Watch Bade Achhe Lagte Hain: The Break-up

Review of Episodes 25 – 28, telecast on 11^th – 14^th July 2011.

The confident week is gone. Bade Achhe Lagte Hain doesn’t hold itself longer to throw a bombshell. Monday episode starts while we’re still following the night after Priya and Ram’s engagement. And concluding Thursday’ episode closes at a point with the couple agreeing to break up the engagement. The bombshell, shall we?

Natasha Kapoor broke her engagement to Karthik Sharma the same night of their respective brother and sister’s engagement. Natasha, play by Sumona Chakavarti, is hot headed, arrogant and needy. Her spoiled brat behaviours could easily condense a negative stereotyping; a frown with a needy compulsion is impressive. I had called the love relationship of Natasha and Karthik a “push” relationship. Some comment of it as “unnatural”. From the very beginning since their relationship was showcase, it was a frivolous of sort. Naks (Natasha) often impose challenges while Karthik, play by Mohit Malhotra seems compromising to them. These routine follows, almost running parallel with that of Priya and Ram’s relationship.

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That night was different, or so it seems. A drank Naks, having had Karthik over with a lie, “exhibited” her fiancé to friends at a party.  Annoyed, Karthik tried to take her home making her furious. She ridiculed him of his middle class status, banters on that her brother gets engaged to his “ugly” sister only because of her. And in fit of anger, Karthik slapped her and left. That left Naks hell-bent to show what she could do went ahead to show what Karthik had done to her to her brother Ram.

Then, the confrontation happens at Sharma family residence. Surprised that their boy had laid hand on his fiancé, Priya on behalves of her family agree to Ram Kapoor’s decision to break the Natasha-Karthik engagement. What this do to Priya and Ram’s relationship, is that it put their relationship to question why it should still be “valid”, first by Ram Kapoor and later Priya Sharma. Their relationship, according to them, was an agreement base on their sister-brother engagement, to strengthen that relationship.

How much longer the love relationship of Priya and Ram will be further pulled, when the ultimate is for them to be together in marriage, kind-of stale the show. The next week episodes will be to brighten up the situation. The good thing is, the show sort of pick-up that by the end of the week itself.

There are other good things about Bade Achhe Lagte Hain. When the screen stays in facial expression with the title song playing over and over, it’s with the protagonists thinking hard about their situation. The Wednesday and Thursday have this all long, but Priya and Ram characters needed these time of pondering. Also, the title song “Bade Achhe Lagte Hain” by Shreya Ghoshal & Trijayh Dey (music by Lalit Sen and composed by Nawab Arzoo) have been used in good way.

The strength of the show doesn’t deepen on its protagonists alone; the recurring characters are given enough action which carried the show forward. This week bring the real drama in the Kapoors’ household. That Simona Chakravarti and Eva Grover (Mrs Kapoor) have given some genuine acting.

The drama was a restoring effort and it daringly brought up pregnant issue in Natasha-Karthik love relation. Mrs Kapoor has to act fast, to not just cover-up Natasha pregnancy, but to let her plans works. Naks has turn away from Karthik reconciliation efforts earlier that day and she’s hell-bent not to revive her relationship with him. Mrs Kapoor has had to threaten Natasha making her confront Ram to reconsider her engagement. Eva Grover as a woman who knows her way to living a life she’d wanted, and a mother who forbid her daughter reckless behaviours to ruin her life display fine balance.

So like every other serial, it’s the female protagonists who get the best story. And it is true here in this case. In the Monday episode, after the engagement Sudhir Sharma shows his daughter, Priya, things he had invested on for her daughter marriage. Stating that when middle class father have a daughter, he relatively think about her marriage, he had kept a gold earring-necklace set, gold couple watches, a gold-plated cufflinks. While intentionally grumble that all these things were of little value in the face of his would-be son-in-law.  The scene bought what it has been intended to do; an endearing moment of a father-daughter relationship.

Among the male characters, Vikram Shergill, play by Jai Kalra, is a consistent supporting to Ram Kapoor’s character as his best friend who give advices, stays all night long for his friend leaving his own family. During the week episodes, Vikram have a job offer from Multi-national Company for which he’d to leave his best friend. Though the story hasn’t reach to the point, whether the show will invest some of its show-time to the male-friend relationship is a point where it’ll be tested for daring write-up. And we’re not talking about the like of what Balaji Teleflims’ other venture Pyaar Kii Ek Kahani on Star One pounced homosexual diversion. Ram Kapoor’s comforts on remaining single could be at a point having a friend who always there when he needed. And that could be tackled in some way.

However, that might be tackled in other different ways in the coming episodes. What the concluding episode shown is that Ram Kapoor promising Natasha to bring back Karthik to her life, for reconciliation of their broken engagement. And yes, it seems that ‘our’ Priya Sharma and Ram Kapoor, who tried giving back their rings to each other and still have to do to officially break-up, will have to find a way to reconsider their ‘agreed’ relationship. And that might have Ram to work for the relationships which he had, in a way, broken up. So, we still have something to look forward in the next week episodes. Aren’t we?