Posted:
Tonight's feedback is brutally honest. Ye be warned.
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I am immensely disappointed in the writers, the director, and whoever else can be held responsible for the execution of tonight's episode. Toward the end of it, I was left with the following thought: "The creatives have no clue where they're headed. They're lost."
I'll be nice and start with the pros. I'll be honest and admit that, to me, there were only two pros.
1) Raghav-Gayatri's moment in her bedroom
2) Gayatri watching the childhood video of her two sons and shutting it off right as they started fighting [symbolic?]
I apologise in advance if anything in the following feedback seems rude. Not my intention at all. I just have a lot to say and not enough patience to wrap it in wool for sensitive ears.
Cons:
1) What are they doing to Viraj Dobriyal?
I have always enjoyed KVB's performance as V. But in recent episodes, I have been just about fed up with the dual image, the schizophrenic touches, the alter ego explanation -- I've got one question: Where the hell is the Viraj Dobriyal who walked around confidently with his skull-stick, conversed with himself [not his dual image], tended to be immensely scary in mannerism, and whose character related to the theme of the show -- which was domestic violence. Because all I see is the same V in dissimilar shirts, or dissimiliar hair style, who's trying desperately to hold my attention -- and failing.
Changing his hair doesn't make him distingushable from the original V. Having him sitting on the roof of a car or locked in the trunk doesn't make him frightening at all -- maybe the director should've considered shooting those scenes at night rather than broad daylight.
The bright, colorful shirts, V's calm mannerism is repetitive and boring to say the least. If the writers don't know where they're headed with the story, at least cease with the constant psychological drama and just show him as he is! Viraj Dobriyal has always been Viraj Dobriyal, rich, charming, cruel, confident, manipulative! This Version 2.0 is more like a Version 0.0 to me. The old Viraj was at least intriguing to watch.
2) Sia ka mahaan mission and her superpower
Being everywhere at the same time -- that's definitely a superpower. And an annoying one.
Gosh, what the hell is going with her? For a victim of domestic violence, she sure has a lot of energy and consideration for the entire world's woes. I mean, come on! They keep showing her as this self-sacrificing mahaan Indian TV heroine who's the reason that the hero mends his relationship to his mother. Forget the fact that she's so damaged herself that she turns into a nervous train wreck whenever someone says VIRAJ.
However mahaan they were trying to show her throughout the episode, she ended up appearing annoyingly nosy! Lurking outside every room, stalking the Singh family members, listening in on their conversations, etc. etc. etc.
Instead of showing her fighting Raghav's battles, they should've shown her fighting her own, for crying out loud. She must have issues, like a million issues herself. Fear, anger, confusion, hatred, SOMETHING. Worries for her family's safety now that Viraj is going back. Worries for Taashu's safety since she's travelling with him. Worries for herself since Viraj might one day get his memory back and then hunt her down again!
Instead she's prancing around in her pretty clothes and makeup, playing matchmaker between Raghav and his mother! I swear 🤢🤢 This only confirms my suspicions that the writers have no CLUE as to how a victim of domestic violence deals, how she is around people just weeks after escaping the torture -- most of all, they have no clue HOW to shape her personality!
God help me.
3) Raghav crying all the time
Um, out of frigging character. Raghav was sketched as a strong hero with issues, yes. He started out as someone who had trouble expressing himself, was diconnected from people around him, etc. Now they've turned him into an emotional wreck who cries in every scene. I mean, W*F? Butchering his character already? Huh. At least writers take more than two months to do that to a character.
Honestly, I'm tired of him being emotionally weak and needing Sia to make his decisions for him. Please. Take Sia and place her in another room when Raghav is deciding whether or not to talk to his mother, when he's walking to her room, when he's entering her room, and ESPECIALLY when he's having an emotional and PRIVATE conversation with his mother in her room!
Raghav wasn't this expressive to start with. He concealed his pain and tears from the world. They should've shown him deciding to confront his mother privately after the drama in the hall and then upon entering her room, get all nervous and emotional. Most importantly, they should've shown him having that conversation with her ALONE. No Sia to pat his back like a good boy and tell him shabaash!
They have weakened him, and I'm disliking it.
This guy, this emotional guy who needs Sia to push him to do everything [even though just weeks back HE was the one pushing her to do everything], is going to battle the evil that is Viraj Dobriyal? I say good luck to the writers on executing that with conviction.
4) The RaghaVi dream sequences
Yes, they have amazing chemistry. But please. If this was V's nightmare, Raghav would not have been romancing Sia with candlelight dinner and breakfast on bed. He would've been romancing her by dragging her to her feet macho-style and dancing with her the way Viraj did on their second suhaag raat right before she ran away.
The thing is that, according to Viraj, a real man is what he is. The way he acts around Jahnvi. He would've transferred that to Raghav in his nightmare, seeing him do all the things the way Viraj liked to do them with Jahnvi and being furious about someone other than him touching her his way. So, Raghav's approach should've been aggressive, bordering on violent -- not gushy softness and rose petals. Those were always decorative objects in Viraj's established scenes. Right before he'd force himself on Jahnvi.
I wouldn't have liked to see Raghav being a hard lover like Viraj -- but I'm talking about logic in relation to the characters. Those dream sequences made no sense if they were meant to be Viraj's nightmares on Raghav overthrowing him and taking over Jahnvi.
5) No progress
There is no progress in terms of character development. Raghav-Gayatri scenes show progress. Raghav-Krish scenes are always dynamic. But everything else, every other character including Raghav is stuck! V is always mellow, talking to his dual self, plotting plotting plotting in his peach/pink/blue/yellow/red frigging sunshiny shirts. Sia is always drifting left right left right, watering bushes, patting Krish on the head, patting Raghav on the head, telling Komal how hard she'll try to fix the whole world, but oh wait, forget about how she's soul-broken herself due to rape and trauma. Don't even get me started on how I almost gagged when Komal applauded Sia for trying to help rather than tell her to back off their personal matters and stop spying! And Raghav's always crying.
Having watched tonight's episode, I'm disappointed. Frustrated. And I think that what the CVs are doing right now is dragging this story because they have NO clue what they're doing. And while they're dragging, they're also digging their own graves with V's character bloopers, Jahnvi's character bloopers, and now even Raghav's character bloopers.
Whatever. I needed to vent about this and I did. Sorry, guys. No fantastically positive post tonight with any insight. Just straightforward feedback.
Book Talk
Anupamaa
