Wow!! Amazing discussions everyone! Who knew that this kind of episode, essentially an episode with frustration and strife could prompt such great discussions, perhaps more so than an episode in which there is nothing but mushy Ram/Priya-ness 😆
I wish I could respond in detail to each of your posts but I fear for my poor fingers - they will probably fall off from exhaustion if I dared write detailed analyses to all your posts 😆 so let me just do a summary analysis post instead:
@Mahi - love your post and your point about Ayesha's character being consistent since inception. After my initial post I went back and realised that even from day one - episode 1/2 - Ayesha had the view that she wanted to marry rich and marry big; she wasn't interested in a modelling career like her mother was. It was simply a means to an end - she wants a life of luxury, where she does not have to work if she does not want to. I liked that they kept that aspect of her consistent.
Ayesha & Priya's give-and-take is so sweet to watch. Both are willing to do anything for the other and it is obvious that Ayesha views Priya as a parent more than just as a sister. They have the sisterly bonding and nok-jhok, but their relationship is much deeper than that. I feel that Ayesha would be more likely to express her secrets and desires to Priya than to her own mother.
It is very interesting to note that no one (except Shipra) is on board with the idea of Ayesha's marriage until Priya says so. She convinces Karthik and Sudhir. Definitely she is the de facto head of the house, as Mahi said. It is equally interesting to note the contrast with Ram - he is the effectual "man of the family", but he only controls the purse-strings. He is the ATM, as Vikram and others on the forum have noted. He cannot control the family in any other way - he has to bow to Nuts' decision, he has to bow to Niharika's decision for his marriage.
Perhaps this is what he chooses to do, but in many ways and in many episodes I have felt that Ram is the "girl" in the show. Not feminine or ineffectual or anything derogatory like that. Simply put - in EK serials there is a "type": the girl is mahaan, self-sacrificing, snobbish with outsiders but too subservient with her family, giving in to family pressures just to appease. She is always conscious of doing what her family wants to please them, and often to her own detriment. The man, on the other hand, is the outspoken one, the one who fights his corner, who refuses to do certain things - not necessarily someone who loves his family any less but who is more receptive to their flaws. He is the head of the family.
Here, it seems that the roles have reversed - Priya is the "man" and Ram is the "girl" trying to please everyone.
@Nish - that's exactly what I said about the roka! 😆 These people have had a busy week for sure. I don't think being middle class is shameful for her, but it is also not above the bounds of reality to want to aspire to be above that. For all her double MAs, Priya is still stuck in middle class-dom. She might be happy there, and that is all well and good, but for Ayesha and so many others like her, there is this sense of "is this all there is? is this what my life amounts to?" Her ambition is different to Priya's but no less valid. I find it difficult to condemn her for this especially since she has so many other positive attributes. If she was the kind of man-chaser who hung out at Page 3 parties specifically to trap rich men, I would have a different opinion of her. Compare Ayesha with that girl who Ram went out with on a blind date - who comes off as better? Ayesha, right? Because she is not blatantly trying to trap a man into marriage by saying what she thinks he will want. Rather, she is capitalising on an offer (she thinks) is made to her.
@Pallo - 🤗 totally agree on your points. I too don't like the unnecessary twist that EK has brought about, but it has allowed for a natural set of reactions and has progressed certain characters' personalities and stories a little further. So in that respect, I can live with it. If it were the kind of twist in which all characters behaved exactly as we would all expect, as mindless stereotypes saying and doing the same things as if by rote, then I would hate it even more.
@maris - 🤗 On your point:
I feel Sudhir is the one who is yet to realise that his inertia is basically what has led to his family behave like this.
Totally agree. Sudhir is the least evolved of all the characters in this family and I still don't understand his motives or his thought processes. With the others, you can see where they are coming from even if you don't agree with him; with Spineless Sudhir, I feel like he just reads from a script sheet and walks about with his eyes closed. What does he think? Why didn't he say anything about Ayesha's decision? Why did he leave Priya to do all the objecting, the opposing, the accepting?! Does he have no feelings about his younger daughter?! More and more this guy is reminding me of Mr Bennett - except that Mr B, for all his inertia, manages to be as caustic and pessimistic as possible about his younger children.
@Aviva - I did observe that Sudhir's outburst was limited to telling Shipra to shut up, not to tell his elder daughter to mind her manners around her mother. No matter how right I might be and how wrong my mother might be, if I speak to her in an out of line way, my father will at least tell me off for that much. He will tell me to mind my manners.
And living in the Elizabethan era is no requirement any more for such types of marriages. You yourself point out the case of Anna Nicole Smith, and I would point to the Playboy Bunnies who hover around an 80-year old, wrinkly Hugh Heffner. They are not interested in him and his charms, surely? It is solely his money. Toh of course this kind of thing happens today and probably more so than in the Elizabethan era. In those days, marriage was a business and for a woman there was not much other choice - marry for money, or marry a poor man and be unhappy and uncomfortable for the rest of your life, or become a governess and remain a spinster forever. These days marrying for love has become the ideal, but there are still those women who would prefer to be financially secure than to have a loving husband. As someone said rightly, poverty can chase away the strongest of loves.
I really hope Ayesha does NOT turn evil and does NOT marry into the Kapoor clan; I have been pleasantly surprised by her until now and I would hope to continue being so. I would rather that she accept the truth with grace and dignity - there is no kami of wealthy men out there and if that truly is her ideal, then she can search for it till her heart is content. And maybe, just maybe, after seeing Ram and Priya's (hopefully) happy marriage, and after growing up a little (she is only 22 after all) she may change her thoughts and start appreciating love in a marriage or life partner.
@Sweta - agree with you that if we keep EK's propensity and sadism for evil sisters aside, everything about this has been out in the open and Ayesha should not have a problem with Priya once she and Ram get married. She should in fact be angry at Shipra for misinterpreting the situation and causing such a ruckus, but she has seen that Priya has no ulterior motive for refusing Ayesha-Ram's alliance other than her love for Ayesha. So, fingers crossed, this logic will prevail and she won't turn into a Piya of Kasamh Se as others have suggested.
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