Ring ring! Zara groaned as she awoke, the book she had been reading sliding off her bed onto the ground as she reached to switch off the alarm that went off on her phone. “It's time for Abbu's (dad's) medicine…” she murmured to herself. “Abbu is ill?!” A perplexed Ayesha, keeping vigil at Zara’s bedside, jumped up in concern. “My abbu!” "That's what I said, my abbu?” “Ayeshu's mum's abbu!” “Is Nana (maternal grandad) ill?” “No, Nana is Ayeshu's mum's abba not abbu!” “So just say Dada (paternal grandad), what's all this abbu-abba business?” She rested her hands on her hips, a frown on her face that mirrored the one Zara gave her whenever she was telling her off. “Why do you always make a mountain out of a molehill mum?” Zara gasped at the audacity of her daughter and pretended to lunge at her, with Ayesha quickly ducking out of the way and reaching for the bell on the bedside table. She rang it with all her might, blocking Zara from taking it from her. “Abbu, abbu, abbu!”

Seconds later, Kabeer skidded to a halt in front of the door, a plate in hand. “Has the baby arrived?!” He managed between gasps for breath. Zara stifled a giggle at his dishevelled state, the messy chef’s hat and wide eyes on his flour-filled face made him quite the picture. As she approached the final days of her pregnancy she was, upon Kabeer’s insistence, confined to bed rest. He’d provided her with a bell to inform him of anything she needed, a tool Ayesha enjoyed abusing. “No, mum wants chocolate milk.” She skipped towards him to examine the plate. “Dad, its been so long, and you've only made 2 pancakes?” She reached for the plate and Kabeer snatched it from her hands. “Nope, these are for your mum. And aren't you being a bit too cheeky these days, Ayesha Kabeer Ahmed?” “Hey, hey, hey!” Kabeer looked up to see Zara protesting. “Kabeer, I've had a thought. Why don't we give our new baby the surname Kabeer Ahmed Siddiqui? Coming to think of it, why didn't we give Ayeshu that surname too? 3 of her names are from you and not even one is from me!” She pouted. Kabeer looked at Zara in disbelief, her tendency to divert the topic to something entirely unrelated to the discussion at hand had only increased during her pregnancy. “Zara,” he began, walking towards her and placing the plate on the bedside table, “where did this thought suddenly come from?” Zara huffed and stuck her hand out. “I want my share of names, promise me.” “This share business-” “Kabeer I told you-” “Yes Zara, but-” He was suddenly interrupted with a piercing ring of the bell right beside his ear. “Uff, both of you fight like children! God!” Ayesha huffed. “Aunty Zeenu will make chocolate milk... for mum.” She continued, shifting her eyes between her parents. “Yes yes, go and get some for your mum.” Kabeer smirked knowingly. “And I have to inform her about Abbu's medicine...” “My medicine?” Ayesha flashed Zara an ‘I told you so’ look and Zara made a face back as Ayesha skipped out of the room. “Aunty Zeenu!”

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.