I like to talk about Pakhi. . Dont get me wrong. But she is one of a character. She is a borderline sociopath IMO. It was hidden until she met Virat and aggravated when she lost him.
Sociopath definition: a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.
I think I always have seen these two (@bold) traits in her.
Pakhi's problem is she thinks so highly of herself. Being extremely beautiful(story narrative) and pampered single child, this entitlement comes naturally to her. She must have heard praises only all her life. Now, this lady falls for a guy almost instantly. She is attracted to him. Think how much value she places on Virat? Virat is being desired by HER! So Virat becomes this ONLY man in the universe that Pakhi, the most beautiful, eligible girl desired. And added to it, the MAN promises her that he will not let any other girl into his heart?!!! So she thinks, THE Man who is so desired by ME, is besotted by ME so much that he vowed to remain celibate!!! Now think how much she thinks of herself, Virat and her "value" in Virat's life. This woman has placed herself and Virat at a level so high IN HER MIND, that all others look puny to her. Their love and apparent sacrifice is envionsed as eternal love. She thinks Virat doesnt value any other girl other than her. This comes from her "inherent" feelng that She is the best. She is the most desirable one. Thats why she treats everyone else as puny beings, merely objectss. Hence, Becomes anti social. For her, only she and Virat matters. Virat gets so much value because he fell for HER. We can see how she treats Samrat, walking all over his emotions. How she plays a young girl Sai, how she revels in her pain. It is easy for her to do this, because she doesnt value them. When you dont value a person, how will you empathize with their suffering?
Why I had to give this briefing is because, I want to explain her current nature from this perspective. Now after she has seen Virat falling for Sai, actually she is the only one who clearly knew his love for Sai. Because, when someone is so important to you, you will make them your focus. Remember cafe chat? She tells him very clearly "I know you love Sai, it is clearly seen in your eyes. I dont want to hear that. But she doesnt love you. I LOVE YOU. So you should consider me". See, how she is devaluing him and trying to CHEER him up saying you are still being loved by ME, THE PAKHI, Oh so desirable. This is her thinking. Only when she lost Virat completely, she came to the ground. Tried to find a compromise with Samrat. But. by then her delusions have become second nature to her. Samrat's death has given her sympathy from Virat, which again she thought as "importance" in his life. Now she is on another track, after losing all the worth in his eyes. She wants to find some "importance" in his life. Because Virat is still placed at higher value for her. And her jealousy on Sai and her happiness made him even more valuable in her mind. The more your value is reduced in your own eyes, then the other person's value will increase enormously. Virat was still the same, but his value has doubled in Pakhi's mind. She then tried to find "meaning" by being a part in his life. So eventually she can work her way up. Hence the desperate act of surrogacy. She always termed the child as Virat's child, not Sai and Virat's child.
In the third phase, after Sai's assumed death, Virat was broken completely. She mended him in some way, may be by marrying him without thinking about her future. After destroying a person's life completely, even if you do SOME help to fix him, it will look BIG. It is the greatness of the other person, who considers your small help as the massive one. Virat did the same! He got Vinu and some meaning to live and provide love for that small boy. In a way, it gave him purpose to atone his sins by giving life to another orphan. So he bestowed all the praise on Pakhi for giving that opportunity to live again, if not a happy one but a purposeful one. It is his maganimity that he considered Pakhi's help, even after destorying his life, a valuable one. This makes Pakhi zoom up to her initial state. When a person who you now value more than anything says that you are the reason for his existence, imagine how much highly she thinks of herself. She will think she is everying. World revolves around her. Like sai said the other day, because people are surrendering to your whims and fancies, dont think the world revolves around you. That is exactly what is happening with Pakhi.
Now the key to her importance in Virat's life is Vinu. She has importance in Virat's life because she brought Vinu into Virat's life. Otherwise, there is nothing to hold on! May be she knows she will never get Virat's love. The only way in which she finds VALUE for herself is to be Vinu's mother. She knows Vinu has inclination towards Sai. He will chose her eventually. Thats why she is fighting tooth and nail. Look how dejectedly she sits on the bed yesterday. She was not convinced that Vinu will stay in CN. She KNOWS her days are numbered in Virat's life. It is that acceptance that caused dejection.
You have to take Pakhi's words seriously when she is screaming and screeching or broken. Those are her actual fears. Some of them I am listing here.
