As some of you who are following me on Twitter may know, I am trying to pilot a series of blog posts where you can read my rationale behind certain VMs, especially concept ones I have worked hard to produce. This is the first one I’m trying so I hope it’s insightful, especially if you’re a fellow editor who wants to look into how another approaches things.
atharv&vividha ~ tujhse pare main jaoon kahaan?
Ishq Mubarak isn't usually seen as a sad/intense song but after hearing Neha Kakkar's acoustic version I really did hear a different take on it. To me "ae mere dil mubarak ho, yehi toh pyaar hai" was more of a be careful what you wish for sort of line - love is a tumultuous thing. ViTharv's love most certainly was and that's what I aimed to convey.
I was very selective about the voiceovers I used too, I wanted to start off showing how in awe Vividha was of him - "tum aise kaise ho, Atharv?" is one of my favourite dialogues because of the sheer amazement in her voice. I wanted to begin it from her perspective and show the impact he had on her life - he showed her who she was and became so ingrained in her life that for her the world ceased to exist when he left.
I love giving viewers a second's pause to absorb a powerful dialogue before I move on, so to me black dissolves are some of the best tools I can use. "Agar tum nahi ho toh Vividha marjaayegi", pause for a beat, and then go on to show just what Vividha's grief looked like - the first case of ‘be careful what you wish for’. She wished for her life with Atharv, they gave each other everything, so she's almost admonishing herself for allowing herself to feel that much because of the pain she's suffering now. The scene where she sees him from her bedroom window is very poignant so I wanted to emphasise there how he was there despite not physically being there, hence the fade out where he disappeared.
And then starts Atharv's perspective - I used their first meeting here and then went straight into the moment he returns as Atharv Sujata to show that he was trapped back in that time, in those memories, in a time where all that mattered was that they were together.
"Laapata sa miljaoon kahin toh, mujhse bhi mujhe mila de zara".
Sometimes all it takes is one line of a song to want to make you formulate an entire story. For me it was this line that I couldn't get out of my head because it SCREAMED Atharv. "Maine kaha tha na, main laut kar aoonga... aagaya" - I wanted to show a bitter irony here, showing what the promise was and what the reality was but how that was still Vividha's Atharv, just in a way she had never expected. Within that child she saw the man she loved and worked to unshackle him.
The entire ending was where I aimed to really drill home the idea of the harsh realities of their love and the actual love that made it worthwhile to endure that pain. "Ishq mubarak, dard mubarak", indeed.
