For me, this was where everything started going downhill

I was thinking about how Ghum was so entertaining before, and then suddenly it lost all its charms. And so, I went to Hotstar and started looking at the episode-list to get a gist of precisely where the story started going wrong, and which were the peak Ghum episodes.

And I came to a realisation. For me, Ghum started to go downhill when Virat's character started becoming insupportable. And that was after they returned from their marriage anniversary trip. Or if we were to talk story-wise, after Samrat came back.

Before that moment, Virat was still wrong a lot of times, there were still moments that were undigestable, but at the very least, his character wasn't irreparably damaged.

But after their return from...Shimla, was it? Virat started becoming completely toxic, and unreasonable. Before that, for their every fight, there was still a reason, some sort of misunderstanding that fueled their anger, but post their anniversary trip, Virat was unnecessarily rude to Sai, he was totally out of control and just plain toxic.

Plus there's also the fact that all the dramatic tracks before honeymoon were actually well-paced, and had time gaps in between, with smaller sub-tracks, like Sai's dance-off, Patralekha's mother's birthday's saree drama and what not. But later onwards, there was no gap at all, no breathing space left. It was just one heavy drama after another. And that, for me, made Ghum very boring.

Let's compare the track before and after Samrat's re-entry:

Before:

1. Amay one (Drama heavy one)

2. Basant Panchami (Small, still drama-centric, but light-hearted SaiRat one)

3. Valentine Rose, Shimla Trip (where Pakhi was under the influence that her and Virat will spend love-dovey moments alone, and Virat shattered her dreams)

4. Virat holding Sai's hands to stop her from going to Pulkit's house

5. Shivratri moments

6. The whole DevKit marriage with Sangeeta/Pakhi's letter. Sai's ousting, Virat's mission and near-death experience. (Heavy drama)

And all the absolute perfections of moments of Pakhi's beizzati ("Bas Patralekha!" "Sai MERI patni hai, aur main nahi chahta koi bhi aurat apni tulna MERI patni se kare") Plus we also got our one true pairing #Vimbu

7. Devi Tai-Harini track

8. Virat Sai near kiss

9. Patralekha's mother's birthday's saree drama

10. Sai's dance competition

11. Sai's birthday party. Another lovely Pakhi beizzati, when she accidentally hurts Sai ("TUM rehne do. Sai tum batao, kya hua tha")

12. Virat's jealousy, and Sai's accident (Okay so, this one was bad. Like really bad...but at least they made up in a decent manner)

Then Came the Marriage anniversary/ honeymoon/ Samrat's reentry.

1. Virat's anger at Sai with several weeks of his rude's behaviour.

2. Virat locking Sai in her room

3. Sai leaving the house because of Virat's rude behaviour, and her accident

4. Whole Mimo track. God, I absolutely hated it. It was soooo cringe (but I won't judge if you lot loved it)

5. Ninad Ashwini patch up

6. 3 episodes of family wanting Sai Virat to have a baby, which ended with Virat carrying Pakhi in his arms

7. Sada track and mission (Moderate drama)

8. Shruti track with Sai-Virat's near divorce. Even the one sub-plot with some kind of party where Sai asked for a TV, ended up in angst, with Sai getting to know that there is someone named Shruti. (HEAVY drama and angst)

9. Sai's kidnapping,Virat's another near-death experience, Sai's apologizing, and Virat's severe rude behavior, and the whole family hating Sai for something that wasn't even partially her fault. (Heavy angst)

10. Sai trying to woo Virat...which sucked and again, was cringe.

11. Sai-Virat confession, which, unfortunately for me, was too public and hence felt too cringe.

12. Sai's arrest

13. Samrat's death and Miscarriage (Heavy angst)

14. Surrogacy (HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY and Unnecessary drama)

.

.

.

and the rest is history.

So, what do you guys think? Where, according to you, Ghum started its downfall?

PS: I am going to tag the first 10 people whose names I remember. 😛

Virat’s jealousy and sai’s meek submission to his possessiveness explanation.

