While on the surface DEK may appear to be a story about Moniya's transformation into Manyata, it really is soo much more than that.
It's asking and addressing the big questions on a daily basis. Questions like nature vs. nurture, like destiny vs. free will and most importantly good vs. evil.
It's a grey show that constantly pushes us to re-evaluate our own opinions through the struggles of it's characters – none of which, I might add, are good or bad.
It's delightful and surprising. Surprising because for the first time since the show began I am honestly developing an interest in Akash's character.
That's right. Akash. The bland goody-two-shoes Akash who is simple, honest, hardworking, supportive, trustworthy, and an overall good guy.
Suddenly he isn't that bland and that 'perfect' anymore. Suddenly he is acting out of character and strange. Suddenly he has gotten an edge, is rude, arrogant even and worst still it's all undeserving. Where he should be shame-faced and concerned, he is taunting and smug.
He changed drastically and overnight, it seems. Here's my take on the why/how?
"Us vs. Them"
This side of Akash is solely due to M (I'll refer to her as M as she is on her way to becoming Manyata but Akash loves Moniya – its complicated!). M has led Akash to believe he is the only one who knows her, the only one who gets her, and most importantly that it is them against the world - especially her Royal family and calling.
He has always come across as being sanskari and well-mannered. No wonder then that it was odd that he didn't come clean about his intentions the moment he was caught in M's room, however it could be because he felt cornered and at a disadvantage. It could also be because of his inexperience with a situation such as the one he was caught in. Maybe he felt that whatever he said then would be only taken negatively. I mean let's be honest - M hasn't really painted a pleasant picture of the palace for him and he did hear J be rude to her while he was hiding in the room.
Also, I don't think Akash has fully accepted M's family yet, just as she hasn't. That is a big hindrance. In fact, he hasn't accepted much of anything of M's. He still believe her to be the same girl who lives in the chawl but now has more restrictions and rules placed on her. When has M ever acted like a Rajkumari for him to realize/think or believe it?
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Power. Such a foreign concept for someone like Akash isn't it? Akash who is a common man's hero, an ambitious middle-class boy, an obedient son and an everyday lover. But suddenly, overnight it seems, Akash is different.
He is the messiah of the middle-class man.
His confidence, his attitude, the change in his body language – it all belongs to Akash - the common man's "hero". A middle class man who is being denied his rights by the rich and powerful Royals.
He is the embodiment of every helpless man that's caught in a corrupt system that bows to power and money. One who knows he has the support of the masses. Thanks to the media and the dharnas, Akash just got his first taste of power. Of course he is going to be high on it; of course he is going to act arrogant.
And then there's the "lover". Akash is rude, snarky and dancing to a whole new tune when UV comes to talk to him. Here, he is the lover. A lover who knows he has that one thing, the only thing, that M has promised Akash he'll always have. The one thing which UV craves and won't get.
Not to mention, it was M who has time and again given Akash the confidence that he has a number of qualities that UV will never have. What sadly both M and Akash don't realise is that if they just looked past the sheen of wealth and power, UV seems to embody those very qualities to the T.
Now add this to the little taste of power Akash has already gotten, and it is no wonder at all that he views himself on the same grounds as UV. UV with his blue blood and Akash with his support from blue collared masses.
This is why Akash didn't show any concern for M in front of UV. Because he wanted to come across as an able opponent. He didn't want to cave in and expose his weakness – M.
All in all, Akash is growing up in his own way just as UV and M are doing. I think just as the birthday party was a setup to awaken emotions in a stoic UV, so too the prison episode will serve as a wakeup call for Akash.
Now that he is ripped of his nave view of society, it remains to be seen if he will go from a man who follows the rules and respects the system into a man who makes his own and runs the system.
On the other hand he can also go turn into a obsessive psychotic lover who's only aim in life would be to get M by all means possible.
Whichever way he chooses to go, as I have said time and again, it will all be circumstantial.
Sorry it got so long. This came about after a lot of obsessing over DEK and Reeha's post. Do let me know what you think.
