Madhubala Memoir:
Ek Ishq Ek Junoon - The Turbulent Journey Of a Madhubala Fan
My journey with Madhubala Ek Ishq Ek Junoon actually started on March 20, 2009, nearly four and half years prior to the first episode of Madhubala. That date will live in infamy in my heart; the day my heart was shattered completely. Needless to say after that I was depressed for nearly a year. Lighting does strike twice and YouTube is your friend is a good tip for any true fangirl. After my utter heartbreak I had made a firm decision to love another TV couple again, never to give another couple the power to break my heart. My Lee and Kara will forever be my one true ship but in their grief as I was browsing YouTube, I ran into a video of Khushi at Payal and Aakash's sangeet from Iss Pyar Ko Kya Naam Doon. It peeked my interest so I watched a few more scenes including the forced wedding. These two reminded me a little of my Lee and Kara so I binge watched the show. It was a great watch; I wasn't addicted or as emotionally invested as my previous show. IPK ended horribly; it was a quick ending and the story suffered because of it. About two months before the end of IPK, I had already started to lose interest so again I was back on YouTube was some old scenes when the very clever YouTube suggested a SBS segment video, of course curiosity always kills the cat so I watched it. It was a SBS segment headlined "Madhu carries RK in a cart to the hospital." It was a segment post RK's shooting when Madhu and family are taking him to the hospital. I googled more videos from the show and watched some Rishbala scene. Thus began my journey with Madhubala, it started with sleepless nights and ended with sleepless nights. By the time the show reached the pre lake scene episodes post RK's shooting; I had already caught up with the full series. Along with bingeing the episodes, I was also scouring the internet for fanfiction. I was a troll on myeduniya.com and there I found a poster who used her Mami Bonds voice from IPK to post episode thoughts on MB. I eventually found the courage to comment and a few posts later we were regularly conversing. Within a week both of us had realized we were either completing each other's thoughts or posting identical comments at the same time. I HAD FOUND MY BRAIN TWIN. I had found Tainar. There are many tales of our adventure but that will be for another day.
MeD became my second home. I lived on the MB forum there discussing the show and finding all these hidden clues from the episode. I remember the uproar when the unwedding promo came out. God I remember coming up with every valid reason I could think of to justify RK's actions in that promo; anything to prove that he wasn't actually unmarrying her. Sadly as we all know that wasn't the case but having the groups of fangirls around for support help pass those first few days and weeks post the unwedding. Then came Bhai. We had so much fun coming up with interesting names for him after the first month or so of his entry. I guess the slow demise of MB began with bhai. It took all the fans nearly 6 months to get rid of him. I remember millions of posts on India Forums asking when his last day was almost every day. But in between it all we got the most beautiful wedding ever on Indian television. I was hoping RK would own up to his mistakes and the boy did so in his own style in front the press and it just made me love him more. During the bhai time, I joined the MB fans on twitter for some bhai bashing. I will admit that I bashed Avinesh Rekhi too; looking back now it wasn't the classiest move on my part. Bhai's death came when I was on vacation and I rejoiced with my Brain Twin who was giving me constant updates.
The bhai track as we all know was the beginning of the downfall of our beloved show but the real destruction started with Pabho. They destroyed all the good social messages that they had passed onto its viewers since the beginning of the show. If what Pabho was preaching wasn't bad enough then they added insult to our injury by adding Ria. Thankfully after Bhai, fans had learned not to take crap from Rangeela; Ria came and went quickly and there was no Ria knocked up by RK drama. Then came the adorable KRK and the blow that broke our hearts. KRK track was still in progress when I left for a month long trip abroad with minimal internet access. About two weeks before my return my Brain Twin who had been keeping me up to date on the happening of MB informs me that Vivian was leaving the show because of the leap. If that blow wasn't bad enough then I learned there would a 20 years and they will kill Rishbala. To say I was heartbroken would be an understatement and I couldn't rely on the support of the other fangirls being so far away. I finally got back the Saturday before the final episode, I still haven't gathered the nerve to watch Rishbala's final episode. Like all the fans I too felt the show wasn't the same since Vivian left; it wasn't Madhubala unless it was with DVD and RK & Madhu. By the time Friday rolled around 3 days after Rishbala's untimely & wrongful death; my Brain Twin and I came up with a campaign to bring the show back to its original glory. Before the weekend was over we had a petition on petitionbuzz.com; hashtag for twitter all set to go. The petition gave the creative a great way out of the mess they had created and the hole they had dug for themselves. After day and night of campaigning for nearly 3 months, thinking only about campaigning and making it successful and convincing fangirls to join the twitter campaign; let's just say we lived and breathed the campaign. But finally we got the news we wanted; VD was coming back. Finally we were going to put the band back together. The Brain Twin and I collectively breathed a sigh of relief; we could finally rest.
