Week in Review: September 10th-14th, 2012

Overall, the week's episodes were thoroughly enjoyable, with a lot of drama and romance.  We started off the week with Anjali's deteriorating health, leading to Shyam's return and concluded the week with Arnav and Khushi's joint haldi ceremony.  This past week's episodes have now placed the story in a new direction, with Shyam returning with a plan to ruin Arnav and Khushi and trying to use their remarriage as a way to win the family's hearts.

What worked:

Shyam's return.  His return brings a new twist to the story as it is yet to be revealed what his actual plan is.  What exactly is his revenge on Arnav and Khushi and what lengths he'll go to to achieve it.  With Shyam's return, we expect to see a lot more drama unfolding as he tries to win over the family while helping Dadi to oust Khushi from the family.  Shyam's return was primarily done to improve Anjali's health and with her husband back, she's bound to cling to him like before.  If Anjali clings to Shyam as she did before, she can potentially become an obstacle for his plans.  In addition, Shyam has been the only one to actually question Garima's strange behaviour when it comes to Dadi.  Buaji and Khushi have both noticed this behaviour before but never sought to question it.  Shyam has always been an observant person, so him noticing this is no surprise.  However, with him noticing Garima's behaviour, he is bound to put the pieces together and be the one to bring Garima and Dadi face to face.  If he succeeds, he is bound to bring in more problems for Arnav and Khushi but let's see if them or any of the family members believe him, especially based on his past track record.

Arnav and Khushi's nok jokes.  The good old Arnav and Khushi bickering is back and it's very refreshing and enjoying to watch.  These little fights were the reason we all feel in love with them and continued to love them throughout their bad times.  This time, things had changed as it was Arnav who felt bad and wanted to apologize and Khushi was the one upset.  Eventually, Arnav is able to apologize to her; using his ASR style; which causes Khushi for once to be honest with how she felt from his treatment.  His simple "sorry" was so honest and pure that we all knew he meant it from the heart.

What didn't work:

Garima's scared looks.  Just as annoying it is to watch Dadi constant "I don't like what's going on" looks, Garima's frightened looks are becoming a bit old.  I understand that she is terrified of Dadi and the past she holds with her because she knows that if that past comes to light, it will ruin Khushi's future.  However, Garima always seem frightened at the sound of her name and it's becoming so common that it's noticeable.  If she was trying to hide the fact that she didn't want to meet Dadi, then she be more aware of how she acts when her name is mentioned.

Highlights:

The haldi ceremony.  It was great to see both families take part in one ceremony together as it brightened up the mood and brought a lot more fun.  Everyone was fabulous, from Buaji to Mami to NK to Payal and Akash to Arshi, everything was perfect.  Even Shyam's part was great, as it allowed for Anjali to see that even with her husband back, not everyone is so happy and forgiving as she hoped.  Not only did the haldi ceremony show everyone having fun; from calling Khushi and Arnav the moon and sun; but it also allowed for us to see that Shyam still has bad eyes for Khushi, based on the way he was recording her.  This is by far the best ritual they`ve conducted so far.

Khushi kissing arnav on the cheek. We can now officially call this the first "official" moment when khushi kissed Arnav, as the incident was part of a bet and impulsive.  Khushi's kiss was the first display of affection she has shown Arnav, other than caring for him.  It was pure, innocent, sweet and genuine.  It was this moment that Arnav was waiting for and it was worth the wait, as seen by the smile on his face.  The fact that he said sorry for hurting her, the fact that he did anything to get her to talk to him, the fact that he said thank you for what she did really touched her.  There was no better response to his actions than to show her affection for him with a simple kiss.

NK.  Out of all the characters the show has introduced, NK is by far the best.  Karan does a fabulous job portraying NK in everything he does; whether it is his bad hindi, his disapproval of Shyam to helping put Arshi together, he does everything to the tee.  NK was originally introduced as comic relief and to create some jealousy on Arnav's front but he has really shown that he can be a supportive friend and a protector, especially when it came to exposing Shyam.  I loved how NK not only gracefully ignored Shyam but also noticed how Shyam was staring at Khushi during the haldi ceremony.  This definitely goes to show that NK will always believe that Shyam has never changed and will be there to support Khushi.  This is one character, other than the leads, that the writers should not let go of or even butcher.