Great Post Shruti. You said it so right. Right or wrong is indeed decided from where you are looking. People can point fingers at her and put all the blame on her, because ultimately she is the bad one. A manipulator, a possible mentally ill person, and maybe a murderer, so its easy to blame her for all what happens. If you look at her as bad and judge all her actions based on that then you will only find fault in her. But if you look with a bigger prospective all around her are bad and manipulators too. But doesn't want to come in front and say yes I did it. They all hide behind Maya and blame her for everything.
Yes, Maya is bad. Her way of doing things are not right. But is she bad in everything. Every person have bad and good in them. Some people have more good and some people have more bad, doesn't mean the people who have more good can't be bad at a given point (such as Ayaan, Vandana, Arjun, Saanjh) and the people who have more bad can't be good at a given point (such as Maya).
Vandana heard Maya's side of story about her childhood (and she said the story infront of Jhanvi and Ashwin), but chose to believe Ashwin, because Maya is bad. She heard Pandit saying Maya and Arjun are made for each other but her love is 'Beyhadh', she can go to any extent for that love. She chose to only believe at the latter part of it, conveniently ignoring the first part, because Maya is bad. And for that she taunted her day and night and insulted her at any given point. Ayaan heard Arjun's side of story and went ahead with punishing Maya, because Maya is bad. Nobody wants to hear Maya's side of story as to why she did what she did. Yes, Arjun is suffocated in his marriage, but what is the reason behind this suffocation. What did he do? Did he ever try to find a solution to the problem in his marriage or just want to leave like that? Yes, Maya did separate Saanjh from Arjun by manipulating Suman. But what was the reason behind Maya doing all this? Did Saanjh or Arjun ever thought that their 'Beyhadh' friendship can disturb a wife. No, Maya should not talk to them about being uncomfortable, because if she is trying to come to term with their friendship and letting them be, they should also understand and limit their friendship. Its a give and take thing. If one person is trying to be understanding and tolerating, the other should not push them to the edge but try limit themselves too. Its pretty easy to put the blame on one person for the broken relationship, but in any relationship, their are two people involved and its the responsibility of both of them to work together and maintain a healthy relationship.
Coming to the episode, as per my POV what Maya did to Arjun is domestic violence and cannot be justified. Drugging your spouse, tying them up is wrong in all senses. If your spouse doesn't want to be with you, then you cannot force them to be with you. Arjun has all the rights to go to the police and press charges against her. BUT, the punishment should come through proper channels and not by physical assault, or threatened rape. Ayaan has NO right to barge into Maya's house and manhandle her, threaten her of rape and Sexually assault her. Even if he wanted to take his brother back, that need to be done through proper channels and not by barging into someone's house. Ayaan didn't know Arjun was drugged. As per his knowledge Arjun came with Maya on his own will. He could have waited till morning for Arjun to call him or to come back home and even for him to get sober and think straight. It was not like Arjun was in some kind of life-threatening situation. He was living with Maya for 3 years, what will one more night do? Okay, his brotherly instinct didn't let him wait. You have a lawyer friend right there with you. Take her with you to the police station. Make a complaint and come to someone's house with the Police. But Ayaan's intentions were not just to take Arjun back but to punish Maya in his ways. That's why he, even before seeing Arjun tide up and locked, or even before Maya refusing him to meet his brother, said that he'll do something today that Maya won't be able to show her face to anyone. If his intentions were only to take Arjun back, he could have said I'll bring my brother back at any cost today, but his intentions were to punish Maya in HIS way.
I don't buy the "I was searching for keys" theory. The moment he entered Maya's house, he started manhandling her. Yes, Maya locked the room and she very well knew Ayaan is following the ambulance and would come to her house any moment. As per my POV, She might have thought that she'll lock Arjun up and mislead Ayaan that Arjun is not in the house. Maximum what she expected was Ayaan threatening her with consequences or physically assaulting her. She didn't know what all Arjun told Ayaan. She knew Ayaan can be manipulated as per her pre-leap experience and she being a master manipulator was ready with her manipulation skills. That's why the dialogue,"Samajhdar dikhte ho, par ho nahi" came. Because she thought that Ayaan can act all smart, but she can manipulate him and keep him from meeting Arjun. But Ayaan had different intentions. The first sign of worry appeared on Maya's face when Ayaan said, "Aaj main kuch aisa kar dunga ki ntum apni aankh uthakar bhi nahi dekh paogi." She did threaten him with Police before this dialogue, but didn't call. It was after the dialogue that she got scared and felt that things are going out of her hand and at that time might have called the police to press charges against Ayaan for trespassing in her house and threatening her. There was a gap when Ayaan reached Arjun's room, found it locked and peeked in through the keyhole to see Arjun inside (I don't think he saw him tide up as from a key-hole you can only see a little). Maya came after Ayaan was able to do all these things and I guess that's the time when she called the Police (she is a VIP, if she had called the Police before Ayaan arrived, they might have come by the time Ayaan had opened Jhanvi's door, after all she can't tell the Police to delay their coming, right?). By that time Ayaan had already found out that Arjun was in the room and was trying to open the door. She came in between to restrict him from reaching out to the door and opening it. He asked for the keys and she said she'll die but won't give him the. There changes Ayaan's expressions and he says that he'll do something which will be more than dying for her. And her expressions changes to horror understanding what he meant. He pushes her and she covers her chest with her hands out of scare. She never took the key in her hand or hid it in her dress and the key was not in her hand either. If you watch clearly when Ayaan was pointing out to her up and down in a disgusting manner her left hand was up in the air open and her right hand was on the wall, and then she covered herself with her hands. Then how can Ayaan get the idea that she hid it under her dress. Yes the scene after that had no keys on the table and before that the key was seen on the table but I think that its the camera angle or a CV glitch. The reason why I am saying this is because when you see Ayaan reaching Arjun's room the first time (before opening Jhanvi's room) and Maya comes right behind him at that time the camera angle is almost the same as this scene and in that scene (around 4 mins in the episode) also the key was not there on the table only the Vase was there. In this scene when Maya comes after Ayaan finds Arjun in the room, she can clearly be seen passing by the table and the key was still there on the table so she did not take it at that time either. Ayaan tore her sleeve intentionally and not just to stop her from escaping because she did stop when he tore her sleeve for a moment and he didn't make a move to grab her or stop her from escaping. That means he wasn't trying to stop her but intentionally was tearing her clothes to intimidate her sexually. When she was running through the corridor and came in the Living Area that time also her both hands went up and were opened and the key was not there in her hand. Ayaan's intention was never to find the key but to sexually intimidate her (if not rape her). He didn't fell on her but was intentionally pinning her down and biting her neck, when Samay came and pulled him up. She did throw a piece of broken Vase maybe on Ayaan to save herself but it missed the target.
Maybe Ayaan was shocked of attempt to rape allegations because he wasn't intending to rape her but only sexually intimidate her, which in his eyes is a rightful punishment for 'Women like her'. But not only Maya, but any other girl would comprehend it as an attempted rape. What Ayaan did (even if not intended to rape her) is punishable and cannot be justified in any way.
Cricket
Udne Ki Aasha
Veer Hanuman
Anupamaa
