our native place, from the wedding venue, another cousin on Dad's side requested my parents to allow him to take us to the adjacent village so that the family sees us. We three kids in our 20's (25, 23 and 20), never knowing a village, dressed in quite sophisticated manner (no not city glam, our taste was always subtle ), were confused, reluctant and yet felt that its nothing wrong making someone happy. So we were escorted by him...whichever way he did that. The adulation we got from Dad's family made us feel as if we were some STARs in our own capacity. And then by an by, Dad's cousins from all over the village trickled in and everyone wanted to take us to their homes. And one of this old Tauji, he held us in his feeble hands and took us to his place. He was walking dead slow. And that caused the parade to slowly move. OMG!!! it ended in whole village looking us the entire length of the road. I can't express the adulation, the embarassment, the feeling to run away from people's gaze and yet holding ourselves for the same people...it was just too overwhelming.

After that incident when two years later I had to visit teh same cousins, I chose an outfit that was so similar to my cousins...toned down ...which easily mingles into the crowd. This helped me talk normally to them. 

So I guess, here Madhu and RK, with lack of change of clothes, go for what are provided to them and soon it is natural to behave like villagers in order to mingle with them and beat their overwhelmed feeling. Its like Gulliver in his travels changes to local people wherever he goes. It helps. And finally, an outing should bring within you such paradigm shift from your regular mundane life, then only it liberates your mind. I welcome all such journeys. Without us knowing they become enlightening and spiritual. 

This is the reason, why I enjoyed the episode today. It was liberating.

By Soundarya

Like I said in my earlier post, this village track is the gentle buildup to a major track. madhu is looking forward to leaving with RK, she is comfortable with the idea because:

• She has had an anonymous life, that is till she met RK.
• She has lived on very little material comforts...her mindset is more used to thrift ..remember at the sangeet, she tells trishna, something about sharing kulfis. That is how her life has been. 
• She wants to lead the simple life she'd always dreamt of...husband, children etc
• She also wants RK all to herself...she would have felt guilty going away if the RK-Radha milaap had not happened. Her first reaction when Radha told her he called her Maa, was that they could now leave to build their own world. 

However, as much as we think she is lost in her world, we have always seen that she is extremely shrewd in her own way. Is she also concerned that he's leaving behind his life, his passion ie: work, it is very obvious to her he loves his work. Will RK be able to leave his creative world, and live a life of anonymity? Yesterday, he was not able to handle it when the old man mistook his name, and refused to acknowledge that he is a star? Through this unexpected detour, he is actually getting a taste of his life after stardom. Somewhere Madhu was also taking him experientially through his so called 'anonymous' life. he imagines a world...because it is a world new to him, will he actually be happy in such a world once the novelty wears off?   

here is a nice article, don't generally  post articles here, but the one I've posted below is bang on and relevant:

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/art-culture/side-effects-of-stardom

Responded by Myself

Sounds,

I liked Amin Hajee article. It was very interesting. The last part of it was so nice. You know, I never used to like Madhuri Dixit when she was the leading actress. But off late I have started to admire her, infact her adore her, just because, I was able to see that she was still a person who was before she set out to become a star. How I felt it first was, her marriage, then her love for her dance. It showed me how much she loves her family and her love for dance. These two were strong enough for her to be stable. I watched JDJ -5 last year, just to mentally pay my respect to her...something that I never much credited her when she was so popular. 

Same way I felt about Meenakshi Sheshadri. 

Another heroine who really could not handle stardom was Divya Bharti. And I actually felt for her also.

And about stardom...today's episode...I called it liberating because, it was making RK see what he will feel if RK the star is removed from his persona. And likewise, it would put a seed into either Madhu or RK's mind, what Madhu would feel, if she becomes more important than RK.

And I always like liberation from any existing state of mind. I get very bored easily and so I like to have free floating experiences that open me upto new thinking, new challenges...though ...I must say, life has now toned down my tendency to become bored by making me more perceptive and careful.

Marathi words translation by Ananya 

Originally posted by 0-SD-0

And My Marathi Mulgis here (not just MM, but Ananya and Leela as well), 

Please be kind to translate to us what Sushma Bhagat and Vijay Kadam spoke in Marathi.

Shri and others,

I will translate the marathi lingo used in today's episode for all your convenience. Here it goes in the sequence that they came up.

Ajji means grandmother and Ajja means grandfather.

Ajja to everyone: eh! kay challay? -> Hey whats going on here?

The bullock cart rider to ajja : paaya padto ajja. -> (Touches his feet)

Ajji to RK: Naav kay? -> Whats ur name?

Ajji to Madhu: ye pori ye.-> Come in.

Ajji to Madhu : Kay ga pori.-> (This is just an exclamation)

Ajji to Madhu: Deva shapatth-> I swear to God.

Ajji to Madhu: Majhich najar lagel-> meri hi nazar lag jaegi.

Ajji to RK: Are baba kay karto? -> Hey boy! What r u upto?

Ajji  to Madhu: Lai gunachi porgi-> You are a very well mannered girl.(Like lakhon me ek)

Some of these are literal translations and some are implied meaning. I hope it helps. 

Pictorial Commentary

Originally posted by zorica

I enjoyed watching the episode, and I'm going to enjoy reading your posts. 

Originally posted by zorica

Originally posted by zorica

Originally posted by zorica

Shri 

By Soundarya

Mini complaint :they cannot use 'hum he deewane' for every Rishbala scene. We're supposed to imagine passion when we hear the song. It's like a signal for us poor viewers. 

They can use some other song na, esp while riding a bullock cart.

By myself in response to MM

Originally posted by MarathiMulgi

Kaki represented a smart shrewd gaon ki woman who had a critical eye towards RK's  overall appearance. It was not his attire so much but his attitude that rubbed her the wrong way and she point blank refused to bow to it. It had nothing to do with his profession I think and then she proceeded to set him straight. Though she should not have made fun of his name like that, that was harsh and insensitive. But from all appearances they seem to a wealthy family in the village and that comment was more from that attitude.

The way that Kaki was talking to him, in Marahi we call it 'Bin panyachi champi'. (roughly it means bring the person down a notch from his/her high horse or attitude).

MM,

I agree there. The villagers mince no words and they snub the city dwellers of their attitude in such googly manner that we feel stumped. I aways see this...My father taking a dig at his people and his people snubbing him...and yet they all so blend well. Truthfully speaking, if one weathers how to deal with villagers, then pretty much they can deal with any craziness of the world.