Yes

Hope it just ends soon or a generation leap.. Now it's looking hella boring... Characters flip every second single episode..

First of all: why didn't you tag me😡

Anyway, When they made everyone mute with PL getting maximum screen-space and tracks. Mostly PL's centric tracks. Lol lol

The rock-bottom: PL showed as positive when she clearly isn't lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

ML butchered for PL lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The channel and makers are now paying the price lol: very stupid this🤪

When they stopped referring to Kusum Dola. When they were following KD, they still used to infuse toxicity but after that part was over, the new writers went unhinged

Virat's abusive ways were always a put-off but you chug along with the story...but after a point it becomes too much.

The exact time which you mentioned - post marriage anniversary (it was at Mahabaleshwar😆) ..that was the end of SaiRat for me. Virat was way too toxic in that track. All along, I had hopes that slowly Virat's abuse will be reduced, but that track dashed all those hopes. Virat was intolerable😵 . I still like seeing SaiRat scenes...but only for NeilSha chemistry. There is no longer any emotional connect for SaiRat. NeilSha are once in a lifetime onscreen pair.

MiMo track was too cringe for me.

Contrary to majority opinion, Shruti track on paper was good. It was the execution & length of the track that made it boring. The writing of emotions in that track was pathetic - I couldn't connect to it...that's why I don't take that track seriously. Post-Shruthi toxicity 🤔.

The confession did not satisfy my expectations. Instead of an emotional confession, it was made into a public spectacle.

Soon after re-marriage, one toxic/depressing track after another. Bahu vs Doctor, Malhar death medical negligence case, Samrat's death, Sai's miscarriage.

And then the mother of all toxic track ever seen on Indian television - surrogacy. If Mahabaleshwar irrevocably destroyed Virat as a husband, surrogacy track established Virat as a failure human being. He was selfish & immoral - towards both Pakhi & Sai (even before Pakhi's crimes were exposed). Pakhi's surrogacy & aftermath could have been written without toxicity - I am yet to understand what the creatives gained by making their ML as a villain in that track. I doubt if it has ever happened in any show before.

I'd say I stopped watching this track soon after Sai's second accident I.e. after Sai decided go away and met with accident I totally disliked the MiMo crap. I used watch Sai's some good scenes and samrat's that too on Twitter rest all skip skip. What triggered me to dislike this show was when virat snatched vinu from Sai and gave it to Pakhi and didn't even bother to find out about Sai's attackers. Snatching vinu from Sai was complete triggering for me I couldn't bear it. It felt so horrible to see that. I still can't explain my emotions. After leap initially again on Twitter I used to watch only Sai and savi's scenes.

Originally posted by: Shaome

Yes

Hope it just ends soon or a generation leap.. Now it's looking hella boring... Characters flip every second single episode..

The thing is...I both want and don't want a leap.

There's a part of me that really wish to see this new Sai-Satya-Virat angle (done properly), but there's also a part of me that is just...done.

Originally posted by: NayaNehaD31

First of all: why didn't you tag me😡

Anyway, When they made everyone mute with PL getting maximum screen-space and tracks. Mostly PL's centric tracks. Lol lol

The rock-bottom: PL showed as positive when she clearly isn't lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

ML butchered for PL lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

The channel and makers are now paying the price lol: very stupid this🤪

I am sorry...I totally forgot....and now, that you mentioned it, I also forgot one another very important person. (tagging her rn)....Please have mercy, my memory is very weak.

And I do agree, they basically butchered Virat's character, just so they could make more pace for Pakhi.

Originally posted by: nutmeg7

When they stopped referring to Kusum Dola. When they were following KD, they still used to infuse toxicity but after that part was over, the new writers went unhinged

IKR! I actually find it ironic. The whole time they were following KD, we all wanted them to stop doing that, begging for them to not show toxic tracks...and when they did stop following it, they went for an even bigger toxic track.

If you think about it, makers never did well whenever they deviated from KD. Remember the Pulkit kidnapping? That was such an unnecessary and weird track, and it was all thanks to their own creativity.