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This is the fifth installment in The Prodigal Son analysis series. I would like to apologise for not having posted it last weekend. Better late than never, right?
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"Not the glittering weapon fights the fight, but rather the hero's heart."
My analysis today might disappoint some of you. It's not a scene by scene analysis of Raghav, but an overall character analysis. I've been reflecting over his character and come to the conclusion that maybe I expected too much from the writers once again. You see, in the wake of the past week, I'm concerned for Raghav's character growth in general. I know that everyone's already worked up about a certain precap and the fact that there's an insecurity as to where the show's headed. But I honestly need to get a few things off my chest, because I love Raghav to death and I don't want to see his character sidelined or worse.
In the past two weeks, we have finally seen Raghav become a proactive link/part of the story. He used to be this handsome muscle, sidelined, and now he's actively involved in keeping Sia safe from her abuser. Plus we've seen him use his brain more than once, which is something that I believe we all appreciate in a hero. I've always believed that Raghav is just as much brain as heart. That he's rational and levelheaded and combines the heart with the mind in action. This has been most evident in the past two weeks as we've seen Raghav struggle emotionally with Sia's identity and his knowledge of V while at the same time managing to play a metaphorical game of chess with V, e.g. the "disappearance" of Sia, the deal with Shekhawat, the recording of V's revelation, etc.
That being said, I haven't been feeling that the writers have actually given their one hundred percent into making Raghav powerful enough as a second male lead and, in fact, the hero on the show. Especially in the wake of V's growing insanity and new Joker look. What exactly is it that Raghav does -- if we look into it? Since the recording of the truth, he's been in prison, escaped, and is now hiding from V. He hasn't been able to do much for Sia other than listen to her pain and hide in her room. How exactly is he supposed to match the villain's power when the writers refuse to make him stronger?
It's high time for his transformation. The writers need to work harder on his characteristics to make him seem stronger as a character, firstly. For instance, we know that he's got a thing for halwa and motorcycles. What else do we know about him? Does he eat a lot? What's his opinion on Sia's hair? What are his habits? How does he see himself? Can we have more of him explored? Does he ever feel like he'll never be a good enough son? Why does he need Krish so much? What makes him feel so lonely? Is it because a part of him hates himself? Does he blame himself so much that he doesn't feel that he deserves any happiness? Does he feel that he can redeem himself through Krish? What's his purpose in life?
We are all aware of his anger issue, his love for his family, his honesty and nobility, his kind heart, empathic abilities, sharp mind, etc. But that isn't enough -- especially when he needs to match the power of a villain. I can see all this great potential, but I feel like the writers are holding the character back -- at least for now. I'm not sure if it's on purpose or subconsciously.
What I need to see is that Raghav is given stronger characteristics. For instance, the smirking turned out to be brilliant, something that has now become a trademark of his. When he smirks [not smiles, but smirks], there's an edge to his character, something human about it, provocative about it -- something that tells us that he's a sweet guy, but don't mess with him.
This edge needs to show. Being a good man doesn't mean that you can't have an edge or rawness to your character -- for instance, stop buttoning up his shirt like a good boy and let it remain completely unbuttoned [given that he's wearing his black vest underneath] which will give him a raw, messy appearance. Push his hair back to make him seem more like a man and less like a boy. Give him dialogues that are hard on, powerful, because HC will be able to deliver them flawlessly.
But the very sweetness of the character needs to ease down a bit and give room to strength. He can be an empathic character along with a powerful character.
HC adds his own characteristics to Raghav -- like the hand gestures and the way that he widens/narrows his eyes while expressing/acting, which again brings his character more to life. But I somehow need the writers to work on stronger characteristics for him that adds another kind of charm to his character. Where are they taking the character of Raghav? What do they have planned for him in the future?
You see, there is so much potential when it comes to his character. His world, for one thing, is broad. He has his mother, sister, sister-in-law, nephew, and his best friend. He has Sia, too, of course. Their relationship, for one thing, is going to be one hell of a challenge for both of them.
There is so much to explore. I want to know him inside out. And though I feel like we're getting to know him better now than we did before, I still feel like Raghav isn't explored by the writers themselves at times and that frustrates me. It makes me wonder how he's going to match V's power in the story. It makes me wonder if he's only ever going to be a support to Sia and nothing more -- what about him?And in all this, I get extremely frustrated because I can tell that Raghav's character is capable of so much more, yet the writers refuse to see it. Just his past, for one thing, is one big mystery to all of us. And I wonder how Sia would deal with it too.
There have been some great scenes in which we clearly saw another side of Raghav, a potentially more powerful side of him. When he's punching the bag, furious at V, and V shows up in his room to ask about Sia -- we saw an edge to his character in the way that he shut his eyes and regained calm. It was a dangerous calm. Not a sweet one. We've seen it in the way that the battle between Raghav and V has been a battle of minds rather than physical strength up until now. We've seen an edge to Raghav in the way that he switches from soft to hard, hot to cold, in relation to V. His smooth car move, smirking, use of facial muscles, hand gestures, and body language all has more attitude to it, but it seems to be added by the actor, not the writers to a great extent. I want to know what the writers are doing for the character.
Raghav is the character with all the relationships. Why isn't he made stronger? Why is he made to hide when he should fearless and fierce?
If anything, I feel that it's HC's performance that has managed to convince me of the character's strength rather than the actual sketching of his character. What little spontaneous details that he adds to his character is what has made him come alive for me, made me love him so much.
I just want the writers to open their eyes and see what a fantastic character they have in Raghav and challenge HC as an actor, give him something more to work with, something much more powerful because the actor deserves it -- he can deliver so much yet. And if the writers intend to have a hero who can match up to the villain in character strength and power, then they need to start glorifying Raghav a bit by making him more dominating as a hero, more powerful as a character. For one thing, he has the wealth and social power -- being a Singh and having a gang of his own -- then why are they showing him hiding rather than battling the forces head on?
I'm hoping for some serious character development of Raghav in the upcoming week. And I'm hoping that the writers won't let me down.
Something else that I find necessary to add is that Raghav can easily become an iconic character if given the importance and power as a character. You see, what the writers do is make him too sweet rather than explore his characteristics, add some spice. He's human before anything else. They could easily explore other aspects of his character -- for instance, what happened between him and his brother that caused the accident, made him hate himself and feel responsible for Krish? And how would he react to Gayatri wanting him to become another Dev, taking over the family business, sacrificing his own self in order to become someone he's not? How would it affect him to be married to Sia and have her insecurity and emotional scars drive a wedge between them? His struggle with himself in relation to this is another layer to explore. What about whatever secret Komal's hiding about his brother and how much he knows about it? Does he know anything about Dev or does he know too much?
So much could be explored, so many conflicts could arise between him and the people in his life because he's the kind of man who sacrifices everything, expecting nothing in return -- and at some point that's bound to backlash and hurt him badly. I'm not saying that all this should happen, but I'm trying to convey how there's so much potential in Raghav's character and the writers need to pull their socks up and make him frigging awesomer!
Forgive this one analysis that didn't involve his scene analysis. I will make up for it for sure. But I always write what I think/feel and in the past few days, I've been worried. Thus the highlighting of the abovementioned issues.
Happy weekend!
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