Originally posted by: indranigupta
Coming late into this discussion... my apologies.
I have a different understanding of the show. For me it had a story but it doesn't know how to tell it. Problem lies in the way the writer and director have tried to use gimmicks to tell a story of love, friendship and betrayal. Had they stuck with the rendition of feelings in its minimalistic aspect or what we call subtlety...the show would have been able to rise above the mundane.
The makers tried to include lots of nonsense stuff which apart from its illogical strain was also gross and vulgar. And not to say they merely portrayed women as an object of desire and not as a subject with her own choice and agency to exercise that choice. As per my understanding, the story was always about an outsider and his journey to that realm of nothingness... Shiv. It wasnt about Sharanya or Vyom or their relationships per se but they were merely the companions along his journey. Shiv's persona as could be understood from his couplets since the last 60 episodes was one of contradiction, tension and paradox. He was as could be felt from his couplets wasnt an ideal lover...but one who seem to experience a myriad of emotions which were often clashing and colliding with each other. His love was suffused with feelings of pain, joy, happiness, loneliness, heartbreak, betrayal and plain anger. His actions also as could seen in his two minute appearance since the last 50+ episodes was one which led to doubt and mere confusion. Shiv couldnt be slotted as plain evil or one with pure heart. But, even so he was the intriguing factor in this story of a couple Vyom and Sharanya who are being troubled by this ghostly intervention. Vyom since the very beginning of the show IMHO has followed a linear trajectory. His persona always gave a clue that he wasnt what he seemed. His shades werent subtle and it was quite obvious that he has some other motives in his declaration of love for Sharanya. Sharanya on the other hand, is the most half-baked character in the show. Initially she was given a mind of her own but in due time, she seems to be lost in the melee.
Regarding yesterday's episode, if it all wasnt a dream on Shiv's part, I would say that makers did well to showcase the Shivnaya as a couple who were comfortable in each other's presence. It wasnt about Namik being Shirtless, it was about laying the foundation of the story which should have been laid much before ... a story of their love and about their physical intimacy. And it was merely few snippets which were highlighted and all seen from Sharanya's viewpoint. So, in totality they might disjointed because the makers have used the novelistic technique of 'in medias res'...we are in the middle of the story. And the viewers have also been shown Shiv's body to dispel any idea about him being alive.
As a reader my only thought is how will they march ahead by using Shiv's dead body as opening the doors of the past. Merely as a mystery thriller by letting us know who killed Shiv and how Sharanya were separated? By giving closure to Shiv and letting Sharanya march on with her life with either Vyom if he is innocent or with someone else if he isnt.
In either scenarios, am not satisfied. And again I go back to my question why did they reveal the dead body of Shiv at this juncture. How will that help in the progression of the story?
And then only one answer remains...we are looking at the wrong end of the spectrum. Am not going to delineate what i feel about the narrative and how its shaping up but i find it interesting that Shiv's body isnt the end of the narrative but merely a detour
Thanks for the post and thanks for reading😊
Please don't apologize, after being a silent reader forever, this drama made me come here to discuss...lol...well, not because I was excited about it, I admit, more like I wanted to vent out my frustration somewhere...as I had said in my original post, I watched both Namik and Vikram's previous shows and really liked their acting...while Namik, due to limited episodes in his previous show had less chance to present his versatility, Vikram was given ample space and opportunity in Jaana Na Dil Se Dur. So when I saw the promo: the two men and the promo itself (the deewana I had always assumed to be the ghost) was what caught my attention.And like you, for me, the focal point had always been Shiv, his story and how it gets weaved into the lives of the other characters.
I am a Lecturer of media and film studies at a university, so sometimes I make the mistake of keeping my expectations very high and too many times I look behind the director's intention of putting up a scene.Unfortunately, EDT is very high on objectification, not just of the female lead, but of the male leads too. The shirtless, wrapped in towel Vyom was not very necessary in the initial episodes just like I would repeat that a shirtless Shiv was not necessary to establish the level of comfort or intimacy that the two lovebirds shared: both the men went shirtless for their fans. Display of physique or physical intimacy to sell a drama or a movie is nothing new and so there is no point making it a big deal for this particular serial. But my issue was not with Shiv or Vyom going shirtless at all, I just said that if you observe the opening shot of the scene where Shiv was without the shirt, you notice that Namik's eyes are distracted, something may have gotten into his eyes and they would have done well to re-shoot: this is not a critique of the story,the direction of the scene or of the acting of the actor, this is a critique of a director giving a go-ahead to a shot that could have done wonders with another take from the eyes of a person who has studied, done projects on and now teach film making.
I do agree that they may have something to tell but they are not really doing a great job with it. From day one it had been indicated that it was Shiv who was Sharanya's love interest from the flashbacks, from day one it was clear the Vyom was not telling everything at best and deceiving Sharanya and her family members completely at worst. These two important aspects of the story the CVs did quite a good job at handling. Where they messed up was giving Sharanya's character a proper shape: is it so easy to commit your whole life to someone, to get married to someone just because someone advised that you should? Was this a convincing decision? After being molested and thrown into a water tank, going ahead with marriage, that too in the absence of one's father, is it normal?Her obsession to save Vyom was so damn high that she thought nothing and saw nothing? But why? She knows for sure that she does not love him, then why this need of forgetting all and getting married to him to keep him alive?Who does that and why?And then this husband and sanctity of marriage and 1960s mentality, what has all that been about?
Shiv loves Sharanya but most of his shayaris indicated towards a betrayal and I repeat I would have liked to see a bit of spark of that anger, the hurt and that pain in Shiv's attitude. There was none. There was only love for Sharanya and nothing else which is an outright contradiction to most of his shayaris. That part could have been handled better I think. Yesterday's episode could be made much more emotional and much more beautiful if a certain amount of doubt or distrust was put in Shiv's dialogues when Sharanya tried to touch him, to hug him because she had no idea what had transpired and that he had reasons to doubt her love for him. Or maybe he didn't. Maybe the shayaris actually mean nothing, those are just shayaris without any meaning placed at the end of each episode to attract audience: that would be so nonsensical of the CVs if that's the case.Shiv is still shaping up but through his shayaris, and his actions, his character has already been partially shaped, bringing a stark contradiction to that now is not a good idea: either he believes in god or doesn't, there can't be an in between. He cannot send stargazers to Sharanya smelling of dead person and almost giving her a panic attack and sending her back to coma and now say that he never meant to scare her, was never angry or upset at her and all he did uptil now was to just make her remember he existed. Most of the time he just scared the lights out of her, not do much to make her remember his existence.
Vyom, well we have yet to see Vyom's real story but Vyom has also become a doormat to Sharanya's wishes post their marriage whereas during the initial days he was the one who was taking the lead: he was clingy and insistent, yes, but he also had a mind of his own, went away when Sharanya insulted him, dished out Sharanya the treatment he had received from her when she came to his house for the party, there was a sense of equality, a powerplay between Vyom and Sharanya which went missing since their wedding rituals. Something has been off in Vyom's character post their wedding. And I don't even want to talk about the possession drama because it made no sense if there was a possession and no sense if there wasn't either: it was just useless.
CVs need to realize that in order to tell a story, all important characters need to be given a proper shape and space to grow. They need to work much harder to not bring in more contradictions to the characters of the leads than they have already. The drama right now looks like the semester end projects of my students who had a great concept, didn't work hard enough and ended up with a C or a D grade.
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