"Only Sai is the most important to you. Not me!"
"I am just a glorified nanny to your son. nothing more than that"
"If you give away Vinu to Sai, I will have no importance in your life"
So that is her worry. She wants SOME importance in Virat's life. Vinu is essentially a tool for it. She might have loved him. A nanny also will love a child who she takes care of. But ultimately, the child is a tool to impress the boss and get good reviews from him. When the woman said, Vinu will go back to Sai if his fears are removed, then you can easily see where her priorities are?!! Why does she want a mentally sick child to herself? Because at the end of the day, he is just a tool! When you see a person like an object, then you dont empathize with him!
Awesome analysis Sadhika. Very well articulated and weaved for clear understanding of P's character.
I have had pretty much similar view of her character, except how you have synced it with the events and her corresponding actions.
A few thoughts.
While P lived a pampered life and probably getting everything that she wanted all her life, she never faced rejection or failure. V was her first and biggest setback. And she never recovered from it. Probably because she was not built in a way to accept it, hence the malfunctioning. She never believed that V would reject her. And she could not have something that she wanted. Her first tryst with reality that was not in alignment with her beliefs.
Though she always held herself in high regards and everyone around beneath her, the second jolt came in the form of Sai. Her falling in love V, gave V a certain high stature. Hence, anyone who he falls in love with meant a strong competitor. This though was difficult for her to take in. Hence her questioning. "Usmein aisa kya hai jo mujh mein nahi hai". A small town, middle class girl, who was immature and barely knew how to conduct herself was competing with a supposedly beautiful, mature, educated, classy girl from an illustrious bloodlne. How on earth can such lowlife even compete with her. Hard to believe. Especially when V himself wanted P to teach Sai to be like her. But V falling for Sai contradicted the two logical deductions. Once she realised that V had fallen in love with Sai, she became P's competitor. She was always looking out for something that Sai lacked and she could score on. Trying to outdo her and bring her down in the eyes of the family and V. She started to sell herself to V. The cafe convo is just that. Negotiating with V and telling him what she has to offer and what Sai can't. Sai doesn't love him, but she does. Sai will never abide by his rules. She is immature and will always defy him. A very rocky life. But P "Jahan rakhoge jis haal mein rakhoge reh lungi. Koi shikayat nahi karungi".
She has always competed with Sai. In a way she is someone who challenged her superiority complex. Hence she always measured her life against Sai.
Like you rightly said P is always seeking importance in V's life. Surrogacy being the biggest example and her most dangerous game so far. But from Sai-V marriage to post leap she has tried to use a title to be in V's life. To name that importance, in a way formalise it.
Earlier she used the "Best Friend" tag for it. Throwing that at V at every opportunity. Seking validation and emotionally blackmailing him, using that card. And under the garb of "friend" she always sought more intimate claims on him. Like in MiMo track she tried to compare Sai with herself and demanded the same eqaution and liberty as Sai. Again. like you mentioned her words clearly state her intent. Here under that tag of friend she was trying to get close to him.
Post leap it became the "mother" of his adopted child. Getting that prominence in his life. Becoming an integral part of him. That is what she wants. It is throough this tag of being Vinu's mother that she seeks wifely rights over V. Ironically despite being married to him. she is seeking those rights through the role of mother.
What she said yesterday gave her away completely. In fact her whole conduct since Vinu's truth is questionable. She is not looking out for Vinu or his well being. She is looking out for herself and ensuring her security through Vinu. And that is highly selfish and in no way accounts for being a good mother. Vinu's well being is outweighed over her own standing. Which mother who loves her child would trade so lowly? V and Sai have clearly called out her act, yet she keeps throwing the blame on Sai and does nothing to relieve Vinu of his trauma. In fact she is using that as her arm against Sai. If Vinu recovers he will go to Sai. This statement in itself completely exposes P. She acknowledged that she does not want Sai to treat Vinu and get him out of this mess, because it would mean that he will go to Sai. And to avoid that she is ready to let him suffer. Then how can she claim to love him so much and be the right mother for him?
Another interesting thing is how she injects V's disloyalty towards her as an extension when she is addressing Vinu. As if guilt tripping him. While she knows the truth that V loves Sai, she still taunts him for it. Despite knowing the truth she still seeks validation for her wife status. Wanting to hear V deny it to give her delusional mind some assurance even when she refuses to accept it.
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