#she has styled chandni and advay in similar clothes

[mukhtaleef]

Good bits: these two are looking extremely pretty. Just wow 😍😍 Bad bits: so not digging those little girl frills. I hate them on adults! I have mixed feelings about the copper coloured sherwani jacket.

[rowdyprofessor]

IPKKND3 Aaj Tak: Week 1

I think I’m going to try to talk about each week’s episodes as a whole :) Do you like the title?

1. Advay’s character sketch is ... sketchy

The promos told us that he was was going to be dark. So far we haven’t seen him do anything that wasn’t in a promo, so I feel the show is going to become a lot more interesting when the full shock value of his actions can be felt.

I love watching him on the screen. He’s a powerful presence and I even sometimes find myself hoping he succeeds in his mission to punish everyone who wronged him.

The thing that worries me is that Advay is on shaky ground when it comes to the reasoning behind his revenge. The way he’s fixated on Chandni sort of makes sense if one considers that he was young as well and she’s the only person he can confidently identify, but it’s still not rational or logical to assume that a child had an agenda when there were so many adults involved.

And whereas Arnav had the ‘excuse’ of being extremely reactive when he was angry, Advay has been sold to us as someone who is coldly calculating. Even Sobti himself said that the two characters are very different in the way they handle the pain in their past -- Arnav tried to bury it but Advay thinks and talks about it constantly. His observation that she’s the weakest link doesn’t quite capture the intensity of his hatred towards her, in my opinion.

I’ve spoken at length about Star Plus pushing the boundaries between anti-hero and villain with every serial after IPKKND, and pegged Advay for a villain after some promos came out.

I’ve talked here about the line separating Arnav and Shyam -- anti-hero and villain -- and the line that could separate Arnav and Advay. I’m curious to see how the creatives play this because I can see them taking the Romantic Hero route and I just don’t want to see that with this character.

I love the way Sobti has approached this character. Sobti’s acting is superb -- there’s so much nuance in almost everything that he does. I’m sure rewatches will reveal a lot when it comes to Advay’s state of mind.

2. Chandni is adorable

The promos didn’t give me much of a handle on her character but I like what I’ve seen so far. My favourite scenes have been between Chandni and her Baba :)

While I don’t really like her sisters right now, I love the person Chandni is when she’s around them. I feel I’m getting glimpses of the girl she might been had the kidnapping not occurred (and also girl she might have been had Dev not left her).

I just want her to stop taking the caps of glass bottles (7UP!) off with her teeth!

I think Tomar is an extremely capable actor. Her portrayal of someone with PTSD is intense and believable, and I’ve enjoyed all her scenes with Sobti so far.

3. There are too many characters

Half of them haven’t even turned up again.

I’m reminded, however, of how Dhruv Singh Raizada was mentioned in Episode 11 of IPKKND and then promptly written out of the show, and how the past between Mama and Mami was meant to be explored through a series of flashbacks until they decided to focus on Mami’s comedy.

I’m sure the show will eventually settle on what it wants, but at the moment it’s a bit messy. 

Similar to the way I feel about Chandni and her sisters, while I enjoy seeing the dynamic between Indrani and her sisters, I don’t particularly like the sisters themselves. I love their theme music, however, and the Aunty-wali Mausi’s way of speaking is growing on me.

4. I love the colours and the sets

Such pretty. I’m a huge fan. I absolutely love how it all juxtaposes Advay’s darkness. I’ve watched shows (eg. LIFE, starring Damian Lewis) that use the concept of light in fascinating ways to juxtapose the darkness of what they are showing. I feel this serial is going the same with colour.

5. Shat Pratishat Vashisht

No. Just no. The sisterly motto, the cooking montage ... I just don’t like it.

6. The costumes

I like the way Advay has been styled so far but that plaid suit looks horrendous. This offscreen image has me worried as well: it’s a shirt, slacks, waistcoat and jacket made of the same material!!

The ladies all have costumes that I wouldn’t personally wear but I find Chandni’s wardrobe cute. It’s different. Not sold on anyone else’s.

7. It’s so slow!

Each day spans several episodes, and it’s even more confusing when the characters change clothes half way through. I hope the pacing increases soon :)

Hopes for next week:

Very few episodes featuring the ugly suit of ugly

More Miku/Veer

Advay-Chandni scenes that I haven’t seen in the promos

More AdvayVision™️ with maths :)

Some more exploration of Advay’s fixation on Chandni