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The Enigma That is Shravan Malhotra
I just binge-watched a lot of EDKV episodes (about 7 episodes) and I am honestly flabbergasted by Shravan Malhotra. I know there seems to be a dichotomy where some people hate Shravan right now and others are waiting to see where this goes. I am aboard the second train here! I am not defending Shravan Malhotra, but I am not attacking him either, he's a human being that is acting on what he knows and I hope he learns the whole story soon.
When I first started binge-watching, I felt an anger well up inside me because of Shravan's actions as I've felt more for Sumo than Shravan since the track has started and then when I took a step back and looked at how his character has been thus far a light-bulb of sorts went off. So I guess this post is going to explore my Eureka moment because I have a lot to say and as much as my fiancee and friends love me, they are not interested Shravan Malhotra's epic character, sadly.
I want to start off with an instance that I remember from the episode after "Bas Sumo, aaj kuch mat bolna" where the two of them are eating lunch in Suman's room. He brought up how his mind told him to leave and his heart told him to stay - essentially the one battle every male lead seems to have at some point during a story. With Shravan, his brain tells him that Sumo is not right for him because she's acting like the women he supposedly hates. Remember when we first learnt that Shravan Malhotra hates women because:
"You know tum auraton ki problem kya hai, tumhe lagta hai ki tumhe sab aata hai, sab jaanti ho tum...auraton ko aata hai apna matlab nikalna, auraton ko aata hai dukh dena, takleef dena, dhoka dena, apna kaam nikalne ke liye kisi bhi hadh tak gir jaana. Aisi ek aurat meri maa bhi thi."
He initially accused Sumo of this as well in his anger and annoyance, maybe thinking back to a teenage Sumo that he can't seem to let go of even today, who always seems to serve as a reminder of how Sumo might be capable of hurting him again. Yet, a few episodes later he told Sumo that he doesn't think she is like other women, that she is special, because of the way Sumo handled the daal fiasco and her words about never leaving his side. During the Khosla track and the episodes leading up to the Nirmala revelation, Sumo was constantly by his side proving that she had changed for the better and that Shravan was important to her.
The only way to understand Shravan is to look at the situation through his eyes, Suman has her reasons for acting the way she is, but Shravan doesn't know them. Shravan isn't sitting in the audience and watching himself, he's acting on the basis of what he knows. To him it seems like Sumo is acting exactly like the women he hates, he probably feels that he misjudged her. He thought poorly of her for ten years, he came back and they established a new relationship where he started appreciating her, but before he could get to really know her again Sumo's behaviour changed again due to Ramnath. So, Shravan is confused and being pulled between his heart that says Suman is the right person for him and his brain that keeps pointing out all the reasons why she is wrong for him.
Shravan is an individual that has been blinded by his father's lies for ten years and someone that has an established ideology about women forming off of his own experiences and his father's. His ideology is ingrained in him, it's a part of him, and something like that is so hard to change, especially when that one individual that served as a contradiction to his misogynist ideology seems to be displaying the same characteristics further validating his ideas that all women suck.
This discussion is incomplete without tying in Shravan and Suman's confrontations which inevitably brings in Ramnath because that man has literally made himself the main character in their love story. Suman is right in her place, and so is Shravan - we must remember that as the audience we know everything but the two of them are oblivious to certain facts. We know that Shravan thinks of the Tiwaris as family, that is what the Khosla track highlighted, Shravan kept repeating how Tiwari Villa was his house as well and he has memories there. When Shravan offers Suman help he offers it because he thinks of her as family - his best friend that he grew up with and the woman he loves. However, Suman will not accept his help because so far his help has been tied to Ramnath, an individual who has told her to her face that he dislikes her, someone who has essentially taken away her happiness and put her in such a hard place. Shravan will never understand that until he sees his father's true face, to him his father is the most loving and wonderful person in the world, he probably cannot even fathom that his father would act that way towards anyone, much less towards his best friend and the love of his life. This is why he clings onto his father's words as he does, because they come from an individual he trusts and they seem to ring true.
As for Suman, during the Khosla track Suman keeps mentioning how she feels like she is being buried under people's ehsaans - she is a person who values being able to do things herself because that is what she had to do her whole life! She does not want to depend on anyone because she probably feels like they will leave and she won't know what to do - first her parents left and then her best friend left - remember how she said that she felt so alone in the ten years that Shravan had been gone? That is when she learnt to be insistent about doing things herself - obviously I adore Suman as much as I adore Shravan - but I'll stop right here with her for now.
I seem to have lost momentum here because I adore Suman so much, but getting back to Shravan - the man will come around when the truth comes out. Give him a chance please 😊
-Anjali
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
