Episode Review: October 31st, 2012

The episode continues with the basketball game.  Mami tries to get the ball away from Aarav and is unsuccessful.  She ends up pinching his cheeks and is called out on a foul, leading to her exit of the game.  The game continues and Khushi is blocking Akash.  Sheetal and Arnav end up bumping into each other and share an awkward eye lock, to which Khushi notices.  Sheetal passes Khushi the ball but she is still taken aback by what she saw and does not move.  Aarav ends up taking the ball from her and makes a shot and misses but Arnav gets the shot on the rebound.  As the game continues, Khushi tries to convince Akash to give her the ball, which he refuses.  She ends up putting her foot in a way that ends up getting her tripped.  She says that Akash purposely tripped her and he receives a foul, sending him out of the game.  He later tells the other ladies Khushi did it on purposes, and she quickly gets up to return to the game.  The game continues with Arnav, Aarav and Sheetal playing basketball while Khushi stands at the side like a statue.  The score ends up being tied at 3-3 and the next shot wins the game.  Khushi ends up getting the ball but unable to pass it, she runs with the ball and makes the shot.  She's excited to make the shot and all the girls think they've won.  Unfortunately, because she ran with the ball, she is called out on a foul and ends up leaving the game.  As everyone watches the rest of the game, Aarav ends up having the ball and goes to make a shot.  To help him out, Arnav lifts him up and he ends up making the shot, winning the game.  Everyone celebrates the boys winning the game.  Arnav and Aarav share their secret handshake and then Aarav shares it with his mother.  All the while, Khushi is watching this from the side.  Without anyone noticing her, she quietly leaves the area.  She goes to the kitchen to calm her nerves and her doubts about Sheetal and Arnav.  As she starts to make jalebi, she sees Sheetal walk in, who asks her why she is making jalebi since Arnav can't eat it.  She then sees Arnav come in and Sheetal is all over him, convincing him to kick Khushi out of the house.  He agrees with her and Khushi begs him not to kick her out.  As she drops to her feet and beg him not to kick her out, she realizes that it was all her illusion.  Instead, one of the servants is standing in front of her and asks if she needs any help.  She says no and regains herself. 

Everyone returns home from the game and are all talking about how much fun they had.  Arnav says they should have seen them in college, where he and Sheetal played on the same team.  He states that they even had a nickname but couldn't remember it.  Sheetal states it was "awesome twosome" and the two share an awkward high five.  Aarav states that since he is now part of the team, it'll be awesome threesome.  Arnav then asks where Khushi is and she says she's right there.  Apparently, she had been standing there the whole time.  Mami then takes the plate of jalebi from her and begins to hand them out to everyone, starting with Aarav.  Both Arnav and Sheetal both state that Aarav can't have the sweets.  To change the subject, Arnav talks to Aarav about being a better basketball player and that if he wants to be a better basketball player, he needs to look after his health.  As Aarav goes upstairs to do his homework, Anjali tells Arnav that his bond with Aarav has shown that he can handle kids.  Mami adds that it'll now be easier when he has his own children, but neither Khushi nor Arnav react to this news.  Later that day, Sheetal is upstairs looking at pictures in her room.  Khushi notices that she's alone and goes to speak with her, apologizing for not knocking before coming in.  As she attempts to put the pictures away, Khushi asks her what she was looking at.  When Sheetal says nothing, she asks about Aarav's father again and states that every time she asks about his father, she ignores the question.  Sheetal tells her that she's put that part of her life in her past and has moved on.  After she leaves, Khushi is about to leave the room until she notices something on the floor.  She picks them up to see the pictures Sheetal was looking at; her and Arnav playing basketball in college.  Khushi thinks that if Sheetal was looking at these pictures, she may not have put her full past behind her.