Raju was adorable as hell and the scenes between him and Junior Madhu were a treat to watch. Then another good news, GU was leaving but that good news bought a whole lot of bad news with it; the gawars. Initially their stay was to be limited yet they never left and the story was butchered left right and center. Among all this drama on the show, Colors had completely started to ignore MB so there was another petition, hashtag and twitter campaign to get promotions and regular promos. We did get one promo after that campaign. Then they turned our hero into a villain, they made him a rapist. I was livid after watching that episode and I expressed my anger to Abhinav Shukla and company. Majority of the fans were turned off by this track and left the show permanently and those few who stuck around were disappointed day in and day out. There were a few who were told repeatedly not to express our hate for this track because it will off air the show because the rumors were already swirling. I refused to listen because no matter what even if it is a show, to put that type of message out in a country that has yet to realize the horrible treatment of its female citizens. In a country where Hindus revere women, Islam and Christians praises them women are treated as objects; I refused to stay quiet when once in this very show we saw Madhu stand up for her mother who was abused. For my outspokenness to such a sensitive issue I was told I was the reason the show was going off air. I so wish I had that type of power because if I did I would get them to listen to my track ideas that wouldn't have landed us in this mess in the first place. Heck if they had listened to the fans at all, they wouldn't have killed off Rishbala.
Amidst all of it, the final date of July 12th was announced, honestly a part of me glad because I couldn't bear to watch them destroy what I loved so dearly but I'm a Jungali Billi and fighting is in my nature. So again my Brain Twin and I came up with a petition, hashtag and twitter campaign to save MEIEJ. The campaign and the hard work of the few in the fandom bore fruit and we got a one month extension. MEIEJ was finally taken away from us on August 9th 2014 but not before it ruined and tainted all of our good memories of the show. We had begged for them to give us Rishbala, let their daughter know of them and their story; they did but the couple we met and the couple we had known till February 2014 were completely different. They completely manage to butcher RK and Madhu's characterization in that one episode and the way they destroyed the timeline even the media noticed and spoke of it. MB ended on the worst note it could possibly end on, it just left a bad taste in my mouth; the treatment we as fans received from all those involved with the show was utter callousness, ignorance and indifference for our feelings and opinions. Funnily though the heart doesn't know when to let go so another campaign for Season 2 of MB was launched a week after the final episode.
This show will always have a special place in my heart because it introduced me to my Brain Twin and it gave me Rishbala, for that alone it has a special place in my heart. This show gave me my passion to write back. I began writing stories for Rishbala; it felt so good to write again after a decade or so. Heck, I even learned to make edits; granted neither my writing nor my edits are as awesome as some of the other artists and writers in this fandom but they aren't half bad either. As much I have gained from this show; its fandom has disappointed me in a crucial way. In my prior fandoms even if people shipped for different couple like RK & Madhu or Madhu & Sultan; there was always unity. It breaks my heart to say this but this fandom lacks that in spades. This was never a fandom but a onedom; either you were Team VD or Team DD and god forbid someone like me who was a DVDian was constantly beat up in the middle. I wish we had more of a unit because if we had we would have been able to see a lot more of the golden era again in Madhubala. I feel like my journey with MB parallels the journey of Rishbala with its ups and downs and the heart breaks and the moments that just makes your heart soar nevertheless it's been a hell of a journey. In the words of Madhubala Rishabh Kundra we were destined to meet & nothing was going to stop that.
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