Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Rithvik (the host) starts the show and welcomes all. He says that love stories are of different kinds but all of them have a message. Today’s story mirrors double standards and hypocrisy that is prevalent in our society.
The story starts in Narendrapur, West Bengal, 2010. Abhijeet comes to his parent’s home with his friends and he encounters some girls coming to his home and also eyes a girl who is forcibly taken away by a man when she drools to pick her doll as it fell. He introduces his step-mother Pishima to his friends who came with him.
He comes inside the home and the mother informs him of the Mahalya festival. He sees the photo of his biological mother who passed away many years ago. She advises him to always respect women and tells him to meet his father. He hesitantly goes and finds the same girl in his father’s room. His father welcomes him and calls him an advocate as he was studying law in Delhi. The father says that the people in this town – Narendrapur believes him a lot and he asks him why its needed to get a degree and states that people will believe whatever he says to them. He wants wants him to take care of his business. Abhi then inquires about the man and girl that he has seen. The father replies that the man is Lakhan – who is his assistant in land businesses and the girls are daily-wage workers who came from a neighboring village to work at his lands.
Abhi again sees the same girl being forcibly taken away by Lakhan. Sooner, his mother interrupts him and offers sweets. He then asks her about Lakhan and other girls. She becomes hesitant and informs that she is not aware of his father’s land business. Next day, he finds his father harassing the same girl in his room and when he argues, the father replies that as she was stealing so he kept her inside his room. Abhijeet starts to become suspicious and feels something is wrong. He then goes to the room where that girl was locked and finds the girl to be trapped as she was quiet and bruises on her face. He introduces himself and speak about his studies in Delhi.
He wants to speak with her to get answers about her condition. He asks her name and she replies Mishti. He then gives her the doll that he took when it fell some days back from Mishti’s hands. She shares that her mother made the doll and she is very much attached with the doll. He asks why she has been kept here. She tells that she came from a neighboring village and Lakhan took her from her parents after paying money on the pretext of giving her a job in in the farm. And he promised the same to all other girls. But it didn’t turn out in that way, and actually Lakhan is involved in girl trafficking business. She informs him that Lakhan is just an employee and the main person responsible is his father. He asks, Is she mistaken ? (as he cannot believe it). He promises to help and rescue her from this confinement. He then goes to his father and asks him about the girls..The father wants him to stay away from his business. After hearing this, he tells that he came to know about his business of selling girls.
Rithvik (the host): tells that we are hypocritical as at one hand, we treat women as Goddess Durga and on the other hand we exploit them. Sooner, Abhijeet remembers about the girl’s ordeal, his words to father.
Next day, the father goes to Lakhan and inquires whether Abhjieet came to know about the confinement room of Mishti. Lakhan responds that Abhi does not know about it. He then leaves. When his parents are worshiping, he unlocks the room and rescues Mishti and then runs away. He first approaches a policeman and informs about the girl trafficking business being carried out by his father. The policeman suggests him to wait and then goes to makes a call to Abhi’s father. When he sees that, both of them runs away and flee in a bus.
The ticket conductor speaks very casually with them. He the sees some cut and blood oozing out from her foot. She asks where are they going? He replies that he doesn’t know and says that he believed by going to police the matter would be resolved but that’s not the case as his father has lots of financial power. She wants to go far from here. He promises her to rescue from this situation whatever maybe the consequences. He wants to take her to Delhi. She says why he is doing such a big favor ? He says that maybe by doing this, he might be compensating some of his father’s wrongs and then eyes her with love.
Rithvik (the host): When a man knows he is doing right, then he will get courage. As he was becoming protected about Mishti, he was also falling in love with her and for Mishti he was like God send..
He then informs his mother on phone that he ran away with Mishti reminding to her own teachings of respecting women. His mother gives her best wishes to him as he is standing for the truth. Abhi’s father comes and taunts that she knew already and didn’t inform him. She asks him, how selling girls is a landlord business. After hearing this, he says now they need to bore the brunt of his anger and has already sent Lakhan to capture them.
Abhi and Mishti took shelter in some hideout and she gives him Puja’s sweets which she got from a temple. He asks her why did she went to temple alone ? She asks him, Why is he doing and calls him as Babu (sir) ? He tells that he loves her a lot. She becomes shy and then he tries to explain that it is not important now. He also becomes shy and moves away.
They see Lakhan approaching them and they hide themselves from him.. They escapes from Lakhan’s eyes. Mishti eyes him while he spoke with his friends – Sam and others who are working with Kolkata police to dispatch a help team to Narendrapur for protecting the girls. She wants him to take her to Delhi. And at that time, Lakhan comes in to kidnap Mishti, both fight together with Lakhan and sends him away. He confesses his love to her again and both hugs. He gets the news that Kolkata police will help them in reaching Delhi. They share some nice moments and then finds his father to arrive at the same scene with his men in a jeep. The father fires gun shot to warn him.
The father tells that he has damaged his father’s name because of a poor girl. He taunts on sending him to Delhi for studies and then informs that now he is not suitable to be called his son. Abhi responds that the father is right and indeed he is not suitable to be called his son as he was taught to respect women but his father’s business proved otherwise. The father tells that Mishti’s family is very poor and her home is being run with his money. Abhi says he is ashamed of his father and breaks the relationship with him. The father goes ahead to stop him as he was leaving. Abhi informs that Kolkata police has already been sent to rescue the girls from Narendapur (his town).
The father becomes more furious and wants to kill Mishti so as not to leave any evidence or witness. He shoots towards Mishti and Abhi comes as a shield to protect her and in the process gets hit by the bullet. The father comes to him realizing his grave mistake of shooting and laments in vain. Abhi is dying and speaks that mishti is looking beautiful like Goddess Durga. She hugs him and he advices her to complete remaining things and then dies. At that moment, his friends come in with police. Mishti goes to police and records her statement. At the police station, she remembers all the good time that she spent with Abhi..
Rithvik (the host): Abhi fought against the injustice against women at his home. And he won. But, he has lost many things – his life, love mishti. Abhi did everything right as he fought injustice but he remained alone. And he says that its high time and we should be united to fight against injustice. He signs off by saying until next time, keep falling in love.
Images credit: Wikipedia page of Yeh Hai Aashiqui
Full Episode Video:
[youtube id=http://youtu.be/H7it4c0ETo8]
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