What worked: An oblivious Arnav.  Where's the Arnav who wanted to be around Khushi nonstop during the wedding rituals?  Where is the Arnav who could sense her around, without having to hear or ask for her?  What happened to the Arnav that could sense if something was wrong with her?  That Arnav has now turned oblivious.  Ever since Aarav and Sheetal have begun living at the house, Arnav spends a lot of his time bonding with the little boy.  As he begins to spend more and more time with Sheetal and Aarav, this begins to make Khushi more and more insecure about herself.  Why would a guy like Arnav want to spend the rest of his life with a crazy and weird girl like her when he seems much more compatible with someone like Sheetal.  Khushi's own insecurities are causing her to have hallucinations and doubt Arnav's love for her.  Unfortunately, Arnav has not noticed Khushi being insecure as of this moment but when he does, it will definitely be a worthwhile conversation to watch.

What didn't work: N/A

Highlight: N/A

***Something to note, there are visible hints in the show that could point to all of this being a ploy to split the couple up.  The first hint was Sheetal's diary.  It was stated that her and Arnav studied together at Harvard but she mentions in her diary about going to see the London Eye with the boy she liked.   If I remember correctly, the London Eye is in England while Harvard is in the US.  Second, today, Sheetal was looking at the pictures vertically but when Khushi saw them, she was looking at them horizontally and indeed, the pictures were in a horizontal format.  Why would anyone want to look at them in the incorrect way.  I don't know if this was bad editing on their part or clues to a much bigger picture but I will restate what I've said before; all of this seems just too good to be true....something very fishy is going on.

 

Episode Review: October 30th, 2012

Dressed as a peon, Khushi makes her way to the principal's office to find out who Aarav's father is.  In order to get into the office, she pretends to be mopping and makes her way inside.  Inside, she finds another teacher sitting there.  In order to get rid of him, she tells him that the principal is calling him to the canteen for tea.  After he leaves, Khushi quickly begins to search the various binders to find the one containing Aarav's admission form.  She ends up finding the binder with the form in it but is unable to read the form as water spilled on it and the ink is unreadable.  She then hears the principal coming but when she tries to step down from the stool, she almost falls.  Luckily, she is helped by Aarav who asks her why she is dressed as a peon and is in his school.  Khushi makes up an excuse that she was going to a fancy dress competition and wanted to see how a peon acts.  Just then, the principal walks in and she hides behind a cupboard.  Aarav lies to the principal, saying that he was in the office to remove a cat that came in.  When she asks why he is not back in class since his break is over, he states that he has to use the bathroom.  After she leaves, Khushi thanks Aarav for covering for her and asks him to not let anyone know she was here and he agrees.  Back at home, Khushi thinks that for a while, she should stop trying to figure out who Aarav's father is and just trust Arnav with his word.  Downstairs, Aarav is upset with his painting; he received 2/10 on it.  Sheetal tries to cheer him up by saying that he will do better on the next one.  She then suggest they play basketball and Aarav agrees, asking his mom to let him win this time.  Arnav is passing by at this time and overhears their conversation.  Arnav tells Aarav that when they used to play in college, Sheetal would lose at basketball and that she was no champion.  This gives Khushi an idea of how to cheer Arnav up. 

The next day, she suggest that the boys have a basketball match; Arnav, Akash, NK and Aarav; while all the girls will be watching.  Sheetal gives Aarav tips on how to play basketball and NK attempts to flirt with her with no success.  Arnav and Sheetal proceed to argue again on how she would lose in basketball in college, with her claiming he cheated and he claiming that he'd let her win.  They decide that in order to prove who's right, they'll have a basketball match.  At the court, the boys are all present.  Khushi shows up in her suit, wearing basketball shoes and a headband.  She wonders why everyone is staring at her and then notices that they are staring at Sheetal.  She feels a bit uncomfortable as Sheetal stretches and warms up.  Mami even joins the team and Arnav wonders if they are really serious about this.  NK explains the rules of the game to both the teams.  The game then starts with the boys, Akash and Arnav, playing very well.  At one point, Khushi ends up getting the ball but instead of passing it, she kicks it.  NK calls it a foul but gives her a second chance as it is her first time playing the game.  The game continues but it seems that Arnav and Sheetal are just playing against each other.  As Khushi notices this, she becomes a bit uncomfortable.

