I read the written update and my mental thought process was literally, "A lookalike? THAT'S why he was kidnapped!? ARE YOU SH***ING ME!?!?" 🤢 I told my mum about the track on the phone (she is no longer watching the serial), and she thought she'd misheard me when I said the word 'lookalike'. Then she realised she hadn't and was like, "NO... REALLY!?!". I mean, seriously, a serial like Balika Vadhu does not need to resort to this cheap nonsense. Why don't the CVs get their thinking caps on and cook up a track with some meat and a real social message like they did before?
If they wanted to cement the idea that Anandi is now fully Mrs. Shekhar and will support her husband through thick and thin, there are billions of other more realistic scenarios they could have used to show that. Plus the whole thing they tagged on at the end about how Kashmir is actually pretty safe and just has a bad reputation made me think that they must have read the comments on this forum and decided to include that in their dialogues at the last minute. I mean, showing a kidnapping in a place that's known to be volatile, even if you then show the said kidnapping to have all been a big misunderstanding, isn't generally the best way to show that a place is safe. NOT having a kidnapping track in Kashmir at all would have been a far better way of going about that. If they wanted to have Shiv be kidnapped at some point in the story, they could have waited until after the honeymoon and then have him be kidnapped in Udaipur by Heth Singh's goons or something. At least Heth Singh has a reason to dislike Shiv and Anandi that's reasonably credible and doesn't necessitate the creation of an obviously Photoshopped Shiv lookalike who looks like a cross between one of Gabbar Singh's henchmen and Edward Cullen. ARGH.
Some part of me is STILL in denial about how far this serial has fallen and still wishes to watch and enjoy it, plus I read in the comments on the written update that Toral acted well in this episode... so against my better judgement, I tried to watch it. I sincerely wish I hadn't. I felt like I was watching some third-rate serial... something worse than anything made by Kekta, because at least in Kekta soaps, ridiculous though they may be in terms of plot, are generally successful at forging a base level emotional connection with the audience. Here, even that was not happening (and believe me, I literally bent over backwards trying to be open-minded while watching the episode). It all felt so unreal. I didn't for a second believe in the situation, or believe in the gravity of it. I didn't feel Anandi's pain or desperation. There was no marriage between Toral's facial expressions and the background music. I agree with the member who said that her expressions are the same whether she's dealing with a spoiled cake or a missing husband...
Sigh. Sorry for the very negative post. I just am still struggling to believe that this is the show I used to love and which never failed to stir up emotions in my heart. Now it's just... plastic, artificial and unconvincing. Ugh. And I am clearly extremely thick-skinned, because despite this whole rant and my thorough dislike of Toral's acting, I am STILL holding out hope that things will eventually improve and that they will show SOMETHING that's relevant and interesting and engaging and sensible...