Oh, so all these indirect references are sufficient to accord Santu the place of DM's wife? The guy is still talking to the portrait of his dead wife and going around saying no one can take her place. Correcting her bindi and putting ointment shows he has accepted her as his wife? It was so pathetic to see that the poor girl is so starved for attention that she had to put her bindi crooked to get his attention. Hiten need not be privy to DM-Santu's relationship. Everyone in the house know what relationship he has with her. After all he still calls her chokri, like some indulgent elder. As of now DM-Santu do not share the relationship of a husband and wife. By that I am not referring to just a physical relationship. Even otherwise, do we see him involve her in family decisions unless he is forced to by her own actions? A simple case of giving jewellery to Khemi, he had involved Hiten and not his chokri and created so much confusion.
No, they are not enough but they are a step in the right direction - that is what the premise of this story is - how Santo win's over all the members of her husbands family as well as her husband, all the other characters and tracks are secondary and a means to move DM-Santo story forward. If DM had fully given her the place of his wife, the show would be long over. They are showing how Santo is winning over everyone in the family one-by-one. My point was that DM is no longer treating Santo as an outsider, almost like a servant which he used to at the beginning. He has slowly started warming up to her and accepting her as his wife and when he fully accepts her, the show will be over. DM-Santo story is not a flash-in-the-pan kind of love story.