What worked: N/A

What didn't work: The current track.  What started off on a good note with suspense and drama has now turned into a laughing joke.  A basketball match, really.  Was that even needed in the story.  At this point, I have no idea what the writers are up to.  It just seems they are putting in random things into the story and its making the current track a bit unbearable to watch.  If their trying to show us Khushi feeling insecure and jealous, they are other, more effective ways to do that, but what they are doing right now isn't one of them.  I know that it's hard to write good material everyday but it's not that hard to write decent stuff; why be lazy with your writing.  The only thing working for the show is the fact that there are no TRPs until December.  If there were, you would see the numbers drop, putting the writers under pressure to produce good content and not lazy writing.  Hopefully, this track does not ruin the show's ratings when they return in December.

Highlight: N/A

Episode Review: October 29th, 2012

Arnav is angry with Khushi for doing a DNA test on him and Aarav.  Khushi tries to explain to him why she did it but he's in no mood to listen.  Arnav asks Khushi if she trusts him at all.  Upset that she went behind his back, he hands her the envelope back and tells her to open it so she can clear her doubts that Aarav is his son.  Khushi stares at the envelope and is almost about to open it.  All the while, Sheetal is looking in from the outside with a nervous look on her face.  Seeing his face and listening to her heart, Khushi rips up the envelope without even looking at the report.  She apologizes to Arnav for what she did and he tells her again that he and Sheetal only dated; nothing else.  As he leaves upset, Khushi wonders what she can do to cheer him up.  As she walks down the stairs thinking about it, she sees Aarav sitting and doing something.  She realizes that Aarav has no fault in this and decides to do something for him.  She calls out to him, asking if he wants to go out.  When he doesn't answer her, she goes up to him and taps him on his shoulder.  Unfortunately, he ends up ruining his painting he was doing for school and yells at Khushi for disturbing him.  Upset, he takes off upstairs and now Khushi has upset two people.  She looks at the painting and sees that Aarav drew him and his mom watching a kid playing with their dad.  She sees another picture where Aarav drew himself, his mom but did not draw his dad at all.  Khushi realizes how much Aarav misses his father and goes to cheer him up.  She goes to his room to apologise to him.  Apparently, he's in the bathroom but ends up forgiving Khushi.  As she's about to leave the room, she notices Sheetal's diary on the table and ponders on whether or not she should read it.  She then goes through a good vs. evil debate as she imagines an angel and devil telling her what to do.  She decides to side with the devil and read Sheetal's diary; as long as she does not touch the pages.  As she reads her diary, she comes across her writing about a boy she met.  As she continues to write about the boy, Khushi thinks it may be Arnav.  When Sheetal states in her diary about coming close to the boy in November of 2006, Khushi wonders if her and Arnav were dating in 2006.  When she goes to read further, she notices that the pages are torn out.  Before she can figure out where the pages went, she realizes that Aarav will be exiting the bathroom and quickly leaves the room.  Next, she decides to search for her answer by looking through Arnav's college stuff.  Unable to find Arnav's diary, she finds an old college group photo, where the two are present .  Khushi reads the date as 2006 and her fear of Arnav being Aarav's father resurfaces.  She curses herself for ripping up the envelope without even looking at it.  She quickly calls up the hospital and asks for another report but they tell her it will be a few days as their computers are not working.

Her next plan, find out Aarav's father's name through his school registration form.  Dressed as a peon, Khushi sneaks into Aarav's school in order to sneak into the principal's office to see the form.  Khushi is successfully able to dodge the principal but ends up bumping into another worker.  She tries to escape the worker but ends up being told to make tea for the teachers.  After making and serving tea to the teachers, Khushi heads to the principal's office, hoping to find the form and figure out who Aarav's father is.

What worked: N/A

What didn't work: The use of comedy.  So far, this track has had a mix of comedy and drama but the continued use of the comedy aspect is not working for the track.  Khushi is desperate to find out who Aarav's father is but she does not necessarily have to resort to crazy and weird antics to find her answers.  She's much smarter than that and we've seen that before when she tried to earn Shyam's trust and rescue Arnav and just recently with exposing Shyam for the second time.  I don't mind having a bit of comedy in the show but too much of it can be a turn off and turn the story into a joke, which is what it's currently doing.  Hopefully, the writers remember that Khushi is a lot smarter than her weird and crazy antics and give her another way to find her answers.

Highlight: N/A