Tomay chara ghum ashe na Maa - a Bengali
serial playing since the beginning
of this century
(well, almost).
I had seen around five-six
episodes of this, whilst changing
channels around 1 to 2 years back. Nothing to get hooked
onto.
Until I saw an episode
in the last week of November. A lady reminiscing
her life spent with her daughter who had just got married
and left. And then she talks about going away as her work was all over. She had fulfilled her duty by bringing a daughter to her father.
I was like.....what
does this mean??
"Mother : Ebaar ami chole jaabo (Now I will leave).
Father : Na, tumi jaabe na. Jete dile to jabe. (No, you will not go. You cannot
if I dont allow).
Mother: Onnay jed koro no. (Don't be unreasonable)
Father : Your daughter needs you. And so do I. After a certain age, everyone needs someone special by their side to even want to continue living.
Mother : Eta shonao paap. (Its wrong even to hear things
like this.)
Father : Bhalobashai
kono paap punno hoi na. (There's no right or wrong in love)."
The mother is blind, by the way.
I don't know what it was in this scene that had me hooked.
I googled for online episodes
and drew a blank on youtube. Dailymotion
had random episodes.
I finally found all episodes
embedded in the Star Jalsha
website. I was awake one whole night watching all old episodes,
fast forwarding (in my opinion)
unnecessary scenes (though
actually they constitute
the main storyline)
and was gifted
for my patience
in being able to watch 7-8 scenes
between this couple.
"A touch of hands.Pulling her hand away. Trying to hold her by the shoulders. Again pulling away. And the hurt in his eyes. And the longing."
The story is about a young girl who was separated from her father
during an accident.
Her mother dies in that accident. The father, inspite
of searching for his daughter
over many years,
in unable to locate her. He marries
his sister-in law in deference
to his mother-in-law's wishes
but makes sit clear to his new wife that whilst he would always
do his duties,
she would never have any rights as a "wife".
In the meanwhile,
this unconscious and hurt young girl lands up at a private
nursing home, owned by Protima
Roychowdhury. She has recently lost her own daughter and decides to take care of this accident victim
who has lost her memory.
She raises the child (Jhilik)
as her own daughter. Jhilik goes through the trauma of trying to find out her real mother and after many years,
after her husband's
death, Protima finds out that Jhilik is actually the daughter of Samaresh, her first love and whom she had been unable
to marry.
Samaresh's sister had been very close to her as well and she brings
Protima and Jhilik
into the house even when Samaresh screams
at her asking
her to leave,
when he first sees her.
The initial meetings
between the two are brilliant.
On one side, his anger at her leaving him and getting
married to a wealthy guy and on the other,
his dormant love erupting again after so many years, both fighting for supremacy. His words, trying
to deliberately hurt her, that she destroyed
his life, betrayed
him....and the underlying
hope that this would spur her to reveal that there must have been some valid reason. And her refusal
to give in. Of maintaining
that she had come only to give him his daughter. Her lack of visual perception
not allowing her not only to see him but also to see how his eyes lit up with happiness
when she was around. And her constant
entreats to him not to come to her room.
The main story actually revolves
around Jhilik (the daughter) and her love affair with Arunangshu whilst
she actually gets married to a paralytic
guy, Rajdeep, in deference to her father's
wishes. And the story revolves
(in deference to TRP requirements)
about the evil second wife and his evil son and so on and so forth.
When she questions
him for scolding
her when she forgets her medicines, he responds "Samparka thake na. Kintu adhikaar bodh ta roye jaye. (Relationships don't stay. But the feeling
of right to take care, right to scold.. these don't get obliterated.) "
And when his evil wife orders her, a blind woman, in the darkness
of the night,
to leave her house immediately,
and insults her of trying
to entice a married man, Protima obliges.
And as expected,
on the mountain
roads of Darjeeling,
it is Samaresh's
car she has an accident
with, when he is returning
home. When he entwines his fingers with hers, she first pushes
him away when she recognises
his touch. And when he persists, she breaks down and allows
him to lead her to his car. And then he takes her to a hotel as its too dark to drive up the mountain roads.
"Samaresh, there are many blind people walking
on the roads who have no one"
and pat comes the response,
"Kintu tomar to ache. (But you have someone. Why do you persist in thinking that you are alone? )"
She refuses to share with him what provoked her to leave home. But he guesses
anyway and when he takes her back home, he takes a minute to gather all his mental strength and then holds her hand and leads her in. In front of everyone.
His wife and her son, his sister,
his mother-in-law and so many more pile ons present
in the house.
Ecstasy. Amazing dialogues and direction. I know lot of people
who are fed up with the long drawn story and how the evil characters manage
to get away every time. But then, its easier
to forgive (the writer !) for all those (unnecessary)
scenes if you know what exactly you want to see. Cause all the drama all around actually
work to enhance
the romance which the brief interludes offer.
It took me a good 2 hours to find out the name of the actress
playing Protima Roychoudhury,
the mother - "Aparajita Adhya." She is awesome
in her portrayal
of this character.
And so, thanks
to one episode,
I now spend much of my waking
time conjuring sequences
of how they can make up. And be together.
And like all fairy tales,
how "They lived happily ever after."
I never saw this serial:only heard people cribbing abt story... now feel tempted to watch!
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