Episode 18: The Girls and Their Personal Soups

Every weekday in the Connected Hum Tum TV Blog we’ll be posting and talking about the latest goings-on of the six women cantering around Mumbai recording their lives with video cameras. (Read The Curtain-Raiser post for a quick intro to the show.)

I think this may have been my favourite episode so far. The things that had bothered me in earlier episodes didn’t hold true for this one: it had uninterrupted clips that weren’t constantly jumping to fit a weak theme, and Abhay’s earnest explanations were remarkably painless.

Both Preeti and her mother-in-law, currently embroiled in a war that took Preeti by surprise, employ the raised eyebrow effectively and masterfully. Two best instances in this episode: Preeti’s triumphant version on depositing Zohaan into cold, distant mother-in-law’s lap and letting him do his magic, and mother-in-law’s you’ve-got-to-be-joking face when Preeti filmed her as she got out of the car, instead of inviting her back home. I was surprised at just how much Preeti later began to miss her. But what struck me the most about Preeti here, and I played this back a couple of times, was that Preeti set up her camera when Zohaan started crying for his grandmother; she didn’t capture it accidentally, the camera wasn’t already set up, she saw that it was happening and immediately chose to begin filming it. It’s choices like these that make both Preeti and her footage so interesting.

Sonal’s footage in this episode takes off by highlighting a difference between herself and Jaanu: Sonal takes it for granted that she would have decided upon a specific time at which she would break the news to her parents, Jaanu, on the other hand, has made no such plans and intends to let the conversation happen when it’s to happen. Over the course of her stay back home, it becomes more and more evident that Jaanu isn’t taking the care Sonal would have. She becomes less inclined to talk to Sonal about the matter at hand, and soon seems reluctant to talk to Sonal at all. It’s clear that something’s up, and Sonal’s general anguish and confusion are written plainly on her face (which is usually quite serious at the best of times, making her huge smiles even more striking when they do make an appearance). Her footage ends at quite an ominous point. I find myself imagining various endings to this story, and sadly, none of them seem very happy for Sonal.

Pallavi is still drinking a lot of soup and wondering whether to quit her job and join the family business. While there are comparisons to be made between Sanju and Dalbir, you begin to notice that while Sanju is annoying in a weird, childish way, Dalbir’s style is far more adult, and therefore frustrating on a whole other level. He even uses the phrase “at this age” when insisting, again, that Pallavi wants to keep her job just for the money; I’m surprised she reacted so very calmly to that (during this semi-confrontation, Pallavi happened to be wearing a t-shirt that had the words “Happily Unmarried” emblazoned on an empty beer can). She’s facing constant pressure from her new family, so much so that so that she breaks down in tears. You can hear the sort of desperate hysteria in her voice when she wonders aloud if joining Dalbir’s business would mean having to face this kind of loneliness, being stuck indoors all day.

These episodes are getting better and better. It’s not about getting to see a lot of footage, but about unbroken stretches of footage that really give us something to hold on to, and that’s exactly what this episode did. Also, it’s about time I officially took back what I once said about Pallavi. I’m glad she’s on the show.