So the duel begins, between Vansh and the hidden puppet master. The casualty of this duel is Riddhima, who seems sure of her fate. She is mentally reconciling herself for the worst while hoping for the best.
The family departs en masse with Dadi leaving a gift for Riddhima. A frightened Riddhima puts on a brave face for others while her internal alarms are going haywire in tension. Vansh is fully into his duty as a protector of Raisinghania’s and is toying with Riddhima. He is slowly driving her to the edge while steadily boxing her into a corner.
The box that Riddhima sent reaches Kabir. Kabir is ecstatic and overjoyed at his easy victory until he smells the roses errr, lemons on the blank pages of the diary. Quickly realizing that the diary contains a hidden message. He heats it up to find a message which sends shockwaves. Kabir realizes that Riddhima is in danger and resolves to save her.
Meanwhile in VR Mansions, the terror party continues with unabated enthusiasm with Vansh presenting Riddhima a statue replica of herself. Riddhima who is inches away from fainting in sheer terror is absolutely sure that she is counting her last hours. To compound her terror, Vansh gifts her the same dress that the statue is wearing..
What are Vansh’s plans? Is it the end of Riddhima or will Kabir be able to reach her in time?
Phewww, the episodes are getting better and better as far as I am concerned. The niggling thought that the writers are just piling mystery upon mystery without actually solving any, got some days of reprieve when it was finally shown as to what transpired to Sunny.
The scenes between Sunny and Vansh also was showed how meticulous Vansh is in his planning and how accurately he perceives people. Vansh knows the true intentions of Sunny, knows he is a crook and that Ishani will go against Vansh were he to oppose Ishani’s affair with Sunny. What does he do? He offers money to Sunny with an implicit threat as well. Vansh without saying anything implies that once Ishani sticks to him as a glue, his days as a cheat and crook will be over because he will be on the radar of Vansh Raisinghania, who will neither brook any harm to his family nor will allow anyone to use his family connections for their own benefit. Sunny gets the message, he understands that it is life or death, so better take life in hand especially when it is coming along with a satchel stuffed with fresh currency. And what Sunny has to do, dump Ishani (which he was going to do anyway) and help Vansh find out the puppet master! Sunny is ‘INI’.
If the handling of Sunny was one example of Vansh’s meticulous planning, another was his reaction when he sees Riddhima signalling someone. Instead of rushing to his room, gambling on scaring Riddhima to death and forcing her to blurt the truth. He plays it cool. He steps back, thinks with a cool head and realizes that Riddhima is merely a puppet and the real threat is someone unknown. Vansh also understands after Sunny episode that rather than waiting for Riddhima to make a slip, it would be better to lure the puppet master out in the open by using his own puppet as a bait. So the bait is set!
Sunny traps Riddhima into believing about Ragini and her burial in the garden, leading her to the diary. The diary reaches Kabir who has understood the plan and is rushing to rescue Riddhima. What I found interesting in this section was not Kabir decoding the diary or deciding to rescue Riddhima. It was his reactions that were puzzling to me. This is my first watch of Kabir and from friends I had understood that Riddhima and Kabir made for ‘sweet couple’ but the response of Kabir was at variance with what I expected.
When Kabir realizes that he has been duped. As a genuine , bonafide lover his first thought should have been, ‘ O, my God, Riddhima is danger, I will have to get her out somehow’, BUT No!! his first reaction is, ‘ I am duped’ “Vansh knows the whole plan, knows Riddhima is a plant’ AND THEN comes,”Riddhima’s life is in danger, I sent her, I’ll save her” stuff. Throughout this all, I felt as if he was talking about a valuable asset planted in enemy camp and not that of someone whom he cherishes and loves ! The marked lack of concern as a lover vis as a responsible police officers whose sense of duty entails him to save a brave citizen from the clutches of peril was done quite well – IF THAT’S WHAT WAS INTENDED. It suggests that Kabir is outraged that Vansh dared to outsmart him and his subsequent reactions suggests that his objective is rather personal than what he is saying. I hope we get a backdrop of Kabir’s story to understand the context of his ‘rivalry’ with Vansh.
While Vansh is in search of puppet master and Kabir realizes that Vansh has been aware of his plan all along and thus the diary is fake and worthless to bring Vansh to heel. There’s another puzzling factor in this setup ! All along, Vansh keeps on saying ‘we will know the puppet master as soon as someone collects the box’ ..Note it again, he says ‘ we will know when someone collects the box’ ..Nowhere , does Vansh say, ‘we will catch the puppet master redhanded when he COMES to VR mansion’ nor does he say ” I have set such a trap that the puppet master will walk into it” ..yet the diary has a hidden message for Kabir telling him to COME to VR Mansion. – Who is the REAL Puppet Master? Is it the Garden Glove person who is continuously spying on Riddhima and seems to have easy access to VR Mansions? Is it someone within the family circle of Raisinghania’s or is it someone entirely different? What is his/her connection to the family. Is this mystery person the true puppet master?
If a sentence can be used as a assurance of comfort and as a threat aimed at intimidating, then Vansh holds a PhD in it. While seemingly offering words of comfort, reassurance and love, the real import held so much menace within it that it is a wonder Riddhima did not suffer a breakdown then and there!
Yet, those words were also a foreshadow. Dadi starts it .. from her dialogues we get to know that Riddhima’s road is going to turn tougher, in what way or form, we donno yet.
The next moment is when Vansh slowly slips Riddhima’s hands from Dadi’s and takes it within his own immense palms. From Dadi’s homely, comforting world, Riddhima’s destiny has slipped into the dangerous ocean of Vansh’s. It is a ocean full of sharks and dangerous undercurrents. The old Riddhima would be swallowed whole but Vansh words hints that he will be her shield. Will Riddhima understand what Vansh offers or will she wallow in the mire of her own misunderstanding?
I am sure, Dadi’s gift will not come in now.. it will come in when Riddhima is about to take a misguided step or has taken a misguided step, imo..
